Vertical Capital Holdings LLC (VCH) was formed on April 4, 2006 as a Delaware limited liability company. The principal office of the VCH is located at 460 St. Michaels Drive, Suite 703, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505. Mr. Michael Beste has served as the sole managing member of the VCH since its inception.
Since its formation, VCH has invested in non-contestable transferable insurance policies both for its own account as principal as well as acting as an advisor and intermediary for institutional third-parties. The estimated cumulative value of the assets owned by VCH and inter-mediated since 2006 is approximately $500 million encompassing 110 individual policies. VCH made its investments through a combination of debt and equity capital and generally maintained an average of $100 million of benefit face value of non-contestable transferable insurance policies in its owned portfolio.
In 2008 through an alliance with Coit Capital, Mr. Beste brought together parties and negotiated a $64,000,000 debt structure securitized by $215,000,000 in face amount of life insurance policies. This securitization of life settlements was one of the first such true securitizations done at arm’s length and crossed the DTC on June 12, 2008.
In the normal course of its business activities, VCH also performs all functions relating to the management and servicing of the assets that it either owns or manages for third-parties. In this capacity, it is responsible for overseeing the changes in ownership and changes in beneficiaries for policies as they are purchased and sold, for optimizing the annual insurance premiums so that the ratio of annual premium to face policy benefit is minimized, for paying the premiums on the policies, for tracking the mortality of the insured and processing, collecting and receiving policy benefits. Reporting of policy positions and transactions is performed and reported on a monthly basis. VCH maintains a staff at its headquarters location which it deems sufficient to perform all servicing related tasks in a timely and efficient manner.
Prior to forming VCH, Mr. Beste served as the President of the Institutional Investor Division of Life Partners Holdings, Inc. (“LPHI”) from April 17, 2000 through April 30, 2006. Life Partners Holdings, Inc. currently is believed to be the only publicly owned and traded licensed life settlement provider. In his capacity as President, Mr. Beste was responsible for working with investment banks, hedge funds, pension managers, investment managers and other institutional investors to arrange equity and debt investments in portfolios of transferable insurance policies and to broker portfolios of policies. He was also responsible for arranging institution credit facilities on behalf of LPHI. Mr. Beste has developed transferable insurance policy acquisition and valuation models and been a speaker to institution investors throughout the world on the subject of financing life settlements.
Before joining LPHI, Mr. Beste was a Director at the Dallas regional office of Finova and preceded that by being a leading commercial loan producer at GMACCM in the Dallas regional office.
Mr. Beste holds a B.S. degree in General Business from Arizona State University in 1978.
Merit Bennett, Independent Legal Counsel
Merit Bennett has been counsel for VCH since its' inception.
Merit contributes a unique blend of corporate experience with regulatory acumen to provide guidance to VCH clients regarding life settlements and various structures sought by our clients.
Merit Bennett has been practicing law since 1975.
Merit received his Bachelor’s Degree in Western European Area Studies, from the United States Air Force Academy, emphasizing the study of Spanish, French and German, his Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado and his Juris Doctor Degree from the Washington College of Law at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Merit is a member of the New Mexico, Hawaii and Colorado bar associations. His seminar for lawyers, Professional Responsibility and the Lawyer/Client Relationship: Legal Decisions that Feel Right, has been approved by the New Mexico State Bar Association for Continuing Legal Education professionalism credit.
Linda Miller, Policy Administration
Ms. Miller’s responsibilities include all aspects of life insurance policy administration at VCH, including:
- Policy servicing of monthly premium payments
- Collections of death benefits as well as
- Mortality tracking services
Alexandria Guthrie, Technology Assistance
Generates monthly premium reports for investors by updating VCH password protected investor data web pages.