Can You Sell a Venerable Indexed Universal Life Policy? (2026)

What Venerable is, where it is domiciled, and what it bought

Venerable Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Its principal insurance subsidiary is Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company, which is domiciled in Iowa and was previously named Voya Insurance and Annuity Company. Its domiciliary regulator is therefore the Iowa Insurance Division, which handles solvency examination and company-level oversight. Iowa is a common domicile for annuity writers, and the state’s insurance division is one of the more experienced regulators of this specific kind of business.

The company was created in 2018 to acquire Voya Financial’s closed block variable annuity segment — a portfolio of in-force variable annuity contracts, many carrying guaranteed living benefit and guaranteed minimum death benefit riders written in an earlier interest rate environment, that Voya had stopped selling and wanted off its balance sheet. Venerable’s business model is running that kind of block: administering contracts, managing the hedging of embedded guarantees, and servicing policyholders, rather than writing new business. In 2021 Venerable added a legacy variable annuity block associated with Equitable through a reinsurance transaction.

Understanding the model explains the customer experience. Contract holders in a runoff block receive statements from a company they never chose, from an entity that has no interest in selling them anything further. That is disorienting and it is not a sign of anything going wrong. A transfer of a block never rewrites the contract: the guarantees, riders, surrender charge schedule, and death benefit provisions in your annuity are exactly what they were when it was issued. Our page on what happens when a carrier merged and who owns the policy sets out the general rule.

If your paperwork names a company you do not recognize and you cannot tell what kind of contract you have, the fastest route is to call the servicing number on the statement and ask two questions: is this an annuity or a life insurance policy, and what is the product name and form number. Get the answer in writing.

Why an annuity is not a life settlement asset

People conflate these because both are issued by insurance companies and both can pay something to a beneficiary. The economics are opposite.

A life insurance policy is a bet on mortality that pays when the insured dies. An institutional buyer in the settlement market values it by projecting the payout date, discounting the death benefit back, subtracting the premiums it must pay in the meantime, and applying a required return. The buyer’s return improves if the insured dies sooner than projected.

A deferred annuity is an accumulation and payout vehicle. Its value to the contract holder is the account value plus whatever the guaranteed benefit riders provide, and the sequence runs the other way: the contract holder benefits from living longer once payments begin. There is no death benefit for a third party to buy in the settlement sense, and any death benefit rider is typically payable to a named beneficiary under terms that do not survive a transfer to an unrelated purchaser. On top of that, many annuity contracts restrict assignment outright, and transferring one can trigger immediate tax consequences on the gain.

A separate secondary market does exist for certain annuity payment streams — predominantly structured settlement payments and, in some states, immediate annuity payments — and it operates under its own statutes, frequently with mandatory court approval. It is a different industry with different pricing and, historically, a different quality of participant. Our page comparing a life settlement against selling an annuity lays out the differences.

The practical instruction is short. If your Venerable contract is an annuity and you need liquidity, the options are within the contract itself — surrender subject to any remaining surrender charge and tax on the gain, a partial withdrawal, or annuitization — and the analysis belongs with your own tax advisor. It is not a settlement question.

If you are actually looking for a Voya life policy, here is where it went

This is the section most readers of this page actually need.

Voya Financial is the successor to ING’s United States operations, which were separated from ING Groep and taken public in 2013 before adopting the Voya name in 2014. Over the following years Voya divested most of its individual insurance business in two distinct transactions that are easy to confuse.

• The closed block variable annuity business went to Venerable in 2018. That is the transaction that produced the company described above. Annuities.
• The individual life business was sold to Resolution Life Group Holdings in a transaction that closed in January 2021. That deal included Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, the Colorado-domiciled insurer through which much of Voya’s individual life coverage — including its indexed universal life products — was written. Life insurance.

So if you hold a Voya-branded life insurance policy, the entity servicing it today is most likely within the Resolution Life organization rather than Voya or Venerable. Voya retained its employee benefits business, including group life written largely through ReliaStar Life Insurance Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, so a Voya-branded group certificate is a different situation again.

