There have been two American insurers named Security Mutual Life, and they are unrelated: one is a New York mutual still operating from Binghamton, and the other was a Nebraska company that combined with Lincoln Direct Life in 2001 to become Assurity Life Insurance Company. Establishing which one issued your policy is not pedantry — it determines the service department, the regulator, and every answer you will get about your conversion rights.
Once that is settled, the substantive question on any term policy is the same: is the conversion privilege still open? Institutional buyers acquire death benefits that will eventually be paid, and level term is priced on the expectation of expiring unpaid. The great majority of term policies never produce a claim, so the coverage itself offers a buyer nothing to price. What can be priced is the contractual right to exchange the term policy for permanent coverage from the same insurer, at the risk class assigned when the policy was underwritten, with no new medical questions. For an insured whose health has declined since issue, that right can be worth real money.
This page covers the identification question, where the deadline hides in a Security Mutual contract, and what New York’s unusually specific settlement statute means if you are a New York resident.
In This Article
- Two companies, same name, different states
- Finding the conversion deadline
- A 140-year-old block, and what that means for your paperwork
- If you live in New York, the process is more regulated
- The order that protects your money
- When the honest answer is that there is no market
- What to gather, and what nobody should ask for yet
- Frequently Asked Questions
Two companies, same name, different states
Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York was originally incorporated as a mutual assessment association under the name Security Mutual Life Association on November 6, 1886, and commenced business on January 3, 1887. Its first policy was a one-year renewable term contract with a $1,000 death benefit — a detail that says a great deal about what life insurance looked like in the 1880s. The company is headquartered at 100 Court Street in Binghamton, New York, remains a mutual owned by its policyholders, operates primarily across the Northeast, and is supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Its product line includes term, whole life, universal life, and survivorship coverage, along with annuities and accident and health products.
Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of Nebraska was a separate Lincoln, Nebraska company. In 2001 it combined with Lincoln Direct Life Insurance Company, and the resulting entity took the name Assurity Life Insurance Company. Assurity later absorbed Centurion Life Insurance Company in 2006. If your policy carries a Nebraska address, you are holding what is now an Assurity contract, and Assurity’s service department is the one to contact.
Check the cover page and the signature block on the last page of the contract for the full legal company name and the state. Do not rely on an old envelope or a phone number, because both go stale. The rule about corporate change applies either way: a merger, a rename, or an acquisition does not rewrite an in-force contract, and your face amount, guaranteed premium schedule, risk class, and conversion rider carried through unchanged. Our page on what happens when a carrier merged and who owns the policy covers the principle.
Finding the conversion deadline
The provision is in the contract, not on your premium notice, under a heading close to “Conversion Privilege,” “Conversion Option,” or “Right to Convert.” Three facts to extract, all of which you want in writing.
The last eligible date. Insurers express it as a number of policy years, as an attained age, or as the earlier of the two. That third construction is where the option quietly dies. A twenty-year term issued at 55 might be convertible only through policy year 10 or through age 65, whichever comes first — so the right expires a full decade before the premium jump makes anyone examine the contract. No letter arrives when it happens.
The permanent plans available. Some contracts allow conversion into any permanent plan the insurer currently issues; others designate a specific conversion product, often priced above the retail lineup. Ask what is available under your form number, since product menus change and forms do not.
Partial conversion and the minimum amount. Converting part of the face amount and letting the balance run out is frequently the right structure, and it is not permitted on every form.
Request a written statement and ask for a duplicate contract in the same letter if you cannot locate yours. A phone call in which somebody says the policy “should still be convertible” is not a document, and nobody evaluating the file will treat it as one. Our page on a term conversion rider expiring covers what remains possible when the date is near, and what a term conversion rider is explains the mechanics.
A 140-year-old block, and what that means for your paperwork
An insurer that began as an assessment association in 1886 has administered an extraordinary range of contract forms over its history, and that shapes what you should expect when you go asking questions.
Assessment associations were the predecessor of modern level-premium life insurance. Members paid an assessment when another member died, rather than a fixed premium into a reserve. The model failed across the industry as membership aged and assessments spiraled, and surviving companies reorganized onto a legal reserve basis. Security Mutual made that transition, but the point stands: a company operating continuously since the 1880s carries generations of policy forms, and the language in a contract issued in 1974 will not match the language in one issued in 2014.
