Settlement industry pioneer wins for due diligence

Atlanta, October 18, 2007 – M. Bryan Freeman, a life settlement industry leader and founder of Atlanta-based Habersham Funding, LLC, was recently recognized with a Silver Flame Award for feature writing from the International Association of Business Communicators.

The award, which was presented at IABC/Atlanta’s Oct. 11 ceremony, is for an article Freeman contributed to The Journal of Structured Finance. The article, “Lurking Pitfalls: Due Diligence in Life Settlement Transactions,” was part of a special issue of the journal (Summer 2007) which was focused on an emerging area of structured finance, life settlements.

As its title implies, the article details how a strenuous due diligence process is a crucial aspect of the life settlement process. A life settlement is the sale to a third party of an existing life insurance policy for more than its cash surrender value but less than its net death benefit. Such transactions are usually undertaken – based on the insured’s shortened life expectancy – for the purposes of estate- or financial planning. The option also is available to some people who are terminally ill.

Freeman has been a licensed insurance agent for 28 years and has helped people sell their life insurance for cash settlements for 18 years. He is a pioneer of the life settlement business, having started two settlement companies, including Habersham Funding, LLC, which he helms. Freeman frequently writes about and is interviewed about the life settlement industry.

Last year he was recognized with resolutions from both houses of the Georgia Legislature for his settlement industry leadership. Also in 2006 he founded Life Settlement University, which helps educate professionals, regulators and legislators about the industry. Freeman is a founding board member of Private Bank of Buckhead.

“In this relatively young industry, it’s important to inform a wide variety of business and consumer audiences about life settlements,” Freeman says, “so it is gratifying to be asked to contribute to a distinguished publication like the journal. It’s even better when your work is recognized by an organization like IABC. Receiving recognition for this article is important because it provides one more avenue through which we can educate folks about life settlements.”

A summary of Freeman’s article can be found at www.iijournals.com/ (the Web site of the journal’s publisher, Institutional Investor Journals) under the heading, The Journal of Structured Finance. That journal, which is published quarterly, features in-depth white papers by leading industry practitioners on the most current topics in the securitization industry.