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Q4 - Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2005 Life Settlement News
Professional Collaboration: Leveraging Collective Expertise for the Benefit of the Senior Client
Professional advisors such as attorneys, financial planners and accountants should be part of the overall "brain trust" involved in life settlements. Although many life settlement transactions originate with the life insurance agent, the process often requires a collaborative approach by the entire team of professional advisors. We encourage an interdisciplinary collaboration of financial services professionals, CPAs and estate planning attorneys working together to serve the best interests of the client. This type of "team approach" to life settlements allows for an examination of potential tax issues, recommendations for charitable cash gifts, reallocation of assets, and other wealth management issues.
Some financial planners and agents with whom we are working report that they are seeing a heightened awareness of life settlements on the part of CPAs. Key to establishing confidence among CPAs and estate planning attorneys is communicating the growing oversight and regulatory activities by the states, the industry's investment backbone comprised of large, stable institutional investors, and membership of life settlement companies in the industry's trade associations which promote ethics and best practices. As active members of the Viatical & Life Settlement Association of America, Advanced Settlements is committed to supporting prudent regulatory activity at both the state and federal levels.
Furthermore, recent articles published in the AICPA's Journal of Accountancy and Trusts & Estates Magazine have helped CPAs and estate planning attorneys understand the dynamics of the marketplace and how the product may apply to their high-net-worth senior clients.
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