Venerable does not appear to issue term life insurance, so the first useful step is identifying which company actually holds your term contract. Venerable Holdings was created in 2018 for one purpose: to acquire and administer closed blocks of variable annuities. We have not been able to confirm that it has ever issued an individual life insurance policy of any kind under its own name, and we will not assert one exists. Term insurance in particular is a product that runoff annuity specialists do not write.
So if a Venerable statement and a term life policy are sitting in the same folder, they are almost certainly two different contracts from two different companies. Working out which company issued the term policy is not a detour; it is the whole first stage of the analysis, because every question you need answered — is the conversion right still open, what does conversion cost, what is the in-force face amount — can only be answered by the carrier that holds the contract.
The second half of the analysis is the one that applies to any term policy from any carrier. Term has market value only while it can still be converted into permanent coverage, because a buyer is purchasing a death benefit that will eventually be claimed and an expiring term certificate will never produce one. That conversion deadline is usually earlier than the level premium period ends, it is enforced strictly, and it cannot be recovered once it passes. Everything below follows from those two facts.
In This Article
What a buyer is actually valuing in a term contract
A life settlement is the sale of an in-force policy to a licensed institutional buyer for more than its surrender value and less than its death benefit. The buyer becomes owner and beneficiary, takes over the premiums, and collects the face amount at the insured’s death. The whole model depends on the policy still existing on that day.
Term insurance is designed not to. Level term is priced on the actuarial expectation that the great majority of these policies lapse or expire without paying a claim, which is exactly why term premiums are a fraction of permanent premiums for the same face amount. From a buyer’s perspective, a term contract with no conversion right is an expense with a countdown attached and no terminal payoff.
What can be worth money is the conversion provision — the contractual right to exchange the term policy for a permanent policy with the same carrier, at the insured’s original risk classification, with no new medical questions and no exam. For an insured who has since been diagnosed with something serious, that right is often the only way permanent coverage can still be obtained at any price. It is a genuine option with genuine value, and it is what a buyer prices.
The right has two dimensions and both need to be documented. The deadline, which carriers express as a number of policy years, an attained age, or the earlier of the two — a 20-year term issued at 52 might be convertible only through policy year 10 or age 65, killing the option a decade before the premium jump that finally prompts anyone to look. And the available plans, since some contracts allow conversion into any current permanent product while others restrict you to one designated plan priced above the retail lineup. Our explainer on what a term conversion rider is covers the structure, and the general framework is at selling a term life policy.
What a Venerable contract actually is
Venerable Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Its principal insurance subsidiary, Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company, is domiciled in Iowa and was formerly named Voya Insurance and Annuity Company, which puts its solvency oversight with the Iowa Insurance Division.
The company was formed in 2018 to acquire Voya Financial’s closed block variable annuity segment — in-force variable annuity contracts, many carrying guaranteed living benefit or guaranteed minimum death benefit riders written in a different rate environment, that Voya had ceased selling. Venerable’s business is running blocks like that: administration, hedging the embedded guarantees, and policyholder servicing rather than new sales. In 2021 it added a legacy variable annuity block associated with Equitable through a reinsurance transaction.
Two practical consequences. First, receiving statements from a company you never selected is normal in a runoff block and is not a sign of a problem; a block transfer never rewrites the contract, so your guarantees, riders, and surrender schedule are exactly what they were at issue. Our page on what happens when a carrier merged and who owns the policy covers the rule.
Second, and more relevant here: an annuity cannot be sold in the life settlement market. There is no death benefit to transfer in the way a settlement transfers one, many annuity contracts restrict assignment outright, and a transfer can trigger immediate tax on the gain. A separate secondary market exists for certain annuity payment streams, mostly structured settlements, under its own statutes and often requiring court approval — a different industry entirely. Our page comparing a life settlement against selling an annuity sets out the differences. If someone offers to buy your Venerable annuity as a life settlement, that is the end of the conversation.
Finding the company that issued your term policy
Work through this in order. It usually takes a single afternoon.
Read the policy face page. The issuing company is printed there along with the form number, the face amount, the issue date, and the level premium period. The name on your most recent envelope may be a servicer rather than the issuer; the face page is authoritative.
