Licensed agents · licence number given on every call
Term, whole life & IUL · question 1 of 7 · nothing is purchased here
Term, whole life and indexed universal life — what each one costs, which parts are guaranteed, and which is worth your money. A licensed agent prices it and tells you when the answer is none of them.
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Every call opens with the agent’s full name and resident licence number, before anything is asked of you. Write it down. You can check it against your state’s department of insurance or the National Insurance Producer Registry — we will tell you where to look, and we will wait while you do.
Agent availability varies by state. You will be matched with an agent licensed where you live.
Available carriers and products differ by state. We will only compare indexed universal life products that are actually available to you where you live.
We separate the two before anything else. The guaranteed column shows contractual minimums and maximum charges. The non-guaranteed column shows current assumptions the carrier can change. You will see both, in the same conversation.
What the carrier takes off each premium, what the insurance itself costs each month, and what it costs to walk away in the early years. These come out whether or not the policy earns an index credit in a given period.
Floor, cap and participation rate, explained with a labelled educational diagram and no numbers. Index crediting is not direct market participation, and it does not include dividends paid on the underlying stocks.
How much premium the design needs, for how long, and what happens if you pay less or stop. Underfunding is the most common reason these policies fail, so we test your number against the design, not the other way around.
How each one works, what each does to the death benefit, how loan interest accrues, and how a lapse with an outstanding loan can create a taxable event. No one should buy an IUL without understanding this section.
Term, whole life, guaranteed universal life, or keeping the money outside insurance entirely, compared against what you actually want the money to do.
Prefer to hear any of the six on the phone? Call (833) 214-7788.
Indexed universal life credits interest based on the movement of a market index — it is not invested in the market. Read the drawing below with these three parts in mind.
Educational concept — not a projection or guarantee
A floor, stated in your policy, stops the credit from going below zero in a down period. This is the part that is in the contract, and it is the only solid mass in the drawing above.
A cap limits the credit in a strong up period. The carrier declares it and can lower it later, down to the guaranteed minimum stated in your contract. Today's cap is not what you are promised.
Only a share of the index movement is credited, not all of it. Participation rates and spreads are also set by the carrier, and they can change within the limits the contract states.
Index declines are not credited — and policy charges still apply in a zero-credit year.
Rather have an agent walk you through the three of them? Call (833) 214-7788, Mon–Fri, 9:00am–5:00pm ET.
Educational concept only. The diagram on this page is not a projection, illustration, quote or guarantee of policy values, and shows no figures of any kind. Index crediting varies by carrier, product, index and policy charges. Policy charges and the cost of insurance reduce policy value and are deducted whether or not interest is credited. Only a carrier-approved illustration, provided by a licensed agent, can show values for a specific policy.
Six questions about your state, age, objective, funding comfort and timing. No medical exam, no policy numbers, no documents. If you would rather talk it through, call during business hours instead.
Your answers go to an agent licensed in your state. They check which carriers are available to you and what designs are worth discussing, so the call starts with substance instead of a script.
The agent walks through cost structure, the guaranteed column, the non-guaranteed column, loan and withdrawal mechanics, and the alternatives. You can ask what happens in the bad scenarios. You should.
If IUL fits, the agent prepares carrier-approved illustrations showing guaranteed and non-guaranteed values side by side. If term, whole life, or waiting fits better, you will hear that plainly and there is no next step to dodge.
Six questions, then how to reach you — about two minutes. An agent calls you back for a 20 to 30 minute review: costs, which values are guaranteed, and the alternatives. Policies built for meaningful long-term cash value are commonly funded from roughly $250 to $1,000 or more per month, sustained for many years — if that is not realistic for you, we will say so. Nothing is purchased here.
A permanent policy is funded across decades. That is the part worth being honest about before anything else, because a design that cannot be sustained is the most common way these policies fail.
It is life insurance. A carrier issues it, underwrites it on your health, and its core job is paying a death benefit. It is not a security, not a brokerage account, and not registered with the SEC. It can accumulate cash value, credited by a formula tied to an index. That does not make it an investment account, and it should not take the place of one in your plan. Judge it first as insurance.
Two columns appear in every compliant illustration. The guaranteed column shows the carrier's contractual minimums: the death benefit while the policy stays funded and in force, the guaranteed minimum interest floor, the guaranteed minimum cap or participation rate, and the maximum charges the carrier may apply. The non-guaranteed column shows current charges and a hypothetical crediting rate. Only the guaranteed column is a promise. We read that column first, out loud, on the call.
The non-guaranteed column is not a forecast. It shows what happens only if every current assumption holds.
Yes. Caps, participation rates and spreads are declared by the carrier and can be lowered within the limits stated in the contract. Cost of insurance rates can be raised up to the guaranteed maximum in the policy. What you are contractually promised is the guaranteed minimum cap or rate and the guaranteed maximum charge, not today's numbers. Ask any agent to show you where those minimums and maximums sit in the contract.
Set by the carrier. May change after the policy is issued.
There is no single number. Required premium depends on your age, health class, death benefit, and how the policy is designed. Policies built for meaningful long-term cash value are commonly funded from roughly $250 to $1,000 or more per month, sustained for many years. Underfunding is the most common failure: charges keep coming out, cash value drains, and the policy can lapse. If the funding is not realistic for you, we will say so.
Both reduce the death benefit. A withdrawal permanently removes cash value and may be taxable above your cost basis. A loan accrues interest and stays as a lien against the policy until repaid or settled at death. If loan interest and policy charges outrun the cash value, the policy can lapse, and a lapse with a large outstanding loan can create taxable income on gains you never received in cash. Distributions are not automatically tax-free.
“Tax-free income” is a description of a strategy, not a feature of the policy.
The policy does not correct itself. If credited interest comes in below the illustrated assumption, or charges rise toward their guaranteed maximums, cash value grows more slowly than the illustration showed. The realistic outcomes are that you pay more premium, accept a lower death benefit, take smaller distributions, or the policy lapses earlier than planned. That is why we ask clients to request an in-force illustration every few years. An illustration is a projection under stated assumptions, not a forecast.
Request an in-force illustration every two to three years. It is free and it is the only way to see where you stand.
Term covers a set period, costs the least per dollar of death benefit, and builds no cash value. Whole life is permanent with guaranteed cash value, a fixed required premium, and non-guaranteed dividends. Indexed universal life is permanent with flexible premiums, and its cash value depends on non-guaranteed crediting and current charges. IUL puts more of the outcome on your side of the table. More flexibility also means more responsibility to fund it and monitor it.
A question that is not on this list? Call (833) 214-7788 and ask it.
If indexed universal life is not the right answer for you, the fastest way to find that out is to ask someone who is willing to say so.
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