Brian Bailey Joins GWG Holdings as Chief Investment Officer; Craig Opp Named Company’s General Counsel

Minneapolis, Aug. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GWG Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GWGH), a financial services company transforming the life insurance industry through disruptive and innovative products and services, announced that Brian Bailey has joined the company as its Chief Investment Officer. Bailey joins GWGH after serving as Managing Director of Beal Bank's Longevity Group for the past nine years where he focused on providing capital solutions to institutional investors in the life insurance secondary market.

Bailey’s experience in the life insurance secondary market stretches back to 2003 and includes experience in all facets of the market from policy sourcing and acquisition to underwriting and management. During his time at Beal Bank, he deployed capital into the life insurance secondary market that generated projected earnings in excess of $750 million. He also served as Head of Securitized Real Estate at Beal Bank where he was primarily responsible for managing the firm’s recovery efforts related to investments made during and shortly after the credit crisis and was responsible for executing the bank’s interest rate hedging strategies.

Prior to joining Beal Bank, Bailey founded and led a start-up group at Wells Fargo Foothill focused on providing credit facilities to specialty commercial finance companies where he deployed in excess of $1.5 billion during the credit crisis with zero credit losses. Prior to Foothill, Bailey cofounded and ran the Structured Products Group at ORIX USA that focused on making below-investment-grade investments in the ABS, CDO, and CLO markets as well as other esoteric sectors. 

"Brian joins our company in a newly created executive position that will oversee our alternative asset investments," said Jon Sabes, GWGH Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "He brings a level of expertise and competency that we had been searching for as we look to continue to build our portfolio of alternative assets. In addition, I'm excited to have Brian working alongside myself and Chief Financial Officer Bill Acheson as we set the strategic direction of the company and work to accelerate our growth."

Bailey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the College of Charleston.

The company also announced that Craig Opp has joined the firm as its General Counsel. Opp has specialized in facilitating sophisticated financial transactions in a career that has spanned two decades. In that time, he has worked on multimillion dollar transactions, restructurings and acquisitions at Ditech, Incenter and Green Tree Investment Management.

"Craig has extensive experience in the legal aspects of financial services, an essential element of our business," Sabes said. "We are excited to have Craig join our team as a senior member of our management team."

Opp has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and a Juris Doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law.

About GWG Holdings, Inc.

GWG Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GWGH), the parent company of GWG Life and Life Epigenetics, is a financial services company transforming the life insurance industry through disruptive and innovative products and services. The Company has developed a new suite of options for the life insurance secondary market called LifeCare Xchange™ (LCX) that provides seniors with the exchange value of their life insurance that can be applied to long-term care and other post-retirement needs. Life Epigenetics seeks to transform the industry by applying proprietary epigenetic technology to improve on traditional life insurance underwriting practices. Since 2006, the Company has provided seniors over $525 million in value for their life insurance and owns a portfolio of $1.85 billion in face value of policy benefits as of June 30, 2018.

For more information about GWG Holdings, Inc. email or visit

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