Small policies are harder to sell than their value suggests, and the reason is fixed cost. Underwriting a $200,000 policy takes the same medical records, the same life expectancy reports and the same legal transfer work as a $2 million policy. Those costs do not shrink with the death benefit, so many providers set a minimum and decline everything below it.
The result for a policyowner with a modest policy is a shorter list of interested buyers rather than a lower value. Fewer bidders means less pressure on price, which is the situation where a single offer is hardest to judge. Finding the handful of providers who will look at a smaller policy is the work, and it is the work a broker does.