Health Conditions That Qualify for a Viatical or Life Settlement

How Buyers Read a Diagnosis

Buyers never meet you. They meet your medical records. Their underwriters add points, called debits, for each documented condition, and the total shapes an estimated life expectancy that drives every offer.

Institutional buyers typically want at least two independent life expectancy reports on a file, and they stress-test them by adding 24 to 36 months (industry underwriting practice). In plain terms: buyers assume you may live longer than the reports say, and price for that. The most recent records weigh most, staging changes and treatment changes are the timeline underwriters actually read, and a file that was declined can be reviewed again after the picture changes. A hospice or palliative referral is a documentation signal buyers take seriously.

Nobody examines you or asks your doctor for a prognosis. Underwriters work from what your doctors have already documented.

The result lands in one of three lanes, named here once and used through the rest of this page. The viatical lane: a documented life expectancy of generally 24 months or less. The impaired-health life settlement: health has shortened the documented life expectancy, but beyond the viatical threshold. The standard life settlement: priced mostly on age and policy economics. Where a diagnosis can land in more than one lane, this page says case by case, and the records decide.

The viatical range reflects what we see brokering these transactions. The settlement ranges reflect industry data.

How a documented life expectancy maps to typical ranges. The 10 to 25% typical figure quoted elsewhere on this site is the blended average across the settlement lanes. Individual results vary; no range is a quote or a promise, and there is no guarantee of an offer.

The pillar page covers what a viatical settlement pays in depth, the glossary defines the life expectancy report, and the valuation guide shows how buyers calculate an offer.

You do not need to know any of these numbers. They are already in your records, which are gathered only with your written permission.

Can Several Conditions Qualify Together, Without One Serious Diagnosis?

One major diagnosis is not required to sell a life insurance policy. Most policies that sell belong to someone in their seventies managing several conditions at once, and they price as a standard life settlement. Buyers read the whole file: what you manage and how it has trended. Individual results vary.

Underwriters call it comorbidity, more than one serious condition at a time, and they assess the combination rather than each item alone. Heart disease plus diabetes plus kidney trouble shortens a documented life expectancy more than any one of the three would by itself. That is the typical settled file: industry data puts the average insured near age 76 at the time of sale.

In 2025 the average life settlement paid $212,066, nearly 9 times the average surrender value of $24,360 (LISA). Your offer depends on your policy, your age, and your health. Weight and smoking history count too; they are ordinary debits in the file, not disqualifiers.

Does Cancer Qualify for a Viatical Settlement?

Cancer can qualify, and it is the diagnosis buyers see most. What matters is your current documented status: active disease that is progressing reads very differently from stable disease on treatment, or remission. The lane is case by case, decided by the records rather than the word cancer. Individual results vary.

Active, metastatic disease, stage 4 in the records with treatment no longer holding it, is where viatical pricing lives. When a physician documents a life expectancy of generally 24 months or less, these files typically pay 50 to 80% of face value, sometimes more at the shortest life expectancies. Individual results vary.

Some stage 4 cancers are now managed for years. Prostate cancer on hormone therapy, some breast cancers, immunotherapy responders. Those policies can still sell, usually in the standard life settlement lane rather than the viatical lane, because underwriters price the documented response, not the stage on the original pathology report.

Remission changes everything. A survivor five years out prices mostly on age and the rest of the file. Timing matters in the other direction too: what the records said last month carries more weight than what they said two years ago, and a file that did not qualify can be reviewed again if treatment stops working.

Does Congestive Heart Failure Qualify for a Viatical or Life Settlement?

Congestive heart failure (CHF) can qualify, but it has the widest range of any diagnosis on this page: stable disease on modern therapy is a different file from class IV with three hospital stays this year. That is why the answer is case by case. Individual results vary.

Cardiologists grade congestive heart failure by NYHA class, meaning symptoms with light activity (class III) or at rest (class IV), and class matters more to an underwriter than any single test number. Ejection fraction, how much blood the heart pushes out with each beat, is one number underwriters read, but only one: cardiology guidelines estimate roughly half of seniors with heart failure have a preserved ejection fraction, and they can still be seriously ill.

What moves a file most is the past twelve months of records. Hospital admissions. A defibrillator or pump decision. Kidney numbers declining alongside the heart. Cardiac medicine has genuinely improved and underwriters know it, so a stable, well-managed file prices closer to a standard life settlement, while advanced disease with repeat admissions can reach the viatical lane.

Can I Sell My Life Insurance Policy if I Have COPD?

COPD can qualify. Very severe COPD, what doctors call GOLD stage 4, with around-the-clock oxygen and repeated hospital stays, can reach the viatical lane. Moderate COPD more often supports a standard life settlement at 65 and older. Underwriters read how your breathing tests and hospital visits have trended, not the diagnosis by name. Individual results vary.

