Imperial Plans IPO

Slate Capital L.L.C., a unit of American International Group Inc., New York (NYSE:AIG), has agreed to buy up to $250 million in structured settlements each year from now until 2013, Imperial says. "We also have other parties to whom we have sold structured settlement assets in the past, and to whom we believe we can sell assets in the future," the company says.

The number of structured settlement transactions the company has engaged in increased to

396 in 2009, from 276 in 2008.

Imperial says it uses guidelines that reduce the risk that it will help finance "stranger-originated life insurance" (STOLI), but it says it still could be affected by state and insurer efforts to deal with STOLI arrangements.

"Although we obtain representations and warranties from the insured, policyholders and referring agents, we may not know whether the applicants for any of our policies have made any material misrepresentations or omissions on the policy applications, or whether the policy owner has a valid insurable interest in the insured, and as such, the policies securing our loans are subject to the risk of contestability or rescission," Imperial says.

Imperial also notes that it depends on the ability of the life insurers that issued the policies involved in premium financing arrangements to pay claims. About half of the premium finance loans the company has issued are secured by policies from 3 insurers, the company says.