Only if the policy can still be converted to permanent coverage. Term insurance that cannot be converted has essentially no value to a settlement buyer, because it is engineered to expire before the death benefit is ever paid. The conversion privilege is what a buyer is really acquiring: a contractual right to exchange the term contract for a permanent one at attained age, with no new medical underwriting. When the insured’s health has declined badly since issue, that right can be worth a great deal. When it has expired, the policy is worth what it is worth as insurance and nothing more.
With this carrier there is a step before that. Delaware Life’s individual life block is largely legacy business acquired in 2013, and the words on a policy may point to two or three different companies today. Establishing which entity holds your contract is what makes the rest of the process possible, because only the issuing carrier can tell you when the conversion window closes.
In This Article
- First establish which company your term policy actually belongs to
- Why the conversion right is the only thing a buyer is paying for
- Where the deadline hides, and the partial-conversion trap
- What a closed legacy block means for service, and what it does not
- Sequencing: sell the term policy, or convert it first?
- An honest read on who actually has a case
- Frequently Asked Questions
First establish which company your term policy actually belongs to
Three different situations get filed under the phrase Delaware Life term policy, and they lead to different phone numbers.
Individual term issued by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.S.). That legal entity was renamed Delaware Life Insurance Company after Delaware Life Holdings acquired Sun Life Financial’s U.S. operations in 2013. If your contract names that company, Delaware Life is the servicing carrier today. Delaware Life Holdings itself rebranded as Group 1001 in 2017, which is why correspondence sometimes arrives under an unfamiliar name.
A New York contract. Sun Life Insurance and Annuity Company of New York was part of the same 2013 transaction and became Delaware Life Insurance Company of New York. That New York subsidiary was subsequently acquired by Nassau Financial Group, a transaction completed in 2023. A New York policyholder and a Pennsylvania policyholder who both started with Sun Life may now be dealing with entirely different corporate parents.
Group term through an employer. This is the most common mix-up. Sun Life retained and still operates its U.S. group benefits business, which writes group life, disability, and dental coverage. Employer-provided group term is not a Delaware Life individual contract, and it follows a different path entirely: a conversion or portability election on leaving the plan, usually with a hard 31-day window. Read how group life conversion works if that describes your situation, because the deadlines are brutally short.
Delaware Life Insurance Company is domiciled in Delaware and regulated by the Delaware Department of Insurance under Title 18 of the Delaware Code. The most recent annual statement will carry the current servicing address, which is the fastest way to confirm all of this.
Why the conversion right is the only thing a buyer is paying for
Institutional buyers hold policies to maturity, meaning until the insured dies. Their model is straightforward: pay a purchase price now, pay premiums for an uncertain number of years, collect the death benefit. A term policy breaks that model because there is a date after which no death benefit can ever be collected. If the insured outlives the term, the buyer has paid twice and received nothing.
A convertible term policy is a different instrument. It carries an option to become permanent coverage that will pay whenever death occurs, and the option is exercisable without evidence of insurability. Health is irrelevant to the exchange. That asymmetry is the whole trade: an insured whose life expectancy is now materially shorter than it was at underwriting holds an option that is worth far more than the premiums remaining on it.
Two consequences that matter in real life. First, a serious diagnosis is not a reason to stop paying term premiums; it is a reason to check the conversion deadline that week, because a lapse can extinguish a substantial asset. Second, no broker can create value that the contract does not contain. If conversion has expired, shopping the case to more buyers will not produce an offer, and anyone who suggests otherwise is wasting your time. Our overview of the term conversion rider explains the mechanics.
Where the deadline hides, and the partial-conversion trap
Conversion privileges expire at the earlier of two triggers, and owners consistently misjudge both. The first is an attained age of the insured, frequently between 65 and 70 on older contracts. The second is a policy year count, often 10 or 15 on a longer level term product. On a 30-year policy sold to a 45-year-old, conversion may end at policy year 15 or at age 65, meaning it can be gone with half the level premium period still to run.
Look for a provision headed Conversion Privilege, Right to Convert, or Exchange Option in the policy body, then check the schedule page for a separate rider with its own expiry date. Legacy contracts from the 1990s and 2000s vary widely in this language, which is why a written confirmation from the carrier matters more here than on a recently issued policy.
Ask for four things in writing: the last date conversion may be exercised, the complete list of permanent plans currently offered for conversion on that specific contract, whether the full face amount may be converted or only a portion, and whether any conversion credit applies. That third question catches a trap. Some carriers restrict conversion after a certain point to a limited subset of products or to a reduced face amount, which changes the value calculation without technically ending the privilege. A conversion right limited to 25 percent of face is not the same asset as a full conversion right, and a buyer will price it accordingly.
| Policy type | Who services it | Key deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Individual term from Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada (U.S.) | Delaware Life Insurance Company | Conversion expiry stated in the contract |
| New York individual term, formerly Sun Life of New York | Delaware Life Insurance Company of New York, Nassau-owned since 2023 | Conversion expiry stated in the contract |
| Employer group term life | Sun Life U.S. group benefits, not Delaware Life | Usually 31 days from loss of coverage |
| Term already past its level period | Same carrier, annual renewable term rates | Conversion normally already expired |
| Converted permanent policy | Same carrier | No conversion deadline; review annually |
What a closed legacy block means for service, and what it does not
Owners of policies inside an acquired block worry that their contract terms can be changed. They cannot. A life insurance policy is a contract, and a change of ownership at the corporate level does not alter the guarantees, the conversion privilege, the premium schedule, or the death benefit. The obligations transferred with the entity.
