Yes – but almost always only if the conversion privilege on your Lafayette Life term policy is still open. Lafayette Life’s permission to sell is not required, because you own the contract. The obstacle is the product itself: term insurance has no cash value and expires worthless at the end of the level period, so on its own it gives a buyer nothing to purchase. The conversion right is what creates something sellable.
Lafayette Life is a useful carrier to have this conversation with, because it has been a whole life house since it was incorporated on December 26, 1905 in Lafayette, Indiana, and has paid dividends on participating whole life for 121 consecutive years. It joined Western & Southern Financial Group in 2005 and still writes whole life, term, and annuities from Cincinnati. A conversion generally lands you in a permanent product from that lineup.
What follows: how to find your conversion deadline, what the term policy converts into, how conversion and a sale sequence together, and when the whole exercise is not worth pursuing. Pine Lake Life Solutions has no affiliation with The Lafayette Life Insurance Company or Western & Southern Financial Group.
In This Article
- The Conversion Privilege Is the Whole Asset
- Find Your Deadline – This Week, Not Next Month
- What Your Policy Converts Into – and Why It Matters to the Price
- Sequence the Conversion and the Sale Correctly
- What to Gather
- A Clearly Hypothetical Example
- Process, Timing, and Costs
- When This Is Not Worth Pursuing
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Conversion Privilege Is the Whole Asset
Think about what a buyer is actually purchasing: a death benefit that will eventually be paid. A term policy issued at 55 for twenty years pays nothing if the insured is alive at 75, and there is no cash value underneath it. So the contract standing alone has no market value at any price.
A conversion privilege is a contractual right to exchange that term policy for permanent coverage without new medical underwriting. Health does not matter to the exchange – that is the point. For an insured whose health has declined since issue, the conversion right produces a permanent policy that could not be bought on the open market at any price. That converted policy is the thing that gets sold.
Find Your Deadline – This Week, Not Next Month
Conversion rights expire, usually one of two ways: at a stated attained age, or after a stated number of policy years or at the end of the level premium period, whichever comes first. When the date passes, it is gone. There is no appeal, no goodwill exception, and no way to buy it back.
Do not rely on your memory, your agent’s memory, or a general description of the carrier’s products. Call the policyholder service number on your Lafayette Life premium notice and ask three things: the exact conversion expiration date for your policy number, the permanent products currently available for conversion, and whether partial conversion is permitted. Request the answer in writing and confirm it in 2026, since conversion rules and product availability change over time.
What Your Policy Converts Into – and Why It Matters to the Price
You will typically be offered a permanent product from the carrier’s current portfolio. With a whole-life-centered company like Lafayette Life, that usually means some form of whole life. That is not automatically bad, but it does affect the number.
Buyers price against carrying cost. A permanent contract designed to deliver a level death benefit for the smallest sustainable premium is the most attractive conversion target; a richly funded whole life contract with a large scheduled premium costs more to hold and can produce a smaller offer. If more than one conversion option is available, ask for a premium quote on each at the insured’s current age before you choose. And ask whether the converted contract is participating, since dividends can reduce the effective annual cost.
Sequence the Conversion and the Sale Correctly
Get the order right and this is straightforward; get it wrong and you can end up stuck with an expensive permanent policy and no buyer. The right sequence is: confirm the conversion right and its deadline, request a free policy review while the term policy is still in force, get an indication of what a converted policy would be worth, then execute the conversion, then close the sale on the new permanent contract.
In practice the two workstreams overlap, because both run through the same carrier service center and both take weeks. Build in margin. The one thing you must never do is let the conversion deadline lapse while waiting on paperwork – if the date is close, start the conversion request and the policy review on the same day.
| Conversion status | Sellable? | Urgency | First step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window open, more than 2 years left, insured 72+ | Often yes | Moderate | Confirm the deadline and request a policy review |
| Window open, under 12 months left | Yes – time-critical | High | Start conversion request and review the same day |
| Window expired | Generally no | None | Decide whether to keep coverage or let it end |
| Non-convertible term | Generally no | None | Read the contract wording before concluding |
| Insured under 65, good health | Rarely | Low | Keep the coverage if still needed |
What to Gather
Start with the term policy cover page: insured, face amount, issue date, level premium period, policy number. Add the current premium notice. Then obtain in writing from the carrier the conversion expiration date, the available conversion products, premium quotes for each at current age, and whether partial conversion is allowed.
