Posted on 12/19/2009 4:16:11 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Goldman retreats from life settlements
Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:27pm EST
*Goldman decision follows Congressional hearing
*Credit crunch crushes exotic securities
By Matthew Goldstein
NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is quietly backing away from life settlements--- the business of buying life insurance policies from aging Americans in the hopes of collecting on the death benefit.
The Wall Street investment bank is ending its involvement with a "mortality index" it launched in December 2007 with high expectations. A Goldman spokesman confirmed the decision.
Goldman's QXX index tracks the life expectancy of a group of people aged 65 and older who have sold their life insurance policies to an investment pool that's managed by another firm, AVS Underwriting LLC.
The Wall Street company once had big plans to sell derivatives pegged to the index to investors seeking exposure to the estimated $15 billion life settlements market. Goldman also saw the derivatives as a potential hedge for any institutional investor buying a security or note backed by another pool of life settlements.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Ping!
*ping*
Sonny Bloch and viaticals. “I’ll take a sip of my tea for my first time caller”. Whooosssshhhh..
Knowing GS, I’m surprised they didn’t send out death squads to help these folks along. Geeze...talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel for your last dime.
High fives all around. We knew these were evil.
They may be inappropriate for most, but evil?
Yes indeed, evil, evil I say, evil.
An earlier thread has some good comments; comment #17 there sums it up pretty well for me.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2333680/posts
That part?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.