Reliant Life Shares, LLC is in the post-effective-date phase of a confirmed Chapter 11 liquidation, with a Second Amended Plan of Liquidation effective January 13, 2026, that winds down a Sherman Oaks-based life-settlement investment platform undone by regulatory enforcement, insider-fraud litigation, and a series-trust structure a court-appointed receiver found unsustainable.
The Debtor acquired life insurance policies on the secondary market and sold fractional beneficial interests to retail investors through a series statutory trust, with each series tied to a single policy. Pressure built across several fronts: a December 2022 California DFPI desist-and-refrain order, followed by a 2023 receivership and DFPI settlement; a $15.39 million judgment in favor of former member Daniel Cooper, affirmed by the California Court of Appeal in April 2023; and an August 2023 class action alleging a Ponzi-like structure and misleading investor statements. After forming a pooled receivership trust in mid-2024 to consolidate the portfolio, the Debtor filed its Chapter 11 petitionDkt. 1 on October 7, 2024. The December 2024 schedules show a single scheduled unsecured Paycheck Protection Program note of roughly $395,500, set against a claims pool that ultimately comprised two secured claims of about $15.4 million and twenty unsecured claims of about $15.8 million SchedulesDkt. 116; the estate's value centers on a pooled portfolio of 23 policies carrying roughly $53.8 million in death benefits across approximately 442 investor-clients.
Litigation, rather than ongoing operations, drove the case toward confirmation. The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors sued Daniel and Richard Cooper to subordinate the Cooper judgment under §§ 510(b) and 510(c) and to avoid a $500,000 prepetition transfer , then broadened its recovery with a June 2025 complaint against insiders Scott Grady and Sean Michaels, affiliated entities, and numerous sales agents for breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent transfer, conversion, elder abuse, and unfair competition . The Debtor separately sued its institutional custodians — Bank of Utah, UMB Bank, First Western Trust, and Wilmington Savings Fund Society — for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding-and-abetting fraud , with several related disputes reaching the estate through removal of state-court actions.
With the liquidating plan now effective, the case has shifted to plan administration — prosecuting the avoidance and fiduciary-duty actions, liquidating the designated policy portfolio, and distributing proceeds to investor-claimants.
