A life insurance policy someone no longer needs or can no longer afford is usually worth far more than its cash surrender value — yet most people have no idea that a secondary market exists, let alone how to access it without giving up a large chunk of the proceeds to a broker’s commission. Trust Life Settlements works that secondary market on behalf of policyowners, and does it with a pricing model that stands out in an industry traditionally built around sizable, often opaque, percentage-based commissions.
Instead of charging 20 to 30 percent of whatever a policy ultimately sells for — the traditional structure across much of the life settlement brokerage industry — Trust Life Settlements publishes a flat, five-tier fee schedule tied to the size of the settlement offer. That single change reshapes the incentive at the center of the transaction: the broker’s payday no longer grows automatically alongside the client’s, which is exactly the kind of structural detail that’s easy to overlook until it’s explained plainly.
What is Trust Life Settlements?
Trust Life Settlements is a licensed life settlement brokerage that represents policyowners who want to sell an existing life insurance policy on the secondary market rather than let it lapse or surrender it back to the insurer for a fraction of its value. Once a policy qualifies, the firm markets it to a network of institutional buyers, collects competing offers, and manages the paperwork and closing process on the policyowner’s behalf, under a fiduciary duty to act in that client’s interest.
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The firm is Florida-licensed and built its positioning specifically around compensation transparency: clients know the firm’s exact fee before signing anything, calculated from a published tier table rather than negotiated case by case or buried in the fine print of a closing statement.
What stands out
A published, flat-fee structure
Rather than a percentage that rises with the settlement amount, Trust Life Settlements charges from a fixed, five-tier schedule, so a larger settlement offer doesn’t automatically mean a larger broker fee. In one example the firm has highlighted, a $185,000 settlement carried a $15,000 flat fee, compared with the $37,000 to $55,500 a traditional 20-30 percent commission would have charged on the same offer.
Competitive marketing to institutional buyers
Qualifying policies are shopped to multiple institutional buyers at once, a structure designed to generate competing bids rather than accept the first offer that comes in — the same logic that drives a better outcome in any competitive sale.
A Net Settlement Test for comparing outcomes
The firm applies a framework it calls the Net Settlement Test, which weighs the total proceeds a client would actually keep after fees, making it easier to compare a flat-fee outcome against what a traditional commission-based broker would have left on the table.
A free, no-obligation policy review
The process starts with a complimentary review of the policy to determine whether it’s likely to qualify for a settlement, so a policyowner can find out where they stand before committing to anything.
Case tracking through a secure portal
Clients can follow their case in real time through a secure online portal, from the initial application through competing offers to final closing, rather than waiting on scattered phone calls and emails for updates.
Who it’s for
The service is built for policyowners, typically age 65 and older (sometimes 55 and up), who hold a life insurance policy valued at $100,000 or more and who, for any number of reasons — a health change, no longer needing the coverage, or needing the cash for retirement, healthcare, or long-term care — are considering parting with a policy they currently pay premiums on. It’s a fit for anyone who wants to understand whether their policy has real market value before simply letting it lapse or taking the insurer’s cash surrender offer.
Pricing and availability
Trust Life Settlements charges from a published five-tier flat-fee schedule based on the size of the settlement offer, rather than a percentage commission. The firm has publicly compared a $15,000 flat fee on a $185,000 settlement against the roughly $46,250 a 25 percent commission would have charged on the same deal — a concrete example that makes the savings easy to understand before a client ever submits a policy for review. Because the exact fee depends on which tier a given settlement falls into, policyowners should request the published tier table directly to see where their situation lands.
What makes it worth considering
Life settlements are a corner of personal finance that most people only learn about by accident, often after a policy has already lapsed or been surrendered for pennies on the dollar. A brokerage that is upfront about exactly what it charges, before any paperwork is signed, removes one of the biggest sources of hesitation in a transaction that can otherwise feel opaque. Combined with a process built around multiple competing institutional offers rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it bid, Trust Life Settlements gives policyowners a genuinely informed way to evaluate whether a sale fits their situation.
Verdict
By trading a traditional percentage commission for a published flat fee, Trust Life Settlements brings real transparency to a transaction that has historically lacked it — a welcome standard for anyone exploring whether their life insurance policy is worth more than its surrender value.
Frequently asked questions
A life settlement is the sale of an existing life insurance policy to a third-party buyer for a lump sum that's typically higher than the policy's cash surrender value, with the buyer then taking over premium payments.
The service generally fits policyowners age 65 and older, sometimes 55 and up, holding a policy valued at $100,000 or more, often following a health change or a reduced need for the coverage.
The firm charges a flat fee from a published five-tier schedule based on the size of the settlement offer, rather than a percentage commission that rises with the sale price.
In one example the firm has cited, a $185,000 settlement carried a $15,000 flat fee, versus $37,000 to $55,500 under a typical 20-30% commission on the same offer.
Yes, the firm is Florida-licensed and operates under a fiduciary duty to act in the policyowner's interest throughout the transaction.
It starts with a free policy review, followed by application paperwork, marketing the policy to competing institutional buyers, comparing offers, and payment to the policyowner after closing.
