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game over

#362 | Accordia and the End of an Era

Full Article Yesterday, Global Atlantic announced that “after carefully evaluating our greatest opportunities to provide the most compelling products and value…we have made the strategic decision to sharpen our focus…as a result, effective July 1, 2023, Global Atlantic will be suspending sales of the index universal life (IUL) products that…

Product Analytics

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#360 | Quantifying Sequence of Return Risk with LISA

Full Article Risk is a fiendishly difficult thing to quantify. In financial theory, risk is usually quantified in terms of…

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#359 | The New Weapons of AG 49-B

This article assumes a base level of knowledge about Indexed UL illustrations, the previous forms of AG 49, the impact…

#352 | The Walls are Closing In on Term Conversions

Editorial Note – I am increasingly receiving article submissions from readers and other parties. My role has always been as…

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#349 | A Reckoning in Term

2/10/23 Update On Lincoln’s Q4 2022 earnings call yesterday, analysts peppered CEO Ellen Cooper and CFO Randy Freitag about Lincoln’s…

Product Reviews

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#356 | Northwestern Mutual Enters the 10 Pay Fray

Quick Take At first blush, Northwestern Mutual isn’t a natural fit for the highly competitive and quickly growing 10 Pay…

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#343 | The Original IVUL – Equitable MSO II

Quick Take Equitable was first-to-market with Buffered crediting strategies in VUL with its 2010 release of the Market Stabilizer Option…

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#341 | Prudential FlexGuard IVUL

Quick Take Prudential FlexGuard IVUL is the second (after Equitable MSO, which has been in market largely unchanged since 2010)…

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#338 | New York Life Wealth Plus

Quick Take New York Life’s new Secure Wealth Plus is a direct competitor to Mass Mutual and Guardian in the…

News and Editorials

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#345 | 2022 in Review

With 2022 in the rearview mirror, I thought I’d go back through the full list of articles and give a…

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Survey Responses & TLPR Update

Thanks to those of you who generously took the time to fill out the survey that I sent out earlier…

#246 | The Architect Fallacy

Years ago, I was invited as a guest to a meeting of a distributor’s top agents to decide how to…

#242 | Prudential Files a VUL Protector Reprice

At the end of a recent 4-part article series on the two products with a duopoly on the Guaranteed VUL…

Industry Commentary

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game over

#362 | Accordia and the End of an Era

Full Article Yesterday, Global Atlantic announced that “after carefully evaluating our greatest opportunities to provide the most compelling products and…

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#355 | A Financial Strength Gut Check

Quick Take Life insurer financial strength is arguably made up of three primary components – operations, assets and liabilities. The…

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#351 | Rising Rates & Policy Loans

Quick Take One of the most obvious and profound impact of rising interest rates has been on variable policy loan…

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#348 | The Next Front in the IUL Illustration War?

Quick Take In each round of the past Indexed UL regulation, the seeds of the next round were already in…

Episode 21
December 14, 2020

Episode 21

Interview with Mike Pepe and Kris Beck of Proformex about the…

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Episode 20
September 21, 2020

Episode 20

Interview with Jon Mendelsohn, CEO and Founder of Ashar Group,…

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Episode 19
September 7, 2020

Episode 19

Interview with Jim Benson, former CEO of John Hancock, CEO…

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Episode 18
August 24, 2020

Episode 18

Interview with Dick Weber of Ethical Edge Consulting on what…

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