Episode 95: A Financial Lifeline Hidden in Plain Sight

Guest: Jason Mendelsohn, Co-founder & President of Ashar Group

What We Cover in This Episode:

• The financial reality of dementia and other serious illnesses
• What a life settlement is and how it works
• Why life insurance is considered an asset (and why you should never surrender without knowing its value)
• Real stories of families who found financial relief through life settlements
• The importance of working with a broker vs. direct buyers on TV
• Jason’s personal journey as a stage 4 cancer survivor
• Raising awareness about HPV, prevention, and his advocacy through SupermanHPV
  
  

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Ashar Group: ashargroup.com
  
  
• Superman HPV Awareness: supermanhpv.com
  
  

Contact Jason Mendelsohn:

• Office: 321-441-1115
• Cell: 407-782-6144
• Email: Jason@ashargroup.com

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Transcript

Robin Rountree: Welcome to Informed Aging, a podcast about health help. Hard decisions for older adults. I'm Robin Rountree, a former family caregiver. I've worked in the home care industry and now work for the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center. The thoughts and opinions expressed belong to me and my guest, not our wonderful employers and sponsors.

Before making any significant changes in your life or a person's life, please consult your own experts. Something we keep talking about on this podcast is the expense. That comes with getting older with certainly many diseases, including dementia related illnesses. Recently I heard about another way to help pay for those expenses.

I was shocked and intrigued. So we're gonna learn more about another way to pay coming up right after this. 

Robin Rountree: So our guest today is the co-founder and president of Ashar Group. His name is Jason Mendelsohn and he's behind this wonderful way to pay care that I didn't know about, and he's also a survivor of stage four cancer. So we've got a lot to talk about. Hi Jason. Thank you for being here. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Robin Rountree: Absolutely. So working at the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, dementia is an expensive disease. Cancer is an expensive disease. So a big question we get is, how do I pay for all this? You know, there's the VA, there's a little bit of help there. If you go on Medicaid, there's some help. If you purchase long-term care insurance, some help, but there's not a lot of help.

But then I heard about selling your life insurance policy. Had no idea you could do that. And. It's certainly not your first choice, but as you run out of funds, this may be something to look at. So explain to me what's going on with what you do at Asher Group. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Sure. And it's very common that many people don't even know our market exists.

At as Asher, we're a nationally licensed life settlement brokerage firm, which means the term life settlement means when someone wants to sell their life insurance for more than the cash surrender value, but less than the death benefit. That is what a life settlement is, right? The ability to monetize that life insurance policy, just like you would sell a home if you didn't want it any longer, or a car... 

we appraise people's existing life insurance and we sell it to institutional investors, 

Robin Rountree: and I think a lot of people, the first reaction is like, oh, but that money was meant for my heirs. 

Jason Mendelsohn: So, again, to speak candidly about this, when someone has life insurance, they take it out for a number of reasons. And, and whether those are for business planning, take care of kids, for estate planning, whatever those reasons are, people take out their life insurance.

Well, many times, maybe it's 5, 10, 15, 20 years later, the needs have changed. The reason they took it out no longer exists. 

Robin Rountree: Okay? 

Jason Mendelsohn: And so. If they no longer need it, and they're going to look at surrendering it for the cash value or letting it lapse or reducing the death benefit, all different exit strategies.

Another option to consider every time is to appraise it and sell it, just like you wouldn't, you know, if you were gonna move to California from Florida, you wouldn't just walk out, you know, the front door of your house, throw your keys in the lake and move to California. You would appraise and sell that asset.

Life insurance is an asset. And it could be sold like any other asset. 

Robin Rountree: Okay. It, it is just mind blowing when you haven't heard about it before.

Jason Mendelsohn: So, um, lemme start by also telling you Asher, by the way, they name our company, , we started over 22 years ago. We're a 25 person firm. We're located in the, the Orlando area here, but Asher means do what is right. You'll be blessed, prosperity and wealth and family. It's one of the tribes in the Old Testament that why we chose the name.

And so there's always been a lot of confusion in our market because 22 years ago, only three states in the country regulated the market.. Today's market is regulated in 46 states, allowed in all 50. And there are even direct buyers. If you ever watch, and it doesn't matter to me what news channel you watch, but there are multiple firms on TV that are marketing direct to consumers.

And let's just start with, you know, people over the age of 75 marketing saying, "if you no longer need or want your life insurance, call us"

but those literally are direct buyers. There is no competitive bidding environment. When working with those firms, so when we talk to a family, for instance, and they no longer need or want their life insurance and they're looking for liquidity, we review that information internally, right?

