2012 - Peter Katt - aicpa - Index Universal Life Insurance: Beware of a Possible New Scam - 2p
2014 0921 (Updated) - WSJ - New York Probes Indexed Universal Life Sales Practices Benjamin Lawsky Concerned Insurance Companies Giving Optimistic Projections, By Leslie Scism - [link]
2014 0926 - WSJ - Scrutiny of Stock-Linked Insurance Policies Grows: Some Say Performance Projections for Indexed Universal Life Are Too Rosy, By Leslie Scism - [link]
2014 11 - InvestmentNews - IULs Fill Growing Gap in Retirement Plans, By Cyril Tuohy - [link]
In addition, IULs represented 42 percent of total universal life premium in the second quarter, and 17 percent of overall individual life premium in the second quarter, LIMRA reported.
And that growth is exactly what has attracted New York Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky to take a closer look at IUL sales practices.
Konopik estimated that more than 50 carriers in the United States are marketing the selling of IUL policies. “Insurance companies that said they’d never do it 10 years ago are now selling it,” he said.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to IUL,” Konopik said, and one of his concerns is that some agents are “not getting as much training as they need when selling IULs."
2014 1223 - InsuranceNewsNet.com - Insurers Take Aim At IUL Illustrations InsuranceNewsNet, By Arthur D. Postal - [link]
2020 0107 - WSJ - It’s the Hottest Thing in Life Insurance. Are Buyers Aware of the Risks? Regulators worry insurers are underplaying the dangers of a product tied to the performance of the U.S. stock market, by Leslie Scism - [link]
One concern is that existing consumer materials “can lead to unrealistic expectations,” said Fred Andersen, an actuary with the Minnesota Department of Insurance who is a leader in the effort at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Paul Graham, chief actuary with trade group American Council of Life Insurers, said the industry supports development of materials and disclosures that help consumers “make the right decisions,” though “we do have different views amongst our companies as to how to best accomplish that on rather complex IUL products.”
Those policies were a sensation in the 1980s when U.S. interest rates were in double digits.
2022 0517- Forbes Advisor - Sounding The Alarm On Indexed Universal Life Insurance, by Ed Leefeldt - [link]
2022 1224- WSJ - Stock Selloff Hits Life Insurers’ Fastest-Growing Product Indexed universal-life policies grew with low rates and soaring markets, by Leslie Scism - [link]
The insider joke about indexed universal-life policies is that it takes an actuary, an attorney and maybe even an engineer to understand how the product works.
Some regulators worry that hypothetical projections of savings growth using these indexes are overly rosy and can lead to unrealistic consumer expectations.
If a projection proves faulty, a buyer could be stuck with an unaffordable insurance bill.