If the policy is missing, follow the money. Bank statements or canceled checks showing a recurring premium draft name the payee and frequently the policy number. Tax records sometimes surface it. An old employer’s benefits summary will identify group coverage.
If the trail points to Voya or ING, know where each piece went. Voya Financial is the successor to ING’s United States operations, separated from ING Groep and taken public in 2013 before adopting the Voya name in 2014. Its individual life business — including Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, the Colorado-domiciled insurer through which much of that coverage was written — was sold to Resolution Life Group Holdings in a transaction that closed in January 2021. Voya’s term products were marketed under names including TermSmart and a return-of-premium endowment term. Voya retained its employee benefits business, with group life written largely through ReliaStar Life Insurance Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. So an individual Voya term policy is likely serviced within the Resolution Life organization today, while a Voya group certificate is a different matter with different rules.
If nothing works, use the public channels. Your own state’s insurance department maintains a consumer assistance function for exactly this. State unclaimed property offices hold proceeds and matured values carriers could not deliver, and searching every state the insured has lived in is free. Note that the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator Service is built for beneficiaries of a deceased insured, not for a living policyholder tracing their own contract. Our page on how to find out if a policy still exists covers the full sequence, and for the substantive analysis once you have identified a Voya term contract, see our page on a Voya term life policy.
| What you found in the file | What it is | Next move |
|---|---|---|
| Venerable statement with an account value and surrender schedule | Deferred variable annuity | Not a settlement asset; discuss options with your tax advisor |
| Term policy face page naming Security Life of Denver | Voya individual life block sold in January 2021 | Contact the current servicer for conversion terms |
| Certificate naming an employer | Group term certificate | Find the conversion window; usually 31 days after coverage ends |
| Term policy, conversion right open, face $250K+, insured 70+ | Potentially marketable after conversion | Get written terms and a converted premium quote |
| Term policy, conversion window expired | No market value | Check for return-of-premium or accelerated benefit provisions |
| No paperwork at all, insured living | Traceable | Carrier inquiry, premium draft records, unclaimed property search |
The five things to demand in writing
Once you know who holds the contract, request these five items in writing. A verbal assurance that you should still be able to convert is not a document and will not be accepted as one by anybody evaluating the policy.
- The calendar date the conversion right expires. Ask for a date, not the formula, so there is nothing to misinterpret.
- The permanent plans available on conversion, including whether you are restricted to a single designated conversion product.
- Whether partial conversion is permitted and the minimum amount. Converting a portion of a large face and letting the rest expire is frequently the smartest available structure, because it keeps the resulting premium payable.
- A converted premium quote at the insured’s attained age for the actual product available. This number feeds directly into what any buyer would pay; a high one suppresses offers.
- The current in-force face amount, confirming nothing has changed and no reduction schedule has applied.
Request a duplicate policy at the same time if you do not have the contract. The conversion provision lives in the policy and nowhere else — not on the premium notice, not in the brochure you were given at sale. And remember that the form number governs your rights rather than the marketing name; two policies issued three years apart under the same brand can have materially different conversion terms if the form changed.
If the answer comes back that the window has closed, that is final. Carriers do not reopen expired conversion rights, no relationship in the industry recovers one, and a party who suggests otherwise is telling you something that should end the discussion. If the deadline is near rather than past, our page on a term conversion deadline approaching covers the remaining moves.
When the honest answer is that no market exists
Better to hear this before spending money than after. A term policy generally will not attract an institutional offer when any of the following is true.
- The conversion right has expired. Final, and no exceptions.
- The face amount is under roughly $100,000. A buyer’s costs are largely fixed — independent life expectancy reports, legal review of the assignment and ownership documents, escrow administration, verification of coverage, and then decades of premium payment and tracking. Those costs are nearly identical on a small policy and a large one, so below about $100,000 they consume the whole economics. See the minimum policy size for a life settlement.
- The insured is under about 65 and in reasonable health. Valuation is driven by projected life expectancy, and a long one means decades of projected premium against a present value that will not clear. The usual result is no offer at all rather than a low offer.
- The converted premium is disproportionate. If the designated conversion product is priced so the premium stream over a realistic holding period approaches the discounted death benefit, nobody bids.