Oxygen tells the story quickly: around-the-clock use is a heavier debit than nighttime-only. So do flare-ups. Underwriters weigh hospitalizations per year at least as heavily as the stage itself, because the trend predicts more than a single breathing test. Life expectancy underwriters have also weighted COPD more heavily in recent years, which tends to mean stronger offers on serious COPD files.

The other side is that COPD often plateaus. People in poor health on oxygen can hold stable for years, and a stable file prices as a settlement, not a viatical. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis follow the same rules; the records, not the name, set the lane.

Does Pulmonary Fibrosis Qualify for a Viatical Settlement?

Pulmonary fibrosis qualifies more often than most diagnoses here. Lung scarring that keeps progressing, especially IPF, moves a file into the impaired-health life settlement lane, and advanced cases reach the viatical lane. Underwriters read the rate of decline in your breathing tests. Individual results vary.

IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is the version underwriters treat most seriously, and the newer antifibrotic drugs are part of the file too, because response to them changes the trajectory. This disease is famously uneven: some people decline slowly for years while others move fast, which is exactly why the breathing-test trend and oxygen needs carry the weight. If you were recently diagnosed and stable, expect settlement pricing. If the records show steady decline, say so on the first call.

Does ALS Qualify for a Viatical Settlement?

ALS is the most consistent viatical-lane diagnosis on this page, and there is no minimum age, which matters because ALS so often arrives in a person’s forties or fifties. Underwriters read the rate of decline in the records. Individual results vary.

What the records show about pace is what buyers price: where symptoms began, how breathing is holding, decisions about a feeding tube or ventilation support. Files where a physician documents a life expectancy of generally 24 months or less typically pay 50 to 80% of face value, sometimes more at the shortest life expectancies. Individual results vary.

About one thing families ask quietly: some people live with ALS for many years, and underwriters know that too. The decline rate in the file, not the diagnosis, sets the number.

Can I Sell a Policy if My Parent Has Alzheimer’s or Dementia?

A policy can be sold when the insured has Alzheimer’s or another dementia, and an adult child or spouse often manages the sale. These files usually price as a standard life settlement, because dementia tends to run long. The chronic-illness door can open on cognitive grounds alone. Individual results vary.

The law recognizes what families live with: severe cognitive impairment qualifies under the chronic-illness test in its own right, sometimes before physical daily activities are lost. Underwriters read the FAST stage, which tracks everyday abilities like dressing and bathing rather than memory tests, along with the care setting and, late in the course, weight loss or swallowing difficulty.

Memory care costs drain savings, and families quietly stop paying premiums on the one asset whose value has been rising as health declines. If premiums have become the problem, ask about a sale before letting the policy lapse.

Selling for a parent raises its own questions: capacity, authority, who signs. The section below on helping a parent or spouse covers them.

Does Parkinson’s Disease Qualify for a Life Settlement?

Parkinson’s disease alone rarely reaches the viatical lane; most files price as a standard life settlement. What changes the picture is the overlay: dementia arriving alongside, falls, trouble swallowing, growing care dependence. Underwriters price the combination in the records. Individual results vary.

Parkinson’s runs long, often decades, and underwriters respect that. Years since diagnosis matters less than what the recent records show about daily life. When the overlay conditions appear, the file can move into the impaired-health life settlement lane. If the diagnosis is recent and well-controlled, the policy prices mostly on age and everything else in the file.

Selling a Policy After a Stroke: What Buyers Look For

A stroke is priced by its after-picture. One event with a good recovery is a modest debit, and the file stays in the standard life settlement lane. Lasting dependence in daily activities, or a second stroke, moves it substantially, and can reach the chronic-illness door. Individual results vary.

The first year of recovery usually decides the file. Underwriters read the deficits that remain, measured in daily activities, plus what raised the risk in the first place: atrial fibrillation, vascular disease, the diabetes and blood pressure alongside. Where dependence in two or more daily activities is documented and expected to last at least 90 days, the chronic-illness test itself can be met. Time since the event matters in both directions: recent strokes are watched for recurrence, and old, well-recovered ones fade in weight.

Does Kidney Failure or Dialysis Qualify You to Sell Your Policy?

Kidney failure qualifies in many files, especially once dialysis begins. Dialysis in a senior typically supports the impaired-health life settlement lane, and older starts can approach the viatical lane. Buyers read the dialysis records themselves: when it began, why, and how it is tolerated. Individual results vary.

The cause matters; diabetes-driven kidney failure carries the diabetes file with it. Age at the start of dialysis is the single heaviest input. A transplant plan means a longer expected life, good news for you, and smaller offers on the policy. Some people live well on dialysis for a decade or more, and the file, as always, is priced on its documentation. Late-stage kidney disease before dialysis is a real debit too, read from the kidney numbers your doctors already track.

