Worldwide Finance Awards 2025, Acquisition International | 15 Life Settlements Manager of the Year 2025 L Investment Management’s ‘full service’ solution is inclusive of product design and structuring, investment negotiation and acquisition, as well as all the aspects of managing and servicing portfolios. Paul Haig elaborates, “Aggregating policies into investment portfolios that will generate real value for investors is dependent upon accurate modelling and pricing together with rigorous asset selection. SL is also able to offer a wide range of advisory and management services to the owners of pre-existing life settlement portfolios.” Making SL’s service offering happen is its exceptional team, who are highly skilled in their respective areas of actuarial, trading, fund management, and administration. The company has developed an extensive underwriting and investment process, where market leading due diligence is combined with its proprietary value-based, actuarial pricing system, so that its clients can benefit from unmatched expertise in these areas. We asked Paul to give us an insight into the state of the industry at present and if this is having an impact on the company at all. “The life settlement market returns are fundamentally based on mortality and thus have low market correlation coupled with low volatility; as such, the market and our strategies are largely unaffected by turmoil in wider markets,” he explains. “This said, macro-economic trends can have an indirect effect through the supply of both policies and capital to the market. Volatility in wider financial markets can highlight the diversification benefits of this asset class, leading to interest from allocators and an increase in the supply of capital to the market.” “No other provider in the life settlement asset sector delivers the breadth and depth of services that we offer. Our highly experienced team of over 30 people have 17+ years’ average experience dealing with secondary life insurance policies, focused on delivering the best outcomes for our clients. This is driven by a strong and consistent leadership team who have each been working for SL for over 20 years.” Paul also acknowledges that the US population is ageing, thus we are in a period being referred to as the “Peak 65 Zone”, in which the largest proportion of the baby-boomer generation have reached retirement age. In 2024, 4.1 million US citizens arrived at their 65th birthday, which is more than any previous year, and similar or greater numbers have been projected for the next three years. “For “seniors” (older policyholders), the development of the secondary market has created liquidity for a previously illiquid asset,” Paul states. “Policyholders are now receiving a value for their policies, where previously they were left to lapse or surrender at a nominal value. Over 80% of all life policies lapse prior to claim, so the biggest benefactors of a policy sale are always the policyholders themselves.” “Collaboration and integrity are key to providing clients with the best outcomes in this market. This is true for all aspects of our business, from client interactions to valuation. As such, we aim to be as transparent as possible and expect all employees to uphold these values.” So, how does the company manage to stay ahead of the curve within the industry? Paul tells us that the key is to understand mortality and its impact on asset pricing. “The mortality profile of the life settlement cohort is considerably different to the general US population; as such, managers need to adopt an asset evaluation process which correctly incorporates these features. This is why we believe our key differentiators are time served/data collection and bespoke proprietary systems.” Following on from that, what does the future hold for SL Investment Management? Paul shares, “Through 2025 and beyond, we are looking to build on the strength and success of our BlackOak Fund that has been running for over 11 years and produced over 13% annualised returns. We launched our second vintage of this strategy in 2023 with OneLS, that has produced c.25% net return to date and continue to explore new and innovative ways to provide investors access to attractive, diversifying returns.” Company name: SL Investment Management Limited Contact name: Paul Haig Website: www.slinvest.co.uk Established in 1990, SL Investment Management (SL) is a boutique asset manager investing in secondary life policies, mostly US life settlements. The company has solidified its position in the industry as one of the largest and most experienced ‘full service’ secondary life policy specialists, having managed or advised more than 40 collective investment vehicles comprising total assets valued in excess of $9.5 billion. We learn more about the company’s work from Paul Haig, from its Business Development team, in light of its success within the Worldwide Finance Awards 2025. S
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==