Before the size question, there is an identity question, and on this carrier name it decides everything. Two unrelated companies sit behind searches for “Great West life final expense,” and they are in different businesses in different states.
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was a Colorado-domiciled insurer headquartered in Greenwood Village, known for retirement plan services, bank-owned and corporate-owned life insurance, and individual annuities. Burial insurance was not its market. Its individual life and annuity business was acquired by Protective Life in 2019, and the company itself was renamed.
Great Western Insurance Company is a different company entirely — founded in 1983 in Ogden, Utah by the owner of a family funeral business, specializing in preneed funeral funding and final expense coverage, later redomesticated to Des Moines, Iowa and acquired by American Enterprise Group in a stock purchase finalized in January 2018.
If you hold a burial policy, the odds strongly favor the second company. That matters because the servicer, the state regulator, and the likelihood that your policy is tied to a funeral home all differ. Get the issuing company name off the schedule page before you call anyone.
In This Article
Sorting out which company issued your policy
Your policy schedule page names the issuing company. Match it against these:
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company — Colorado-domiciled, Greenwood Village. On January 24, 2019, Protective Life Corporation announced an agreement to acquire, via reinsurance, substantially all of Great-West’s individual life insurance and annuity business, including bank-owned and corporate-owned life insurance, single premium life, individual annuities, and a portion of the closed block. The transaction closed effective June 1, 2019 and represented roughly $1.2 billion of capital investment — the largest acquisition in Protective’s history at the time. Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was subsequently renamed Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America, and its New York affiliate became Empower Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York. The retirement and investment businesses were not part of the deal. In practice: an individual Great-West life policy is administered by Protective today, while the original issuing entity now operates under the Empower name.
Great Western Insurance Company — founded in 1983 in Ogden, Utah, built specifically around funeral-related coverage, with an examination of record showing a Des Moines, Iowa domicile after its move. It became a wholly owned subsidiary within American Enterprise Group through a stock purchase agreement entered December 29, 2017 and finalized January 26, 2018, and has been licensed across 46 states and the District of Columbia.
The Great-West Life Assurance Company — the Canadian company, which on January 1, 2020 combined with London Life and Canada Life to operate as The Canada Life Assurance Company. If your policy was issued in Canada, note that most Canadian provinces prohibit trafficking in life insurance policies outright; only a small number permit it, with Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the ones usually named. A Canadian policy is generally not a candidate for the U.S. settlement market.
Take a photograph of the schedule page before making any call. See how to read the policy cover page.
The size problem, which applies either way
Assume you have identified the issuer and it is genuinely a burial or final expense policy. The face amount will typically be between $5,000 and $25,000, and that is below the level at which a life settlement market functions.
The reason is fixed cost. Evaluating any policy requires retrieving medical records from every treating physician, commissioning one or two independent life expectancy reports from underwriting firms, legal and compliance review, and escrow administration. Those costs total into the low thousands of dollars per file and do not shrink when the death benefit does. Most providers set a minimum near $100,000 of face amount and many will not open a file below $250,000. A $12,000 burial policy is a fraction of the smallest case the market handles.
So a firm that responds to a burial policy by asking for your medical records is either confused about its own economics or is not being straight with you. See minimum policy size for a life settlement and life settlement red flags.
Two narrow exceptions are worth checking rather than assuming away. A viatical settlement operates on a much shorter projected holding period, and some viatical buyers will consider face amounts below the standard floor when a physician has given a prognosis measured in months. And policies get misidentified constantly — if the schedule page names a permanent product with a six-figure face amount, this is a different conversation entirely.
| Great-West Life & Annuity | Great Western Insurance Company | |
|---|---|---|
| Home base | Greenwood Village, Colorado | Founded Ogden, Utah; later Des Moines, Iowa |
| Core business | Retirement services, BOLI/COLI, annuities | Preneed funeral funding and final expense |
| Founded | Long-established U.S. operation | 1983, by a family funeral business owner |
| Ownership change | Individual life and annuity block acquired by Protective Life, effective June 1, 2019 | Acquired within American Enterprise Group, finalized January 26, 2018 |
| Current entity name | Renamed Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America | Great Western Insurance Company |
| Likely issuer of a burial policy | Unlikely | Very likely |
Preneed: the question that comes before everything
Given that Great Western built its business around funeral funding, this deserves to be settled first for anyone holding one of its policies.
A final expense policy is ordinary small-face life insurance you own. You name the beneficiary, who receives cash at death and may spend it on anything.
A preneed policy funds a specific funeral. You selected goods and services with a funeral director, signed an itemized statement, and the death benefit was assigned to that funeral home. The benefit is already committed, so there is nothing for a buyer to acquire and the policy cannot be sold.
How to tell, without guessing: look for an itemized statement of funeral goods and services or a general price list among your papers; check whether the beneficiary of record is a person, a funeral home, or a funeral trust; and ask the carrier in writing whether an assignment of benefits is recorded and in whose favor.
