Articles Archive

IBU Expands Into
Life Settlement Underwriting

In July of 2005, IBU entered into a new market segment for underwriting. Our team of experienced underwriters began summarizing medical records for one the largest providers of Life Settlements in the industry.

“IBU APS summaries have been a tremendous help that have allowed us to process much higher volumes of business,” says Ken Zinn Chief Underwriter of AIG Risk Finance. “In addition, IBU’s web-based system has stood out compared to other vendors in helping us track pending cases and organize underwriting data.”

For IBU underwriters the transition to Life Settlement underwriting has been relatively smooth. “You need to train your mind to think how long are they going to live instead of are they going to die. You also have to really focus on frailty and fitness issues,” says IBU underwriter Lynn Driest.

“The reviews take much longer than life or long term care,” comments IBU team leader Suzanne Pankow. “The applicants are older and there is no such thing as a decline. This results in an average review time of about two hours for each case.”

In addition to summarizing APS’s, IBU also performs Life Expectancy Estimates or LE’s. With the average industry turnaround being between two and five weeks for an LE, IBU is able to offer clients a competitive advantage by providing turnaround time in just a few days. The IBU web-based system also allows for easier, more secure processing of information as electronic transmission of medical records eliminates the inconvenience and insecurity copying and mailing.

With our expanded service offering, IBU also is providing application reviews to ensure the validity and accuracy of Life settlements submissions. On the investor side of Life Settlements, we are providing contestability assessments to help mitigate the risk of investing in policies less than two years old or within the contestability period.

As of June 2006, IBU has about 20 underwriters exclusively focused on Life Settlement underwriting services. Given the projected growth of this market segment, we expect our work in this area to continue to expand.