Companies That Buy Life Insurance Policies (2026)

No company named on this page paid to appear here. Every company is listed because it appears on a regulator’s list or has published a statement about itself that you can check.

Selling an existing life insurance policy to one of these companies is not the same thing as cashing it in with your own insurance company. In 2025, sellers received an average of $212,066 for their policies. Surrendering to the insurance company instead paid an average of $24,360, nearly 9 times less (Life Insurance Settlement Association, 2025 annual market data). Individual results vary.

Each of these companies is buying for itself, and each one makes its own offer. None of them will tell you what another would have paid. That is why the same policy can sell for very different amounts, depending on how many of these buyers are competing for it.

The Companies Licensed to Buy Life Insurance Policies in 2026

The companies below hold a state license to buy a life insurance policy from the person who owns it. In the industry they are called providers, which simply means licensed buyers.

About 30 companies hold this license. The 22 below are every provider row on the industry license matrix, cross-checked against the New Jersey and California state lists. Of the eight not shown, five hold a license in a single state, and three hold licenses but are not currently active, so they asked to be left off the published matrix.

Each row names the sources that list the company. Checked August 29, 2026.

You can also download this life settlement providers list as a spreadsheet or as structured data, with the sources for every row.

A few cautions before you use this list. It is not exhaustive, and being listed is not an endorsement. Licensing changes, so confirm any company against your own state’s current list before you act. When you are ready to judge a company rather than just identify it, here is how to vet any company you talk to.

Every company above reviews policies separately. Contact three of them and you will fill out three applications and sign three medical records releases. A licensed broker does that work once: one application, one medical release, one file submitted to the buyers that fit the policy. That is how a policy sells for the most the market will pay, because every buyer that wants it has to beat the best offer already in.

A few names deserve a footnote. Berkshire Settlements, Inc. of Atlanta has no connection to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Abacus Settlements operates under Abacus Global Management, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ABX. Older articles calling it Abacus Life on Nasdaq are out of date. Magna Life Settlements is owned by Obra Capital, which was formerly named Vida Capital.

How Many Companies Actually Buy Life Insurance Policies?

About 30 companies in the United States hold a life settlement provider license in at least one state. In the 43 states and Puerto Rico that regulate these sales, a company needs that license to buy your policy.

Those companies hold 685 state licenses between them. That is 25 fewer than the year before. No new companies entered in 2026 (Life Settlement Licence Matrix, data as of August 1, 2026).

As of 2026, 43 states plus Puerto Rico have life-settlement-specific laws, covering roughly 90 percent of the U.S. population (Life Insurance Settlement Association). The state rules on who may buy a policy vary, and a few states have no settlement law at all.

Why does the count matter? Because dozens of websites offer to buy your policy, and most of them are not the company that would sign the contract. The companies that actually purchase life insurance policies in a life settlement are a short, knowable list.

One correction worth printing: if you ever see “301 providers” quoted, that is a reading error. In the source document, a footnote mark sits next to the number 30. The number is 30.

A licensed provider does not bid on every policy. The number of companies that could buy is not the number that will look at any one policy. Closing that gap is usually what separates a low offer from a strong one.

Your Situation Decides Where Your Policy Goes

Which companies would buy your life insurance policy depends less on which one you call than on what you are holding. Find the row that sounds like you.

Why the Company on the TV Ad Is Not Always the Company That Buys

Most of the names you recognize are advertising brands. The company that signs the purchase contract usually has a different legal name.

None of this is hidden. It is simply easy to miss, and there is nothing wrong with a company advertising under a brand name. The reason to know the difference: the license, the state regulator, and the complaint process all attach to the legal entity. None of them attach to the brand on the mailer.

People also search for how much a specific brand, often Coventry Direct, pays. There is no standing answer. Offers vary with the policy. A single direct offer arrives with no second bid beside it, and no way to tell whether it is a good one.