If it is a preneed contract and your circumstances have changed — you moved, the funeral home was sold or closed — the remedy that exists is transferring the arrangement to another provider, not selling the policy. Prepaid funeral contracts are regulated separately from insurance in most states, frequently by a funeral board, a banking department, or a consumer protection agency rather than the insurance department. Ask the funeral home first, and the appropriate state regulator if the answer is unsatisfactory.
Graded benefits, simplified issue, and what that means today
Small-face coverage sold to older applicants is almost always simplified issue: a short health questionnaire, no medical exam, and a decision in days. Carriers offset the anti-selection that structure invites by limiting early payouts.
A graded death benefit pays a percentage of face for non-accidental death in the early years — 30% in year one and 70% in year two, stepping to full face from year three, is a common pattern. A modified or return-of-premium design pays only premiums paid plus stated interest, often around 10%, during the same window. Accidental death is generally paid in full from issue under either.
These are separate from the contestability period, which runs two years from issue under most state law and permits rescission for a material misstatement on the application. Check both — they mean different things and end at different times.
Two consequences worth acting on. Inside a graded window, the policy’s economic value today is far below the printed face amount, and lapsing it forfeits the waiting time already served — the worst available outcome. Past the window, on a policy issued when your health was better than it is now, the coverage is cheaper than anything you could buy today, and keeping it should be an active decision. See selling a final expense policy.
What is genuinely available on a policy this size
Five checks, each of them a single phone call to the correct servicer.
Accelerated death benefit riders. Many permanent policies include terminal illness acceleration at no additional premium; some add chronic or critical illness acceleration. These pay a discounted portion of the death benefit while the insured is living, without a buyer, a broker, or a months-long process. On burial-sized coverage this is often the only route to cash that exists at all. See how acceleration riders work.
Nonforfeiture options. A permanent policy with cash value never forces a choice between paying and losing everything. Reduced paid-up insurance converts existing cash value into a smaller fully paid-up death benefit with no further premiums. Extended term insurance keeps the full face amount for a limited number of years, then ends. For coverage meant to pay for a funeral, reduced paid-up usually fits better, because the need has no expiration date.
Cash surrender value. Available on request. It ends the coverage, and any gain above cost basis is ordinary income.
Premium-paying period. Limited-pay designs stop requiring premiums at a defined point. Ask whether the policy is already paid up — people do keep paying past that point for years.
Duplicate coverage. Households that bought burial insurance from solicitations frequently bought more than once, sometimes across several carriers. Consolidating that is not a sale, but on a fixed income it can free more monthly cash than any settlement on coverage this size ever would.
Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We provide education and a free policy review: send the policy cover page and we will identify the actual issuer, tell you whether size and assignment status leave anything worth pursuing, and say plainly when they do not. Call (305) 209-7183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Great-West Life the same company as Great Western Insurance?
No. Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was a Colorado-based insurer focused on retirement services, corporate-owned life insurance and annuities. Great Western Insurance Company was founded in 1983 in Ogden, Utah specifically for preneed funeral funding and final expense coverage. If you hold a burial policy, it is far more likely to be the latter.
Who administers a Great-West individual life policy now?
Protective Life acquired substantially all of Great-West Life & Annuity’s individual life insurance and annuity business through a reinsurance transaction that closed effective June 1, 2019, representing roughly $1.2 billion of capital investment. Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company was subsequently renamed Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America.
Can I sell a preneed funeral policy?
No. The death benefit is assigned to a specific funeral home to fund a specific list of goods and services, so there is nothing left for a buyer to acquire. If your plans have changed, ask the funeral home about transferring the arrangement to a different provider. Prepaid funeral contracts are usually regulated outside the insurance department.
Why won’t anyone buy a $12,000 burial policy?
Because evaluating a policy carries fixed costs — medical records retrieval, one or two independent life expectancy reports, legal review and escrow administration — that run into the low thousands of dollars regardless of the death benefit. Below roughly $100,000 of face amount there is no margin, so providers decline to open the file.
I have a Canadian Great-West Life policy. Does that change things?
Yes. The Great-West Life Assurance Company combined with London Life and Canada Life on January 1, 2020 to operate as The Canada Life Assurance Company. Most Canadian provinces prohibit trafficking in life insurance policies, with only a small number permitting it, so a Canadian policy is generally not a candidate for the U.S. settlement market.
What should I do if the policy cannot be sold?
Check the rider schedule for an accelerated death benefit, ask for the reduced paid-up figure, confirm whether the premium-paying period has already ended, and look at whether the household is carrying duplicate burial coverage from multiple solicitations. Those four checks resolve most of what an owner of a small policy actually needs.
Find out what your policy is worth — free, confidential, no obligation.
A 15-minute educational review covers your eligibility, every alternative, and a realistic view of what each path would net you.
Related Reading
- Can I Sell A Final Expense Policy
- Minimum Policy Size For A Life Settlement
- What Is An Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
- What Is Reduced Paid Up Insurance
- What Is A Viatical Settlement
- Where To Find Your Policy Cover Page
- Life Settlement Scams Red Flags
- Sell My Great West Life Indexed Universal 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.