RE:LCS unit nav in realtime= approx: $16.18 after distYeah - This all quite strange and if anything it demonstrates a lack of understanding by many on the nature of risk associated with banks compared to life insurance companies.
In simple terms, if a bank lends money to a client and that client defaults on their loan and can't pay it back, the bank is out that money. Plain and simple. So if the economy goes into a recession and lots of clients default then the banks are out a lot of money.
So what happens in the case of a lifeco?
People buy a policy that will pay out a certain amount of money when they die and in return for that they pay a premium. Now, if they default on paying the premium, then the liability of the lifeco cancels the policy and their future payouts is reduced. So unlike banks, a default by a client is not money lost except for the amount of the premium but this offset by the cost of reduction in future payouts. A totally different situation in terms of risk.
So when you look at it from this perspective, life insurance companies should fair better. If you look today at the SP action of Lifecos compared to Banks you see that the banks are selling off at more than twice the rate of the Lifecos. This trading is dominated by institutions who understand what I just said above.
Splitshare companies are the domain of retail investors and it would appear from the trading that most have no understanding of this dynamic.
So what does this mean for savy investors?
There is a mispricing in the market that can be taken advantage of.