Yes — a Banner Life (Legal & General America) survivorship policy can be sold in a life settlement when the owner and the contract qualify, and the insurance company’s permission is not required for the transfer. A life policy is property, and its owner may sell it. The carrier’s involvement is limited to recording a change of owner and beneficiary once the transaction has closed. What determines whether a sale is realistic is the arithmetic behind two life expectancies, the premium the policy will demand for the rest of its life, and whether any institutional buyer will price joint-life risk at that face amount.
Banner owners should start by confirming two things on the cover page: which company issued the contract, and whether it is genuinely a permanent second-to-die policy rather than term coverage. Banner has been one of the most aggressive term life pricers in the American market for years, and term is the product most households associate with the name. A term policy and a permanent survivorship policy face completely different questions in the secondary market.
This page is general education. Pine Lake Life Solutions is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for Banner Life Insurance Company, William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York, or Legal & General America, and nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice. For a free, no-obligation review, send the policy cover page or call (305) 209-7183.
In This Article
- Banner Life, William Penn, and Who Owns the Group Now
- Term Versus Permanent: Check This Before Anything Else
- Why Joint Mortality Suppresses the Offer
- The No-Lapse Guarantee Wrinkle
- When the Policy Stops Serving a Purpose
- After the First Death, and Who Signs
- Crummey Notices, Contestability, and Timing
- The Honest Comparison
- Frequently Asked Questions
Banner Life, William Penn, and Who Owns the Group Now
Legal & General America is the US life insurance arm historically owned by the British insurer Legal & General Group. It operates through two chartered companies: Banner Life Insurance Company, based in Maryland and licensed in most states, and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York, which writes the New York business. The split exists because New York’s insurance regulations and product filing requirements differ enough that many national carriers maintain a separate New York subsidiary.
Ownership of the group has changed. Legal & General agreed to sell its US protection business, and reporting on that transaction pointed to a Japanese acquirer taking control of Legal & General America. As of 2026, confirm the current corporate owner and the servicing contact directly with the company rather than relying on any description here or on older marketing material — corporate ownership does not affect your contract rights, but it does affect where forms and requests should go. See tracing a policy after an ownership change.
Practically, the entity question matters for signatures. A New York-issued William Penn contract follows New York rules and New York forms; a Banner contract does not. If you hold single-life Banner coverage as well, see selling a Banner Life universal life policy or a Banner Life guaranteed universal life policy, and for the New York company, selling a William Penn survivorship policy.
Term Versus Permanent: Check This Before Anything Else
Banner built its reputation on competitively priced level term insurance, and the great majority of its in-force certificates are term. Term policies have no cash value and expire at the end of the level period, which puts them in a different analytical bucket entirely.
A term policy can sometimes be settled, but almost always only if it carries a conversion privilege that is still exercisable — the buyer converts it to permanent coverage as part of the transaction. Conversion rights have deadlines, usually expressed as an age or a number of policy years, and once the window closes the policy is generally unsellable regardless of the insured’s health. If your contract is term, the conversion deadline is the most urgent fact in your file. See selling a term life policy, an approaching conversion deadline, and converting term before selling.
If the contract is genuinely a permanent survivorship policy — two named insureds, benefit payable at the second death, cash value or a no-lapse guarantee structure — the rest of this page applies.
Why Joint Mortality Suppresses the Offer
A survivorship policy pays one death benefit after the second insured dies. A buyer must estimate when that will be, fund premiums in the meantime, and discount the benefit back to present value.
The estimate requires life expectancy reports on both insureds and then a joint-mortality model, because the payout waits on whichever insured lives longer. That means the healthier or younger of the two effectively sets the price. Every additional projected year adds premium the buyer must pay and another year of discount applied to the benefit. Second-to-die offers therefore come in below what the same face amount would draw on a single life, and the pool of bidders is smaller because some providers do not underwrite joint-life risk at all.
Market-wide reference points still frame the outer limits: sellers have historically received roughly 10% to 35% of face value, and the GAO’s market study (GAO-10-775) found average settlement proceeds of about four to eight times cash surrender value. Survivorship cases cluster at the low end of those ranges, and a meaningful share draw no offer. See how buyers price a policy.
The No-Lapse Guarantee Wrinkle
Many modern survivorship policies are built on a guaranteed universal life chassis, where a secondary no-lapse guarantee keeps the death benefit in force as long as a specified premium is paid exactly on schedule. These contracts carry little or no cash value by design — the guarantee is the product, not the account value.
That has two consequences. First, surrender is nearly worthless as an alternative, which paradoxically makes a settlement more attractive if one is available at all, since the floor an offer must beat is close to zero. Second, the guarantee is fragile: paying late or paying less than the required amount can permanently damage or void it, and some contracts do not allow you to catch up. Before doing anything, get a current in-force illustration showing exactly what premium sustains the guarantee to which age. See what a no-lapse guarantee is and the risks in a no-lapse guarantee.
| Contract Type | Cash Value | Settlement Prospects | Key Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level term (Banner or William Penn) | None | Only with a live conversion right | When does the conversion window close? |
| Guaranteed universal survivorship | Little or none | Possible; surrender floor is near zero | What premium sustains the guarantee? |
| Cash-accumulation survivorship | Meaningful | Possible; offer must beat surrender value | What is the current net cash surrender value? |
| Survivorship after first death | Varies | Best case; prices as single life | Has a post-death illustration been run? |
When the Policy Stops Serving a Purpose
- Estate-tax exposure disappeared. The main historical use of second-to-die coverage. Federal exemption levels have risen substantially, and many estates are no longer taxable. Confirm current figures with a tax professional.
