Every September, the life insurance industry in the US promotes Life Insurance Awareness Month, a campaign created originally by Life Happens (a nonprofit organisation founded in 1994) designed to “remind Americans about the importance of life insurance for their financial security.”
Industry groups LIMRA and LOMA put their collective weight behind the endeavour as well, publishing a range of resources to educate Americans about the benefits of purchasing a life insurance policy.
Tying results directly to campaigns such as this is difficult, but these organisations will doubtless be pleased at the trend observed in recent years: in 2025, for example, industry-wide new annualised premium exceeded $17.5bn, up 10% year over year, according to LIMRA. The number of policies sold rose 7% for the year; individual life insurance new premium has set records for four of the past five years.
So, more Americans are buying life insurance, which is not only a good news story for the US life insurance industry, but for the life settlement market, too.
For the investors that allocate to pooled investment funds and securitisations in the space, policy count and face value growth represent an expansion of the total addressable market for life settlement-adjacent investments. Some of those policyholders might end up selling their policy to investors in the space in ten, 20 or even 30 years if they decide they no longer want or need it (or can’t afford the escalating premiums that come due as policyholders age).
But life settlement market participants argue that there is a broader educational opportunity: ensuring those new policyholders eventually understand that lapse or surrender isn’t necessarily their only option if their needs change down the road.
“It’s certainly encouraging to see that more Americans are purchasing life insurance policies,” said Bryan Nicholson, Executive Director at industry group the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA).
“But every policy sold represents a financial asset that someone could own for decades. That means that expanding consumer awareness should extend to the entire policy lifecycle, not just at the point of sale. As more Americans secure coverage, it increases the opportunity to educate them later in life about life settlements as a viable alternative to surrendering or lapsing a policy they no longer want, need, or can afford.”
The prevailing lapse/surrender rate is a perennial source of frustration in the market. Last November, industry group the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) published its annual Life Insurance Fact Book, showing that the combined termination rate of individual life insurance in the US was 7.9% in 2024.
Given that there were 134 million individual life insurance policies in force at the end of 2023, that means that approximately 10.5 million policies exited the universe, some of which would have qualified for a life settlement. Indeed, data compiled by actuarial firm Milliman USA in 2024, and cited in a 2016 study by researchers Daniel Gottlieb and Kent Smetters, suggests that “nearly 88% of universal life policies ultimately do not terminate with a death benefit claim”, a statistic which illustrates starkly the opportunity – and challenge – that the life settlement market says is before it.
But education around life settlements remains largely absent from traditional Life Insurance Awareness Month campaigns, leaving it up to the life settlement market itself to inform both existing and potential policyholders that the option to sell a policy exists.
TV advertising is one of the main, and most effective, tools the industry has to do this. Two of the larger licensed life settlement providers, Abacus and Coventry, are regulars on American screens.
“Television is an effective educational tool we use because it allows us to introduce the concept of life settlements to a broad audience,” said Neal Jacobs, Senior Managing Director, Capital Markets at Coventry.
“Life settlements remain largely unfamiliar to most policyowners, so there is value in reaching people where they are and explaining that a policy they no longer need may have alternatives beyond lapse or surrender. That education is important regardless of whether someone ultimately decides to pursue a transaction.”
While traditional media advertising is expensive compared to other vehicles, and advertisers promote themselves, and not the industry generally directly, most in the market agree that a rising tide lifts all boats. Also, industry groups such as LISA and the European Life Settlement Association (ELSA, publisher of Longevity and Mortality Investor) have initiatives in place to educate not only their members, but consumers and investors, regulators and the media.
But Rob Haynie, Managing Director at brokerage firm Life Insurance Settlements, says that the life insurance market is missing a trick by refusing to mention the potential opportunity of selling a life insurance policy at the point of sale.
“Life insurance is both a protection mechanism for loved ones, but also, a legitimate retirement asset, because it can be sold,” said Rob Haynie, Managing Director at Life Insurance Settlements.
“I think that the life insurance market would sell more policies if they made folks aware at the point of purchase that this might be something that they can extract value from as they approach or enter retirement.”
LIMRA typically publishes life insurance sales data in the US every quarter, and the life insurance industry will doubtless be hoping that its efforts during Life Insurance Awareness Month will again push sales higher. But for the life settlement market, its own campaign for awareness raising is perpetual.
“We can’t rely on others to help raise the awareness of policyholders and consumers more broadly about the life settlement option and the wider market, which is why so many in our space are involved in activities to this end. We are constantly educating, and that’s something that is still likely to be the case five, ten, 20 years from now,” said Nicholson.
