Most industries evolve quietly, shaped by innovation or competition. The life settlement industry hasn’t had that luxury. It has been forced to confront a more uncomfortable reality, how it serves the very people it depends on.
For years, seniors holding life insurance policies they no longer needed have faced a narrow set of choices. Many surrender their policies for far less than they are worth. Others accept the first offer placed in front of them, often without realizing there is an entire marketplace competing behind the scenes.
Citizens Life Group was built to change that equation.
Based in Orlando, the firm operates as a life settlement advisory company focused on ensuring that seniors receive fair market value for policies they no longer wish to maintain. Their role is not to purchase policies, but to connect policyholders with a network of institutional buyers through a structured and competitive process.
“Citizens Life Group is a life settlement advisory firm out of Orlando,” explains founder Jeffrey Hallman. “Our clients are seniors sitting on life insurance policies they don’t need anymore, or that have gotten too expensive to keep up on a fixed retirement income.”
At the core of their model is a deliberate structural decision that sets them apart from much of the industry.
“We aren’t a buyer ourselves,” Jeffrey notes.
This distinction shapes how the company operates, how it generates value, and how it defines its role in the broader ecosystem.
Addressing a Structural Imbalance
In traditional life settlement transactions, many companies act as direct buyers. Seniors are presented with a single offer, often without visibility into what their policy might be worth in a competitive environment. Two large companies alone control a significant share of this market, reinforcing a system where price discovery is limited.
Citizens Life Group operates differently.
Instead of buying policies, the firm ensures that each policy is brokered by fiduciary-licensed professionals. These brokers are legally obligated to act in the seller’s best interest and are responsible for presenting policies to a wide pool of institutional buyers.
“Our brokers legally have to act in the seller’s interest, and they shop each policy across 15 to 20+ institutional buyers,” Jeffrey explains.
This process typically results in multiple competing bids, with an average of around nine offers per policy. Even after broker commissions, sellers often receive several times more than they would through surrendering the policy to the original carrier.
The company’s role is to facilitate this process and ensure that seniors are aware of their options.
“The role we play is the one that usually goes unfilled,” Jeffrey says. “An honest broker between a senior who didn’t know their policy had any market value and the people willing to pay for it.”
Origins in Industry Experience
Citizens Life Group did not emerge from a single defining moment or external disruption. It developed gradually from Jeffrey’s experience working within the industry as a broker.
“I spent years working as a broker in this space, and Citizens Life Group came out of frustration with patterns I kept seeing repeat from the inside,” he explains.
The most visible issue was the direct-buyer model, where sellers were not presented with a full range of options. However, the challenges extended beyond process into culture.
“There’s a posture across most of this industry that treats the senior on the other end of the deal less like a client and more like a margin opportunity,” Jeffrey notes.
Another recurring issue involved families attempting to locate life insurance policies for relatives. Available solutions were either fragmented or unnecessarily costly, often requiring users to navigate multiple systems independently or pay for services that did not offer significant added value.
Citizens Life Group began as an effort to improve these experiences, initially focusing on providing better brokerage services. Over time, that approach expanded into a broader consumer-first philosophy.
Defining Consumer-First Through Structure
For Citizens Life Group, “consumer-first” is not defined through messaging but through operational decisions.
The most significant of these is the choice not to act as a buyer.
“The moment we become the buyer, we aren’t on the seller’s side of the table anymore,” Jeffrey explains.
By avoiding direct purchasing, the company removes a key conflict of interest. This ensures that all efforts remain focused on maximizing value for the policyholder.
The second component is maintaining the integrity of the brokering process. Every policy is routed through fiduciary-licensed brokers who conduct competitive bidding across multiple institutional buyers. While alternative approaches could reduce time or increase margins, they would compromise the underlying objective.
“We could route fewer policies through brokers and pocket the difference, but doing so would defeat the whole point,” Jeffrey states.
The third component is the development of free tools designed to provide value without requiring user data.
“The Lost Policy Finder and the After Someone You Love Dies tool both run without a sign-up, email, or follow-up sequence,” he says.
These decisions collectively define the company’s approach.
Building Practical Tools for Real Problems
Citizens Life Group has introduced tools that address common but often overlooked challenges within the life insurance ecosystem.
The Lost Life Insurance Policy Finder is designed to help families locate policies that may have been forgotten or misplaced. It guides users through a structured process, beginning with the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator and extending to employer records, Veterans Affairs programs, and state-specific unclaimed property databases.
The tool also includes a database of more than 30 insurance company mergers and name changes, helping users identify policies associated with carriers that no longer exist.
“Everything prints as a checklist. No sign-up, no email,” Jeffrey notes.
The scale of the issue is significant. The NAIC locator alone has identified over $13 billion in benefits since 2016, while unclaimed property nationwide is estimated at approximately $70 billion.
The second tool, After Someone You Love Dies, addresses a different but equally complex situation. It provides a structured plan for families navigating the administrative and financial steps following a death.
Users answer a series of questions, and the tool generates a customized plan covering timeframes from the first 72 hours through the following months. The output includes probate deadlines, required forms, tax considerations, and other state-specific details.
The design prioritizes privacy.
“The tool doesn’t have a server behind it, so what a family enters stays in their own browser,” Jeffrey explains.
Building Trust Through Process
Operating in a space connected to grief and financial vulnerability requires a careful approach to trust.
Citizens Life Group’s strategy is based on removing practices that could undermine confidence.
“Trust during grief isn’t built with the right words,” Jeffrey says. “It’s built by removing the things that would make somebody not trust you.”
This includes avoiding data capture during sensitive moments and ensuring that tools are purely informational rather than transactional.
The company also emphasizes clarity in its positioning. Disclaimers are presented upfront, and there is no attempt to position the tools as replacements for professional legal or financial advice.
The focus remains on providing accurate, actionable information.
Innovation Through Business Model
Citizens Life Group’s approach to innovation differs from many companies in the category.
“Most innovation in this category is technical,” Jeffrey explains. “Ours runs the other direction.”
Instead of developing faster systems or more efficient acquisition channels, the company has chosen to prioritize transparency and fairness, even when it results in longer processes or reduced margins.
This includes accepting a longer sales cycle, relying on competitive bidding, and foregoing the margin advantages associated with direct purchasing.
“We give up the margin advantage of being a direct buyer,” Jeffrey notes.
This approach reflects a different set of priorities, focused on aligning outcomes with the interests of policyholders.
Long-Term Outlook
Looking ahead, Citizens Life Group identifies two key trends that will shape the industry.
First, the number of seniors holding life insurance policies is expected to increase significantly. Currently, there are approximately 38 million policies held by individuals aged 65 and older, with a total face value exceeding $3 trillion.
Second, awareness of the life settlement market is growing. As more individuals become aware that policies can be sold rather than surrendered, participation in the secondary market is expected to increase.
Industry estimates suggest that approximately $37.5 billion in value is left unclaimed each year from policies that could have been sold.
Citizens Life Group aims to position itself as a primary resource for families navigating these decisions.
“What we want is to be the brand families turn to first on these questions,” Jeffrey says.
The company plans to expand its suite of free resources, including tax guides and educational materials, while maintaining its focus on transparency.
A Different Approach to the Same Market
Citizens Life Group operates within an established industry, but its approach challenges long-standing norms.
By stepping away from the role of a buyer, committing to a competitive brokering process, and building tools that prioritize access over data capture, the company shifts the balance of power back to the policyholder.
It is a slower path, often a less profitable one in the short term, but one that aligns outcomes with the people the industry was meant to serve.
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