A restructured estate plan in Houston unlocked $540,000 from an unused $2M survivorship policy.
A Houston couple no longer needed the $2M survivorship policy that anchored their original estate plan. An eight-buyer auction returned $540,000 — 4.9x the cash surrender value.
“The team made everything feel simple. Multiple buyers bid on our policy and we had real choices in front of us within weeks, not months.”
The situation
Robert and Linda purchased a $2,000,000 survivorship universal life policy in 2003 as the cornerstone of an estate liquidity strategy. The plan was simple: the death benefit would cover anticipated estate taxes on the family business. Twenty years later, the business had been sold, the proceeds restructured into trusts, and the estate tax exposure that justified the premium was gone. The policy was costing them $26,000 a year for a benefit their estate no longer needed.
A second opinion from their CPA
Their CPA raised the question during a routine year-end review. The carrier quoted a cash surrender value of $110,000. A direct buyer who had been mailing them for years offered $240,000 unsolicited. Their CPA recommended Settle for a competitive process before they accepted anything.
Running the auction
Survivorship policies require dual underwriting, which extended the file preparation slightly. Once complete, eight buyers reviewed the case. The opening round produced a high bid of $385,000 — already 60% higher than the best direct offer. Four buyers stayed active through three rounds of counter-offers. The winning bid landed at $540,000 net, with the runner-up at $521,000.
The outcome
Total time from intake to wire: 82 days. The proceeds were used to top up an irrevocable grandchildren’s trust and prepay a portion of a vacation property mortgage. Robert and Linda eliminated $26,000 of annual premium and freed up $540,000 of liquidity from a policy they had stopped needing more than a decade ago.
Names, images, likenesses, and specific identifying details have been fictionalized or altered to protect privacy. This case study is illustrative and should not be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of any specific outcome. Net proceeds, multiples, and timelines are representative of transactions facilitated through the Settle marketplace.
