Established in 1994, the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) is the oldest and largest trade organisation in the life settlement market. LISA’s membership consists of brokers, providers, financing entities and service providers to the industry such as law firms, medical underwriters, consultants, investment funds, actuarial firms, trustees and escrow agents, which all support LISA’s core purpose: To promote the development, integrity and reputation of the life settlement industry and advocate for a competitive marketplace.
The core purpose rarely, if ever, changes, but sometimes, the way businesses and organisations work to deliver on their goals does. This is also true of LISA, and we are excited to explain to the industry how we are evolving in order to better support our members and the life settlement industry at large.
We recently commissioned Tecker International, a leading consulting firm, to help us refine LISA’s mission and vision for the future and to develop an actionable plan to achieve those goals.
To begin the process, we distributed an online survey to members in June this year. The survey was designed to understand the sentiments held by the LISA membership on the state of the life settlement industry and LISA’s role as the industry’s greatest advocate.
The good news is that, with regards to the life settlement market specifically, our membership is largely bullish. A total of 59% of survey respondents said that they expect the life settlement industry to be ‘better’ positioned in the next three to five years than it is now, with 35% saying ‘same’. Only 6% said it would be ‘worse’.
We also asked the LISA membership’s views on the general economic climate. : 70% said they felt it would be ‘better’ in the next three to five years, 12% said ‘same’ and 18% said ‘worse’. This helps us to better understand how our members see our industry when compared to the overall macroeconomic picture, and, while the correlation is high, overall, our members are largely expecting our industry to either stay the same or improve when compared to the general economy in the next few years.
We also conducted one-to-one interviews with LISA members to drill down into their views on LISA as an organisation and an industry advocate, whether they be positive or less so. We asked what our members thought would be the single most significant issue influencing the life settlement industry in the next three to five years.
The results for this question were varied. Some included macroeconomic factors, such as interest rates. Others included the lack of ability to absorb a significant increase in activity due to the administration involved in the process of selling a policy, the lack of ‘optimal’ policies to sell and the amount of investor capital that is looking for realistic returns.
The results of this surveying, coupled with a two-day strategy session with LISA’s Board of Directors, helped us to define two top-level focus areas: increasing engagement with the institutional investor community, and maintaining LISA’s sustainability as an organisation.
With regards to the investor community, we intend for this cohort to rely upon LISA as their connection to the life settlement market as a result of systematic engagement with LISA-developed content, including asset manager-led data collection, and the ongoing exchange of market-related information. We are in the process of formulating and refining plans to support this goal leading into 2025.
In terms of LISA’s sustainability, we are planning for LISA to have growing and sustainable revenue streams that support our operational objectives and drive engagement across the organisation’s membership. The immediate first steps related to this work will focus on the structural components of membership categories and dues, along with focusing on potential modifications to LISA’s flagship events.
We have also defined core values that will underpin these objectives and all of LISA’s work going forward. As an organisation, LISA is committed to being member-centric and an industry champion; promoting integrity and transparency within the industry, being welcoming and respectful of all, and leading by example.
The mission of the Life Insurance Settlement Association is to advance the highest standards of practice and professional development for the industry, and to educate consumers and advisors about a life settlement as an alternative to lapse or surrender of a life insurance policy. We look forward to continuing to work with life settlement market participants to deliver against these goals.
Bryan Nicholson is Executive Director at the Life Insurance Settlement Association
Any views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and may not necessarily represent those of Life Risk News or its publisher, the European Life Settlement Association
