Industry Articles
Industry Articles Home > Life Settlement News
|
More retirement security may be found in a life settlement 2010-02-03 Many American workers are after a secure retirement, and one way to help ensure that retirees have sufficient cash is a life settlement. Older people can receive life settlements - called viatical settlements in some states - when they sell their life insurance policy to an investor. The investor, who pays more than the policy's surrender value, continues making payments on the policy, receiving the face value when the original policyholder dies. Retirement security came into sharp focus this week at a conference held by the National Institute on Retirement Security in Washington, D.C. Ensuring sufficient income in retirement should be a top priority for lawmakers and companies, TIAA-CREF chief executive Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. said at the conference. Ferguson suggested that American workers need "a holistic system to ensure [that they] can enjoy adequate and secure retirement income." Enrollment in retirement plans should occur automatically at workplaces, he said. President Barack Obama echoed that sentiment recently when he suggested that 401(k) enrollment should be automatic. Highlighting the potential need for life settlements and other sources of retirement income, Ferguson quoted a study by McKinsey & Co., which found that the average American family faces a $250,000 savings gap in retirement.  |
