An unnamed Silicon Valley billionaire has set a new Guinness World Record for Most Valuable Life Insurance Policy. Worth $201 million, the deal involves 19 different insurance companies and will see the billionaire paying annual premiums in the low digit millions.
SG, LLC, a Santa Barbara, California-based advisory firm which sold the record-breaking insurance policy was not legally permitted to disclose the name of the billionaire buyer but said it was a well-known Californian tech investor. That does not narrow the list. By our last count, California boasts 111 billionaires with more than a third of them in tech, while San Francisco has 20 billionaires alone, reports my colleague Dan Alexander. (Though if one were to take a shot in the dark, the seemingly arbitrary $201 million is, coincidentally, the same amount Elon Musk’s SolarCity SCTY +0% IPO filed for in 2013.) This policy more than doubles the previous record set by Peter Rosengard from the UK, whose insurance on the life of a U.S. entertainment industry figure sold for $100 million. Some might question why a billionaire would take out life insurance when he or she has so many other assets.“In California, there are state death taxes that are exceptionally high,” explained Dovi Frances, founder and managing partner of SG, LLC, on the phone from California.”If your properties are leveraged then those loans are called immediately and need to be paid off,” said Frances. “So if you want to head yourself against such a risk [your beneficiary] can receive the proceeds [from life insurance] without being exposed to taxes.”SG, LLC also offers asset management and investments for high-net-worth individuals. Founded in 2010, it has so far directly invested $240 million in technology and real estate, according to Frances. Clients pay SG a high-six figure annual fee for their services. Read the original article from Forbes here.
