Life Insurance Saver

The first important question to address: What is a “new” policy? Certainly there has been an evolution in policy types, from Whole Life through Variable Universal and Equity Indexed UL. But is a “new” policy recommendation being made primarily through its policy illustration (and therefore “numbers” orientation) or is it the result of a process that might suggest that your insurance style has changed? A second question to ask is whether this “new” VUL is better than the VUL you have now. Should you switch to a UL if you currently own a VUU If your UL premium offset isn’t working out, should you exchange to a no-lapse UU

Life Insurance Policy Development “life” Cycle

In spite of what has been described so far about the various types of life insurance, at a practical level there are really only two kinds of life insurance: the kind that’s being suggested for you to buy and the kind that you already own. (This discussion is generally more applicable to indeterminate premium-type life insurance policies.)

Consider briefly Carrier Xs product development cycle. When it addresses the development and marketing of a new life insurance policy, Carrier A is viewing the policy from the standpoint of its competitiveness and potential contribution to the bottom line. And of course competitiveness is going to be measured by the numbers shown on the life insurance policy illustration. An insurer is generally going to want those numbers to look as attractive as possible compared to their peers in the marketplace, and Carrier Xs actuaries and marketing specialists look closely at their own data and experience-and that of the competition-and bring forth their finest creation to date:  Opus UL out-illustrates every Universal Life insurance policy currently being sold.

Of course Opus UL is a success! Trade press suggests that Carrier Xs newest UL is a clear winner in the marketplace. Yet after a period of selling Opus UL to more than its share of new policyholders, other insurers in the same market space are going to catch up, improving their illustrated numbers accordingly.