Product Analytics
#315 | The Rising Tide of Accumulation VUL
If you were to look at the industry press releases about 2021 sales, you’d probably pick up one big storyline – both Whole Life and Indexed UL had gangbuster years, each notching 20% growth. Indexed UL saw $600M in increased…
#314 | Engineered Index 5 Year Performance
For most folks in the life insurance industry, it probably feels as though the phenomenon of non-standard indices in Indexed UL products has appeared very quickly, almost out-of-nowhere in the wake of AG 49-A. The reality, however, is that these…
#310 | The Proprietary Index Duration Bomb
The conventional wisdom, at the moment, is that bonds are garbage. In a rising rate environment, bonds are set to deliver the worst of both worlds – sub-optimal yields and capital devaluations. Savers who crave the income and stability of…
#307 | The New Indexed UL Narratives – Part 2
The first two narratives dealt with the narrative for the product generically, but these next two narratives deal with specific product features that could potentially become more common. Attractive Guaranteed Participation Limits A few years ago, Penn Mutual famously offered…
#306 | The New Indexed UL Narratives – Part 1
Over the past 15 years or so, the Indexed UL narrative has evolved quite a bit. Early on, the story was all about the characteristics of the product as an asset class – upside potential with downside protection. That story…
#304 | The Lincoln Enhanced Allocation Rider
Over the past couple of years, there’s been a marked shift in the industry towards product development in the accumulation VUL space. That should come as no surprise. Against the backdrop of looming tax increases and stellar equity market performance,…
#297 | Whole Life Goes Three Dimensional
Ever since the changes to Section 7702 hit the press at the beginning of this year, speculation has been rampant about the impact of the new 2% minimum 7702 rate on Whole Life pricing. Two things seemed abundantly clear. First,…
#291 | Rethinking IUL Renewal Caps
One of the most common criticisms of Indexed UL is that it’s the ultimate “trust me” product. No other product relies on as many opaque or complex assumptions as Indexed UL for both its real-world and illustrated performance. Like any…
#288 | Private Placement Goes Mainstream
Over the last couple of weeks, Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) has gotten more attention from mainstream media than it ever has before. Bloomberg ran a click-bait article on September 2nd entitled “How Rich Americans Plan to Escape Biden Tax…
#283 | The Scourge of Conversion-Only Products
I’ve argued before that a guaranteed conversion privilege is the most mathematically valuable part of a Term insurance policy – yes, even more so than the death benefit coverage itself. The chance that you’re going to die while being covered…
