Check first whether the contract in your hand is life insurance at all, because Washington National’s business is heavily weighted toward supplemental health — cancer, critical illness, and accident coverage — and those policies are not life insurance and cannot be sold. A supplemental health policy pays a benefit to you on a covered diagnosis or event. It has no death benefit for a third party to purchase, no cash surrender value in the life insurance sense, and no place in the life settlement market. People bring these to policy reviews regularly and are surprised, which is understandable: they are insurance policies, they came from an insurance company, and they cost money every month.
Second, we have not been able to confirm that Washington National Insurance Company offers a retail indexed universal life product, and we are not going to assert one exists in order to make this page read more cleanly. Its individual life lineup has been modest relative to its supplemental health business. If your paperwork says indexed, the plausible explanations are that the contract is a fixed universal life policy crediting a declared rate, that it is a supplemental health policy being described loosely, or that the indexed contract came from a different insurer entirely.
Two minutes with the policy’s first page settles it. If a face amount and a cost-of-insurance charge appear, it is life insurance. If the schedule lists benefit amounts payable on diagnosis of specified conditions, it is health coverage. The rest of this page covers who Washington National is, what happened to it during the Conseco years, and — if you do hold a genuine indexed life contract from any carrier — how it would actually be valued.
In This Article
- Life insurance or supplemental health? A two-minute test
- Who Washington National is, and what the Conseco years actually did
- If it is a genuine indexed contract: the three parameters
- The illustration rules changed twice, and the charge curve did not
- What would disqualify a file
- What to send, and what a review will tell you
- Frequently Asked Questions
Life insurance or supplemental health? A two-minute test
Pull the policy schedule page and look for these markers.
It is life insurance if the schedule states a face amount or death benefit, names a beneficiary, and — on a universal life chassis — shows a monthly deduction that includes a cost-of-insurance charge. Permanent life policies also show an account value or a guaranteed cash value table.
It is supplemental health coverage if the schedule lists benefit amounts tied to events rather than to death: a lump sum on a first diagnosis of internal cancer, a daily hospital confinement benefit, a per-treatment radiation or chemotherapy benefit, an accident benefit schedule, or a critical illness lump sum on a covered condition. These policies pay you while you are living. That is their entire purpose.
Why the distinction is absolute here: a life settlement transfers ownership of a life insurance policy to an institutional buyer who then pays the premiums and receives the death benefit. Supplemental health coverage has no death benefit to transfer, and its benefits are personal to the insured. There is no market for it, and anyone suggesting otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
One useful related point. If you hold a life policy and a chronic or critical illness rider or a separate supplemental health policy, the health coverage may solve the problem that brought you here without any sale at all. A rider that pays part of a death benefit early during a qualifying illness, or a cancer policy that pays a lump sum on diagnosis, is money you have already paid for. Our page comparing a life settlement against a chronic illness rider works through when each is the better route.
Who Washington National is, and what the Conseco years actually did
Washington National Insurance Company was organized in Illinois in 1911, initially selling health and accident coverage to teachers before broadening to the general public and adding life insurance. Its home office today is in Carmel, Indiana, and it operates as a subsidiary of CNO Financial Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation also headquartered in Carmel. Sister companies within CNO include Bankers Life and Casualty Company and Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
On the question of domiciliary state, we would rather be precise than tidy. Washington National was organized under Illinois law, and the Illinois Department of Insurance has conducted financial examinations of the company as recently as the mid-2010s, while the home office address is in Indiana. Rather than infer a domicile from a mailing address, confirm it through the NAIC’s Consumer Information Source or by asking the company directly if it matters to your question. It usually does not, for the reason given at the end of this section.
The corporate history runs like this. Conseco acquired Washington National in 1997. In December 2002 Conseco, Inc., the holding company, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization — at the time one of the largest bankruptcies in United States history — and emerged in 2003. The point that matters to a policyholder: the regulated insurance subsidiaries were not the bankruptcy debtor. They remained under state insurance department supervision with their own capital requirements, and policyholder contracts continued in force throughout. In 2009 Conseco Insurance Company was merged into Washington National, consolidating blocks under one company, and in 2010 the holding company was renamed CNO Financial Group.
If your policy says Conseco or Conseco Insurance Company on it, Washington National is the entity servicing it now, and the original contract terms carry over unchanged. A merger, a redomestication, or a holding company reorganization never rewrites an issued policy. Our page on what happens when a carrier merged and who owns the policy covers the rule.
