A term life policy is a rental, not a purchase. It pays if the insured dies inside the level period and pays nothing otherwise, and it accumulates no cash value along the way. That single fact governs everything about whether a term policy can be monetized: with almost no exceptions, the secondary market cannot buy a plain term contract that has no route to permanent coverage. The route, when it exists, is the conversion privilege written into the policy.
If you own an Ameritas term policy and the level period is running out, the clock you actually need to watch is not the expiry date. It is the conversion deadline, which usually arrives years earlier and passes without any notice from anyone. This page is education only and explains where to find that date and what it controls.
In This Article
- No Cash Value Means the Exit Runs Through Conversion
- Ameritas Conversion Rules and the Conversion Extension Rider
- Why an Expiring Conversion Window Is Time-Critical
- Reading Your Ameritas Term Schedule Page
- Which Ameritas Company Issued Your Term Policy
- After Conversion: The Paperwork Chain
- What Pine Lake Can and Cannot Help With
- Frequently Asked Questions
No Cash Value Means the Exit Runs Through Conversion
Term insurance has no surrender value, no loan value and no nonforfeiture options. When you stop paying, coverage ends and nothing is returned. There is no third door in the contract itself. What many term policies do carry is a conversion privilege, which is a contractual right to exchange the term contract for a permanent policy issued by the same company, without new medical underwriting and at the underwriting class already on the schedule page.
That right is the whole ballgame for two separate reasons. If your health has declined since issue, converting without new evidence of insurability may be the only way you can hold permanent coverage at any price. And because the resulting permanent policy is a lasting contract with a death benefit that does not expire, it is the kind of policy the secondary market can evaluate. Convert or lose the option; there is no partial credit.
Ameritas Conversion Rules and the Conversion Extension Rider
Ameritas’s published term product materials describe a base conversion privilege allowing conversion to any single-life Ameritas individual permanent life insurance product available at the time of conversion, in the same underwriting class shown on the schedule page, with a standard conversion window in the early policy years. Ameritas has also offered a Conversion Extension Rider, available at additional cost, that extends the conversion period to the end of the level term period or the policy anniversary nearest the insured’s seventieth birthday, whichever comes first.
Read that last clause carefully, because it is the trap. Two deadlines are running at once and the earlier one wins. A sixty-eight-year-old holding a twenty-year level term with eight years remaining does not have eight years to decide; under a whichever-comes-first rule the age test can close the window in two. Product terms and rider availability differ by issue year, state and policy form, so your own schedule page and rider pages control, not a general description. Ask Ameritas to confirm your specific conversion expiry date in writing.
Why an Expiring Conversion Window Is Time-Critical
Conversion deadlines are unusual among insurance deadlines in that nothing announces them. The premium notice looks identical the month before and the month after. There is no lapse warning, because the policy has not lapsed; only the option has quietly gone away. The sequence that follows a missed deadline is unforgiving.
- The conversion right ends and cannot be reinstated by paying anything.
- The term policy continues to its expiry date, then ends with no value.
- New permanent coverage, if wanted, requires full medical underwriting at current age.
- Any secondary-market option that depended on a permanent contract disappears with it.
If you are anywhere near the window, the order of operations is: confirm the deadline, then evaluate, then act. Evaluating first and confirming later is how people find out the date passed three months ago.
| What to confirm with Ameritas | Why it decides the outcome |
|---|---|
| Exact conversion expiry date on your policy | The binding deadline; often earlier than the term expiry |
| Whether a Conversion Extension Rider is attached | Extends the window, subject to a whichever-comes-first age limit |
| Underwriting class on the schedule page | The class the converted policy is issued at, without new exams |
| Permanent products currently available for conversion | You convert into what the carrier offers on the conversion date |
| Any accelerated benefit or living benefits rider | May pay part of the death benefit during life without a sale |
Reading Your Ameritas Term Schedule Page
Almost everything you need sits on two or three pages of the contract. The schedule page names the issuing company, the face amount, the level premium period, the expiry date and the underwriting class. The rider pages list whatever was attached at issue, including any conversion extension, waiver of premium, or accelerated benefit rider. A living-benefits or chronic-illness accelerated benefit rider is worth finding before any other decision, because in some circumstances it pays part of the death benefit during life without any sale at all.
