One of the inescapable facts of life settlements is that they take longer than anyone involved wants. But, according to speakers at the recent Life Insurance Settlements Association conference in Washington, D.C., there may not be much anyone can do about it.

“Certain steps have to be done,” such as the underwriting and evaluating of a policy, noted Scott Kirby, co-president of business development and compliance issues for Orlando-based Advanced Settlements LLC.

But there are things an advisor can do to minimize the time a settlement process takes, he added. Providing a complete file and application to a life settlement broker is an example. If documents are missing, or even if they are just not current enough, “that slows the process down.”

There are a few reasons why files come in with incomplete or old data, he said. One is that “people want to travel down the path of least resistance” and try to get the settlement done with as little paperwork as possible. “It takes them a while to understand that we need as much information as possible,” he said.

Incomplete information can’t be fully evaluated by providers. According to Bryan Freeman, president of Habersham Funding, LLC in Atlanta, and one of the catches is that, as more and more pieces of information come in, they can trigger as many questions as they answer. “As they piecemeal that information to you, you see something you’ve never seen before and you have to ask about that,” he said.

By Matt Brady

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