Can You Sell a Genworth Term Life Policy? (2026)

Two deadlines, and the earlier one governs

Before writing to anyone, read the policy and establish your own deadline. Conversion privileges are cut off by whichever limit arrives first:

• An attained-age cutoff, commonly 65 or 70. If you bought a 30-year term at 45, the level premium runs to 75 but the conversion right may have ended at 65 — ten years earlier.
• A policy-year cutoff, such as the first 10 or 15 years, regardless of the level period.
• A fixed number of years before the level period ends.
• The end of the level period itself, the most generous version and the least common.

Nothing announces the closing. The premium notice is identical the month before and the month after. Measure from the policy anniversary rather than a birthday, because carriers compute these dates from the anniversary and the difference can be nearly a year. Read every endorsement in the file too; an endorsement issued after the policy controls over the base form, and endorsements are the pages most often missing from a photocopy.

The second deadline is commercial rather than contractual: how long the servicing operation takes to answer. On a runoff block, three to four weeks is a realistic expectation for a records request and an illustration. If your contractual deadline is six weeks away, you are already behind. Start now.

Our explainer on term conversion riders covers the standard anatomy of these clauses, including the partial-conversion right that most people never use.

The letter to send, word for word

One letter, sent by a method that produces a delivery record, containing every request. Include the policy number, the insured’s full legal name and date of birth, the issue date, and the name of the issuing company as it appears on the policy cover.

Request all seven of these:

1. A complete certified copy of the policy including every rider and endorsement.
2. Written confirmation of the last date on which this policy may be converted.
3. The specific name of each permanent product this policy is convertible to today.
4. Conversion premium quotes at 100%, 50%, and 25% of the current face amount.
5. Written confirmation of whether partial conversion is permitted and any minimum face amount for the converted policy.
6. Confirmation of whether a converted policy would carry a new contestability period on the converted amount.
7. A verification of coverage stating the current face amount, premium, premium mode, ownership, beneficiary, and in-force status.

Item three is the one to be stubborn about. A response saying conversion is “available subject to products then offered” is not an answer. Ask again for the product name and the quote. If the answer is that no permanent product is currently designated for conversion, that too is an answer, and you want it in writing because it materially affects the value of your coverage.

Item seven, the verification of coverage, is a document any buyer would eventually require and it takes no extra effort to request now.

If nothing substantive arrives in 30 days, file a complaint with the insurance department of the state where you live and where the policy was delivered. A regulatory inquiry produces a response measurably faster than a second letter.

If a conversion product exists: what it costs and how to size it

Conversion issues permanent coverage at your original underwriting class — the class you qualified for when the term was written — with no new medical questions, no exam, and no fresh contestability on the converted face amount. For an insured whose health has deteriorated since issue, that is the most valuable right in the contract, because a new application would be rated or declined.

The cost is that the premium is calculated at your attained age. Converting substantial coverage in your late sixties produces a permanent premium that is a large multiple of the term premium. Which is why partial conversion is the lever that matters.

Size it deliberately:

• Institutional buyers will not open a file below roughly $100,000 of death benefit, and genuine competitive bidding requires more. Converting less than that produces a permanent premium obligation with no secondary market access.
• Converting the full face amount when you only need to clear the threshold produces an unnecessarily large premium.
• Converting an amount you cannot sustain, on the assumption that a sale will follow, is the single most damaging mistake in this whole process.

The correct sequence, and reversing it is how people get hurt: confirm the deadline; confirm the conversion product and premium; establish whether a converted policy of that size, on this insured’s documented health, would realistically attract offers; convert only then. Never convert speculatively. Our comparison at life settlement versus term conversion walks through both branches of the decision.

