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Life Settlements and Their Availability in Korean Life Insurance Market

  • Journal of Insurance and Finance
  • 2010, 21(3), pp.59-78
  • Publisher : Korea Insurance Research Institute
  • Research Area : Social Science > Business Management

김석영 1,  김해식 2

1뮌헨재보험
2보험연구원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

There are secondary life insurance markets where a policyholder can sell her insurance policy to her insurance company or a third party. The paper focuses on the trade between a policyholder in the life insurance market and a third party who is an investor in the capital market. The trade is called a life settlement. Theoretically, life settlements are expected to raise the level of social welfare. In practice, it is shown that both policyholders and investors can earn more profits in life settlements than otherwise they could earn; as a result, life settlements have grown well in the U.S. There are two types of life settlements: viatical settlements for terminally ill insureds and senior settlements for impaired insureds who are 65years old or more. In the U.S., the latter is booming while the former has disappeared as its alternatives such as advanced death payments are provided by insurers. In the Korean insurance market, life settlements could be available with an insurer's consent. However, it is not guaranteed that Korean life settlements can grow well even though they are legally possible. It is because the economic availability of life settlements depend on the level of mortality of the insured. The paper tests the economic viability of life settlements in Korean insurance market. Based on whole life critical illness insurance data and national statistics on cancer, our cash flow simulation results indicate that only viatical settlements can be viable in some cases while senior settlements are not in Korean insurance market. Given that Korean life insurers are also providing alternatives to life settlements which has smothered viatical settlements in the U.S., our results suggest that life settlements are not expected to grow well in Korea.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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