- The ILIT has nothing left to protect. A trust created only to hold the policy outside a taxable estate is now pure administrative cost.
- One insured has died. The contract survives; the valuation changes completely.
- A business arrangement ended. Buy-sell and succession funding lapses in purpose when the underlying agreement is unwound. See buy-sell funding after a buyout.
- The premium became a strain. Fixed retirement income rarely keeps pace with a guarantee premium set decades ago.
After the First Death, and Who Signs
Once one insured dies, the contract prices like a single-life policy on the survivor. The joint-mortality drag disappears and value often improves materially. Notify the carrier as the contract requires, then request a fresh in-force illustration built on one remaining insured — on a guaranteed universal chassis, the premium required to maintain the guarantee can change at that point, and using a stale illustration means negotiating against the wrong number. See survivorship policies after the first death.
On signatures: if an irrevocable life insurance trust owns the policy, the trustee sells it, not the insureds. Buyers will require the complete trust instrument with amendments, evidence of who currently serves as trustee including successor appointments, and confirmation the trust authorizes disposing of trust property. Some trusts require beneficiary consent or notice. See selling an ILIT-owned policy and consent requirements in an irrevocable trust.
Crummey Notices, Contestability, and Timing
ILITs funded by annual exclusion gifts depend on Crummey withdrawal notices sent to beneficiaries with each contribution. After decades of informal administration those notices are frequently missing. They rarely stop a transaction but they slow diligence and raise gift-tax questions for your own attorney, not a buyer’s representative, to answer. See missing Crummey notices.
Every life policy also carries a two-year contestability period from issue, during which the insurer may investigate and rescind for material misstatement in the application. Buyers avoid contracts inside that window; the clock runs from issue for both insureds and does not restart on a death. Plan on roughly 60 to 120 days from application to funded payment, with two sets of medical records the usual bottleneck, and insist that funds be held by an independent escrow agent until the ownership change is recorded. See the contestability period and how escrow works.
The Honest Comparison
Keep the policy when the death benefit still funds a real obligation and the premium is sustainable. On a no-lapse guarantee contract that is often the strongest answer, because the guaranteed benefit is genuinely valuable and cannot be replaced at older ages.
Lower the face amount if the premium is the only problem — many contracts allow a reduction that cuts the required payment while preserving meaningful coverage. See settlement versus lowering the death benefit. Surrender if the contract has cash value and no buyer interest, remembering that a guaranteed universal policy may have almost none. Sell only when a written offer meaningfully exceeds what surrender would pay and the coverage is genuinely unneeded.
Letting a no-lapse guarantee policy simply lapse is almost always the worst outcome, since the entire value of the contract disappears with it. Get a review before you stop paying. Send the policy cover page for a free, no-obligation assessment, or call (305) 209-7183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Banner Life’s permission to sell?
No. A life insurance policy is transferable property and can be sold by its owner without insurer consent. The company records the change of owner and beneficiary after closing. Pine Lake is not affiliated with Banner Life, William Penn, or Legal & General America.
Who owns Legal & General America now?
Legal & General agreed to sell its US protection business, and control of Legal & General America has since changed hands. Corporate ownership does not affect your contract rights, but it can affect servicing contacts. As of 2026, confirm the current owner and service center directly with the company.
My Banner policy is term. Can it be sold?
Sometimes, but generally only if a conversion privilege is still exercisable, because a buyer would convert it to permanent coverage as part of the transaction. Conversion rights expire at a stated age or policy year. If your policy is term, find the conversion deadline immediately, since it usually governs everything else.
Why do survivorship policies get lower offers?
Because nothing is paid until both insureds have died. Buyers underwrite two life expectancies and model joint mortality, and the payout follows whichever insured lives longer. That extends the expected holding period and the premium a buyer must fund, lowering present value and reducing the number of bidders.
Our policy is a guaranteed universal life with no cash value. Is it worthless?
Not necessarily. A no-lapse guarantee contract may have almost no surrender value, which means any settlement offer has a very low floor to beat. The trade-off is that the guaranteed death benefit is genuinely valuable and hard to replace at older ages, so keeping it is often the better answer.
What happens to value after the first insured dies?
It usually improves. The contract then prices like a single-life policy on the survivor, removing the joint-mortality drag. Notify the carrier and request a new in-force illustration reflecting one remaining insured, because the premium needed to maintain a guarantee can change at that point.
Is a New York William Penn policy handled differently?
Yes, in process terms. William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York is a separate chartered insurer with its own forms, and New York insurance rules differ from other states’. Check which company issued your contract on the cover page and follow that company’s requirements.
What should I send first?
The policy cover page. It identifies the issuing company, policy number, face amount, issue date, owner, and both insureds, which is enough for a free, no-obligation review. Do not stop paying premiums while you wait, especially on a no-lapse guarantee contract. Call (305) 209-7183 with questions.
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Related Reading
- Can I Sell A Survivorship Life Policy
- Sell My William Penn Survivorship Policy
- Sell My Banner Life Guaranteed Universal Policy
- Sell My Banner Life Universal Life Policy
- Sell Term Life Policy
- Term Conversion Deadline Approaching
- What Is A No Lapse Guarantee
- Survivorship Policy First Death
- Sell Ilit Trust Owned Policy
- Crummey Notices Missing
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.