A senior life insurance settlement is the financial option available in the hands of a senior citizen to sell his/her life insurance policy to others and availing the death benefits before the maturity period or the demise.

In contrast, viatical life insurance settlements offer premature death benefits to the policyholder who is suffering from severe diseases like cancers, AIDS etc and whose life expectancy in future is only in days. If a senior citizen, having the age over sixty-five years, is in financial crises and badly in need of money, he/she can opt for life insurance settlements. Generally the senior citizen receives the amount which is higher than that he would receive if he surrenders his policy to the insurance company. So even though he will receive a fixed percentage of the policy amount from the senior life insurance settlement transaction, it is beneficial to the policyholder. The amount so obtained by the policy owner can be used for discharging debts, for buying a house, for a vacation trip, or anything else.

In order to avail the benefit of senior life settlement, the senior citizen should be over the age of sixty-five years and have some health issues, or seventy-five or above irrespective of the health issues. Any type of life insurance policy of senior citizens - like variable life insurance, term life insurance, whole life insurance, or joint survivorship - is eligible for senior life settlement. Moreover, the face value of the insurance policy should be $250,000 minimum. Generally senior life insurance settlement companies purchase these policies from the senior citizens and submit all the necessary documents to the insurance company asking for the change of the ownership and the beneficiary of the policy. Once this is confirmed by the insurance company, the settlement company starts paying premiums and will receive the full policy amount on the maturity date or on the demise of the old policyholder, whichever is earlier.