NEW YORK, June 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --  The Deal, a business unit of TheStreet Inc. (NASDAQ: TST), issued results from its annual survey of the life settlement market showing that transactions increased 32.6% last year, as the face value of life insurance policies sold hovered around $1.65 billion, the same as the prior year. The survey, compiled from information obtained through public records requests to state insurance departments, includes data from 33 life settlement providers, including eight who did not report any activity.

"The life settlement market seemed to be making a comeback with a renewed focus on purchase of smaller policies," said Donna Horowitz, senior editor of The Life Settlements Report, a service of The Deal.  "The market is poised for further growth, as the trend appears to be continuing. In recent years, the secondary market took a back seat to the tertiary market in which portfolios of previously purchased policies are traded. That may no longer be true."

Highlights from the report include:

• The number of policy sales grew to 1,123, representing a 32.6% surge in deals from 2014, while the total face value purchased stayed the same at $1.65 billion, showing the market's growing interest for smaller-face policies. In all, $325.12 million was paid to purchase policies last year compared to $314.28 million paid the year before by the Top 15 providers.
• Top five settlement buyers:
  • Life Equity LLC led the market in the total number of transactions, buying 181 policies in 2015 compared to 112 policies the year before. Life Equity paid $31.42 million and purchased $332.78 million in policies.
  • Coventry First LLC paid $22.91 million last year. Policies purchased by Coventry totaled 168 transactions with $108.78 million in face value.
  • Abacus Settlements LLC came in third place in the rankings, with 106 transactions last year, compared to 53 in 2014. Abacus Settlements paid $53.81 million for $184.53 million in face value last year.
  • GWG Life LLC placed fourth this year, paying $38.04 million for 105 transactions with a face value of $180.37 million. In 2014, GWG Life did 36 transactions with a face value of $55.5 million.
  • Settlement Group Inc. ranked fifth with 93 settlements, $7.6 million paid and a face value of $87.43 million.

The full report is available online.

About The Deal

The Deal is a media and relationship capital company providing over 100,000 users with business opportunities sourced from proprietary deal news and a relationship discovery tool. Law firms, investment banks, private equity and hedge funds use The Deal's insight and analysis about potential and announced transactions to find their next deal and BoardEx's service and database for building relationships. The Deal has offices in New York, London, Washington, D.C., Petaluma, CA and Chennai, India. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

Contact: Jon Kostakopoulos, 212.321.5561, Jon Kostakopoulos at thestreet.com

Logo -  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130305/NY70755LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/life-settlement-market-transactions-surged-in-2015-300279456.html

SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.