We look at the health of the client through medical records, we look at the policy, we estimate its value, and then we go out to, as a broker, 12 to 15 institutional buyers to create that bidding war auction, including the two on tv. They're part of that auction that we hold. And we then sell that policy for the most we possibly can.

It definitely, you know, I would tell you that families always, while you were asking initially, like what happens to the people that were gonna get the death benefit. 

Robin Rountree: Yeah. 

Jason Mendelsohn: The families we work with, they aren't most of the time keeping that life insurance. So the question is, if they surrender it for x.

Or they let it lapse. Does it have value in the secondary market? And then so we drive that offer as high as possible so the families that sell feel relief because it helps pay for whether it is in-home health, whether it is, you know, medical bills. It could be a trip to Europe. Don't misunderstand. It could be anything.

But, so when people sell, they're looking for options. Okay, so this alternative or exit strategy gives relief to families. Does that make sense? 

Robin Rountree: Yeah. So if you were having this bill for your life insurance, you're paying $200 a month, right? And that's squeezing your budget.

Instead of just stopping that and saving $200 a month, we can go to Asher and say, how can we sell this? And get a heck of a lot more. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Well, a hundred percent, yes. And so I'll lay out the scenario for you because these are live examples that we've experienced over the past 22 years. Imagine someone has a half a million dollar life insurance policy.

Robin Rountree: Okay? 

Jason Mendelsohn: And again, they could have a hundred thousand dollars life life insurance policy, or my most affluent family had 12 $10 million policies. So it's everything in between 50% of the people we work with could afford to keep their life insurance, but they don't wanna spend the money there any longer. 

Robin Rountree: Okay?

Jason Mendelsohn: And the other 50% really can't afford it. And they may not be able to afford their a hundred thousand dollars policy, or they may not be able to afford their $10 million policy. So again, it's two ends of the spectrum. You also have 50% of the policies that are held in islets or you know, life insurance trusts and 50% that aren't.

You have, again, people that are retiring from business. People that simply had it for estate planning, people that had it to take care of their kids, their loved ones. So there's so many reasons. The important part from our conversation today, in my opinion, is that people understand that life insurance is an asset and it could be worth more than the surrender value, assuming there is one, but less than the death benefit.

And before you make any decision based on that asset or that life insurance, you need to know what it's worth. I mean, at the end of the day, if someone has dementia and they're in their eighties and they have life insurance, reality is that policy itself, you know, they might surrender it because they can't afford the care.

They might be concerned that their loved one who has dementia. That their body is in great shape. Their mind is the issue. And because their body's in good shape, this person could live 10, 15 years. Yeah. And they're concerned about the premiums. So these are the concerns that anyone who has a loved one who is pretty much over the age of 70, 75, , this is what they're dealing with.

How long is my , loved one gonna outlive coverage? You know, are they in their nineties and they're afraid that the policy implodes at 100? there are so many different reasons, but I'm sure you know this, paying for in-home health can be very expensive. 

Robin Rountree: Yep. Just in the central Florida area. It's ranging now just to have somebody come in and help you shower,

make your meals, that sort of thing. We're looking around 32, 33 per hour. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Right. So what on average do, do you know what on average people spend for a year? I mean, it's tens of thousands of dollars, right? I mean, my parents are 81 and 82 and, and I know what we're dealing with, and I'm just saying, so imagine that there's a life insurance policy that this person in their middle, late seventies, eighties, nineties have, and it could be monetized or sold.

That brings the family 10, 20, 30, 80, $300,000 depending on the death benefit size, this could create relief. And we looked at a thousand policies we sold almost 22% were on people over the age of 90, 30% were on people over the age of 80, most everybody else was over 75, certainly over 70.

Typically it's some type of universal life product where, and again, this, I don't wanna be too technical, but where a buyer can minimally fund it, pay that minimal cost of insurance to keep it in force. So typically it's a universal life, or you know, I-U-L-G-U-L, some form of universal life or a term convertible, universal life or term term can be sold also, if the life expectancy is short enough.

But again, no medical exams are needed. It's, we analyze everything through medical records and we look at the policy information and we determine could this policy have value and what is it so we can relay it to the family or to their, you know, their advisor, whoever that is, that's helping the family analyze their situation.

Robin Rountree: So if you're thinking about this, you need to call Ashar Group instead of calling the people on tv. Because that's just one buyer and you're spreading out to a bunch of buyers. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Yes. I mean, I, you're a hundred percent accurate when you say that. I had a scenario where before a family understood that their financial advisor, attorney, CPA, , they made a call to the buyer on tv and this was an 80-year-old.

