Experienced New York Life Insurance and Life Settlements Lawyer
Life insurance can be an excellent estate planning tool.
Life insurance policies can not only serve their core purpose of providing for loved ones in the case of your demise, but can also be used as part of a business plan to provide liquidity in the event of the sudden demise of key partner or shareholder. Moreover, life insurance trusts are often used to remove the proceeds of the policy from the estate (thus avoiding any applicable estate taxes), and such trusts can be used to provide tax-free funds with which to pay any estate transfer taxes. Another use is to fund charitable gifts during one's lifetime and after one is gone.
Where appropriate, it is possible to sell one's life insurance policy on the secondary market. These transactions are called "Life Settlements," and are described below.
Life Settlements
Jonathan S. Berck is one of the country's leading life settlement attorneys. He is also a proud member of the Life Insurance Settlement Association ("LISA"), the voice of the life settlement industry. He has extensive experience assisting investors and individuals in life insurance transactions. These may include individual policy settlement, creating acquisition programs, or using portfolios in securitizations and other complex structures.
Services for Investors
Mr. Berck worked with numerous hedge funds and other investors in the life settlement industry, designing programs and transaction documents. He reviews the entire transaction chain for his clients, from origination to acquisition and sale in the tertiary market. He works with industry experts, creating uses for warehoused portfolios pending the end of the "credit squeeze."
Among the services he can provide are:
- Developing documentation suitable for the marketplace
- Proactively reviewing existing trust and transaction documents
- Secure document custodial services
- Trustee services, including administration of sub-trustees
- Robust and auditable banking systems
In his personal capacity, Mr. Berck serves as a trustee in both New York and Delaware, and arranges for trustees in other locations.
Services for Individuals
Individuals who have outlived their need for their life insurance policies and have already made financial provision for spouses and descendants are faced with: (1) continuing to pay ever-higher premiums rather than letting such policies lapse, or (2) accepting the meager cash value offered by the insurance carrier for the policy's surrender.
A life settlement allows this individual to sell their life insurance policy. This can often achieve a greater cash payout than surrendering the policy. In a life settlement, the purchaser pays the insured cash in exchange for the right to receive the death benefit of the policy in the future. In the meantime, the purchaser assumes all obligations for premium payment.
Contact Us
Whether you want to establish a life insurance trust as part of an estate plan or you are interested in life settlements as an investment class, you want your affairs to be considered with the utmost discretion. From his office in midtown Manhattan, Jonathan S. Berck provides his clients with the personal service they deserve. He is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He has a robust infrastructure, including banking systems, in place to handle your needs. Contact him for more information.
