Analysing the Potential of Life Settlements in Emerging Markets: A Systematic Review of Legal and Economic Considerations

Abstract

With time, the law and economics of insurance have advanced from considering it solely as a security measure to recognising it as an asset class. Numerous companies now offer loans against these life insurance policies, accepting the ‘property’ nature of life insurance behind the veil (Doherty & Singer, 2003; Mancini & Murphy, 2012; Mazonas, Stallard & Graham, 2011). Recently the world witnessed sudden deaths at large scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. A study indicates that financial crisis is a major reason of acute stress and instability in adults’ lives (Karim & Shetu, 2023; PK, TK & PK 2021) In such crisis situations, the secondary market assignment of life insurance policies could have been a boon for any person facing financial difficulty or not having a living family member/nominee. The market for life settlements flourished during HIV-AIDS crisis in the USA and has shown steady growth since then in various jurisdictions of the world. However, in India, the doors for secondary market trading were closed in 2015 through a statutory amendment to the Insurance Act, 1938 presently in force in India. Contemporary academia is divided on necessity of the requirement of insurable interest on the secondary market assignment of insurance policies. Other legal issues such as moral hazard, and ethics of trading on life are debatable as well. The preliminary investigation revealed a scarcity of papers discussing these legal considerations around life settlements. However, among the top 10 countries 2023in the global life insurance ranking, five are emerging markets including India having immense potential for life settlements market (Anon, 2021). Consequently, the researcher conducted a scientific SLR using PRISMA Method, along with reviewing selected papers in full, focusing on the legal and related economic considerations, to produce valuable insights for the emerging market. This paper presents the sole effort to pursue SLR on legal issues and put them in a place with the aim to ignite the discussion on legal considerations of life settlements. Importantly, this paper considers India as an emerging market for reference and the USA as a benchmark for established market. This paper adopted a theoretical approach to fulfill the need for legal analysis complimented with secondary data analysis.