None of these transfers changed a single contract term. Whatever your policy guaranteed on the day it was delivered, it still guarantees. What changed is the address you write to and the name at the top of the statement. If you cannot determine which company holds your contract, our page on how to find out if a policy still exists walks through carrier inquiries, premium draft records, and state unclaimed property searches. For the substantive analysis of a Voya indexed contract, see our page on a Voya indexed universal life policy.

What your statement shows	What you hold	Settlement market?
Account value, surrender charge schedule, rider benefit base	Deferred annuity	No — different market entirely
Face amount, cost of insurance charge, named index	Indexed universal life	Possibly, if face is $100K+
Face amount, single declared credited rate	Fixed universal life	Possibly, same size rules
Guaranteed cash value table, level premium	Whole life	Compare surrender value first
Certificate naming an employer or trust	Group life certificate	No, not until converted
Voya-branded life policy	Individual life block sold in January 2021	Evaluate with the current servicer

If you do hold an indexed universal life contract: the three levers

Assume the search resolved and you are holding a genuine indexed universal life policy from some carrier. Here is what governs its value.

An indexed universal life contract is not invested in the market. The carrier holds general account assets, funds a budget of index options each segment, and credits a formula-derived amount. Three parameters control the outcome, and each sits inside a range the carrier may move within.

The cap is the ceiling on the credit for a segment: a 9 percent cap against a 24 percent index year credits 9 percent. Caps are redeclared periodically and the contract typically guarantees only a minimum cap far below whatever was illustrated at sale. The participation rate is the fraction of index movement counted — 60 percent participation against a 10 percent index year produces a 6 percent gross credit before the cap applies, so quoting one parameter without the other is meaningless. The floor, usually zero, means a negative index year credits nothing rather than a loss.

The floor is the most misunderstood feature in the product. Zero percent applies to the index credit only. It does not apply to the account value, because the monthly deduction for cost of insurance, administrative charges, and rider costs comes out regardless of index performance. On an older contract those charges are substantial, so a zero-credit year is a losing year for the account value, not a flat one. Several consecutive such years in an insured’s late seventies is the standard route to a lapse warning.

Two further details that surprise owners: the index measured is normally a price return index that excludes dividends, which over decades explains a real share of the gap between expectation and result; and crediting applies per segment, so money entering at different times sits in segments with different parameters and different anniversaries, and the blended outcome rarely matches any headline number. Our explainer on indexed universal life covers the segment mechanics.

The illustration that matters, and the charge curve that ends policies

Two things determine whether an indexed contract survives, and both are visible in one document.

First, illustration rules. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted Actuarial Guideline XLIX in 2015, capping the crediting rate an indexed universal life illustration may show by tying it to the policy’s own hedge budget. Design adapted; the NAIC issued AG 49-A, applying to policies illustrated from around the end of 2020, restricting how favorably multipliers, bonuses, and enhanced index accounts could be depicted. Design adapted again; AG 49-B took effect May 1, 2023, tightening the treatment of buy-up accounts further. A pre-2015 projection would in many cases be impermissible today for the same product, so comparing your statement to it tells you the rules changed and nothing more.

Second, the charge curve. The monthly cost-of-insurance deduction is computed per $1,000 of net amount at risk — death benefit minus account value — and mortality cost per thousand accelerates rather than creeps as the insured ages. While crediting outruns deductions this is invisible. When crediting slows, the account value falls, the net amount at risk grows, the charge grows with it, and the decline compounds. That loop is how a policy funded exactly as illustrated produces a grace notice two decades later. Our page on what cost of insurance is covers the per-thousand mechanics.

Both problems are answered by one document: a current in-force illustration run on guaranteed assumptions — minimum crediting, maximum cost of insurance, maximum expenses. It tells you the premium required to hold the policy to age 100 in the worst case the contract permits, which is precisely what any institutional buyer models. Carriers default to the current-assumption version, so specify guaranteed basis in writing. Our page on what an in-force illustration is supplies the language.

