About 60% of top insurance executives expect the secondary market for life insurance to be significantly larger in 5 years than it is today.
The executives expressed that opinion while participating in an informal poll here during a life settlement session at the 18th annual Executive Conference for the Life Insurance Industry.
The conference is sponsored by The Conference Group Ltd. and National Underwriter, part of Summit Business Media L.L.C., New York.
About 33% of survey participants predicted that the life settlement market will be moderately larger; 2%, about the same size; and 5%, smaller.
During the session, moderated by Julie Burke, a managing director at Fitch, New York, attendees also were asked how their organizations would treat life settlements.
About 52% said they would root it out, and 12% said they would let life settlements occur but would want to see them rooted out. The other participants – 36% – said they would want to participate in a growing market.
Alan Buerger, chief executive of Coventry First L.L.C., Fort Washington, Pa., and James Poolman, former North Dakota insurance commissioner, both said during the session that they support regulation of the secondary market.
Buerger distinguished between life settlements and investor-initiated life insurance, or “stranger-owned life insurance.”