Industry leaders in the European life settlement market came together at the Secondary Life Markets Conference 2025 in Zurich, Switzerland on 15th September to discuss the challenges and opportunities in front of the life settlement industry as the year enters its final few months.
Held at the offices of EY in the centre of Switzerland’s financial capital, the event convened investment consultants, asset managers and service providers to discuss a range of topics including whether ‘life’ has evolved to be a standalone asset class, the nuances of life expectancy reports, origination trends in the secondary market, a look into how the life settlement cohort has changed in terms of demographics, a sneak peek at the upcoming ELSA | Conning Investor Survey, and a lens into the current state of litigation risk in the industry.
The overall mood at the event was upbeat, with attendees generally seeing the industry as having successfully navigated the macroeconomic tumult of recent years.
“All alternative credit asset classes have had to navigate their fair share of ups and downs over the past few years, and the life settlement market is no exception,” said Chris Wells, Executive Director at ELSA.
“But, similar to last year, the mood was clearly skewed towards the positive, for a range of reasons. Court cases closing, bringing clarity to life settlement market participants; encouraging signs in the origination channel that the secondary market will, generally, continue to grow; and an increase in interest among capital allocators for assets like life settlements that deliver strong returns with low correlation to broader equity and fixed income investments.”
The Zurich conference marks only the second time since before the Covid-19 pandemic that ELSA has held an event outside London, with last year’s event in Stockholm being the first. According to Hanna Persson, Head of Sales and Investor Relations at Ress Capital and Chair of the ELSA Conference Committee, the decision to take the event on the road again speaks to ELSA’s desire to broaden its impact.
“Zurich’s position as a leading European financial centre made it an obvious choice to take the event there this year. It is important that ELSA leads the way in connecting the European life settlement market and initiatives such as this one enable us to do just that.”
