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Creating awareness about life settlements is beginning to impact the marketplace in a positive, measurable way.
The Life Insurance Settlement Association recently released the results of its 2025 member survey.
The survey showed that, in the last five years, life settlements completed through LISA members provided consumers with $3.6 billion.
That's $3 billion more than insurance companies would have paid through surrender charges if the consumers had simply surrendered their policies.
In 2025, consumers received 9 times the cash surrender value through life settlements.
The average life settlement payout was $212,066, and the average cash value of those policies was only $24,360.
Let's not forget that convertible term policies, which rarely have cash surrender value, also make great candidates for life settlements.
A total of $626.6 million was paid to consumers who sold convertible term policies.
Consumers completed 2,955 convertible term transactions, or 9.4% more than they completed in 2024.
This payout means the policyholders received $554.6 million more than they would have received if they had surrendered their policies.
The Takeaway
Be sure that your clients realize that a life settlement is an alternative to the lapse or surrender of a policy, not to keeping the policy.
But the LISA numbers show that life settlements continue to provide an important opportunity for policyholders who are about to lapse or surrender their policies.
You must keep your clients informed about the status and value of their policies, to help them avoid missing out on a potentially valuable life settlement.
Once a policy lapses, it's no longer a candidate.
Once a convertible term policy's conversion period expires, it is generally no longer a life settlement candidate, either.
Robin S. Weinberger, CLU, ChFC, CLTC, is the director of national accounts for Life Insurance Settlements Inc. She has been a general agent and director of national accounts for Connecticut Mutual and vice president of marketing for Sun Life of Canada.
Peter N. Katz, JD, CLU, ChFC, RICP, is a life settlement broker and co-director of national accounts with Life Insurance Settlements. He is also a consultant specializing in life insurance advanced sales illustrations, and he has served as an advanced markets attorney and in product development.
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