Your first step in exploring the value of your life insurance is to find out what type of policy you have. If your policy has an expiration date, it’s term life. The expiration date distinguishes term life insurance from “permanent” forms of life insurance. Expiry also limits how much value you can get from your policy.  If you pass away before your term policy’s expiration date, your named beneficiaries will receive the death benefit. Once the policy reaches its expiration date, though, your coverage ends. You stop paying premiums and your beneficiaries receive no payment if you die. You also get no cash out or any other benefit in return for the premiums you paid while the policy was in force.
The reason there’s no cash available at the end of a term life policy is because this coverage has no savings feature. In life insurance, the savings feature is called cash value. Since there is no cash value, you cannot borrow, withdraw, or cash out funds from term life insurance.
If you know your policy is term life, read on for a walk-through of selling term life insurance. If you have another form of permanent life insurance, such as whole life, universal life, or variable life, see our general Life Settlement FAQs here.