William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

Life settlements provide a unique source of revenue because their returns are not contingent on the market’s success.

But are they still lucrative in comparison to other municipal finance? Rancho Mirage California City Councilman Scott Hines thinks so.

Under Hines’ plan, the city would issue bonds, with most of the issue proceeds being used to finance city projects. The remaining funds would be invested in life settlements with an aggregate face value equal to the face value of the bond issue. Payouts on the life settlements would then be used to pay back bond principal.

Instead of the typical municipal bond financing arrangement, where tax dollars utilized to pay back both principal and interest on an issue, Hines’ plan would leave taxpayers with only a bill for interest payments.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of life settlements in Advisor’s Journal, see Life Settlement Provider Accused of Falsifying Life Span Reports (CC 11-23).