The entire question turns on one line in your contract: whether the conversion privilege is still open, and until what date. A term policy pays nothing unless the insured dies inside the level period, and an institutional buyer will not pay real money for a contract that is scheduled to disappear on a known date. What a buyer is actually purchasing, when a term policy trades at all, is the right to convert that term contract into permanent coverage that will still exist decades from now. Take away the conversion right and the asset evaporates.
So the sequence matters. Before anyone can tell you what a Kansas City Life term policy is worth, you need the conversion expiry date, the list of permanent products it can be converted into, and confirmation that the level premium period has not already run out. Those three facts are usually available in one phone call to the home office. This page tells you what to ask for, what the answers mean, and what to do in the common case where the conversion window has already closed.
In This Article
- Who services the policy: three companies, one name
- Find the conversion deadline before anything else
- What an unconvertible term policy is actually worth
- The end of the level period, and the premium cliff
- Convert first, then decide: the sequence that preserves options
- The documents that answer the question in one reading
- Frequently Asked Questions
Who services the policy: three companies, one name
Kansas City Life Insurance Company is a Missouri corporation with its home office at 3520 Broadway, Kansas City, Missouri, and it is supervised by the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance. That is the entity that writes the individual life business, including term. Its variable products carry the Century II brand and are distributed through Sunset Financial Services Inc., a wholly owned Kansas City Life subsidiary.
Two other names appear on mail from the same building. Old American Insurance Company, a Missouri insurer wholly owned by Kansas City Life since 1991, writes the group’s final expense business through independent general agents; if your policy is a small burial certificate rather than a term contract, that is the company and a different analysis applies – see our page on Kansas City Life final expense policies. Grange Life Insurance Company was acquired from Grange Mutual Casualty effective October 1, 2018 at a base purchase price of roughly $77.2 million; it wrote in about fifteen states, no longer issues new policies, and its in-force block is now serviced as a Kansas City Life subsidiary.
Kansas City Life has also carried an affiliate, Sunset Life Insurance Company of America, that has been closed to new business for many years. If your policy letterhead has changed, or the servicing address moved, one of these transactions is almost certainly the reason rather than anything about your contract. Our page on what to do when your carrier has merged explains how to confirm the servicing entity and get a written in-force statement from the right desk.
Find the conversion deadline before anything else
Convertible term contracts almost never let you convert for the full level period. The conversion privilege usually expires at the earlier of two events: a stated number of policy years, or the insured reaching a stated attained age. Age 65 and age 70 are the most common cutoffs across the industry, and a 30-year policy bought at 45 can therefore stop being convertible at 65 with ten years of coverage still running. People discover this at exactly the wrong moment.
Kansas City Life has offered level term in the usual 10, 15, 20 and 30-year designs with a conversion privilege, but we are not going to assert the current marketing name of its term series or a specific conversion age here, because those change by product generation and by state and we have not confirmed a single set of terms that applies to every in-force contract. What is confirmed is that the answer is printed in your own policy and that the home office will state it in writing on request.
Ask for exactly this: the conversion expiry date, the permanent products currently available for conversion, whether partial conversion is permitted and at what minimum face amount, whether any conversion credit applies, and whether evidence of insurability is required. That last one is the point of the whole exercise. A conversion privilege that requires new underwriting is not a conversion privilege in any way a buyer cares about, because an insured in poor health would fail it. Our walkthrough of the term conversion rider covers the language to look for.
What an unconvertible term policy is actually worth
Plainly: close to nothing in the secondary market. There are exactly two ways a term contract produces value for a buyer. Either it converts to permanent coverage that persists until death, or the insured dies inside the remaining level period. If conversion is closed, the buyer is left betting purely on the second path, and it would need to be near-certain to justify a bid. In practice that means a documented terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy comfortably shorter than the remaining term, which is a viatical situation and is priced as one.
Outside that narrow case, a closed-conversion term policy is declined. This is not a matter of shopping it to enough buyers; the economics are the same everywhere, and anyone promising a different result on those facts is worth a hard look. Our page on what a term policy with no cash value is really worth goes through the arithmetic in more detail.
There is a second, quieter reason people are surprised. Term contracts carry no cash surrender value, so unlike a whole life or universal life policy there is no floor. When the level period ends there is nothing to reclaim and nothing to surrender. The only asset was optionality, and optionality has an expiry date.
| Situation | Secondary market outlook | Best next step |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion open, insured’s health declined | Genuinely marketable in many cases | Get the conversion terms in writing before converting anything |
| Conversion open, insured healthy | Weak; offers thin or absent | Compare keeping, converting a portion, or replacing coverage |
| Conversion closed, level period running | Essentially no value absent a terminal diagnosis | Decide whether the coverage is still needed at all |
| Level period ended, on renewable rates | No value | Price the renewal against alternatives immediately |
| Return-of-premium design | No value, but the ROP benefit may be large | Confirm the maturity date before stopping premiums |
The end of the level period, and the premium cliff
Most level term contracts do not simply terminate at the end of the level period. They convert automatically into annually renewable term at a schedule of guaranteed maximum rates printed in the policy, and those rates are set at extremely conservative mortality assumptions. It is common for the year-21 premium on a 20-year policy to be five to ten times the level premium, and to double again in each of the following years. Almost nobody pays it, which is precisely what the pricing assumes.
