Ben sits down once again with Barry Neal, CEO of Equity Life LLC, to break down real-life performance from this year’s life settlement maturities. 

If you’ve ever wondered whether life settlements actually deliver competitive returns without stock market risk, this is the episode to listen to. Barry walks through four actual maturities from 2025, including one that doubled its life expectancy, one that paid out early, and a headline-making $3 million payout that delivered a 20 percent annualized return for investors. 

It’s a rare behind-the-scenes look at how these portfolios behave across the full spectrum: the early wins, the on-time cases, the long-tail maturities, and what happens to reserves when policies mature ahead of schedule.

Timestamped Highlights

00:00 Why life settlements work even when the market is shaky

00:19 Ben reintroduces returning guest Barry Neal of Equity Life LLC

01:10 What EquiLife actually does and how investors buy policy fractions

01:28 Snapshot of this year: 4 maturities totaling over $5M paid out

03:34 Policy #1: Expected 3-year LE… matured at 6 years… still a 5–7% APR

09:49 Policy #2: Expected 8 years… matured in 6… about a 13% APR

12:20 Policy #3: Expected ~35 months… matured in 38 months… about a 10% APR

14:45 Policy #4: The big one… $3M payout… matured in under half the expected time

15:15 Why that early payout produced a 20% APR

17:03 Inside the 2023 round: previous maturity delivered ~33% APR

18:17 Why investors in that round already recovered 94% of their original principal

22:11 How reserve funds from early maturities boost returns & reduce premium-call risk

25:40 Why spreading your capital across multiple portfolios improves blended APR

28:40 The reality: longevity variance is rare across multiple policies

29:54 Final recap of the year’s returns and what investors can expect

Mentioned Resources

• Equity Life LLC
• Life Asset LLC
• Life Advisor Solution (for agents)
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About the Guest

Barry Neal is the CEO of Equity Life LLC, a California-based life settlement investment firm focused on building diversified life settlement portfolios for everyday investors. With nearly a decade of performance history and multiple multi-million-dollar payouts, Barry’s approach centers on transparency, actuarial discipline, and providing investors with a way to earn competitive returns without stock market exposure.

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Important Links

• Book a call to speak with Ben: https://rebrand.ly/life-asset-consult 
• Watch our webinar (no opt-in): https://rebrand.ly/ben-mohr-56b45e 
• Grab our ebook here (no opt-in): https://rebrand.ly/life-asset-ebook
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Truly Diversified is an original podcast brought to you by Ben Mohr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.