 The Wild Wild World of Wealth |
Acrimoney has given further thought to Madoff’s request for leniency. Ira Sorkin, Madoff’s defense attorney, argued for a twelve-year prison sentence. He referenced Madoff’s life expectancy of thirteen years as justification.
Madoff is seventy-one. If he lives thirteen more years, he’ll reach eighty-four, the average life expectancy for men living in the USA. Sorkin is arguing, in effect, that twelve years equals a life sentence.
Not so fast.
From our work in wealth management, we know insurance companies adjust mortality expectations. As men age, insurers expect them to live beyond eighty-four years.
Huh?
A man who reaches the age of sixty, for example, has a reasonable shot at living to the age of eighty-nine. If that same man reaches seventy, his life expectancy increases to ninety-one years according to some mortality tables.
So are twelve years a life sentence for Madoff?
Nobody knows. Acrimoney urges the courts to eliminate the guesswork.
Why not sentence Madoff to sixty-five billion years in jail?
© 2010 ACRIMONEY. All rights reserved.
Jimmy Cusack is the tough kid from a blue-collar neighborhood who made good on Wall Street. Well, almost. After a sterling start to his career, things have soured. His hedge fund has collapsed. The bank is foreclosing on his condominium. And his wife is three months pregnant. That’s the good news.
From Publisher's Weekly -
