A term policy is worth something in the secondary market only while it can still be converted into permanent coverage – and there is a good chance the policy in your hand is not term at all. Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company is a final expense specialist. It is family-owned, domiciled in Illinois, administers from Phoenix, Arizona, and its business is the Funeral Advantage program: simplified-issue whole life with coverage in roughly the $1,000 to $35,000 range. Whole life is permanent coverage with a fixed premium and guaranteed cash value. It is not term, and the two are evaluated in completely different ways.
So the first job is identification, and it takes one look at the policy face page rather than the envelope. If the issuing company really is Lincoln Heritage, the analysis runs on face amount and nonforfeiture options. If the name on the page is The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company or Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York, you are dealing with Lincoln Financial Group – an unrelated company domiciled in Indiana – which does write term, and the conversion clock is what matters. And if the document is a certificate rather than a policy, it is employer group coverage with the shortest deadline of the three.
In This Article
- Why term is valued so differently from everything else
- What Lincoln Heritage actually issues
- Where a term policy with ‘Lincoln’ on it usually comes from
- Finding the conversion deadline, once you know the carrier
- If the conversion right is gone
- Group certificates and the 31-day problem
- What to send, and what a review can tell you
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why term is valued so differently from everything else
Every other kind of life insurance a buyer might acquire will pay eventually if premiums keep being paid. Whole life, universal life and guaranteed universal life are permanent contracts: the insured dies at some point and the death benefit is payable. Term is different in kind. It pays only if the insured dies inside a defined window whose end date is printed on the contract, and the overwhelmingly likely outcome is that the window closes with nothing paid.
That is why no institutional buyer will pay meaningfully for term coverage as such. What they will pay for is the conversion privilege – the contractual right to exchange the term contract for a permanent policy at the original risk classification, without new evidence of insurability. The privilege is valuable precisely when it is needed: if the insured’s health has declined since issue, the carrier still has to issue the permanent policy at the original class, because that obligation was purchased at the outset. Convert, and you hold an asset that will pay at death. Fail to convert, and the contract expires.
Everything else on this page follows from that. Our overview of selling a term life policy covers the framework in general terms, and what a term conversion rider actually promises covers the contract language.
What Lincoln Heritage actually issues
Lincoln Heritage’s Funeral Advantage program is simplified-issue whole life, typically sold to applicants in their sixties and seventies without a paramedical exam, with the death benefit intended to cover funeral and burial costs. Policies come with a Funeral Consumer Guardian Society membership, which is a service benefit rather than an insurance benefit. Coverage runs roughly from $1,000 to $35,000. The company is supervised by the Illinois Department of Insurance as its domiciliary regulator, notwithstanding the Phoenix administrative address.
If that is what you hold, two things follow and neither has anything to do with conversion. First, at that face amount the secondary market does not function – fixed transaction costs of several thousand dollars per file mean most funded buyers work from about $100,000 upward, and files below roughly $50,000 are declined at intake. Second, the value that is actually available lives inside the contract: the reduced paid-up death benefit, the extended term amount and period, the net cash surrender value after any loan, and any accelerated death benefit rider. Ask for all of those figures in writing as of a single date. Our page on Lincoln Heritage whole life coverage goes through them, and if the paperwork mentions index accounts see Lincoln Heritage and indexed universal life, which is a different mix-up with the same root cause.
Where a term policy with ‘Lincoln’ on it usually comes from
Two sources account for nearly all of them. The first is Lincoln Financial Group, whose published term line runs on Lincoln LifeElements Level Term – the fully underwritten product built for larger face amounts – and Lincoln TermAccel Level Term, the streamlined accelerated-underwriting version. Both are convertible, and on those products the conversion privilege generally runs until the end of the level term period or the insured’s age 70, whichever comes first. That age-70 element is the trap: a 20-year policy issued at 55 runs to age 75, but the right to convert it would close at 70. Confirm your own terms in writing, since provisions vary by product generation and by state. The detail is on our page about Lincoln Financial term policies.
The second source is an employer. Lincoln Financial is a large writer of group benefits, and a great many people hold a group term life certificate from a current or former employer without thinking of it as a policy they own. That distinction matters enormously and is covered below.
Either way, get the product name and the policy form number from the issuing company’s own service desk. Statements use marketing language loosely and family recollection is unreliable. A form number is not.
| What the document says | What you actually hold | The deadline that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company, Funeral Advantage | Simplified-issue whole life, roughly $1,000-$35,000 | None; ask for nonforfeiture figures instead |
| The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, LifeElements or TermAccel | Convertible level term | End of level period or age 70, whichever comes first |
| Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York | Convertible level term issued to a New York resident | Same structure; confirm the date in writing |
| Certificate of coverage under a group master policy | Employer group term; you are not the policyowner | Conversion or portability window, commonly 31 days |
Finding the conversion deadline, once you know the carrier
Ask for the conversion expiry as a calendar date, not as a formula, and get it in writing. Then ask four more questions in the same request: which permanent products are currently available for conversion, by name; whether partial conversion is permitted and at what minimum face amount; whether any conversion credit applies to the first-year premium of the new policy; and whether evidence of insurability is required.
That last question is decisive. A contractual conversion – carrier must issue, original risk class, no new underwriting – is what creates value. A privilege conditioned on fresh evidence of insurability is close to worthless for the situation that matters, because an insured whose health has declined would fail. Do not accept a verbal answer on this point; you may need to show it to someone else later.
