Life settlement vehicle Assured Fund said that it’s delaying the audit of its 2011 financial statements in order to incorporate new assumptions on its underlying life policies, according to a statement filed with the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange.
The fund, which is run by London-based Policy Selection Limited, said that it recently completed review of the life expectancies and “it has revised its estimate of the premiums required to fund the portfolio to maturity based on the latest information available. “
“The new information impacts on the valuation of the premium liability,” the statement says. “The Notes to the accounts require that there is adequate disclosure for the investors to be able to draw valid comparisons to last year’s valuation and can understand movements involved.”
Assured said that the new information was provided to the auditors “in the last couple weeks” and that it will “allow [the auditors] to audit the liability and assess the adequacy of disclosers.”
The audit of the fund was scheduled to be filed with the Cayman’s exchange on June 30.
In February Assured announced it was resetting life expectancy estimates on its portfolio policies and cutting the net asset value (NAV) by over a third to match the change.
“As a result of the review the life expectancy estimates of the majority of the Insured Parties have been increased with a corresponding decrease in the Fund’s Net Asset Value of approximately 34%,” the fund said at the time.
In a report issued last year Standard & Poor’s said that life settlement managers have been struggling as life expectancy table changes that changes in mortality data was a major risk for the industry.
An email to Policy Selection Limited was not returned.