Does Liver Disease or Cirrhosis Qualify for a Life Settlement?

Cirrhosis and other serious liver disease qualify case by case. Compensated cirrhosis, meaning the liver is scarred but coping, is usually a modest debit. Decompensated disease, with fluid buildup, bleeding, or episodes of confusion in the records, is a different file and prices far higher. Individual results vary.

Underwriters read the complications, not the adjectives: hospitalizations, the liver scores your doctors already track (MELD), whether a transplant evaluation is underway. Transplant listing generally lengthens the outlook and lightens the file. Compensated cirrhosis can hold steady for years, which is why those files price as settlements. Documented alcohol use is part of the record too, weighed like any other entry, without judgment.

Does Cardiac Amyloidosis Qualify for a Viatical Settlement?

Cardiac amyloidosis is the diagnosis almost no settlement company writes about, and the answer is case by case. The AL type with advanced heart involvement can reach the viatical lane. The ATTR type on newer treatment increasingly prices as a standard life settlement. Individual results vary.

If you have this diagnosis you have already learned the two-letter vocabulary, so we will use it. Underwriters read which type, how involved the heart is, the staging bloodwork and, more than anything lately, treatment response, because the newer drugs have genuinely changed the arc of ATTR. Pricing on this disease is being re-benchmarked in real time. That cuts both ways, and it makes current records matter even more than usual here.

Diabetes: Almost Never Alone, Often Part of the File

Diabetes by itself rarely qualifies a policy; well-controlled type 2 barely moves a file. Its real role is as the engine of a larger file, priced together with the blood pressure, heart, and kidney entries around it, usually toward a standard life settlement. Individual results vary.

Underwriters never read diabetes in isolation. Insulin dependence, the control trend, kidney involvement, a cardiovascular event in the history: each is its own debit, and the combination is what shortens a documented life expectancy. If diabetes is one of several things you manage, the several-conditions section above is your section.

HIV: Where Viatical Settlements Began, and What Qualifies Now

The viatical market was born in the 1980s AIDS crisis. Today the answer has inverted: HIV that is well-managed on treatment is a modest entry in a file, and for a younger insured the policy often does not qualify at all. Advanced untreated disease is priced on its documented status, case by case. Individual results vary.

The same medical progress that ended the viatical era of AIDS is why an HIV diagnosis alone no longer creates one. Underwriters read viral suppression, treatment adherence and, mostly, the other conditions in the file. If health changes, the answer can change.

Does a Rare Condition Qualify for a Viatical Settlement?

A rare condition can qualify the same way a common one does: through the documented life expectancy, not the name of the disease. The lane is case by case. Buyers typically ask for at least two independent life expectancy reports, and on rare diagnoses those reports lean hard on how complete your records are. Individual results vary.

Multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, pulmonary hypertension, scleroderma with organ involvement, and diagnoses far rarer still have all been brokered. The pattern holds across every one: more documentation means better pricing, because underwriters price uncertainty against you. If your illness is not named on this page, that is not a no. It is a records question.

Can I Sell My Policy if I Am on Hospice?

Yes, a policy can be sold while you are on hospice, and these are the clearest viatical-lane files buyers see. Buyers take the hospice or palliative referral itself seriously. Often a son or daughter manages the process. Individual results vary.

Files with a documented life expectancy of generally 24 months or less typically pay 50 to 80% of face value, sometimes more at the shortest life expectancies. Individual results vary.

Two practical things. First, if the policy carries an accelerated death benefit rider, ask the insurance company what it would advance and compare that against real offers before selling; sometimes the rider is the better answer, and a broker who represents you should help you make that comparison. The options comparison walks through it. Second, timing: a sale has real steps, records, offers, escrow, and the steps take weeks. Starting the conversation sooner leaves more room to compare offers, including that rider comparison. If you are reading this for a parent, the next section is for you.

If You Are Helping a Parent or Spouse

You do not need your parent on the phone to find out whether a policy is worth pursuing. The first call is information-gathering: the carrier, the policy type, the rough face value, the diagnosis in a sentence.

Signing is different. The policy owner sells, not the insured, and signatures follow ownership. Where the owner cannot sign, a properly drafted power of attorney may work; whether it does depends on the document, the state, and the counterparties. Policies held in a trust are sold by the trustee; our trust-owned policy guide covers that path.

Medical records move only with written authorization from the right person. And when dementia is part of the picture, questions about capacity are normal in these files and handled respectfully.

Keeping Something for Your Family

Selling does not have to mean giving up everything the policy was for. Some buyers offer a retained death benefit: a smaller cash payment now, a stated share of the death benefit kept for your beneficiaries, and the buyer takes over every premium. Whether a buyer offers it, and on what terms, varies by file. If leaving something behind matters to you, say so at the start; the structure is explained in the retained death benefit section of the viatical guide.