James Christie | Playing a Game of Risk: The IUL War Wages on

Risk is a strategy game of diplomacy, conflict, and conquest. Well two of those apply to our topic of discussion today. 

What is going on right now in the IUL marketplace is a war, there isn’t a better word, it’s a war. With various “powers” around the “country” positioning themselves to take over market share like land to the British.  

War.

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing!

 Well, this isn’t necessarily the truth. Wars typically result in some sort of economic benefit, can help to defend against oppression, and at the very least can lead to increased appreciation for those involved for what they have and where they came from. 

The reality is, there is usually far more negatives to war than positives. There are typically economic losses due to destruction, human suffering, diseases, displacement of people and possibly worst of all, destruction of the environment. 

Why go to war? A quick search on the internet produced these results: 

·       Economic Gain.

·       Territorial Gain.

·       Civil War.

·       Revolutionary War.

·       Defensive War.

So why is the marketplace at war? Why are we seeing the IUL illustration battle going on right now? 

The list above applies here. Clearly there is economic gain, as evidenced by the significant growth in the IUL marketplace over the last decade. It is the largest percentage of UL sales and the second largest segment of the total life insurance market and has grown significantly over the last decade from millions to billions in premium. Simply said, you would be a fool to not want to play in this space as there has been too much upside with essentially no downside. Far too much to gain for carriers and producers alike. 

As the “powers” fight to gain the most economic benefit, territorial wars have broken out. Carriers are actively fighting each other to maintain or grow their own market share or said another way, their territory borders of the IUL world. Kind of like a game of risk. 

In the pre AG49 world, we already had a defensive war going on. While maybe not as focused on just the illustration as we see today, it was a very similar world. The defensive war was in full swing, but it involved bows and arrows versus the drones and lasers we see today. Over time, there became a growing population of those who were concerned, the people of the IUL world wanted some peace, even for just a small time. 

This led to a revolutionary war, the great battle of 49, AG49. The world powers came together to discuss the good of the people and wanted to institute some rules of war. Rules of war can’t be broken (kind of) and generally are in place to save lives and reduce suffering. Finally a treaty was reached and AG49 was put in place, making sure the world powers continued to serve the people and represent their goods in a fair and balanced way, bringing back a balance to trade. Or so we thought anyways. 

Well, can you guess what happened next? Another war for economic gain, territorial gain, a small defensive war, alterations to the rules of war by the worlds powers and now what appears to be a revolutionary war with the discussions currently going on for revisions to AG49. 

This does leave me with one question. Where is the civil war?  

Seriously, are we ok with this? What about the children?? 

What is going on right now is alarming. This war we are in has my attention. Don’t you remember the war of whole life, UL in the 80’s, VUL in the 90’s? We have walked these trenches before, we have the wounds, the scars. 

When will a civil war finally break out? Frankly, it starts by talking about it. That is why I am writing this post. Likeminded individuals coming together for the betterment of their people and their land. I worked for a world power, I led an army, I went into the bush and I have the experiences that now allow me to write about this battle. Frankly, I have the medals on my coat sleeves. 

I am concerned about the negatives consequences of this war and I want to do something about it. I am troubled about the destruction, the potential suffering, the diseases and the environment. What have we done? 

The game of Risk is the perfect analogy for this conversation. IUL inherently is all about risk, well at least the way it was originally intended. It was meant to limit the downside risk in the market and was the perfect fit for those that were “risk averse”. A great supplement to a well thought out retirement income plan given the tax benefits of life insurance, the reasonable leverage of premium versus income, and most importantly the downsize protection.  

IUL helped you sleep at night and it was good for the people, if explained and disclosed properly and for those of you that are doing that, I salute you.