Sorting out what you hold, and what to send

Run this checklist before assuming anything about value.

1. Annuity or life insurance? An annuity statement shows an account value, a surrender charge schedule, and possibly rider benefit bases. A life policy statement shows a death benefit or face amount and a cost of insurance charge. If you see a face amount, it is life insurance.
2. Which company issued it, and which services it now? These are frequently different after a block transfer, and both matter.
3. Face amount. Institutional buyers apply a working minimum around $100,000 of death benefit, below which the fixed costs of underwriting, legal review, escrow, and long-term servicing consume the economics.
4. Issue date. A contract inside the two-year contestability period will not attract buyers, because the carrier may still rescind for a material misstatement on the application.
5. Guaranteed-basis in-force illustration, requested in writing.

For a free policy review, send the contract cover page and the most recent annual statement. Those two documents establish the product type, the issuing and servicing companies, the face amount if any, and the funding picture — enough to tell you in one conversation whether there is anything worth pursuing or whether you are holding an annuity and the answer is no. Do not send a Social Security number, banking information, or medical records at this stage. Nobody needs them to make that determination, and an early request for them is a reason to slow down. No legitimate party charges an upfront fee to evaluate a contract.

Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review. We do not provide legal, tax, or investment advice, and annuity surrender decisions in particular carry tax consequences that belong with your own CPA before you act. If the analysis points toward an indexed contract that can be evaluated, our page on whether you can sell an indexed universal life policy covers the general case. To reach a reviewer, call (305) 209-7183 with the cover page in front of you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Venerable issue life insurance policies?

We have not been able to confirm that Venerable has issued individual life insurance under its own name, and we will not assert one exists. Venerable Holdings was formed in 2018 to acquire and administer closed blocks of variable annuities, and its principal insurance subsidiary, Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company, is Iowa-domiciled and was previously named Voya Insurance and Annuity Company.

Can I sell my Venerable annuity in the life settlement market?

No. Annuities are not life settlement assets. A settlement transfers ownership of a life insurance death benefit, and a deferred annuity has no equivalent to transfer. A separate secondary market exists for certain annuity payment streams, mostly structured settlements, operating under its own statutes and often requiring court approval. If anyone offers to purchase your annuity as a life settlement, end the conversation.

I had a Voya life insurance policy. Who has it now?

Most likely the Resolution Life organization. Voya sold its individual life business, including Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, to Resolution Life Group Holdings in a transaction that closed in January 2021. That is separate from the 2018 sale of Voya’s closed block variable annuities to Venerable. Group life certificates through an employer stayed with Voya’s employee benefits business.

Did the transfer to Venerable change my contract terms?

No. A transfer of a block of business changes who administers the contract and who stands behind it financially, never the terms already issued. Your guarantees, riders, surrender charge schedule and death benefit provisions remain exactly what they were on the issue date. If you want that confirmed, request a written statement of the current servicing entity and keep it with the contract.

What is a guaranteed minimum death benefit rider, and can it be sold?

It is a variable annuity feature that guarantees a minimum amount to the contract’s named beneficiary regardless of investment performance, often based on premiums paid or a high-water account value. It is not life insurance and it is not transferable to an unrelated purchaser the way a life policy is. It also does not make the annuity a settlement asset.

Which regulator oversees Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company?

The Iowa Insurance Division, because the company is domiciled in Iowa. That regulator handles solvency examination and company-level oversight. If you had a life settlement transaction to conduct, the governing law would be that of your own state of residence rather than Iowa, since settlements are regulated where the policy owner lives, not where the carrier is domiciled.

Related Reading

• Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
• How To Find Out If A Policy Still Exists
• Life Settlement Vs Selling An Annuity
• What Is Indexed Universal Life
• What Is An In Force Illustration
• What Is Cost Of Insurance
• Can I Sell An Indexed Universal Life Policy
• Sell My Voya Indexed Universal Policy

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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.