Product Analytics
#230 | Breaking Down Whole Life Dividends
This was a presentation I gave for the advisor coaching program put together by my good friend Joe Pombriant of Alacrity Financial. He graciously gave me the recording of the webinar to post on the site (he's a subscriber). His…
#227 | The New Pressure on Caps
It should come as little surprise that rates and caps continue to fall in Indexed UL products. Just one look at the IUL Benchmark Index will tell you why – caps are expensive (4.9% for a 10% cap) and yields…
#221 | Reconciling FIA and IUL
One of the curious things about the life insurance industry is how little crossover there is between the life insurance side and the annuity side in terms of advisors, brokerages and even life insurers. Most agents who do significant volume…
#213 | The Zero Credit Test
For the first time in a while, the specter of consecutive 0% credits in Indexed UL products looms as a result of the recent selloff in equities. But what does that mean for the long-term performance of the products? As…
#210 | The Opportunity in the Captastrophe
All indexed accounts may be created equally with general account yields and call options, but not all indexed account options are priced equally. Right now, there are screaming deals in non-cap indexed account options at life insurers that have been…
#207 | Indexed UL’s Honeymoon Decade
I was recently copied on an email chain amongst a bunch of high-end agents and industry commentators including a prominent, long-time and relentlessly self-promoting Indexed UL advocate. Most of the folks on the email chain are generally skeptical of Indexed…
#203 | Interpreting the IUL Benchmark Index
Since I started publishing the IUL Benchmark Index back in January of last year, a lot of folks have asked me how they should interpret the results. This is a very reasonable question that I should have thought to answer…
#192 | The Curious Case of the Structured Annuity
If you’re even a passive observer of the annuity market, you’ve probably noticed that a new product category has burst onto the scene in the past 5 years and is quickly gobbling up share against traditional variable annuities (VAs) and…
#186 | The Best Whole Life Product is…
Evaluating Whole Life is devilishly tricky. Dividend Scale Interest Rates are not necessarily comparable across carriers. Policy charges are not explicitly disclosed. Each policy has a different premium to death benefit ratio. Policy loan rates and provisions vary between companies.…
#183 | Picking an Indexed Crediting Strategy
I’m often asked which indexed crediting strategy is the “best” one. The answer, of course, depends on your perspective. If you believe that hypothetical historical backtesting (such as the AG49 maximum rate methodology) is a reliable indicator of the intrinsic…
