A viatical settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy by the policy owner before the policy matures. Such a sale, at a price discounted from the face amount of the policy but usually in excess of the premiums paid or current cash surrender value, provides the seller an immediate cash settlement. Similar to reverse mortgages, viatical settlements involve insured individuals with a life expectancy of less than five years. In countries with high health care costs (such as the United States), this is a practical way to pay extremely high health insurance premiums and other senior care expenses that severely ill people face. Some people are also familiar with life settlements, which are similar transactions but involve insureds with longer life expectancies (two to fifteen years). - From Wikipedia and other sources 5/2007Future Retirement Planning Professionals To Face Growing Market for Services With Head Start Through InFRE University Partnership Program
CHICAGO (PRWEB) September 16, 2005 -- With the number of retirees expected to grow at an unprecedented rate in the next two decades, the International Foundation for Retirement Education (InFRE) is teaming with five major universities to provide curricula giving business students unique training in retirement income management while earning credit toward InFREs Certified Retirement Counselor® (CRC®) designation.
The InFRE University Partnership Program, a unique project designed to help meet the need for more professionally-trained retirement specialists, enables financial planning students at participating schools to complement their curricula with special InFRE-designed self-study components while pursuing the CRC®, a designation previously available only to retirement planning professionals.
"This is an opportunity for a credential in a growing market," says Diane Savage, InFRE Director of Professional Education. "Roughly 76 million people will retire in the next two decades, and with so many companies reducing or eliminating pension plans, these students will have a huge market waiting for them when they graduate."
At the heart of the program are InFREs retirement-specific, self-study components that will give students a head start as they enter the professional world. They must then log two years of professional service and pass four, 3-hour examinations before the full CRC® is granted.
Students seeking the CRC® designation will be able to do so at a reduced cost from that paid by working professionals. They will also be eligible for paid internships, scholarships and discounts on registration fees at professional and industry conferences.
Schools taking part in the first year of the program are the University of Alabama; University of Georgia; Kansas State University; University of Missouri; and Texas Tech University. Since developing the curricula, InFRE has received inquiries from representatives at 20 more universities that offer financial planning degrees that are interested in joining the program.
The International Foundation for Retirement Education was founded in 1997 and is dedicated to informed, comprehensive education and certification programs for retirement professionals, including financial advisors, retirement plan sponsors, financial services providers, and human resources and benefits personnel, to help the American worker achieve retirement security. For more information about InFRE and retirement income management, visit our website at www.infre.org.
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