This is a real life story, so I will just tell you an 80-year-old with a $3 million policy with zero surrender value. The firm on TV offered her $300,000, and she was thrilled because she was gonna surrender for zero. She ended up realizing that she could have representation through her advisor who works with our firm.

I was the one that worked on this case, so I know it liked the back of my hand. With the same information, three weeks later, after 26 offers, the woman received $1.2 million. 

Robin Rountree: Whoa, 

Jason Mendelsohn: it was $900,000 higher than the offer she received direct. While that might seem like just huge numbers, I've also worked on cases, similar situation where someone thought the policy was worth 30,000, but then through a competitive bidding environment it was worth 300,000.

And so it's really important to know who represents who. 

Robin Rountree: Yeah, right. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Like a broker like Asher, we have a fiduciary duty to the seller to get them the most money we possibly can. The direct buyers on tv, have that relationship with their funds to drive, you know, the value to the fund as high as possible by paying as little as possible.

So you definitely need to know, like you said earlier, who represents who and who to work with. Because again, at the end of the day, families care about their loved ones. The more money that they can get from monetizing the policy, assuming it has value, the more there is to care for that loved one in their home or wherever they choose to care for them.

Yeah. 

Robin Rountree: Are the people who would've benefited from the life insurance policy, do they, are they made aware of what's going on? 

Jason Mendelsohn: Yes. So I will tell you, in 20, almost 23 years, we've never had anyone come back after a policy sold and say. " We didn't know this was happening, or how did you get my mother or father to do this?"

Literally, these contracts are probably 80 to 110 pages, and everyone signs off. The owner, the insured oftentimes trust beneficiaries. I mean, people are signing off and, and all the signatures are notarized, so you're not finding that something is happening without people realizing it's happening.

Robin Rountree: Gotcha. 

Jason Mendelsohn: It is highly, highly regulated. State approved forms. It's all documented and again, we're doing it in the best interest of the client. You mentioned earlier about my, I dunno if you mentioned it specifically, but I'm a cancer survivor and, and it was my life insurance that gave me peace of mind that if I passed away when I was 44, that my wife and kids would be okay.

we at Asher believe that if someone needs their life insurance, they should keep it. If they need it, they should keep it. However, if they are going to look at surrendering it, letting it lapse, reducing the death benefit, a fourth option that should be considered every time, you know, when the client's 70 or older, is does it have value in the secondary market?

Robin Rountree: And many of us don't know that is out there. So I'm so glad you're telling people, 

Jason Mendelsohn: you know what?, Can I tell you another quick story? 

Robin Rountree: Yes. 

Jason Mendelsohn: My mother-in-law,

She was talking to friends, found out one of them had a significant health issue. She was talking to the wife and, and asked, does your husband have, is there life insurance? And they said, we can't afford to keep it. Let's go with the life expectancy around three years. At the end of the day, they didn't know what we did.

Just like you've mentioned so many people don't know our market exists. And when I say that to you, I even mean financial advisors, attorneys, CPAs. Many people have no clue that our market exists in the state that it is today. Heavily regulated institutional buyers. We ended up working with the family and the policy

they were gonna let lapse, brought them $600,000 and they chose to make a video, for us. Saying how much this changed their lives. They could pay for their medicine, they could take care. You know, just make that situation so much better. And those are the types of discussions and those are the types of situations that we've dealt with frequently over the last 23 years.

It's really about helping families and really represent them at the highest level, we can make a significant difference in the lives of these families. And that's really key to us.

Asher Group represents families who have life insurance. They no longer need or want to show and illustrate, demonstrate what value it could have in the secondary market, and then we help those families monetize the policy when appropriate. And I think that is really critical when you're speaking. To the families you serve, or the caregivers or whoever it is, let them know that there is an option or there is potentially a financial tool that can allow this family peace of mind and freedom to care for their loved one.

Robin Rountree: and like you said, it's not for everybody. If you need that life insurance, when your husband passes to keep going on with your own life, you're not gonna say, yeah, sell it. 

Jason Mendelsohn: A hundred percent. This is not the silver bullet At the end of the day, if someone's gonna look at surrendering it, letting it lapse, reducing the death benefit, all you're doing is considering, would a life settlement serve our family?

Well, can we monetize this policy? Can as Ashar help us take it out to a competitive bidding environment, drive the offer as high as possible? And let's just say that we do that, and at the end of the day, we come back and we offer. X, whatever that number is, that's what we share. And the family says, you know what?

We've decided we're gonna keep the policy. There is no obligation to sell. And even once sold and the family received the receives, the funds, there is a pretty much a 15 day right of rescission in every state where the family can just give the money by back within that 15 day period after receiving the funds.