Note any riders while you are at it – a waiver of premium provision or a child rider may not carry over to the converted contract, and you should know what changes. Health information about the insured matters too, because life expectancy is the biggest single driver of what a converted policy is worth. A free policy review needs only the cover page to start.
A Clearly Hypothetical Example
Suppose a $500,000 twenty-year Lafayette Life term policy was issued at age 58. The insured is now 76 with several chronic conditions, the level period ends in fourteen months, and the renewal premium after that would be many multiples of what has been paid. The children are grown and the mortgage is retired, so the coverage is no longer needed.
Doing nothing produces zero – the policy simply expires. There is no cash value, so surrender produces zero as well. If the conversion privilege is still live, converting and then selling the permanent policy produces something, with secondary-market offers commonly landing somewhere in the range of 10% to 35% of face depending on life expectancy and the premium needed to carry the contract. Against a baseline of zero, even a conservative outcome is meaningful. That is why term cases with an open window deserve urgency.
Process, Timing, and Costs
Budget 60 to 120 days for the settlement itself, plus the conversion processing time on top. The sequence is: review, medical records with your authorization, life expectancy assessment, offers, closing package, escrow, carrier records the ownership change, funds release. Most states provide a rescission period after closing during which you can undo the sale and return the proceeds.
Two ground rules. You should never pay an upfront fee to find out what a policy is worth. And you must keep every premium current – on the term policy before conversion and on the permanent policy after – until the transfer is recorded.
When This Is Not Worth Pursuing
If the conversion window has already closed and the policy is non-convertible, there is generally nothing to sell, and shopping the case around will not change that. If the insured is under 65 and in good health, life expectancy is long, the carrying cost is high, and offers will be small or absent.
Most importantly: if the coverage is still doing its job, keep it. Term insurance is inexpensive protection while it lasts, and selling a policy that a surviving spouse or a dependent child still needs to solve a temporary cash problem is usually a bad trade. If the underlying goal is paying for care or qualifying for Medicaid, work through the whole picture with an elder law attorney before touching the policy, and take any tax questions to your own tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell a term policy that has no cash value?
Generally only after converting it to permanent coverage. Term insurance with no cash value and no conversion right gives a buyer nothing to own. If the conversion privilege is live, the resulting permanent policy is what gets sold.
How do I find my conversion deadline?
It appears in the conversion provision of the policy and is often summarized on the declarations page. The reliable route is to call the service number on your Lafayette Life premium notice and ask for your specific policy’s conversion expiration date in writing.
Will I need a medical exam to convert?
No. A contractual conversion privilege is exercised without new evidence of insurability, which is precisely why it is valuable when health has declined since the policy was issued.
What does Lafayette Life convert term policies into?
Typically a permanent product from its current portfolio, which centers on whole life. Ask the carrier for the specific options available on your contract and a premium quote for each at the insured’s current age, and confirm it in 2026 since product lineups change.
Can I convert only part of the coverage?
Many contracts allow partial conversion, which lets you convert and sell a portion while keeping the rest as term. Confirm what your specific policy permits before you decide how much to convert.
Who pays the premium on the converted policy?
You do until the settlement closes; after closing the buyer becomes the owner and pays the premiums. That shift is often the main reason a conversion makes sense at an older age, since conversion premiums are priced at current age.
What about a term policy from my former employer?
Group coverage usually must be converted to an individual policy within a very short window after employment ends – commonly around 31 days. Read the certificate immediately, because that window is far tighter than an individual policy’s.
What do I need to start a free policy review?
The policy cover page. Send it in or call (305) 209-7183. If your conversion deadline is within a year, start now rather than after you have finished deciding.
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Related Reading
- What Policies Qualify For Life Settlement
- How It Works Policy Options
- Education Center
- What Is A Rescission Period
- Sell My Lafayette Life Whole Life Policy
- Sell My Lafayette Life Universal 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.