Understanding secondary market options can help policyowners and their advisors make informed decisions as financial needs change.
FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coventry, the leader and creator of the secondary market for life insurance and a pioneer of the life insurance-backed asset class, today recognized Life Insurance Awareness Month by encouraging policyowners and financial professionals to consider not just whether life insurance is needed, but what an existing policy is worth.
Life insurance plays an important role in protecting families, supporting estate plans, addressing business needs, and providing financial security. But awareness should not end when the policy is issued. Understanding the options available over the life of a policy can matter as much as recognizing the need for coverage in the first place.
For policyowners whose needs have changed, the secondary market offers an alternative to surrendering or lapsing coverage. A life settlement can provide significantly more than the policy's cash surrender value. Given how much coverage is surrendered and lapsed each year, understanding this alternative is especially important.
"Americans hold more than $14 trillion of individual life insurance, yet hundreds of billions of dollars of that coverage is surrendered or allowed to lapse every year," said Reid Buerger, CEO of Coventry. "That is an enormous amount of value leaving the market, often without the policyowner ever knowing an alternative existed. Before valuable coverage is terminated, policyowners and their advisors should know whether a better alternative exists. That should be a fundamental part of life insurance awareness."
For financial professionals, this means looking beyond whether a client still needs coverage. A thorough policy review should weigh how the policy has performed, the cost of maintaining it going forward, its available cash surrender value, and whether a sale in the secondary market would leave the client better off.
For more information about Coventry, visit Coventry.com.
About Coventry
Coventry is the leader and creator of the secondary market for life insurance and a pioneer of the life insurance-backed asset class, operating an integrated platform across four complementary verticals: the secondary market for life insurance, longevity lending, life insurance and annuity distribution, and insurance technology. Through these businesses, Coventry expands financial options for policyowners, provides capital solutions backed by life insurance policies and other longevity-linked assets, broadens access to insurance and retirement products, and applies technology to enhance pricing, risk management, and operational efficiency across the life insurance ecosystem.
Guided by a longstanding commitment to consumer rights and market integrity, Coventry leverages its leadership position to raise industry standards, expand consumer choice, and responsibly develop institutional-quality life insurance-backed investment solutions. Over its history, Coventry has acquired more than 23,000 life insurance policies, completed more than $50 billion in longevity-linked transactions, delivered more than $6 billion to policyowners, and originated more than $1 billion in life insurance-linked loans. To learn more about Coventry, visit Coventry.com/news.
Media Contact: Jonny Shiver Vice President, Marketing jshiver@coventry.com (215) 836-8300