Unwind the transaction. So there is never, like, literally there is no pressure to sell just because you have us review the policy or go through the process. 

Robin Rountree: That's good to know. Flip it to the other side. Okay. Who buys a life insurance policy on somebody else? 

Jason Mendelsohn: Sure. So we don't work with individual investors.

Robin Rountree: Okay. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Right. It's, you know, pension funds, private equity firms. It's institutional capital. That's really the important part. It's not like you have your next door neighbor buying a policy. Um, that is not, that is not the market that we work within here at Asher. We work with funds that have all, you know, where we've done our due diligence.

And so the families we serve are comfortable.

Robin Rountree: Okay. So this company buys up life insurance knowing at some point this person they don't know will die. Right. And then there's money to be made. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Right. 

Robin Rountree: And they're not desperate for this money. In that portfolio in this section, right?

So they can wait. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Well, correct. So when someone, when these institutions offer on a policy, what are they looking at? They're looking at two things, the life expectancy of the insured. And so they do oftentimes their own medical reviews internally, right? They have their own medical professionals reviewing the medical records to estimate life expectancy, and then they analyze the premiums, how much am I gonna have to pay and for how long until they receive the death benefit.

That's what they're looking at.

It's no different than if you deal with an insurance carrier and you have a life only annuity.

What do they look at? They look at how much money is the insurance carrier gonna have to pay out for how long for the life expectancy of the insured, right? So if you could be comfortable with a life only annuity, you would be equally as comfortable with a life settlement because it's simply people looking how, how much in for how long?

Okay. 

Robin Rountree: So it's not your neighbor Joe saying, I'm gonna buy life insurance and then tripping you. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Correct. So that is not the market we work within. And I think that, you know, what's funny is I think that is why we have developed a, a really, a strong and solid reputation over the last 23 years. We do not work within that private investor, individual investor market.

Um, I know that market exists. We just have never worked within it because the firms and the families we work with would never be comfortable in that market. Right. And so, right. I mean, we're doing right as an approved resource for banks and broker dealers and, and insurance carriers and others.

They want to know that it's institutional capital. And so it's a very safe, regulated environment.

So this is something I would absolutely consider every time and talk to the families because even though the advisor really could be the one bringing it to them, like you said at the beginning. What happens if the advisors don't know our market exists? So it's better for families to be educated and either call you, call us directly, or if they have an advisor they wanna work with, ask that advisor.

What do you think about this exit strategy? I heard a podcast where Ashar was speaking about it. Ashar Group is a nationally licensed life settlement brokerage firm, where we advocate on behalf of the sellers to get them the most money we can for their life insurance policy they may no longer need or want, where they're looking at surrendering it, letting it lapse, or reducing the death benefit.

Another exit strategy is to consider monetizing or selling it in a secondary market. We're family owned, had our business 23 years, but I'm president of our firm. My brother is CEO. My sister is EVP. Our father's on the board. We're 25 people and we are located right here in the Orlando area. Although we are licensed nationally, and that's probably the point that we can work with any of the families just to provide information.

If they decide to move forward, we can certainly serve them well. 

Robin Rountree: Okay, and what age do you need to be to consider selling your life insurance? Like if a 30-year-old has life insurance and wants to go on that European vacation, they can't. Sell it, right? 

Jason Mendelsohn: So when you look at the ages that qualify for life settlement, when I mentioned to you earlier, we looked at a thousand policies.

We sold almost 22% on people over the age of 90, 38% on people over the age of 80. Most everybody else over 75 or 70. It's not really age driven. It is life expectancy driven. So most of the time we're working with older insureds with age related impairments. Most of the time people were over the age of 70.

That being said, I sold a policy on someone who was in their forties, probably 10 years ago. They had a significant health issue and their life expectancy was three years. And so while we rarely work with people that young, it is possible because again, it's life expectancy driven. 

Robin Rountree: I keep thinking of the movie.

It's a wonderful life when our protagonist, George, is putting forth his most valuable asset, which is his life insurance policy. Yeah. And the bad guy says, you are worth more dead than alive if he would've known you. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Right. 

Robin Rountree: Maybe something, it all turned out fine, but that's just, it's not just a piece of paper anymore.

It is that. Financial investment. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Right? That is what, that's really what people need to think about. Your life insurance is an asset. It should be, you know, reviewed annually, right? And make sure you're paying the premiums as illustrated. Make sure that it's doing for your family or your business or your plan, what it was intended to do.

