VALENCIA, Calif., July 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To combat the lack of consumer awareness regarding a strategy that could potentially generate crucial funds for seniors in retirement, two experts have joined forces to write and publish the definitive consumer guide to life settlements.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c034d7c3-7e7a-4f3c-83a6-455de7f12895.

The Hidden Value in Your Life Insurance: Funds for Your Retirement, co-authored by Darwin M. Bayston, CFA, and Daryn N. Teague, is a simple book that educates American seniors about how to unlock the hidden value in their life insurance policies. More details regarding the book and ordering information is available at www.insurancehiddenvalue.com.

“One in three Americans have no retirement savings or pension and one in five seniors would rather ‘die early’ than not have enough money to live comfortably in retirement,” said Bayston, a veteran financial analyst who is president and chief executive officer of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA). “Fortunately, there is an asset many American seniors have at their fingertips that they can use to help fund their retirements. Most of them don’t even realize they may have this untapped asset right under their noses, sitting in a drawer.”

The new book from Bayston and Teague seeks to inform readers how their life insurance policies may have economic value to them while they’re alive, not just to their beneficiaries when they die.

“Our purpose for writing this book was to raise consumer awareness about a range of choices available to seniors who no longer need or can afford their life insurance policies,” said Teague, founder of Teague Communications, a public relations firm that works with providers of legal and financial services. “One of those options is to sell the policy through what is known as a life settlement, an option that can bring seven times more cash into the hands of seniors than simply lapsing or surrendering that policy back to the insurance company.”

Surveys have found that perhaps as many as 85 percent of American seniors are unaware they have the right to sell their life insurance policies. This lack of awareness is exacerbated by the fact that many life insurance companies actually prohibit the agent who sold the policy from disclosing the life settlement option to consumers.

“It’s simply not right that the same financial professionals whom consumers trusted to sell them a life insurance policy in the first place are not allowed by the insurance companies to even inform their clients they have the right to sell that policy,” said Bayston. “The time has come for the American financial services industry to educate seniors about the alternatives that are freely available to them if they have a life insurance policy they no longer want or can afford.”

The Hidden Value in Your Life Insurance is a consumer-friendly guide that teaches readers how to:

• Discover various options for what to do with their unneeded or unaffordable life insurance policies;
• Improve their quality of life in retirement by generating immediate cash;
• Eliminate what may have become an unnecessary and/or rising expense in annual life insurance premiums; and
• Reduce stress by gaining peace of mind about health care bills or other mounting retirement costs.

The book is available now on Amazon.com. The paperback version costs just $8.99 and the eBook version is $3.99. Special pricing discounts are available for bulk orders by visiting www.insurancehiddenvalue.com or by calling 888.615.0943.

The Hidden Value in Your Life Insurance was produced by Bayston-Teague Publishing, LLC, and published by Abbott Press.