SL was launched in 1990 and 30 years on we are proud of our achievements and strong pedigree, having managed or advised over 40 collective investment vehicles comprising assets in excess of $9.5bn
Our history
SL was founded in 1990 when current Chairman & Co-founder Paul Sands discovered a PhD dissertation authored by co-founder Dr Peter Clode; entitled, “The viability of the UK Traded Endowment Policy (UK TEP) market”
Dr Clode’s dissertation explored quantitative approaches to assessing the underlying value of UK TEPs, and identified a unique and fascinating arbitrage opportunity for investors in this asset class – a discovery that would ultimately pave the way to the large scale development of the UK TEP market.
During the 1990s, SL became the pre-eminent force in the UK TEP market with a reputation for technical diligence & product innovation – coupled with an ethos of strong corporate governance and integrity – demonstrated through the development of a series of long term relationships with global institutional partners.
During the early noughties, SL extended its remit by diversifying into the US Life Settlement market – where there were many similarities with the UK TEP market -adopting the same analytical approach that had proved so successful for investors in the early years.
The UK TEP market has flourished over the past 30 years, reaching its peak trading in 2009-2013. However, as we projected, the market is now in its sunset phase. The availability of tradable ‘conventional’ endowments has naturally diminished, as they are increasingly replaced by more flexible investment products such as unit linked endowments, where no arbitrage exists.
Today
UK TEPs continue to be an important part of our business, and we continue to manage legacy portfolios of UK TEPs on behalf of existing clients.
However, US Life Settlements are now the predominant focus of our new business initiatives, with the market continuing to expand and become increasingly established.
Over the next 30 years
Over the next 30 years we are looking forward to working with partners on the development of exciting new products, with focus on low levels of correlation to traditional asset classes, through targeted investments in US Life Settlements and other longevity\insurance based assets.
Our journey
Our success is due to the specialist skills and experience of our knowledge-based
teams of professionals together with our reputation for innovation and strong corporate governance.
