No, and before you spend any time on that question you need to work out which company actually holds your policy, because the answer is probably not the one printed on it. Everlake Life Insurance Company is the renamed Allstate Life Insurance Company, which Blackstone acquired from Allstate in a roughly $2.8 billion transaction that closed on November 1, 2021. The New York company went somewhere else entirely, and Allstate’s worksite life business stayed put. Three different names on three different policies now lead to three different insurers.
On the underlying question: a burial or final expense policy is typically written for $5,000 to $25,000, which sits far below the smallest face amount any life settlement buyer will review. Per-case underwriting, life expectancy reporting, legal review, and escrow costs are fixed and run into the thousands of dollars, so buyer minimums start around $100,000 and frequently much higher. What is worth doing instead is finding the servicing carrier and reading the contract for options nobody has claimed.
In This Article
- Three names, three insurers: get the routing right first
- What a runoff block means, and what it does not
- Why burial-size coverage has no secondary market
- If the coverage came through work, different rules apply
- Simplified issue, graded benefits, and the replacement trap
- Pre-need contracts, contract elections, and what to do this week
- Frequently Asked Questions
Three names, three insurers: get the routing right first
Allstate exited most of its life insurance underwriting in 2021 through two separate transactions, and the split is not intuitive.
Allstate Life Insurance Company was sold to Blackstone and renamed Everlake Life Insurance Company, operating under Everlake US Holdings. It is domiciled in Illinois, which makes the Illinois Department of Insurance its primary solvency and market conduct regulator. If your policy names Allstate Life Insurance Company without a state qualifier, Everlake services it today.
Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York went to Wilton Re in a separate deal and was renamed Wilton Reassurance Life Company of New York. A New York policyholder and an Ohio policyholder who both bought from the same Allstate agent in the same year are now with entirely different companies.
American Heritage Life Insurance Company, which underwrites the Allstate Benefits worksite and voluntary products, remained with Allstate. This matters a great deal here, because worksite voluntary life is frequently issued at exactly the small face amounts people describe as burial insurance. If your coverage came through an employer’s benefits enrollment rather than from an agent, check this name first.
Read the face page, then call the company that actually appears on it. A request sent to the wrong carrier does not get forwarded; it comes back weeks later. If you cannot find the policy at all, our guide on confirming whether a policy still exists covers the free state and NAIC locator services.
What a runoff block means, and what it does not
Everlake does not write new individual life business. It administers an acquired block, which is what the industry calls runoff. Owners of policies inside a runoff block reasonably wonder whether their contract is now worth less. It is not.
A life insurance policy is a contract. A change in corporate ownership does not alter the death benefit, the premium schedule, the guaranteed cash value table, the nonforfeiture options, the dividend history on a participating contract, or any attached rider. Those obligations transferred with the legal entity. State guaranty association protection also continues to apply on the same terms it always did, subject to the limits set by the law of the policyholder’s state.
What does change is operational. Runoff blocks are administered for efficiency, sometimes through third-party administrators. Records from the 1980s and 1990s may be imaged rather than indexed. Response times can be slower and the representative answering the phone may have no institutional memory of a discontinued Allstate product. Plan around that: put requests in writing, keep a dated log of who you spoke to, and ask for written confirmation of anything you intend to rely on. If a legitimate request stalls, the insurance department in your own state accepts consumer complaints about servicing and that usually moves things along.
Why burial-size coverage has no secondary market
The economics are worth understanding once, because they explain every no on this topic. A settlement buyer purchases a future death benefit and takes on the obligation to pay premiums until it is collected. Pricing that requires a complete medical records retrieval, usually two independent life expectancy reports from firms such as ITM TwentyFirst or Fasano Associates, a verification of coverage from the insurer, counsel to review the assignment and beneficiary changes, and an escrow agent holding funds through the statutory rescission period.
Those costs are essentially flat with respect to policy size. They run into the thousands of dollars on a $10,000 contract and roughly the same on a $2 million contract. So buyers publish minimums: a practical floor around $100,000, many funds at $250,000, some at $500,000. A burial policy is an order of magnitude below the lowest of them, and no amount of shopping alters that. Our page on minimum policy size sets out what we actually see quoted.
The narrow exception is aggregation. An insured who owns several small policies across carriers can occasionally reach a combined death benefit that a buyer will look at as one packaged file. It is uncommon and buyer-dependent, but it is a reason to inventory everything before writing the category off.
| Name on your policy | Who services it now | How it got there |
|---|---|---|
| Allstate Life Insurance Company | Everlake Life Insurance Company | Sold to Blackstone, closed November 2021, renamed |
| Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York | Wilton Reassurance Life Company of New York | Sold separately to Wilton Re and renamed |
| American Heritage Life Insurance Company | Allstate Benefits | Retained by Allstate; worksite and voluntary products |
| Everlake Life Insurance Company | Everlake Life Insurance Company | Current name of the acquired Allstate Life block |
| A certificate, not a policy | Employer plan administrator | Group coverage; conversion or portability applies |
If the coverage came through work, different rules apply
Worksite voluntary life and employer group life follow plan rules rather than individual contract rules, and the options are entirely different from what this page otherwise describes.
Group life generally cannot be sold. The certificate holder does not own a transferable policy; they hold a certificate under a master contract owned by the employer. What exists instead are two elections that arrive on a short fuse when coverage ends through retirement, termination, or a reduction in hours.