And the jurisdiction point people reverse: whatever state regulates Washington National as a company, your own state of residence regulates the sale of your policy. Life settlement law is written and enforced where the policy owner lives, and it sets the required disclosures, the licensing standard for every provider and broker, and the rescission period after signing.
If it is a genuine indexed contract: the three parameters
An indexed universal life policy is not invested in an index. The insurer holds general account assets, funds a budget of index options each segment, and credits a formula-derived amount governed by three parameters, each of which sits inside a range the carrier may move within.
The cap is the ceiling on a segment’s credit — a 9 percent cap against a 24 percent index year credits 9 percent. Contracts typically guarantee only a minimum cap, well below the illustrated one, and caps have trended down across the industry as option budgets compressed. The participation rate is the share of index movement counted; 60 percent participation against a 10 percent index year produces a 6 percent gross credit before the cap applies. Quoting either figure alone tells you nothing about the other. The floor, ordinarily zero, means a negative index year credits nothing instead of a loss.
The floor is the feature the product is sold on and the most commonly misread provision in the contract. Zero applies to the index credit, not to the account value. The monthly deduction for cost of insurance, administrative charges, and rider costs is taken regardless of index performance, so on an older policy a zero-credit year is a losing year for the account value rather than a flat one. Several such years in an insured’s late seventies is the standard route to a lapse warning.
Two details that surprise owners: the measured index is usually a price return index excluding dividends, which over decades accounts for a meaningful share of the gap between expectation and result; and crediting applies per segment, so money entering the contract at different times sits in segments with different parameters and anniversaries, and the blended result rarely matches any headline figure. Our explainer on indexed universal life covers the segment mechanics.
| What the schedule page shows | What you hold | Settlement market? |
|---|---|---|
| Lump sum on first diagnosis of internal cancer | Cancer or specified disease policy | No — not life insurance |
| Daily hospital confinement or per-treatment benefits | Supplemental health coverage | No |
| Lump sum on a covered critical illness | Critical illness policy | No |
| Face amount, beneficiary, cost of insurance charge, named index | Indexed universal life | Possibly, if face is $100K+ |
| Face amount with a single declared credited rate | Fixed universal life | Possibly, same size rules |
| Level premium, expiry year, no cash value | Term life | Only if convertible |
The illustration rules changed twice, and the charge curve did not
Treat the projection you were shown at sale as a historical document rather than a forecast. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted Actuarial Guideline XLIX in 2015, capping the crediting rate an indexed universal life illustration may display by tying it to the policy’s own hedge budget rather than to a chosen assumption. Product design adapted, so 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 shown. Design adapted again, and AG 49-B took effect May 1, 2023, tightening buy-up account treatment further. A pre-2015 projection would in many cases be impermissible today for the same product.
Meanwhile the charge structure did what it was always going to do. The monthly cost-of-insurance deduction is computed per $1,000 of net amount at risk — the death benefit minus the account value — and mortality cost per thousand accelerates rather than creeps with attained age; the difference between the underlying rate at 60 and at 85 is measured in multiples. While credits outrun 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 feedback loop is how a contract funded exactly as illustrated produces a grace notice two decades later. Our page on what cost of insurance is explains the per-thousand mechanics.
One document answers both problems: a current in-force illustration run on guaranteed assumptions — minimum crediting, maximum cost of insurance, maximum expense charges. It tells you the premium required to hold the policy to age 100 in the worst case the contract permits, which is exactly what an institutional buyer models. Carriers default to the current-assumption version, so specify guaranteed basis in writing. Ask in the same letter for the projected lapse year if you continue paying your present premium; the gap between that year and your life expectancy is usually the whole story. Our page on what an in-force illustration is supplies the wording.
What would disqualify a file
A life settlement is the sale of an in-force policy to a licensed institutional buyer for more than the cash surrender value and less than the death benefit. The buyer becomes owner and beneficiary, assumes the premiums, and collects the face amount at the insured’s death. The valuation is mechanical, so the disqualifiers are predictable.
- It is not life insurance. The first and, on this carrier, the most common answer.
- Face amount below roughly $100,000. Independent life expectancy reports, legal review, escrow administration, verification of coverage, and decades of premium servicing cost about the same on a small policy as a large one, so at small face amounts they consume the whole economics. See the minimum policy size for a life settlement.