- The coverage is still needed. A surviving spouse without pension continuation, a dependent with a disability, or a mortgage that outlives the insured are all reasons to keep the policy and address the premium another way.
Where the answer is no, real alternatives remain: partial conversion to bring the permanent premium into range, a return-of-premium provision if your form carries one, or an accelerated death benefit provision that may pay part of the face during a qualifying terminal illness at no additional cost — a benefit many owners have and do not know about. And in the opposite direction, one narrow exception: where the insured is terminally or chronically ill and the projected claim date sits comfortably inside the remaining level period, a viatical settlement on a term policy can be possible. That depends on medical documentation and on enough level term remaining.
The sequence, and what to send for a review
Two of these steps are irreversible, so run them in this order.
- Identify the issuing carrier and confirm the policy is in force. Nothing else can be evaluated first.
- Obtain the written conversion terms using the five-item list above.
- Have the file reviewed while it is still term. This is the step people take last and should take third. A review tells you whether the resulting permanent policy would attract institutional interest before you commit to converting and begin paying permanent premiums that typically run several times the term premium. Converting first and asking afterward is the most expensive mistake available in this area.
- Convert only the portion you need, if partial conversion is available.
- Market the converted policy through life expectancy underwriting, competitive bidding, closing, escrow, and the rescission window your own state provides.
For a free policy review, send the policy cover page — the insured’s name, policy number, form number, issue date, face amount, and level premium period — the most recent premium notice, and the conversion provision if you can locate it. From those three documents a reviewer can determine the remaining level period, whether the conversion right appears open, the face amount at stake, and whether the size clears the market’s working minimum. If what you have is an annuity statement rather than a life policy, a reviewer can tell you that in one conversation and save you the rest.
Withhold medical records, Social Security numbers, and bank details at this stage. Nobody needs them to tell you whether a policy is worth pursuing, and an early request for them is a reason to stop and ask why. There is no legitimate upfront fee for evaluating a contract. Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review; we do not provide legal, tax, or investment advice, and anything with tax or estate consequences — including an annuity surrender — belongs with your own CPA or attorney before you act. To reach a reviewer, call (305) 209-7183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Venerable issue term life insurance?
We have not been able to confirm that Venerable has issued individual life insurance of any kind 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 is Iowa-domiciled Venerable Insurance and Annuity Company, formerly Voya Insurance and Annuity Company.
I have a Venerable statement and a term policy. Are they related?
Almost certainly not directly. They are likely two separate contracts from two separate companies that happen to share a corporate ancestry through Voya. Read the face page of the term policy to identify its issuing company, since the name on your most recent envelope may belong to a servicer rather than the issuer, and the face page is the authoritative record.
Where did Voya’s individual term policies end up?
Voya sold its individual life business, including Colorado-domiciled Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, to Resolution Life Group Holdings in a transaction that closed in January 2021. Individual term policies from that block are most likely serviced within the Resolution Life organization today. Voya retained its employee benefits business, so a group life certificate through an employer is a separate situation.
Is an expired term policy worth anything?
No. Buyers purchase death benefits that will eventually be claimed, and coverage that terminates before the insured dies pays nothing to anybody. A term policy with no cash value and no live conversion right has essentially no market value. Any offer to purchase one should be treated as a warning sign rather than an opportunity, and the conversation should stop there.
How much does converting a term policy usually cost?
Substantially more than the term premium, because you are moving from coverage priced to expire to coverage priced to pay. The exact figure depends on the insured’s attained age and the specific permanent product the contract permits, which is sometimes a designated conversion plan priced above the retail lineup. Request a written quote for the actual available product before deciding anything.
Can a broker get an expired conversion right reinstated?
No. Carriers do not reopen expired conversion rights, and no relationship within the industry changes that. If someone tells you they can negotiate one back into existence, treat it as a reason to end the conversation rather than as a reason for optimism. If the deadline has not yet passed, that is a very different situation and worth acting on immediately.
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Related Reading
- Sell Term Life Policy
- What Is A Term Conversion Rider
- Term Conversion Deadline Approaching
- How To Find Out If A Policy Still Exists
- Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
- Life Settlement Vs Selling An Annuity
- Minimum Policy Size For A Life Settlement
- Sell My Voya 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.