If you cannot locate the contract, Ameritas can provide policy details to the recorded owner. The company lists a policy owner service line of 800-745-1112 outside New York and 877-280-6110 for New York, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central. Verify the current number on the carrier’s own contact page.
Which Ameritas Company Issued Your Term Policy
Older term policies frequently carry a company name that no longer appears on any website, which sends owners in the wrong direction at exactly the moment a deadline is running. Ameritas assembled its current structure over a long sequence: conversion to a mutual insurance holding company structure under Nebraska law effective January 1, 1998; the 1999 merger with Acacia Mutual Holding Corporation; the January 1, 2006 merger with Union Central Mutual Holding Company forming UNIFI Mutual Holding Company; and the renaming of UNIFI to Ameritas Mutual Holding Company effective May 2, 2012.
Most decisively, effective July 1, 2014, Acacia Life Insurance Company and The Union Central Life Insurance Company were merged into Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., which survived and assumed all outstanding liabilities of both, as approved by Nebraska. A term policy on Acacia or Union Central paper is an Ameritas obligation, and its conversion privilege is honored by Ameritas. Ameritas remains an active writer of new individual life insurance in 2026, and publishes an A.M. Best rating of A (Excellent) dated June 25, 2026 on its own financial strength page.
After Conversion: The Paperwork Chain
Conversion produces a new permanent policy. Only then does an ownership change become relevant, and Ameritas requires a signed form for that step, the Policyowner’s Change and Service Request form, obtained through Ameritas Accounts under the Forms tab and returned by upload. Nothing is effective until the carrier records it and confirms in writing. Treat the sequence as fixed: confirm the deadline, convert if converting makes sense, then and only then consider what to do with the permanent contract.
What Pine Lake Can and Cannot Help With
Pine Lake Life Solutions offers a free, no-obligation policy review that reads the schedule page and rider pages and tells you what deadline you are actually facing. Pine Lake does not purchase policies, cannot extend a conversion deadline, and cannot promise that a converted policy will attract any offer. Term policies with no conversion privilege remaining generally have no secondary-market value at all, and an honest review says that plainly.
Pine Lake Life Solutions is an independent education and referral resource. Pine Lake is not affiliated with, endorsed by, appointed by or connected to Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. or any Ameritas company, and Pine Lake does not purchase policies. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice, and no eligibility or dollar value is promised. The only thing offered is a free, no-obligation policy review at (305) 209-7183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a term life policy be sold if it has no cash value?
Generally not in its term form. The secondary market values permanent coverage that does not expire, so a term policy usually has to be converted to a permanent policy first using the conversion privilege. If the conversion window has closed, there is normally nothing to sell.
How long does Ameritas allow term conversion?
Ameritas product materials describe a base conversion window in the early policy years, with an optional Conversion Extension Rider that extends conversion to the end of the level term period or the policy anniversary nearest the insured’s seventieth birthday, whichever comes first. Terms vary by policy form, issue year and state, so confirm your own date in writing with Ameritas.
Does converting require a new medical exam?
A conversion privilege is designed to allow the exchange without new evidence of insurability, at the underwriting class already shown on the schedule page. That is why the privilege is most valuable to owners whose health has declined since the policy was issued.
My term policy was issued by Union Central. Who do I call?
Ameritas. Effective July 1, 2014, The Union Central Life Insurance Company and Acacia Life Insurance Company were merged into Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., which assumed all outstanding liabilities as approved by Nebraska. Ameritas services those contracts today.
Will Pine Lake buy my converted policy?
No. Pine Lake does not purchase policies and is not affiliated with Ameritas. The only service offered is a free, no-obligation policy review, which is education rather than an offer, at (305) 209-7183.
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Related Reading
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- Sell My Ameritas Universal Life Policy
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- How Do Life Settlements Work
- Life Insurance After 65
- How Health Affects Life Settlement Value
- Sell My Banner Life Term Policy
Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase life insurance policies and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Information provided is for educational purposes only. Eligibility for any option, including life settlements, is not guaranteed and depends on individual circumstances, policy terms, underwriting, and market conditions. Consult independent legal, tax, or financial professionals before making decisions regarding a life insurance policy.