- A long projected life expectancy. An insured in their early sixties in good health produces decades of projected premium and a present value that will not clear the surrender value. Expect no offer rather than a low one.
- A required premium out of proportion to the face amount.
- A contract inside the two-year contestability window, during which the carrier may investigate and rescind for a material misstatement on the application. No buyer purchases that risk.
- A large outstanding loan, which reduces the net death benefit dollar for dollar while accruing interest against the account value that is keeping the policy alive.
Where the answer is no, alternatives still exist and are worth pursuing: reducing the death benefit to a level the current account value can sustain, electing a reduced paid-up option if the contract offers one, using an accelerated death benefit rider you may already own, or simply letting a small policy go if it has stopped serving a purpose. The general case for indexed contracts is at can I sell an indexed universal life policy.
What to send, and what a review will tell you
Send two documents and a reviewer can answer most of this in a single conversation: the policy schedule or cover page, and the most recent annual statement or premium notice. Between them they establish whether the contract is life insurance or health coverage, which company issued it and which services it now, the face amount if any, the plan type and form number, and the funding picture.
If the contract turns out to be supplemental health coverage, the answer is immediate and the conversation should move to whether the benefits it does provide are being used. Many people carry cancer or critical illness policies for decades and never file a claim they were entitled to, sometimes because the benefit schedule is written in language nobody reads until a diagnosis arrives. Reading the schedule now costs nothing.
If it is life insurance, the review covers whether the face amount clears the market’s working minimum, what premium the contract genuinely requires on guaranteed assumptions, whether surrender would beat any plausible offer, and whether a rider you already own solves the problem for free. In a meaningful share of cases the honest recommendation is not to sell, and hearing that within a week rather than after two months of marketing is the point.
Do not send a Social Security number, banking information, or medical records at this stage. Nobody needs them to determine whether a policy is worth pursuing, and an early request for them is a reason to slow down and ask why. There is no legitimate upfront fee for a policy evaluation. Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review, and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice; anything touching taxes, an estate plan, or eligibility for a needs-based benefit belongs with your own CPA or attorney first. If what you hold is a term contract, start with our page on a Washington National term life policy. To reach a reviewer, call (305) 209-7183 with the schedule page in front of you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell my Washington National cancer or critical illness policy?
No. Supplemental health policies pay benefits to you on a covered diagnosis or event and have no death benefit for a third party to purchase. A life settlement transfers ownership of a life insurance policy to a buyer who then pays premiums and collects the death benefit. There is no equivalent market for health coverage, and anyone suggesting otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
Does Washington National sell indexed universal life insurance?
We have not been able to confirm a retail indexed universal life product from Washington National Insurance Company, and we will not assert one exists. The company’s business is weighted toward supplemental health coverage. Check whether your schedule page shows a face amount, a beneficiary, a cost of insurance charge and a named index, and ask the company to confirm the plan type in writing.
Conseco went bankrupt. Is my policy still valid?
Yes. Conseco, Inc., the holding company, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in December 2002 and emerged in 2003, but the regulated insurance subsidiaries were not the bankruptcy debtor. They remained under state insurance department supervision with their own capital requirements, and policyholder contracts continued in force. The holding company was renamed CNO Financial Group in 2010.
My policy says Conseco Insurance Company. Who services it now?
Washington National. Conseco Insurance Company was merged into Washington National in 2009, consolidating blocks under one company. The original contract terms carry over unchanged, because a merger never rewrites an issued policy. If you want that confirmed, request a written statement of the current servicing entity and file it with the contract for future reference.
Does a zero percent floor mean my indexed policy cannot lose value?
No. The floor applies only to the index credit, so a losing index year credits zero rather than a negative number. Cost of insurance, administrative charges and rider fees are still deducted every month 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 rather than a flat one.
Which state’s law governs a life settlement transaction?
The law of the state where the policy owner resides, not where the insurer is domiciled or headquartered. Your state sets the required disclosures, the licensing standard applied to providers and brokers, and the number of days you have to rescind after signing. Verify licensing with your own state’s insurance department rather than the carrier’s home state regulator.
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Related Reading
- What Is Indexed Universal Life
- Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
- What Is An In Force Illustration
- What Is Cost Of Insurance
- Can I Sell An Indexed Universal Life Policy
- Minimum Policy Size For A Life Settlement
- Life Settlement Vs Chronic Illness Rider
- Sell My Washington National 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.