What does change is operational. Closed blocks are administered for efficiency, sometimes by a third-party administrator rather than by the insurer’s own staff. Records from the 1990s may be imaged rather than indexed, response times can be slower, and the person answering the phone may not have institutional memory of a discontinued product. Plan for that. Put requests in writing, keep a log of dates and representative names, and ask for written confirmation of anything you intend to rely on. If a request stalls, the state insurance department where you live accepts consumer complaints about servicing delays and that usually moves things.
One genuine advantage of a legacy block deserves mention. Contracts written under older assumptions frequently contain terms no insurer would offer today, including generous conversion product lists and, on permanent contracts, guaranteed interest rates well above current levels. Before assuming an old policy should be replaced, price what you already own.
Sequencing: sell the term policy, or convert it first?
If the conversion window has at least six months of runway, selling the term contract as it stands is usually the cleaner route. The buyer takes ownership with the conversion right attached and exercises it after closing, which means the seller never funds a permanent premium at an advanced age. A typical settlement runs 60 to 120 days from application to funded escrow, so a window shorter than that will cause buyers to decline on timing alone rather than on merit.
Converting first can make sense when the conversion product list is unusually good or when the deadline forces the issue. The choice of plan matters enormously to price. A guaranteed universal life design with a long no-lapse guarantee has a low, predictable carrying cost, which is what buyers want. A cash accumulation product with a heavy target premium looks worse in the same file. If a sale is genuinely under consideration, get the available conversion plans priced before electing one. Converting into an expensive plan and then asking what it is worth is the sequence that costs people money.
Either way, do not surrender or lapse the term policy while a review is pending. Once coverage ends, there is nothing left to sell and no way to reinstate it without evidence of insurability the insured may no longer have.
An honest read on who actually has a case
The realistic profile is narrow. The insured is generally 68 or older, the death benefit is comfortably above $100,000, the conversion privilege has meaningful time left, and health has changed enough since underwriting that a life expectancy underwriter would score the case materially shorter than standard mortality. Impairments that move the needle are the serious ones: metastatic cancer, advanced cardiac or pulmonary disease, dementia with functional decline, end-stage renal disease. Well-managed hypertension and controlled diabetes generally do not. Our summary of health requirements for a life settlement is blunt about what qualifies.
It is not a case if conversion has lapsed, if the insured is healthy, or if the coverage is still doing work that nothing else would do. Selling needed protection to solve a temporary cash problem that a smaller solution would fix is a bad trade, and saying so is more useful than booking the file.
To get a real answer, send the policy cover page, the carrier’s written statement of the conversion expiry and available conversion plans, and a brief list of current diagnoses and treating physicians. If the insured also holds permanent coverage, that is often where the value actually is, and our Delaware Life universal life page is the better starting point. Pine Lake Life Solutions offers education and a free policy review. We do not purchase policies and are not licensed in every state; whether a settlement is permitted and how it must be handled is set by the law of your own state. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
My term policy says Sun Life. Is it still valid?
Yes, assuming premiums have been paid. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.S.) was renamed Delaware Life Insurance Company after the 2013 acquisition of Sun Life’s U.S. operations. The legal entity and all its contractual obligations carried over unchanged. Call Delaware Life’s policy service line with the policy number and the insured’s identifying details to confirm in-force status in writing.
Is my employer group life policy the same thing?
No. Sun Life retained its U.S. group benefits business, which is a separate operation from Delaware Life. Employer group term follows plan rules rather than individual contract rules, and the conversion or portability election after leaving a plan usually must be made within about 31 days. Check the certificate of coverage and the summary plan description for the exact window.
How long does the conversion privilege usually last?
It ends at the earlier of a stated attained age, frequently between 65 and 70, or a stated policy year, often 10 or 15 on a longer level term product. That means it commonly expires well before the level premium period does. Get the exact date in writing from the carrier rather than estimating from the level term length.
Can I convert only part of the face amount?
Sometimes, and on some contracts that is all the carrier will allow after a certain point. A partial conversion right is a materially smaller asset than a full one, and a settlement buyer prices it that way. Ask specifically whether the full face amount is convertible, and if not, what the maximum convertible amount is and which plans are eligible.
Does the acquisition mean my policy terms can be changed?
No. A life insurance policy is a contract and a corporate acquisition does not alter its guarantees, premium schedule, conversion privilege, or death benefit. Those obligations moved with the legal entity. What can change is administration, meaning who answers the phone and how quickly. Put requests in writing and keep confirmations of anything you plan to rely on.
Should I let the term policy lapse if I cannot afford it?
Not before checking the conversion status, especially if health has declined. A lapse permanently ends both the coverage and any market value in the conversion right, and reinstatement typically requires evidence of insurability the insured may no longer have. Get the conversion deadline first, then decide. That order costs nothing and occasionally preserves a six-figure asset.
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Related Reading
- Can I Sell A Term Life Insurance Policy
- What Is A Term Conversion Rider
- Sell Term Life Policy
- What Is Group Life Conversion
- Health Requirements For A Life Settlement
- Sell My Delaware Life Universal Life Policy
- What Affects A Life Settlement Offer
- What Is Guaranteed Universal Life
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.