As private wealth becomes increasingly international, large life insurance engagements are creating more complex capital-allocation decisions for families and their advisers. Once the need for coverage has been established, clients must decide whether to finance premiums directly or use leverage to keep capital available for businesses, investments and other priorities.
For Dean J. De Marco, Chief Executive Officer of GP Affluent Markets at Gracie Point International, premium finance is fundamentally about opportunity cost. Founded in 2010, Gracie Point is a specialist, non-bank lender serving high net worth (HNW), ultra-high net worth (UHNW) and institutional clients across North America, Asia and the Middle East. It provides premier financing for new and existing life insurance policies.
Key Takeaways
Asia offers the strongest growth potential: De Marco sees a premium finance market developing alongside substantial private wealth creation and greater use of insurance in succession and wealth-transfer planning.
Premium finance is a capital-allocation tool: It enables clients to retain capital rather than meeting large premiums entirely from cash, businesses or investment portfolios.
The economics differ for every client: Financing is most compelling where retained capital can generate returns materially above the cost of borrowing.
Independence protects the advisory relationship: Gracie Point does not require clients to transfer assets under management or purchase unrelated products.
Insurance expertise supports the lending structure: The firm aligns policy design, financing, funding and servicing within a single process.
Asset-led underwriting supports faster decisions: The principal focus is the insurance policy and issuing carrier, allowing decisions to be made within days rather than weeks.
Funding and technology will shape future growth: Gracie Point is expanding its capital-markets model and automating parts of underwriting as premium finance becomes more widely accessible.
Asia and Dubai as the Strongest Growth Opportunity
Gracie Point operates across three principal regions: Asia and Dubai, the United States (US) and Canada. Of these, De Marco believes Asia and Dubai offers the clearest opportunity for expansion.
The US is already an established premium finance market. Asia and Dubai combines rapid wealth creation with an insurance financing market that is still developing, particularly as families use life insurance to support succession, estate liquidity, business continuity and intergenerational wealth transfer.
“Of the three regions, we believe Asia and Dubai are the most promising from a growth perspective,” De Marco says. “The US is a mature market, while international Asia and Dubai give us much greater room to grow.”
The firm operates from New York, Miami, Hong Kong, Toronto and Chennai. Although De Marco is relatively new to the Asian market, he believes Gracie Point’s specialist model is well suited to advisers seeking financing without surrendering control of the broader client relationship.
Gracie Point does not manage client assets, distribute insurance or operate an investment banking business. The group has a small interest in a property and casualty (P&C) finance company, but its core expertise and revenue remain centred on HNW insurance-based lending.
“We are a monoline lender,” De Marco says. “We are not trying to manage the client’s money or create another commercial relationship around the transaction. Our role is to finance the insurance.”
Although the legal borrower is the policyholder, De Marco says Gracie Point regards the adviser as its principal commercial customer. The lender’s role is to support the adviser rather than replace them.
Premium Finance as a Capital-Allocation Decision
De Marco stresses that premium finance begins with a genuine requirement for life insurance. Financing does not create the planning need; it offers another way to meet the cost once the appropriate coverage has been identified.
A client requiring US$10 million, US$20 million or US$100 million of life insurance can pay the premiums directly or borrow to fund them. The decision depends on where the money would otherwise come from and what it could continue to achieve.
“It is simply another option for paying the premium,” he says. “The real issue is the opportunity cost of taking that capital from somewhere else.”
A US$1 million premium might be funded from cash reserves, an operating business or the sale of investment assets. Liquidating shares may create tax, transaction and market costs, while withdrawing capital from a business may constrain investment or growth. Moving money between jurisdictions can create further friction.
Premium finance allows the client to preserve that capital, but leverage is not automatically preferable.
“If the client keeps the capital and earns 3%, they should consider paying the premium themselves,” De Marco says. “If that capital is generating 12% or 15% in the business, leverage becomes a very different proposition.”
The assessment must therefore consider the borrowing cost, duration of the financing, expected use of the retained capital and performance of the underlying insurance policy. Every client has a different economic threshold.
Gracie Point also finances existing policies. Through policy pledge refinancing, clients can borrow against the cash surrender value (CSV) of an in-force policy, accessing liquidity without surrendering their coverage. The firm finances single-life, multi-pay, new-business and in-force arrangements.
Funding Through Banks and the Capital Markets
Although Gracie Point is not a bank, it uses two principal sources of capital.
The first is conventional bank funding. Gracie Point originates the loan, retains it on its balance sheet and draws against facilities provided by established financial institutions.
“We are the lender and we originate the transaction,” De Marco explains. “The loans remain on our balance sheet, while we use traditional bank facilities to provide the capital.”
The second source is securitization. Gracie Point pools life insurance loans, obtains ratings on the resulting securities and issues them as bonds to institutional investors, including pension funds, hedge funds and other fixed-income buyers.
The bonds offer potential yield enhancement relative to US Treasuries, corporate bonds and municipal securities. The credit analysis centres on the policies, issuing insurers and structural protections supporting the loan portfolio.
Gracie Point has completed nine publicly rated, broadly syndicated securitization. De Marco says its research indicates that it is the only institution to have securitized life insurance loans on this basis globally.
“The loans are bundled into rated debt and purchased by the investment community,” he says. “The investor is principally buying the credit quality of the insurance assets and the carriers behind them.”