Companies That Advertise to Buy Policies but Say They Are Not Buyers

Several of the most heavily advertised names in this market state on their own websites that they do not buy policies. Here they are, in their own words, quoted from their sites on August 29, 2026.

Several large groups run a licensed buyer and a separate marketing brand at the same time. Coventry First and Coventry Direct are a pair, and so are Lighthouse Life Solutions and Lighthouse Life Direct. The names Encore Life and Encore Life Settlements look like such a pair, but they are legally different companies. The relationship between them is not stated publicly.

A marketing company is not automatically a bad actor. These disclosures are usually accurate, and they sit in a footer where nobody reads them. The useful move is one question, asked before you hand over a policy number. Are you the licensed provider or an advertiser, and which legal entity would own my policy? Knowing the difference between a broker and a provider helps you read the answer. Working through a broker settles that question in advance, since a broker already knows which licensed buyer sits behind each brand.

Who Actually Buys Life Insurance Policies, and Where Does the Money Come From?

Life settlement buyers work in two layers: the licensed provider signs the contract, and institutional investors supply the money. Those investors are pension funds, endowments, insurance-linked and longevity funds, hedge funds, private credit funds, and family offices.

You cannot phone a pension fund and sell it your policy. Funds buy portfolios, not single policies, and they are not licensed to deal with a consumer. So the market runs through the short list of licensed providers above. After a sale, policies are often bundled and traded between institutions, which changes nothing in your contract or anything you already signed.

Why would anyone buy a life insurance policy? After the sale, the buyer pays your premiums and collects the death benefit when the policy pays out. That is the same arithmetic your insurance company has been running since the day you bought the policy. The fund that ends up holding your policy is usually not public information. The licensed provider remains the owner of record and your point of contact.

What Do Buyers Look For, and What Do They Turn Down?

Buyers turn down more policies than they buy, and the reasons are consistent.

What buyers want most is permanent coverage that will still be in force decades from now. Universal life and guaranteed universal life draw the most interest, whole life is regularly bought, and convertible term qualifies while the conversion window is open. Policies of $250,000 and up attract the most competing interest, which is why selling a million dollar policy tends to draw the deepest bidding.

What buyers turn down, and why:

• A death benefit under about $100,000. The cost of reviewing the file does not shrink with the policy.
• A healthy insured with a long life expectancy. The policy is expensive for a buyer to hold.
• Term coverage with no conversion option. It usually cannot be sold; convertible term often can.
• Variable universal life. The account value moves with the market, which makes it harder to price.
• Policies from weakly rated insurance companies. They draw fewer bidders.
• A policy already at the edge of lapsing. It leaves little room to work with.
• Employer group coverage. Ownership complications get in the way.

If your policy fits the wanted list, check whether your policy qualifies, see which health conditions buyers weigh, and read what offers typically look like.

If it does not fit, you still have options worth real money. Start with the ways to cash out a policy without selling it. If the policy itself has gone missing, here is how to find a lost policy.

What Does a Buyer Ask For After You Make Contact?

Contacting a buyer starts an underwriting review, not a price quote. Underwriting means the company studies your health records and your policy before it makes an offer. Here is the sequence:

1. An application covering your health history and current medications.
2. A signed medical records release, called a HIPAA authorization, letting the company request records from your doctors.
3. One or two life expectancy reports. Outside firms review your records and estimate how long you are likely to live. This is where most of the waiting happens.
4. Paperwork from your insurance company showing what the policy is and what it costs to keep.
5. At closing, the change of ownership package. The money is held by a neutral third party until your insurance company confirms the transfer.

The process commonly runs 60 to 90 days, though timing varies. You can stop at any point before you sign. Most states also give you a window after closing to undo the sale, with the length set by your state’s law.

The price side of the review is its own subject, covered in how buyers calculate what to pay. Every buyer that reviews a policy runs its own version of this process, with its own application and its own medical records release. Through a broker, that file is prepared once and goes to all of them at the same time. The step-by-step process walks through it from the seller’s side.

Why One Company’s Offer Is Hard to Judge on Its Own

A single offer has nothing to measure it against.

