Jay Z and Will Smith backed life insurance start-up valued at almost $500 million

Life insurance start-up - Robert Downey Jr. visits the Embassy

The company, called Ethos, gained considerable value in a Series C round led by big-name backers. San Francisco-based life insurance start-up, Ethos, has just gained an additional $60 million in funding and is now valued at just about $500 million. Existing investors include such big name celebs as Jay Z, Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr. During its Series C round of funding, the life insurance start-up was highly successful, with a round led by Alphabet’s (parent company of Google) venture arm, GV, as well as Goldman Sachs. Its existing…

Read More

Seniors may be missing out on $112 billion in life insurance settlements

Elderly selling their life insurance to get pay out

Life settlements are being forfeited every year United States residents over the age of 65 are losing out on a collective $112 billion in life insurance settlements every year, according to a new report from the Life Insurance Settlement Association. The report notes that consumers are losing out on life insurance benefits because of lapsed coverage or because they choose to surrender their coverage. The organization suggests that the potential size of the life settlement market in the United States is “simply astounding.” Report shows that a typical life insurance…

Read More

Life insurance assets from Swiss Re in U.S. may soon be for sale

life insurance news

The company has announced that it is considering a retreat from the market in the United States. Sources familiar with Swiss Re Ltd. have revealed that it is thinking about putting its Aurora National Life Assurance Co. up for sale as it is drawing back from the American health and life insurance marketplace. This second largest reinsurer in the world is now taking efforts to seek out buyers for the assets. Swiss Re is working alongside Barclays PLC in order to be able to locate buyers for Aurora National as…

Read More

Life insurance industry seeks to dissuade tax reform

Life insurance

Life insurance representatives flock to DC to defend tax incentives Insurance executives and advisers, many of whom are represented by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers, are flocking to Washington D.C. this week in order to warn federal lawmakers not to make changes to the preferential tax incentives that are offered to the life insurance industry. The life insurance sector in the U.S. has received these tax incentives, in one form or another, for the better part of a century, but financial concerns and the problematic performance of the…

Read More

Life insurance is vastly misunderstood among American consumers

life insurance test

LIMRA has reported that 70 percent of people in the U.S. don’t understand the coverage. In the United States, ownership of life insurance has reached a historical low and a recent LIMRA study has suggested that it is likely because Americans don’t understand why it is needed or how the products in that sector actually work. The global consulting and research organization determined that there is a lack of understanding and knowledge. In order to come up with this claim, LIMRA applied a type of IQ test for life insurance…

Read More