Product Reviews

grayscale photo of pillar

#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 Whole Life market. Illustrated performance in short pay products generally favors companies with high Dividend Interest Rates, yet Northwestern lags…

#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 (MSO). A few weeks ago - on the same day that Prudential FlexGuard IVUL was released - Equitable launched a…

wooden handrail in macro photography

#341 | Prudential FlexGuard IVUL

Quick Take Prudential FlexGuard IVUL is the second (after Equitable MSO, which has been in market largely unchanged since 2010) of what will inevitably become a new category in the life insurance market, Variable UL products with subaccounts that offer…

man wearing gray and red armour standing on the streets

#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 2% 10 Pay Whole Life space - and it delivers the goods. First year liquidity is at the top of…

gigantic warship vessel

#337 | Protection UL 22 and The Allure of Alts

Quick Take Since 2011, John Hancock has successfully sold Protection UL as an ultra-cheap protection product fueled by a diversified portfolio of alternative long-duration assets, or ALDAs in Manulife's parlance. However, the impact of the ALDA returns on Protection UL…

brown chop logs on outdoor

#332 | Ohio National Prestige Indexed Whole Life

Quick Take Ohio National's new Prestige Indexed Whole Life appears to blend the best of both worlds - the guarantees of Whole Life with the upside performance potential of Indexed UL. But on closer inspection, the guarantees are weak and…

chevrolet el camino parked on the road

#326 | Prestige 10 Pay – The New Ohio National’s New Product

This article is protected by copyright and the terms of this website. If you share it with non-subscribers without written permission from The Life Product Review, you will lose your subscription without a refund and will receive an invoice for…

clear light bulb placed on chalkboard

#325 | Penn Mutual Bucks the Trend

Quick Take Despite the fact that the entire Indexed UL market seems to be flocking to engineered indices, Penn Mutual has made the decision to buck the trend. Its new Accumulation IUL sports a comprehensive lineup of S&P 500 crediting…

#319 | Lincoln LifeGoals VUL

At this point, there’s broad recognition that there should be a natural fit between the tax properties and investment flexibility of variable insurance products, particularly Variable UL and Variable Annuities. But there’s also increasingly a broad recognition that a theoretical…

black and white dartboard

#309 | Nationwide Advisory VUL

In the early 2000s, a little company in Louisville called Jefferson National began to make a serious splash in the annuity side of the business. Jefferson National – JeffNat – was focused exclusively on selling accumulation-oriented variable annuities with no…

gray high rise buildings
See More Articles