Access to both bank facilities and public capital markets give Gracie Point a broader funding base and reduces its dependence on the capacity or appetite of any single lender. This also affords Gracie to build customized programs centred around adviser specific planning strategies.
Independence, Expertise and Speed
De Marco identifies three principal reasons why advisers choose Gracie Point.
The first is independence. Private banks may use premium finance to attract investment assets, establish wealth management mandates or expand the client into other products.
Gracie Point does not attach those conditions to the loan.
“There are no strings attached,” De Marco says. “There is no assets under management (AUM) requirement, no obligation to move money and no need to buy anything else from us.”
Where investment assets are used as collateral, the client’s existing adviser can continue to manage them. Gracie Point does not take over the portfolio.
The second differentiator is insurance expertise. Premium finance requires analysis of the policy design, premium schedule, projected values, insurer strength and collateral mechanics, rather than only the borrower’s conventional credit position.
Gracie Point provides case design, structuring, funding and post-funding servicing. It can also work with the adviser to ensure that the insurance contract and financing structure operate coherently.
“We understand how the insurance needs to fit with the loan,” De Marco says. “When the adviser wants our input, we can help make sure the contract and the financing are designed to work together.”
The firm also offers high advance rates and does not charge set-up or exit fees.
The third advantage is speed. Traditional banks may spend weeks examining the borrower’s assets, income, businesses and wider financial position. Gracie Point places greater weight on the policy and financial strength of the issuing insurer.
“We are principally underwriting the asset being financed, along with extensive KYC and background reviews,” De Marco says. “That allows us to give an underwriting decision in days rather than weeks.”
For advisers, earlier certainty over the availability and likely terms of financing can help shape the insurance proposal before completion.
Key Priorities
Gracie Point’s first priority over the coming 18 months is to reduce its cost of capital.
De Marco says the firm is developing a third funding source to complement its bank facilities and public-market securitizations. The proposed hybrid model would combine elements of both.
“Our objective is to become the lowest-cost provider of premium financing globally,” he says. “We are close to introducing a different funding methodology that we believe can move us towards that position.”
The second priority is technology. De Marco acknowledges that Gracie Point has historically been behind the market in digital development, but it is now automating more of its underwriting process.
The intended platform would allow advisers to upload case information through a secure portal. An artificial intelligence (AI) engine would process the formulaic elements, with a human underwriter retaining responsibility for review and final approval.
“We want to provide immediate feedback, whether that is a pre-approval or a final decision,” De Marco says. “The technology can run the assessment, but a person will still sign off.”
The third priority is selective acquisition. Gracie Point is considering smaller finance companies that could add scale, specialist capabilities or access to particular markets.
“We are looking at several strategic opportunities, although it is too early to provide details,” he says. “They are finance companies. We are not moving into insurance distribution or the commission business.”
Into the Future
Over the next five to ten years, De Marco expects capital to move more easily across jurisdictions as payment platforms, digital settlement systems and stablecoins reduce reliance on traditional banking channels.
He anticipates greater standardisation in how money is transferred internationally, alongside a broader movement towards FinTech-based premium finance.
The market is currently concentrated among HNW and UHNW clients, family offices and specialist advisers. Automated assessment, standardised policy data and more efficient funding could make forms of insurance leverage viable for a wider client base.
“Premium finance has traditionally served the very wealthy,” De Marco says. “Over time, leverage will move towards the mass-affluent market in a more digital and mainstream form.”
Complex arrangements will continue to require detailed structuring and professional judgement. More conventional cases, however, may increasingly be assessed and delivered through technology-led platforms, encouraging greater participation by insurance companies.
De Marco also expects capital-markets funding to become more important. Traditional banks can struggle to scale premium finance because of concentration limits, regulatory capital requirements and the returns available from maintaining portfolios over long periods.
Life insurance remains one of the few major asset classes without a fully developed and readily accessible financing market. As awareness increases, particularly across Asia and the Middle East, De Marco expects that gap to narrow.
Getting Personal with Dean J. De Marco
De Marco was born on Long Island, New York, and spent most of his professional career in Manhattan. He studied at a business college on Long Island and later undertook graduate studies at New York University (NYU).
He worked for American International Group (AIG), where the defining achievement of his career came in the mid-1990s. While managing business units within AIG’s property and casualty (P&C) finance company, he developed a methodology for mainstream lending against life insurance policies in the US in 1995.
The approach was subsequently marketed through AIG to ten insurance companies, which paid to access the lending model. De Marco believes its basic structure remains visible across the industry today.
“The insurance products have changed, but the underlying lending methodology remains largely the same,” he says. “When I look back at my career, that is the achievement I am proudest of.”
Across more than three decades in structured lending, capital markets and life insurance finance, De Marco has originated and structured billions of dollars in premium finance transactions.
He has been married for 42 years. He and his wife have two adult daughters, aged 36 and 33, and three grandchildren.
Outside work, sport remains a central part of his life. De Marco played baseball at college and continues to train regularly. His interests include mountain biking, hiking, skiing and boxing.
“I am still something of a gym rat,” he says. “I train as a boxer, although I would not claim to compete at my age. Whether it is hiking, biking, skiing or another sport, I like to stay active.”
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Box
We are pleased to welcome Gracie Point as a partner at the upcoming HNW Insurance Summit – Singapore 2026. The event will provide a valuable opportunity for the firm to connect with senior industry practitioners and other complementary specialists across the high-net-worth insurance and wealth management ecosystem.
Find out more about the event HERE.