Insured Demographics
Historically, the findings over the years have substantiated the assumption that the life settlement market is two-thirds male and one-third female. In 2009, the larger proportion of female insureds in the sample set also includes several females selling multiple policies, affecting the gender ratios.
However, if frequency analysis is performed on the two gender subsets sorted by age groups, the age-pattern has not changed over the years. As illustrated above, settlements involving females are more common as age increases, whereas the distribution remains relatively level for males.
The female sample exhibits a palpable negative skew with relatively few settlements occurring at the lower age groups. The average female age for 2009 was 80.9 years with a standard deviation of 7.2 years. With these findings analogous to previous year’s results, they carry a certain degree of significance. Almost half of all the females in the sample were in the 80-85 range. Equally noteworthy is the fact that almost 90% of all female cases involved insureds older than 75, an appreciably higher figure than the stipulated minimum dictated by many funds’ investment criteria. One possible explanation for this pattern is that investors place higher risk in female settlements as a result of higher general life expectancy and lower mortality experience. Consequentially, female cases that do reach settlement tend to be of higher ages than their male counterparts.
On the other hand, the male sample exhibits a relatively symmetric distribution, with a much less prominent peak. The average age in the male sample for 2009 is 76.6, with a standard deviation of 8.2 years.