FINRA is the regulator that oversees securities firms, and its consumer guidance on life settlements makes the point directly. If the person contacting you works with one settlement company, that person “might only obtain an offer from that company, making it hard for you to know whether you’re being offered a competitive price.” FINRA’s suggested fix is to shop around, which can mean contacting multiple companies or “using a licensed life settlement broker who will shop your policy around on your behalf” (FINRA, What You Should Know About Life Settlements).

In Citizens Life Group’s own transactions, a policy taken to multiple buyers draws an average of 9 competing offers. They are rarely close to each other. The distance between the first one and the best one is what a seller gives up by stopping at one. Reading any single offer against what offers typically look like is a reasonable first check.

When Your Own Insurance Company Offers to Buy It Back

Your insurance company will not buy the policy the way an investor does. It has four other ways to give you money for it:

• Surrender the policy for its cash value, the amount your insurance company pays you today to cancel.
• Borrow against the policy with a policy loan.
• Convert to reduced paid-up coverage, keeping a smaller death benefit with no more premiums.
• Use an accelerated death benefit rider, if your policy has one. It pays part of the death benefit early when a doctor certifies a terminal illness, at no extra cost in most policies. The early payment is generally tax free under federal law, and it can often be taken in part, leaving a death benefit for your family. Tax treatment depends on your situation, so talk with a tax professional; the basics are in how life settlements are taxed.

Then there is the buyback letter, sometimes called a buyout offer. Some insurance companies, most often on guaranteed universal life policies, mail an offer above the stated cash surrender value in exchange for cancelling the policy. In 2022, a national group of state lawmakers said some of these offers break pricing rules insurers are supposed to follow (National Council of Insurance Legislators). The same group said these offers look like a policy sale but skip the protections state settlement laws require in a real one.

If your insurance company is willing to pay you more than the surrender value to cancel, that is a bid. A bid is worth comparing against other bids before you sign. The full comparison lives in life settlement vs. surrendering your policy.

Buyers That No Longer Exist, and What Happened

Two companies that still appear on other lists no longer buy policies. In both cases the people who lost money were investors, not the seniors who sold policies.

GWG Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2022, owing roughly $1.6 billion on bonds it had sold to retail investors. Its life insurance portfolio was sold in October 2023. What remains is a wind-down trust, a leftover entity closing out the company’s old business, and it does not buy policies (GWG Wind Down Trust). Its former board chairman was convicted of fraud in federal court in May 2026 (U.S. Department of Justice).

A GWG subsidiary still holds one state license (Life Settlement Licence Matrix, 2026). That is why the name still shows up on some lists as though it were an active buyer. It is not.

Life Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2015. The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged it over life expectancy estimates that ran systematically short. A court-created trust took over, sold the remaining portfolio to an asset manager in 2022, and is winding down. No Life Partners entity buys policies today.

In both collapses, the sellers had already been paid. The losses fell on the investors who put money into these companies. If a list you are reading still shows either name as an active buyer, that list has not been checked recently.

How to Check That a Company Is Licensed in Your State

A license is a public record, and you can check one yourself in a few minutes.

1. Get the company’s exact legal entity name, not the brand name on the letter. The license is issued to the entity.
2. Open your own state insurance department’s published list of licensed viatical and life settlement providers. This is the official source. Three worked examples: the New Jersey list, the California list, and Florida’s licensee search, where you search by name.
3. Some states, including Texas, publish no list at all. There, use the state’s general license lookup or ask the insurance department directly.
4. If neither works, try the NAIC State Based Systems lookup. Company licenses do not always appear there, and not every state takes part, so a blank result is not proof of anything.
5. Confirm the license is current rather than lapsed, and that it covers your state.

One complication worth knowing. Five states (Alabama, Missouri, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming) plus the District of Columbia have no life-settlement-specific law. Michigan and New Mexico regulate only viatical settlements, the sales made by terminally or chronically ill owners. In those places there may be no license to look up, and the protections that come with one do not apply. Ask which state’s license the company holds instead. The full picture is in the state rules on who may buy a policy.

