It's a fact: Alzheimer's disease is one of the costliest chronic diseases in our society. With the month of June having been declared "Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month" by the Alzheimer's Association, this is also an appropriate time to discuss how many families are turning to life settlements to help fund residential care for their loved ones suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
Due to the expense associated with long-term care insurance premiums, many patients are entering nursing homes without insurance coverage for long-term care. As a result, many families pay for residential care expenses — averaging $78,000 per year — out of their own pockets.
As the costs for nursing home care for patients suffering from dementia continue to skyrocket, millions of seniors and their families are challenged to find sources of money to pay for quality care.
That's why it's so important for consumers and insurance advisors to explore all options as they relate to leveraging the value of life insurance policies. Many consumers are still not aware of the existence of the secondary market for life insurance and that life settlements have helped many seniors and their families pay for medical expenses and nursing home expenses.
We believe the most effective way to illustrate the financial problem-solving capacity of life settlements is to share an actual case example that was recently brokered by the viatical and life settlement specialists at Asset Life Settlements.
Case summary: Alzheimer's patient received $600,000 from life settlement
This case involved the sale of a $1 million life insurance policy on a 64-year-old male with Alzheimer's. The policy was a nonconvertible term policy with annual renewable term (ART) premiums that had been increasing for the past two years.
The patient, whom we'll call Mr. X, required 24-hour-care. His family had been struggling for the past several years to pay for his nursing home care and other medical expenses. After tapping their life savings, the family was about to give up hope when they sat down with their insurance advisor to review all possible options.
The agent explained that given Mr. X's medical condition and life expectancy, he would likely qualify for a life settlement. The family agreed and Asset Life Settlements brokered the transaction in pursuit of the policy's fair market value in the secondary market.
Jeff Hallman is a co-founder and managing partner at Asset Life Settlement LLC. He began his career in life settlements in 2001 and since then has negotiated transactions valued at about $2 billion in face value. He has been involved in case submission, underwriting, compliance, the institutional bidding process, life expectancy analyses and contract negotiation in the life settlement market. He can be reached at 
Scott Thomas is a co-founder and managing partner at Asset Life Settlements LLC. He began his career in the life settlement industry more than 15 years ago and has since transacted about $2 billion in policy face value. He has worked on transactions involving multimillion-dollar policies involving complex estate plans. He can be reached at 
