Damien Ríos

Damien Ríos is a co-founder and the managing member of Volios Group, LLC, a life insurance and annuity agency that focuses on sophisticated insurance planning for high net worth individuals. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a graduate of Columbia Law School. After earning his JD, Damien began practicing law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP. As a member of the Trust & Estates department at Milbank, Damien advised some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States on estate planning and tax matters. He also advised several institutional clients and was extensively involved in the development of financial products. Damien was also a regular contributor to The Chase Review, is co-author of The Circular 230 Deskbook, co-author of The Advisors Guide to Circular 230, and a Practising Law Institute faculty member.

In April of 2002, Damien began working for an insurance consulting firm where he continued to advise ultra-high worth individuals in connection with their estate planning. He also began advising clients with respect to viatical settlements and insurance planning, and began advising law firms and accounting firms about advanced estate and insurance planning. Damien was soon promoted to Vice President and General Counsel of the consulting firm and started working with hedge funds and international investment banks interested in developing premium financing and other sophisticated premium funding programs for ultra-high net worth individuals. His work included regulatory and legal research, program structuring, processing and work-flow design and optimization, and risk management. To date, those programs have funded more than $6 billion of insurance products.

Damien is a member of the New York State Bar Associationand a member of the Million Dollar Round Table (Qualifying Member, Court of the Table and Top of the Table).

Publications and Speaking Engagements

Tax Related and Insurance Related Publications

Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Mitchell M. Gans & Damien Ríos, The Circular 230 Deskbook, 2006.

Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Mitchell M. Gans & Damien Ríos, The Advisors Guide to Circular 230, 2006.

Damien Ríos, An Introduction to Viatical and Life Settlements, Trust & Estates Magazine, Volume 31, No. 11, (November 2004).

Co-authored Comments on Proposed Split-Dollar Regulations for Real Property, Probate and Trusts Law Section of the American Bar Association.

Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Georgiana J. Slade & Damien Ríos, Split-Dollar Insurance and IRS Notice 2001-10, The Chase Journal, Professional Notes, Volume 5, Issue 1 2001.

Other Publications

Itiel Dror, F. Florer, Damien Ríos & Mark Zagaeski, Using Artificial Bat Sonar Neural Networks for Complex Pattern Recognition:  Recognizing Faces and the Speed of a Moving Target, Journal of Biological Cybernetics (1996).

Itiel Dror, Mark Zagaeski, Damien Ríos & Cynthia Moss, Sonar as a Perceptual Modality for Robotics, in Neural Systems and Robotics (P. Smagt ed. 1995).

Speaking Engagements

Innovative uses of Premium Financing, 2010 NAIFA Delaware Career Conference (May 4, 2010).

Life Settlements and Trusts, The Life Settlement Conference (September 17, 2007).

Critical Legal Issues in Life Insurance Premium Financing, Life Insurance Premium Finance Symposium, (November 9, 2005).

Exciting Wealth Planning Strategies with Life Insurance: What Your Client Expects You to Know, American Bar Association Real Property Probate &Trust Section 2005 Symposia (April 28, 2005).