Note also that nothing in a premium notice announces that a conversion window has closed. Carriers are not generally required to warn you, and the option simply stops existing on its date. If the insured is anywhere in their late sixties, treat this as time-sensitive. Our page on an approaching conversion deadline covers what to do when the calendar is tight.
If the conversion right is gone
Then the policy has essentially no secondary market value, and it is better to know now. Without conversion, the only route to a payout is the insured dying inside the remaining level period, and a buyer would need that to be near-certain to pay for it – meaning a documented terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy comfortably shorter than the remaining term. That is a viatical file, underwritten and priced as one, and it is uncommon.
Outside that case, files are declined, and taking them to more buyers changes nothing because the arithmetic is identical everywhere. Term also carries no cash surrender value, so there is no floor to recover when the coverage ends. Our page on what a term policy with no cash value is really worth works through why.
Real decisions remain. Is the coverage still needed by the people it was bought for? Could the insured qualify for replacement coverage, and at what price? And what does the contract do at the end of the level period? Most level term continues on annually renewable term at guaranteed maximum rates that begin at several times the level premium and roughly double each year after that – a schedule priced on the expectation that healthy insureds will walk away. A renewal notice with a shocking number is not an error; it is usually also a signal that the conversion window has closed.
Group certificates and the 31-day problem
If your document is titled certificate of coverage or certificate of insurance rather than policy, the rules change completely. Under a group plan the employer or a trust holds the master contract and is the policyowner; you hold a certificate. The employer can amend or terminate the plan. There is generally no cash value, and there is nothing to sell, because you do not own the underlying contract.
What you do own is a set of rights that expire quickly. When group coverage ends – at retirement, at termination, when the employer changes carriers – most plans provide a conversion right to an individual policy and sometimes a portability right to continue group-rate coverage, and the window is commonly 31 days from the date coverage ends. Miss it and the coverage generally ends with no residual value. Exercise it and you own an individual permanent policy that exists in its own right and can be evaluated like any other. That is the single most time-sensitive item on this page; see portability versus conversion on group life.
Ask the employer’s benefits administrator, not just the insurer, for the certificate booklet and the summary plan description. Those documents state the windows and the notice requirements, and the administrator is often the only party who knows the exact date coverage ended.
What to send, and what a review can tell you
Two documents answer most eligibility questions in a single reading. The policy cover page – also called the schedule or specification page – states the issuing company, the insured, the owner, the issue date, the face amount and the level premium period, and on most contracts summarizes the conversion provision. The current premium notice shows what is being billed and whether the contract is inside the level period, in a grace period, or already on renewable rates. For group coverage, the certificate booklet substitutes for both.
Order of work: read the face page and establish the issuing company; if it is Lincoln Heritage, request the nonforfeiture figures and stop treating it as a term question; if it is Lincoln Financial, request the conversion expiry date in writing; if it is a group certificate, find out today how many days remain in any conversion or portability window.
Pine Lake Life Solutions will read what you have at no cost as an educational free policy review. We do not purchase policies and are not licensed in every state, and nothing on this page is legal, tax or investment advice – your own advisor should weigh in before you convert, surrender or transfer anything. Send the cover page or call (305) 209-7183. For general background on whether term coverage can be sold at all, see selling a term life insurance policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Lincoln Heritage sell term life insurance?
Its business is the Funeral Advantage program, which is simplified-issue whole life with coverage in roughly the $1,000 to $35,000 range, not term. If your document says term, check the issuing company on the face page. It is very often Lincoln Financial Group, an unrelated company domiciled in Indiana, or an employer group certificate written by a group carrier.
How do I tell Lincoln Heritage from Lincoln Financial?
Read the face page. Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company is family-owned, domiciled in Illinois, and administers from Phoenix, Arizona. Lincoln Financial Group’s insurers are The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Lincoln Life and Annuity Company of New York in Syracuse. They are unaffiliated companies with different regulators, different products and similar-looking names.
What is the conversion deadline on a Lincoln Financial term policy?
On the published term products the conversion privilege generally runs until the end of the level term period or the insured’s age 70, whichever comes first. That means a policy issued at 55 for 20 years can stop being convertible at 70 with five years of coverage remaining. Provisions vary by product generation and state, so get your own expiry date confirmed in writing.
I have a certificate from my old employer, not a policy. Can I sell it?
Generally no, because you are not the policyowner. The employer or a trust holds the master contract and can amend or terminate the plan. What matters instead is the conversion or portability window that opens when coverage ends, commonly 31 days. Converting within that window produces an individual policy you do own, which can then be evaluated on its own terms.
My term policy cannot be converted. Is it worth anything at all?
Essentially nothing in the secondary market. The only remaining path to a payout is death inside the remaining level period, which a buyer would pay for only if it were near-certain – a documented terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy well inside the term. Term also has no cash surrender value, so stopping payment returns nothing beyond ending the premium obligation.
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 cover page and current premium notice, or the certificate booklet for group coverage, and we will identify which company issued it, what deadlines are running, and whether the secondary market is realistically available. Call (305) 209-7183.
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Related Reading
- Sell Term Life Policy
- What Is A Term Conversion Rider
- Term Conversion Deadline Approaching
- Can I Sell A Term Life Insurance Policy
- Term Policy No Cash Value Worth
- Portability Vs Conversion Group Life
- Sell My Lincoln Heritage Whole Life Policy
- Sell My Lincoln Heritage Indexed Universal Policy
- Sell My Lincoln Financial Term 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.