Answer you receive from Genworth	What it means	Next step
A named permanent product and a premium quote	The conversion right is live and usable	Assess the market before converting
Conversion available subject to products then offered	Not an answer	Write again demanding a product name
No permanent product currently designated	Materially affects your coverage value	Get it in writing; reassess the coverage
Conversion deadline already passed	No resale value absent a serious diagnosis	Decide on the coverage on its own merits
Partial conversion permitted, minimum stated	You can size the converted policy	Convert enough to clear $100,000
No response within 30 days	Servicing delay on a runoff block	File with your state insurance department

Who actually receives an offer

Assume the conversion window is open and a product exists. Whether the resulting policy draws a bid comes down to three inputs a buyer models: net death benefit, projected premium to carry the contract to the claim, and a medically underwritten life expectancy produced by an independent firm reading the insured’s records.

The result runs opposite to intuition. Good health lowers the offer, and usually eliminates it. A long projected life expectancy means the buyer funds more years of premium and waits longer for the claim, which reduces present value. A healthy 70-year-old with $500,000 of converted coverage will typically receive nothing back. An insured of the same age with documented advanced cardiac disease, a recent significant hospitalization, or a progressive neurological diagnosis may draw several competing bids on identical coverage.

Two consequences worth internalizing. First, do not curate the medical history. The valuation depends on the records being complete, the process runs on a signed authorization allowing underwriters to obtain records directly from treating physicians, and omissions surface and damage credibility. Second, if you are in good health, a competent adviser will tell you in the first conversation that there is no market rather than after a month of paperwork. Our page on life expectancy underwriting describes what the reports actually weigh.

Put the filters together: an open conversion window, an available conversion product, enough converted face amount, and materially impaired documented health. Missing any one of the four usually means no transaction.

Tracing an old policy: the names that became Genworth

A great many Genworth-serviced term policies do not say Genworth on the cover, which is why families searching for a parent’s coverage often conclude none exists.

The lineage: Genworth Financial was created out of General Electric’s insurance operations and taken public in a 2004 initial public offering, with GE disposing of its remaining ownership interest by March 2006. The life business was assembled from predecessors including First Colony Life Insurance Company, founded in 1955 and based in Lynchburg, Virginia, which GE Financial Assurance acquired in 1996; Federal Home Life Insurance Company, a Virginia life insurer in the same group; and American Mayflower Life Insurance Company, which had come under First Colony’s control in the 1970s. Effective January 1, 2007, Federal Home Life and First Colony merged into Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company in Richmond, Virginia, and American Mayflower Life merged into Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York. Term products marketed under the Colony Term name trace to this side of the family.

So if a policy cover reads First Colony Life, Federal Home Life, American Mayflower, GE Capital Life, or GE Financial Assurance, it is a Genworth-serviced contract today and the request goes to Genworth. Include the original company name in your letter; legacy blocks are frequently administered separately and the file is easier to locate when the request names the right one.

If you are searching without a policy in hand, our guide on how to find out if a policy still exists covers the practical search routes, including state unclaimed property databases and the industry policy locator services.

Which entity, which regulator, and which state’s law

Three separate questions, frequently conflated.

Which entity issued the policy is printed on the cover page. The three that matter here are Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company, domiciled in Virginia; Genworth Life Insurance Company, domiciled in Delaware; and Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York.

Which regulator supervises that entity follows from domicile. Virginia business is supervised by the Bureau of Insurance of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Delaware business is supervised by the Delaware Department of Insurance. New York business is supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Those are the venues for company-level solvency and market conduct concerns.

Which state’s law governs your policy provisions is a different question entirely, and the answer is the state where the policy was delivered to you. A term policy delivered to an Ohio resident in 1997 carries Ohio’s mandated provisions on grace period, reinstatement, incontestability, and misstatement of age, regardless of where the insurer sits. That is also the department to file a service complaint with, and it is usually the faster route for an unanswered records request.

One more point worth stating plainly: Genworth’s decision to stop selling life insurance in 2016 does not affect your contract. Guaranteed premiums, conversion rights, and every other term are fixed by the policy form and by the delivering state’s law. A company ceasing new sales cannot shorten your conversion window or raise a guaranteed premium. What it changes is service speed and, potentially, the menu of products available at conversion — which is exactly why the letter in the second section asks for a product name.