If a renewal notice has just arrived with a number that looks like a typographical error, it is not. That notice is also a signal about timing: the conversion window on most designs closes at or before the end of the level period, so the arrival of the premium cliff usually means the option is closing too. Read why term renewal premiums jump so violently and check the conversion date in the same sitting.
If your policy is a return-of-premium design, note that the ROP benefit typically pays only if the policy is held to the end of the full level period and lapses if you stop early. Surrendering an ROP contract one year short of maturity can forfeit a five-figure refund. Confirm the exact maturity date in writing before making any change.
Convert first, then decide: the sequence that preserves options
When the conversion privilege is still open and the insured’s health has declined since the policy was issued, the ordering of steps matters enormously. Converting the term contract into a permanent policy creates an asset that will exist at death, which is the thing the secondary market values. Doing that conversion after a health decline is advantageous because conversion is contractual – the carrier must issue at the original risk class without new underwriting – so a decline in health does not raise the conversion cost.
The practical difficulty is that the converted permanent policy carries a much higher premium, and someone has to fund it during the period between conversion and any sale. Buyers generally want to see the converted contract issued and in force, not merely available. That is a real cash-flow problem and it should be planned for, not discovered. It is also why an eligibility review is worth doing before you convert rather than after; converting into the wrong permanent chassis, or converting more face amount than a buyer would price, wastes money that cannot be recovered. Our page on converting term and then selling lays out the order of operations and the common mistakes.
None of that is a recommendation for your situation. Whether conversion makes sense depends on your health, your premium capacity, your beneficiaries’ needs and your tax picture, and those are questions for your own advisor. What we can say is that the sequence is one-directional: once the conversion window closes it does not reopen, and no amount of later planning brings it back.
The documents that answer the question in one reading
Two documents settle almost every term eligibility question. The first is the policy cover page – sometimes called the schedule page or specification page – which states the insured, the owner, the issue date, the face amount, the level premium period and, on most contracts, the conversion provision. The second is a current in-force statement or premium notice showing what is actually being billed and whether the policy is inside the level period, in grace, or already on renewable rates.
If you cannot find either, the home office will reissue them to the owner of record. Be prepared to prove you are the owner; if the original owner has died or lacks capacity, expect the carrier to ask for letters testamentary or a durable power of attorney with express insurance powers, and expect that to add weeks. Start that paperwork before you need it.
Once you have both documents, an educational free policy review takes very little time: someone reads the conversion provision, checks the remaining level period against the insured’s situation, and tells you plainly whether any secondary market path exists. Pine Lake Life Solutions provides that review at no cost and does not purchase policies; we are not licensed in every state, and nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. Send the cover page and call (305) 209-7183. If you would rather read the general framework first, start with selling a term life policy and the companion piece on a conversion deadline that is coming up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find the conversion deadline on my policy?
Look at the schedule or specification page and at any rider list attached to it. The provision is usually titled conversion privilege, conversion option, or convertibility, and it states an expiry expressed either as a number of policy years or as an attained age of the insured. If the page is missing or unclear, ask the Kansas City Life home office for a written statement of the conversion expiry date rather than relying on a verbal answer.
Does converting require a new medical exam?
On a genuine contractual conversion privilege, no. The carrier must issue the permanent policy at the original risk classification without evidence of insurability, which is the entire reason the privilege has value to a buyer. Some contracts allow an optional re-underwrite if the insured’s health has improved and a better class is available. Confirm in writing which applies to your contract before you rely on it.
My level period ends next year. Is it too late to do anything?
Probably not too late to act, but the window is narrow, and on most designs the conversion privilege closes at or before the end of the level period. Request the conversion expiry date this week. If it has already passed, the realistic options are letting the coverage end, paying the renewable rates for a defined stretch, or shopping new coverage if the insured is still insurable.
Is a Kansas City Life term policy worth anything if I just stop paying?
Term contracts carry no cash surrender value, so stopping payment returns nothing. The policy enters a grace period, typically 31 days, and then lapses. Reinstatement is sometimes possible within a stated period with evidence of insurability and back premiums, but it is not guaranteed. If money is the problem, ask about a partial conversion or reduced face amount before letting the contract go.
How do I know whether Kansas City Life or Grange Life services my policy?
Check the company name printed on the policy face page, not the return address on recent mail. Kansas City Life acquired Grange Life Insurance Company effective October 1, 2018, and Grange Life no longer issues new policies, so an older Grange contract is now serviced within the Kansas City Life organization. Either way, the servicing number on your annual statement will route you correctly.
Does Pine Lake buy term policies?
No. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We provide a free, educational policy review: send the policy cover page and the most recent premium notice, and we will explain what the conversion provision actually says, whether the contract has any secondary market value, and what the alternatives are. The number is (305) 209-7183.
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Related Reading
- Sell Term Life Policy
- Term Conversion Deadline Approaching
- What Is A Term Conversion Rider
- Convert Term Then Sell
- Term Renewal Premium Shock
- Term Policy No Cash Value Worth
- Can I Sell A Term Life Insurance Policy
- Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
- Sell My Kansas City Life Final Expense 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.