Alexander Braun
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Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Braun
First name
Alexander
Email
alexander.braun@unisg.ch
Phone
+41 71 224 3653

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«Skills der Zu­kunft» für die As­se­ku­ranz

2021-04-30 , Braun, Alexander , Biener, Christian , Schmeiser, Hato , Scharnhorst, Ursula , Schweri, Jürg , Burch, Irene

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ClearLife: From Prospect to Platform

2019-06-27 , Braun, Alexander , Cohen, Lauren , Xu, Jiahua , Elvedi, Mauro

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An Investigation into the Insurability of Pandemic Risk

2020-10 , Braun, Alexander , Eling, Martin , Schanz, Kai-Uwe , Schmeiser, Hato

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Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry

2018-05-01 , Braun, Alexander , Cohen, Lauren H. , Malloy, Christopher J. , Xu, Jiahua

Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is however increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers seeking to shortcut brokers. Ashar faces a strategic dilemma in cooperating --- but also competing --- with these providers. Maintaining a mutually beneficial dynamic with policyholders, downstream intermediaries and other actors thus constitutes a balancing act. The context of this case is an underdeveloped market whose reputation has suffered from broker misconduct. In light of the market's legacy issues and competing business models, this case study explores strategies Ashar may pursue to secure and enhance its market position. Discussions emerging from this case study have the potential to illuminate directions for market transformation.

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fidentiaX: The Tradable Insurance Marketplace on Blockchain

2019-05-01 , Braun, Alexander , Cohen, Lauren , Xu, Jiahua

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Introduction to Life Settlements

2018-06-05 , Braun, Alexander , Cohen, Lauren H. , Malloy, Christopher J. , Xu, Jiahua

Life insurance is an asset owned by the majority of American adults (61%). Note that this 61% penetration rate is essentially at parity with home ownership (64%), and higher than that of 401(k) retirement account ownership (53%). Life settlements, or life insurance settlements, allow individuals to sell their life insurance policy in a secondary market. A life insurance policy is a tradable asset, for many individuals possibly the most valuable one in their portfolio after real estate and perhaps a retirement account. The fact that the policy is tradable, however, is hardly known to the general public. When surrendering a policy to the insurance carrier, the policyholder often incurs a substantial discount on its economic value. At the same time, the insurer keeps the difference between the policy's economic value and its surrender value. By selling a policy in the secondary market, in contrast, it is common to achieve a price markedly above the surrender value. Hence, life settlements allow policyholders to capture a much larger, if not full, share of their contracts' economic value. In this Industry Note, we lay out the basic structure of the market, the important players, and the basic economics. We also go into the potential ways to maximize returns in this market for both investors and policy holders.

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