If you as a 70-year old no longer feel the need for a life insurance policy, you have another option besides simply letting it lapse. There is now a secondary insurance market in which policy holders may be able to sell their policies for more than their cash surrender value or sell a term policy without any cash surrender value. These transactions are called life settlements. Basically, a policy holder will sell his or her policy, normally through a broker, for a fixed value that is usually three to four times the amount they would have received by simply surrendering their policy to the issuing life insurance company . The buyer in these cases is usually an institutional investor and will take over the payment of the premiums as well as collect the death benefit once the policy holder passes away. The purchase price of a life settlement is determined by considering the policy holder’s average life expectancy along with the respective cost of premiums to keep the policy operational within its term. Thus, a life settlement will allow you turn a relatively untouchable asset into something immediately useful and liquid.

Denise at AccuQuote
Disclaimer: I work for AccuQuote and this is my personal opinion.