Conversion lets the certificate holder exchange group coverage for an individual permanent policy without evidence of insurability. The window is typically 31 days from the date coverage ends, and it is unforgiving. Premiums on the converted policy are usually high, but for someone who is uninsurable it may be the only permanent coverage obtainable. See how group life conversion works.
Portability, where the plan offers it, lets the certificate holder continue group term coverage by paying premiums directly, usually at rates better than conversion but with its own deadline and its own limits.
A converted individual policy is a different asset, and once it exists the ordinary analysis applies. Our page on selling group life insurance covers the sequence. Read the certificate of coverage and the summary plan description for the exact windows, and do it before coverage ends rather than after.
Simplified issue, graded benefits, and the replacement trap
If the policy was underwritten with a short health questionnaire and no medical exam, it is simplified issue and very likely carries a graded, modified, or limited benefit period covering the first two or three policy years. During that window, death from natural causes pays a limited amount rather than the face: commonly premiums paid plus interest, often around ten percent annually, or a stepped percentage such as thirty percent in year one and seventy percent in year two. Accidental death is frequently paid in full from day one.
Find the issue date and the graded language on the schedule page and count forward. Past the graded period and past the two-year contestability window, the full face amount is payable and the contract is doing its job.
The real hazard at this size is replacement rather than sale. An agent offering a new policy at a lower premium is also offering a fresh graded period and a fresh contestability period, which for an insured in their eighties is a serious stretch of reduced coverage traded for a small monthly saving. Older Allstate-era contracts also frequently carry guaranteed cash value interest rates that no insurer would write today. Put the guaranteed values and graded terms of both contracts side by side on one page before agreeing to anything, and be skeptical of any pitch that leads with the monthly premium.
Pre-need contracts, contract elections, and what to do this week
First rule out a pre-need funeral contract. That is an agreement with a funeral establishment to provide named goods and services, usually funded by a small policy or annuity assigned to the funeral home, frequently irrevocably. The irrevocability is normally deliberate, because an irrevocable pre-need burial arrangement can be excluded from countable resources in a Medicaid eligibility determination. Unwinding one to raise cash can convert an excluded asset into a countable one. If a funeral home appears as assignee or beneficiary, speak with the attorney or planner who arranged it before touching anything.
Assuming it is ordinary life insurance, four items produce value. Nonforfeiture options: if cash value exists, you have a contractual right to elect reduced paid-up insurance or extended term insurance rather than surrendering, and reduced paid-up is usually correct when the problem is affordability rather than a need for cash. Riders: ask in writing whether an accelerated death benefit provision is attached and on what terms. Cash surrender value: a guaranteed number available today, though taking it ends coverage. Distance to paid-up: many older contracts stop requiring premiums at a stated age, and finishing is often cheapest.
Request three documents: a current in-force statement, a written list of nonforfeiture options with dollar amounts, and a list of attached riders. If the insured also owns permanent coverage above roughly $100,000, that is where a review is genuinely worth running, and our Everlake whole life page is the better starting point.
Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review. We do not purchase policies and are not licensed in every state. Whether a settlement is permitted where you live is governed by your own state’s insurance law rather than Illinois’s, even though Illinois supervises Everlake. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice. Send the policy cover page to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
My policy says Allstate. Why am I getting mail from Everlake?
Because Allstate Life Insurance Company was sold to Blackstone in a transaction that closed on November 1, 2021 and was renamed Everlake Life Insurance Company. The legal entity and all of its contractual obligations carried over unchanged. Your death benefit, premium schedule, guaranteed values, and riders are exactly what they were before the sale.
Is my New York Allstate policy also with Everlake?
No. Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York was sold separately to Wilton Re and renamed Wilton Reassurance Life Company of New York. Two policies bought from the same agent in the same year can now sit with two different insurers depending on the issuing entity. Read the exact company name, including any state qualifier, on the face page.
Does a policy in runoff still get paid?
Yes. A runoff block means the company is no longer writing new business, not that it has stopped honoring existing contracts. The obligations transferred with the legal entity and remain enforceable on their original terms, and state guaranty association protection continues to apply subject to the limits set by your own state’s law. Expect administrative changes, not contractual ones.
Can I sell life insurance I got through my employer?
Generally no, because you hold a certificate under a master contract owned by the employer rather than a transferable individual policy. What you do have is a conversion right, usually exercisable within about 31 days of coverage ending and without evidence of insurability, and sometimes a portability option. A converted individual policy can then be evaluated normally.
Why can nobody buy a $15,000 policy?
Because the cost of acquiring it is nearly identical to acquiring a million-dollar policy. Medical records retrieval, two independent life expectancy reports, verification of coverage, legal review, and escrow are fixed per case and run into the thousands. Buyer minimums therefore start around $100,000, with many funds at $250,000 or more, well above burial-size coverage.
Should I replace an old Allstate-era policy with a new one?
Be very cautious. A new simplified-issue contract normally restarts a two or three year graded death benefit period and a fresh two-year contestability period, leaving the insured with reduced coverage during that window. Older contracts also frequently carry guaranteed cash value interest rates unavailable today. Compare guaranteed values and graded terms directly rather than comparing monthly premiums.
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Related Reading
- Can I Sell A Final Expense Policy
- Minimum Policy Size For A Life Settlement
- Can I Sell A Group Life Insurance Policy
- What Is Group Life Conversion
- What Is Reduced Paid Up Insurance
- What Is An Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
- How To Find Out If A Policy Still Exists
- Sell My Everlake Life Whole Life 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.