Three practical implications. First, never answer a question about your rights from a general description, including this page. Read your own form. Second, when you write to the company, give the form number as well as the policy number, because that is what lets a service representative pull the correct provision instead of a summary. Third, expect older forms to use terminology that has fallen out of use — a conversion provision may be titled “exchange privilege” or sit inside a rider with a name that means nothing today.
Regional concentration matters too. Security Mutual sells primarily across the Northeast, which means many of these policies were placed by local agencies that have since closed or been absorbed. That is normal on a block this old and it does not affect your rights in any way. Work directly with the company’s policyholder service department rather than trying to trace a producer who retired twenty years ago.
| What the contract says | Which company you have | Where to direct requests |
|---|---|---|
| Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Binghamton | New York mutual, still operating | Security Mutual, regulated by New York DFS |
| Security Mutual Life Insurance Company, Lincoln, Nebraska | Predecessor of Assurity Life | Assurity Life Insurance Company in Nebraska |
| Conversion right open, face $250K+, insured 70+ with health changes | Worth a review | Request written conversion terms first |
| Conversion window already expired | No settlement market | Check the rider schedule for accelerated benefits |
| Face amount under $100,000 | Below most buyers’ minimum | Focus on premium relief rather than a sale |
| Contract names two insureds | Survivorship coverage | Different analysis; joint mortality drives pricing |
If you live in New York, the process is more regulated
Security Mutual’s business is concentrated in the Northeast, so a large share of its policyholders are New York residents. New York regulates life settlements more tightly than most states, and that is worth understanding before anyone contacts you about your policy.
The governing framework is Article 78 of the New York Insurance Law, enacted in 2009. It requires life settlement providers, brokers, and intermediaries to be licensed by the Department of Financial Services and imposes specific disclosure and filing obligations on transactions involving New York residents. Three practical consequences.
Verify the license before you engage. Anyone approaching you about your policy should hold a New York license for the role they are playing, and you can confirm that with the Department of Financial Services rather than accepting a business card. Our page on how to verify a provider’s license in your state walks through the check.
Know who represents whom. A provider is the entity acquiring the policy. A broker works on the owner’s behalf to shop the policy among providers and is compensated for doing so. Those are different roles with different duties, and conflating them is how people end up with a single offer they mistake for a market. Our explainer on what a life settlement broker is sets out the distinction.
Read the rescission terms. Every state with a settlement statute provides a window in which the owner may unwind the transaction after signing. The length and the trigger vary, and the terms in your closing package are what control. Our page on the rescission period after signing explains how it works and why the trigger date matters as much as the number of days.
The order that protects your money
If the conversion window is open and the face amount is meaningful, sequence matters more than speed.
- Confirm the issuing company from the contract, so every subsequent request goes to the right service department.
- Request written conversion terms. Exact expiration date, permanent plans available under your form, partial conversion availability, and the minimum amount.
- Get the converted premium quoted at the full face amount and at half. That premium is one of three inputs in any valuation, alongside the net death benefit and the projected life expectancy.
- Have the file reviewed while it is still term. A qualified read of the conversion language, the face amount, the converted premium, and the general health picture tells you whether buyers would engage at all — before you commit to permanent premiums out of pocket.
- Convert only what the arithmetic supports. Partial conversion keeps the permanent premium manageable while preserving coverage the family may still need.
- Then take the converted policy to market. Independent life expectancy underwriting, competing offers, escrow, closing, and the rescission window.
Step four is where the money is protected. Converting first and shopping second means paying real premiums to manufacture an asset that may attract no bids. Our page on converting term and then selling runs the sequence with numbers, and the general economics are on our guide to how to sell a term life policy.
When the honest answer is that there is no market
Better said now than after four months of process.
- The conversion window has closed. Final. Insurers do not reopen expired conversion rights and no broker can negotiate one back into existence. A claim to the contrary is a warning sign rather than an opportunity.
- The face amount is under roughly $100,000. Institutional buyers apply a working minimum because their fixed per-file costs — independent life expectancy reports, legal review of the assignment and ownership chain, escrow, and years of premium administration — do not scale down. Our page on the minimum policy size for a life settlement covers the threshold.
