Last reviewed: 9 October 2026

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The paperwork your agent has to give you before replacing a life insurance policy

Our explainer on churning and twisting covers how states define those terms and what the model regulation requires. This page is about the actual mechanics: the specific "Notice Regarding Replacement" form a producer is required to complete, present, and leave with you, and what it's actually supposed to contain.

What legally counts as a "replacement"

Under the NAIC Life Insurance and Annuities Replacement Model Regulation (Model #613), a transaction is a "replacement" if buying a new policy or contract is connected to discontinuing premium payments on an existing one, or to surrendering, forfeiting, assigning to the replacing insurer, or otherwise terminating an existing policy, or to using an existing policy's value in a financed purchase of the new one. The definition is deliberately broad — it's written to catch the substance of a replacement even when the transaction isn't labeled that way.

The actual form and when it has to be given

Where a proposed sale is a replacement, the producer is required to present the "Notice Regarding Replacement of Life Insurance or Annuities" — the model's own named disclosure form — to the applicant no later than at the time the application is taken. The form has to be signed by both the applicant and the producer, and a completed copy has to be left with the applicant; it isn't something a producer can promise to send later or fold into other paperwork's fine print.

The producer completing that form has to list the existing policy or policies proposed to be replaced or used, along with the name of the insurer holding each one — a specific, named, dated record of exactly what's being given up, not a general disclosure that a replacement is happening somewhere in the transaction.

The existing insurer gets notified too

The replacement isn't only disclosed to you — the model regulation also requires the replacing insurer to notify any existing insurer whose policy is being replaced within 5 business days of receiving the completed application (or of otherwise identifying that the transaction is a replacement), and the existing insurer is to send the policy owner a letter about the right to receive information on the existing policy's values (an in-force illustration or, if one cannot be produced, a policy summary), provided within five business days of the owner's request (Sections 5A(2) and 6B).

What to actually check on the form itself

The model's notice prompts you to ask about surrender charges, says new policies usually take longer to build cash values, says claims on most new policies for up to the first two years can be denied based on inaccurate statements, and says suicide limitations may begin anew on new coverage. It does not itself state your amounts or dates, so ask the producer and the insurers for them in writing before you sign.

Correction (9 October 2026): an earlier version of this page said the notice discloses a new surrender-charge period, a new incontestability period and a new suicide-exclusion period, and that the existing insurer is notified so it can respond directly to you and often sends a conservation letter. The model's Appendix A prompts questions on those topics but does not state them, and Sections 5A(2) and 6B describe notice to the existing insurer and an information letter to the owner.

If something doesn't match

If a replacement happened without this form being presented, signed, and left with you, or if the form itself omits an existing policy you know was actually used to fund the new one, that's a specific, documentable gap you can raise directly with your state's Department of Insurance — see our guide to filing a complaint — rather than something you have to just take on faith after the fact. A Section 1035 tax-free exchange does not excuse this disclosure; see our 1035 exchange explainer.