Print this checklist and keep it with your policy papers.

How Does One Policy Reach All of These Buyers at Once?

A licensed life settlement broker takes one policy to many of these licensed buyers at the same time. The offers come back to you.

Several of the largest buyers advertise to the public through a marketing brand. Others deal only with intermediaries. What does not change is that a single company produces a single offer. A broker’s job is to make those companies bid against each other and put their offers side by side. The broker represents you, the seller, not any of them. The legal side of that relationship is covered in the difference between a broker and a provider.

You pay nothing up front. The broker’s commission comes out of the settlement at closing, and every fee is disclosed to you in writing before you commit.

Citizens Life Group is a licensed life settlement brokerage that represents you, the seller, and shops your policy competitively to maximize your offer. In states where it is not licensed, it works with affiliated brokers who also represent you, the seller, so contact us to confirm your state. The licensed broker is Jeff Hallman, a Florida licensed life agent (line 0215) with an appointed viatical settlement broker authority (line 0266). You can verify him by name with the Florida Department of Financial Services.

One thing our files show: different buyers read the same medical records differently, and two underwriting teams regularly price the same policy far apart. That gap is the reason to have more than one offer on the table. Individual results vary.

A policy shown to one buyer gets one offer. The same policy shown to every buyer that fits it gets several, and each of them knows it has to beat the others to win. Competition is what pushes the final offer up. For a closer look at how the different kinds of companies in this market compare, our guide to choosing a life settlement company covers that.

Questions About the Companies That Buy Policies

What are companies that buy life insurance policies called?

They are called life settlement providers. Some also use the words buyer, direct buyer, or institutional buyer. A provider holds a state license that allows it to purchase a policy from the person who owns it. About 30 companies in the United States hold that license (Life Settlement Licence Matrix, 2026).

Can I sell my policy directly to a hedge fund or a pension fund?

No. Institutional investors supply the money, but they buy portfolios rather than single policies, and they are not licensed to buy from an individual. The licensed provider is the company that signs the contract and becomes the new owner of your policy.

How do I get more than one of these companies to look at my policy?

Policies reach multiple licensed buyers through a life settlement broker. The broker prepares one file, submits it to the buyers that fit the policy, and those buyers know they are bidding against each other. A broker represents you, the seller, rather than any buyer, and is paid from the settlement at closing, so there is no upfront cost.

Why do some companies advertise that they buy policies when they are not licensed to buy them?

Several large groups run a licensed buyer and a separate marketing brand. The marketing brand advertises, collects your information, and passes qualified policies to the licensed company. Most of those marketing companies say so on their own websites, usually in the footer or the terms page.

Who sends the letters and calls offering to buy my policy?

Usually a marketing or lead generation company rather than the company that would buy the policy. Ask which licensed provider the offer goes to and get that company’s exact legal name. Look it up on your state insurance department’s list before you share a policy number.

What happens to my medical records when I contact a company that buys policies?

You sign a release that lets the company request records from your doctors. Those records go to the buyer’s underwriting team and to the independent firms that estimate life expectancy and price the policy. You can stop the process at any point before you sign.

What happens to my policy after a company buys it, and will my family receive anything?

The buyer becomes the owner and the beneficiary, pays the premiums from then on, and receives the death benefit. Your family does not receive a death benefit from a policy you sold in full. That is why some sellers keep part of the coverage in what is called a retained death benefit.

Can a company buy a term life insurance policy?

Sometimes. Buyers look at term coverage only when it can still be converted to permanent insurance. A term policy that simply expires has no value to them. Conversion deadlines are firm and often pass before people realize it, so check your policy’s conversion date first.

Will my own insurance company buy my policy back?

Insurance companies do not buy policies the way investors do. Some do offer more than the stated cash surrender value to cancel a policy, most often on guaranteed universal life. That is a bid. It is worth comparing against what buyers on the open market would pay before you accept it.