- The insured is under 65 and in good health. A long projected life expectancy means decades of premium outlay for a buyer and a low present value, which usually produces no offer rather than a small one.
- The designated conversion product is priced punitively. High carrying cost destroys the economics regardless of health.
- The coverage is still needed. A surviving spouse without pension income, an adult child with a disability, a mortgage that will outlive the borrower. Keeping protection the household relies on is the right answer more often than this industry admits.
Where a sale is unavailable, look at what you may already own. Many term contracts include an accelerated death benefit rider that pays part of the face amount during a qualifying terminal or chronic illness at no additional premium. Some include a return-of-premium provision. A partial conversion may cut the cost to something sustainable. None of those generate a commission for anyone, which is exactly why they go unmentioned.
What to gather, and what nobody should ask for yet
Three documents, none of them sensitive. The policy cover page, showing the full legal company name and state, the insured, the policy number, the form number, the issue date, the face amount, and the level premium period. The most recent premium notice or annual statement. And the conversion provision if you can locate it.
From those, a reviewer can determine which Security Mutual issued the contract, how much level period remains, whether the conversion right appears open under your form, and whether the size clears the market’s working minimum. Where the language is ambiguous — and on contracts written decades ago it frequently is — the next step is a written request to the insurer rather than an inference from a similar policy.
What is not needed at this point: your Social Security number, bank account details, or a complete medical file. Being pressed for those in a first conversation is a warning sign, and there is no legitimate reason to pay an upfront fee for a policy evaluation. Legitimate reviews cost nothing, and if the honest answer is that no market exists, you should hear that in the first conversation rather than the fifth.
Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review. We do not purchase policies, we are not licensed in every state, and nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice — anything with tax or estate consequences belongs in front of your own CPA or attorney first. If it turns out your Security Mutual contract insures two lives rather than one, the analysis is different and considerably more involved, so say so at the outset. Call (305) 209-7183 with the cover page in front of you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Security Mutual of New York the same company that became Assurity?
No. Assurity Life Insurance Company came from Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, which combined with Lincoln Direct Life in 2001. Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York is a separate mutual insurer headquartered in Binghamton, incorporated in 1886 and still operating independently. Read the state on your cover page before contacting any service department.
How do I confirm my conversion deadline?
Write to the insurer with your policy number and form number and request a written statement of the conversion expiration date, the permanent plans available under that form, whether partial conversion is permitted, and the minimum conversion amount. Ask for a duplicate contract in the same letter if you cannot find yours. Verbal confirmation is not usable by anyone evaluating the policy.
My contract uses wording I do not recognize. Is it still a conversion right?
Possibly. A company writing continuously since 1886 has used many generations of policy forms, and older contracts sometimes title the provision exchange privilege or bury it in a rider with an unfamiliar name. Send the company your policy number and form number and ask specifically whether the contract contains any right to exchange the term coverage for permanent insurance without evidence of insurability.
What does New York’s Article 78 mean for me?
New York enacted Article 78 of its Insurance Law in 2009 to license life settlement providers, brokers, and intermediaries through the Department of Financial Services and to impose specific disclosure obligations on transactions involving New York residents. Practically, verify anyone’s license with the department before engaging, understand whether they represent you or a buyer, and read the rescission terms in the closing package.
Does the insurer have to approve a sale of my policy?
The insurer does not approve or deny a settlement transaction. After closing it processes a change of ownership and beneficiary and confirms the new owner of record, and carriers generally must honor a properly executed assignment. Approval is required for a conversion application if you convert first, but conversion exercised inside the rider window requires no new medical underwriting.
Should I convert before finding out whether anyone would buy it?
No, and this is the most expensive mistake in the subject. Have the policy reviewed while it is still term, because a review can tell you whether buyers would engage before you commit to permanent premiums. Get the converted premium quoted first, since it is one of three inputs any buyer models, then have the file read, then decide.
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Related Reading
- Sell Term Life Policy
- What Is A Term Conversion Rider
- Term Conversion Rider Expiring
- Convert Term Then Sell
- Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
- Verify Provider License State
- What Is A Life Settlement Broker
- Rescission Period After Signing
- Minimum Policy Size For A Life Settlement
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.