Latest Content
#243 | Rethinking Whole Life Dividends
One of the things I’ve been hearing a lot recently, especially from folks on the independent side of the business, is some variant of the argument that low interest rates are going to crush dividend scale interest rates (DSIRs) on…
#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 category, Lincoln VULone and Prudential VUL Protector, I wrote the following about Prudential’s product – “sell the daylights out of…
#241 | The Premium Financing Exit Mirage
Indexed UL has undoubtedly ushered in a new era of hyper-aggressive premium financing deals and the reasons why aren’t hard to figure out. Indexed UL allows for illustrated rates based on hypothetical historical lookbacks and the maximum rate is the…
#240 | Assessing Sequence of Return Risk – Part 1
Everyone knows that variability of returns in both Variable UL and Indexed UL creates sequence of return risk, but what exactly does that mean and how does it actually translate into policy performance? As it turns out, sequence of return…
#239 | Filed: PacLife PDX Class Action Lawsuit
I've uploaded the lawsuit and you can read it by clicking here. While working at MetLife, I was struck by how often the notion of “ending up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal” was invoked as a…
#238 | The New Face of STOLI
8/14 Update – It is my understanding that all three companies writing business with Strategy Agency have suspended or severed their relationship. One severed the relationship earlier this year. After this article was published, another carrier received the same documents…
#237 | The Tangled Reinsurance Web – Part 6 – Through The Maze
At last, we’ve come to the end of this series that attempts to untangle the tangled web of reinsurance. It seems like an eternity since the first article was published at the end of April. What have we discussed so…
#236 | The Inevitable Rise of Structured Crediting
Where is the Indexed UL market going? If you really want to know, as usual, you have to look outside of life insurance and towards annuities. Since AXA (now Equitable) created the Structured Annuity in 2010, the market has grown…
#235 | Protective Lifetime Assurance UL Review
Nostalgia sells. Ever since the smash success and cultural phenomenon of the VW New Beetle, an otherwise silly and unremarkable car except for what it represented, car manufacturers have been remaking the classics with less than subtle nods to nostalgia…
#234 | PacLife Reduces Caps, Again
PacLife announced this morning that they are reducing caps to 8.5% in September from 9.0% currently and 9.25% at the beginning of the year. My first instinct was to write a commentary on the rate action, but I kept having…