Decision sequence

In order, and do not skip ahead.

1. Establish the conversion deadline from the policy. If it has passed and the insured is in reasonable health, the honest conclusion is that the policy has no resale value. Decide whether the coverage still earns its premium and stop there.
2. Send the seven-item letter. One request, delivery record, product names demanded explicitly.
3. If a conversion product exists, get quotes at three face amounts. Full, half, and the smallest amount that clears $100,000.
4. Assess the market before converting. Documented health drives everything; healthy insureds should expect no offers.
5. Convert only after step four.
6. If the insured has a terminal or severely limiting diagnosis, ask separately about the viatical path, which is a distinct market with different licensing and different tax treatment and does not always require conversion, and about any accelerated death benefit rider already attached.

If the level period is ending and the premium is about to jump to an annually renewable rate, request the renewal schedule for the next ten years in writing, not just next year’s figure. The trajectory, not the first increase, is what should drive the decision.

Send us the policy cover page and any correspondence from Genworth if you want a second reader. The review is free, we do not purchase policies, we are not licensed in every state, and on term files the conclusion is frequently that nothing should be sold — which is still worth knowing before a deadline passes. Call (305) 209-7183. For the cross-carrier version of this analysis see selling a term life policy and can I sell a term life insurance policy. If conversion points toward a guaranteed universal life contract, the Genworth guaranteed universal life page and the Genworth universal life page explain what you would be taking on.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Genworth stopped selling life insurance. Can I still convert my term policy?

Ask in writing and insist on specifics. Conversion provisions generally permit exchange for permanent products the insurer makes available at the time of conversion, and Genworth discontinued its individual life shelf effective March 7, 2016 while continuing to service existing blocks. Request the specific product name, a premium quote at several face amounts, and the last conversion date, rather than accepting a general assurance.

My policy says First Colony Life. Who do I contact?

Genworth. First Colony Life Insurance Company, founded in 1955 in Lynchburg, Virginia, was acquired by GE Financial Assurance in 1996 and merged into Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company effective January 1, 2007, along with Federal Home Life. American Mayflower Life merged into Genworth Life of New York. Include the original company name in your request so the correct legacy block is searched.

How much face amount do I need to convert for a sale to be possible?

Practically at least $100,000 of death benefit, and realistically more before competitive bidding occurs. Below that threshold the fixed costs of medical underwriting, life expectancy reporting, escrow, and legal review consume the economics and providers decline to open a file. Partial conversion lets you reach the threshold without committing to the premium on the full face amount.

Will converting create a new two-year contestability period?

Generally no on the converted face amount, because conversion is not new underwriting and the original policy’s contestability clock governs. But confirm it in writing for your specific form, since a rider added at the time of conversion may carry its own new contestable period. This matters because a policy inside a contestable period is effectively unsellable to institutional buyers.

Which state’s law governs my Genworth policy?

The law of the state where the policy was delivered to you, which supplies the mandated provisions on grace period, reinstatement, incontestability, and misstatement of age. That is separate from the insurer’s domicile, which determines the solvency regulator: Virginia for Genworth Life and Annuity, Delaware for Genworth Life Insurance Company, and New York for Genworth Life of New York.

Does Pine Lake buy Genworth term policies?

No. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We read the conversion clause, help you frame the request to Genworth, and tell you when the honest answer is that no market exists. On term files that is the answer more often than not. Send the policy cover page for a free review, or call (305) 209-7183.

Related Reading

• Sell Term Life Policy
• Can I Sell A Term Life Insurance Policy
• What Is A Term Conversion Rider
• Life Settlement Vs Term Conversion
• How To Find Out If A Policy Still Exists
• What Is Verification Of Coverage
• What Is Life Expectancy Underwriting
• Sell My Genworth Guaranteed Universal Policy
• Sell My Genworth Universal Life Policy

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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.