And do you still need it? And if the answer is yes, keep it. As part of your plan if you do not need it, whatever you do, if you're, and I always say just 70 and older, do not surrender it without knowing what it's worth First, you wouldn't, if you owned a building in downtown Orlando, right, would you ever just sell it to one buyer without knowing what it was worth or appraise for?

You would never do that. And so if people can think of their life insurance as an asset and get to know what it's worth before making any big decisions. That would be in their best interests firms like ours and advisors can help someone understand what is the value of that life insurance before they make any decisions.

Robin Rountree: I love what you do because it's something a lot of people don't know about. Hopefully a few more have learned about it, and it's just that extra thing in your back pocket. That might be the answer you need. 

Jason Mendelsohn: You know, I, I would tell you, and thank you. I would tell you that as part of your discussions with your organization, if families express any type of concern regarding paying for their loved one, I would mention this every time, not as a silver bullet like we, we talked about earlier, but just as one of the options to consider.

It truly may change the life of that family and allow them to remain in a strong financial position for the years that they're caring for that loved one. And that's the important part, right? Keeping families lives as easy as possible during a difficult time when caring for loved ones. 

Robin Rountree: I love it. Thank you.

Pre information. Now we're gonna pivot again. Talk to me about surviving stage four throat cancer. 

Jason Mendelsohn: Um, I was diagnosed back in 2014 with stage four HPV related tonsil cancer. Um, and HPV is a virus that three outta four adults by age 30 have 

Leading cause of cervical cancer for women. Um, tongue, throat, and tonsil cancer in the last 48 months has surpassed cervical cancer and become an epidemic among men between 40 and 60, although it also impacts women.

And the HPV vaccine is for boys and girls. Nine and older can protect them from preventable cancer. And so the short story about me is that in 2014, I made videos to my three kids saying goodbye videos like one day you're gonna get married. I'm not going to be there. This is what's important. After having a radical tonsillectomy and neck dissection where I had 42 lymph removed from my neck.

A scar that runs from the bottom of my right ear to the side of my throat, and seven weeks of chemo radiation in a feeding tube. Um, I survived, went public, launched a website called Superman, HPV, because my friends called me Superman during chemo and radiation. And they said I was tough like him. And when I got diagnosed and I researched this diagnosis, um, everything was so depressing.

All it was, it was about people with their jaws cracking, teeth falling out, no saliva. So I vowed to share a, or create a website that would provide inspiration and information for those diagnosed and or researching HPV, the HPV vaccine and HPV related cancers to hopefully protect boys and girls worldwide from HPV preventable cancer.

So that's kind of my thing.

Robin Rountree: And if your children are of that age to get that vaccine. 

Jason Mendelsohn: I tell people, speak to your kid's pediatrician. I'm not a doctor, but I always say you should ask, just like, again, I'm gonna tie these together, which I've never done, in an interview before or podcast, but just like if you were to learn about the life settlement industry and you would ask your financial advisor or attorney or CPA, what do you think?

Could this be good for our family? And they will likely say, you know what, let's speak to Ashar, to appraise your policy to see what it could be worth. Get that advice and information. From those who know more than you do to figure out if this will help you. I will tell you the same thing about the HPV vaccine.

Parents should speak with their pediatrician, would this be good for my son or daughter? And it's always best to get advice from people that know more than you to protect, right? Your loved ones, whether it's protecting them with a life settlement or protecting your kids from preventable cancer. We care about the families, our families.

So I think getting information from people who know more, whether you decide to use that information or not is your own choice. But at least having that foundation is what's critical. 

Robin Rountree: I love it. How do people get ahold of you to talk about their life insurance policy? 

Jason Mendelsohn: Sure. If they were gonna call me directly, and I'll say this, Jason Mendelsohn, um, my direct line in the office is 3, 2 1 4 4 1, 1, 1, 1 5.

My cell phone, which everyone has is four zero seven seven eight two five six one four four . And then our, my email is Jason at Ashar Group. So just Js ON at ashar Group. Ashar's all as A-S-H-A-R group.com.

Our main office line is 4 0 7 7 7 2 1 8 1 8

Robin Rountree: all of that will be in the show notes. 

Jason Mendelsohn: We welcome calls because that's why we're here to serve families and serve those families that you serve as well.

So we are just thrilled that you invited us to be on the podcast today. 

Robin Rountree: Thank you so much for your time. 

Jason Mendelsohn: My pleasure. Thanks for today.

Robin Rountree: Please make sure to subscribe to our podcast Informed Aging, tell Your Family and Friends about us. If you'd like to support the work that we do at the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, please go to adrc cares.org/donate. You can find us at facebook.com/informed Aging. Today's episode was recorded at ADRC's Podcast Studio.

That's it for now. We are looking forward to our next visit.