Is it legal to sell a life insurance policy, and do I owe tax on the money?

Yes, it is legal. The United States Supreme Court recognized a life insurance policy as property that can be sold in Grigsby v. Russell, 222 U.S. 149 (1911), and 43 states plus Puerto Rico regulate these sales today (Life Insurance Settlement Association). Part of what you receive may be taxable. We recommend talking with a tax professional about your own situation.

Does the company that buys my policy have to be near me?

No. These are national companies, and almost none of them have a local office. What matters is whether the company holds a license that covers your state, not how far away it is. The whole process is handled by mail, phone, and secure electronic documents.

What happens to my policy if the company that bought it goes out of business?

Nothing changes for you once the sale has closed and you have been paid. The policy belongs to the buyer, and if the buyer later fails, its policies are sold to another investor. That is what happened with GWG’s portfolio in 2023. Before closing, the purchase money sits with a neutral third party until the transfer is confirmed.

Sources

• European Life Settlement Association, Life Settlement Licence Matrix 2026 Fact Sheet. The provider count (30), the license total (685, down 25 from the year before), and the named provider rows, data as of August 1, 2026. The matrix PDF is linked from that page.
• New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, licensed viatical and life settlement providers. State provider list, as of August 28, 2024. Roster rows and the license lookup example.
• California Department of Insurance, licensed life settlement providers. State provider list, undated; checked August 29, 2026. Roster rows and the license lookup example.
• Florida Department of Financial Services licensee search. The public lookup for verifying any Florida licensee by name.
• NAIC State Based Systems lookup. The multi-state license lookup, with the caveats noted in the checklist above.
• FINRA, What You Should Know About Life Settlements. The regulator’s consumer guidance quoted in this article, including the single-offer warning.
• Life Insurance Settlement Association, 2025 Annual Market Data. The $212,066 average settlement and $24,360 average surrender figures for 2025.
• Life Insurance Settlement Association, regulations overview. The 43-states-plus-Puerto-Rico regulatory count and the roughly 90 percent population coverage figure.
• NCOIL resolution on enhanced cash surrender value endorsements (2022). The state lawmakers’ resolution on insurer buyback offers cited in the buyback section.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of New York, fraud conviction press release. The May 2026 conviction of GWG’s former board chairman.
• GWG Wind Down Trust. The trust’s own description of its wind-down status and the October 2023 portfolio sale.
• Securities and Exchange Commission, litigation release LR-22219, Life Partners. The SEC’s charges over systematically underestimated life expectancies.
• California Department of Insurance, Senior Advisory SA2011-02 on STOLI schemes and Illinois Department of Insurance on stranger-originated life insurance. The warnings behind the boxed caution above.
• Federal Trade Commission on the MediaAlpha settlement (August 2025). The lead-generation enforcement action cited in the boxed caution.
• Obra Capital, insurance platform. Obra’s own statement that Magna Life Settlements is its licensed life settlement provider.
• Lighthouse Life, acquisition of Harbor Life Settlements assets (July 2024). The acquisition record quoted in the footnote above.
• Grigsby v. Russell, 222 U.S. 149 (1911). The Supreme Court decision recognizing a life insurance policy as sellable property.

Company self-disclosure quotes are linked to the exact page each statement appears on, in the table above, with the date each was quoted.

Corrections and Updates

If you represent a company on this list and something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. Write to contact@citizenslifegroup.com. Corrections are made in the article and dated.

About This Article

Citizens Life Group is a licensed life settlement brokerage that represents you, the seller, and shops your policy competitively to maximize your offer. This article is general education and not legal, tax, or financial advice. Figures are year-stamped, individual results vary, and there is no guarantee that any policy will receive an offer.

Company names, licensing status, and legal history were checked against the sources listed above on August 29, 2026. Status changes, so confirm anything current with the regulator before acting on it. The roster is rechecked against state regulator lists and the industry license matrix at least twice a year. The company statements quoted above are rechecked quarterly.