Whole Life case study: Male age 40

I am comparing options for whole life for someone age 40 versus indexed Universal Life (IUL) with a goal of cash value accumulation. See my prior post on June 1st to review the IUL quotes.

For someone in their 40’s whole life is a very attractive option. Dividends build over time and have a much longer track record than IUL performance. Participating, par for short, Whole life dividends historically have been dependable each year year after year in a stable range. With an IUL crediting can be zero or anemic if there is a down market. Premium flexibility is much better with an IUL at least in the first 15 to 20 years. With a whole life you got to wait until the dividends build up before dividend crediting gives any meaningful premium flexibility.

Whole Life can provide retirement income tax free with partial withdrawals and loans. Also the policy holder can receive annual cash dividends in meaningful amounts.

The method here is to run apples-to-apples quotes, full illustrations, and in the tables section compare dividends and cash value accumulation values. Since the individual is age 40, I compared values at year 25, age 65, a retirement age benchmark.

Male age 40, preferred plus non-tobacco rate

Whole Life

Company #1
$500 monthly premium
solve: base
$363,285 initial death benefit (best)

year 25 non guaranteed
$229,649 cash value
$7,372 dividend
$508,984 death benefit


Next solve as a minimum non-MEC.

Company #1
$500 monthly premium
solve: minimum non-MEC
$180,227 initial death benefit

year 25: non guaranteed
$259,604 cash value (best)
$7,786 dividend
$498,810 death benefit

Note the non-MEC quote design suppressed the initial death benefit from $363,285 to $180,227. This allows for better cash value projections and higher dividends. Notably by year 25 the death benefit has nearly caught up: $498,810 versus $508,984, so the additional $30k of cash value accumulation makes the non-MEC strategy worthwhile in the long run for both key elements.

Now compare these results using the same premium to a competitive company which has a paid up age 65 Whole Life product.

Company #2
$500 monthly premium
solve: base
$224,711 initial death benefit

year 25: non guaranteed
$225,285 cash value
$7,943 dividend (best)
$384,406 death benefit


Comments: In my prior blog post for Indexed Universal Life (IUL) at $500 a month projected a non guaranteed cash value accumulation of $268,559 at year 25. But is that a realistic projection? The IUL illustration assumed 5.00% crediting each and every year. In the real world index crediting tied to equities won’t perform that way, and it’s debatable it will average out.

What’s preferable whole life or IUL? Choice boils down to committing to whole life’s premium or having the wiggle room to your budget over the years with an IUL’s greater premium flexibility. Whole Life’s dividends are steady year by year with cash value guarantees, yet an IUL conceivably with sufficient much better crediting years could produce higher cash value accumulation.

IUL case study: Male age 40

Male age 40, preferred non-tobacco rate

Indexed Universal Life (IUL)

Goal #1: maximum cash value accumulation, income disbursements after retirement, no premiums in retirement

Design: minimum face amount, non-MEC (Modified Endowment Contract)
S&P 500 annual annual point-to-point with 100% Participation
5.00% index crediting all years
$500 monthly premium years 1-25, zero premiums thereafter to age 120
increasing death benefit years 1-25, level death benefit thereafter
maximum distributions years 26-30 (5 years) switch at basis from withdrawals to loans
$6,000 annual premium: guideline level premium $6,000.02 (non-MEC since it’s below guideline level)

Results: Company A
$104,115 increasing initial death benefit
non guaranteed results:
cash value accumulation $268,559 year 25. 
Maximum disbursements for 5 years, $59,640 assuming 4.50% variable rate. total $298,200 distributions over 5 years. Total premiums years 1-25: $150,000; net outlay ($148,200)
the policy projects coverage to age 120 without further premiums.  

Goal #2: target premium in order to build cash value and for coverage to last to age 120, flexible premiums for coverage to age 120 and cash value accumulation

Design: target premium
S&P 500 annual annual point-to-point with 100% Participation
5.00% index crediting all years
increasing death benefit all years

Results: Company A

$250 monthly premium  (target premium)
$209,644 initial increasing death benefit 
guideline level premium: $11,992.02 (maximum non-MEC annual)
maximum non-MEC annual premium $14,535.83, 7 pay test (annual)
monthly initial minimum premium $69.26 
cash value accumulation $105,527 year 25

$500 monthly premium (target premium) 
$491,287 initial increasing death benefit 
guideline level premium: $23,898.08 (maximum non-MEC annual)
maximum non-MEC annual premium $29,071.64, 7 pay test (annual)
monthly initial minimum premium $125.29
cash value accumulation $216,825 year 25. 

So with an IUL you can choose a target premium as your budget allows and have lots of flexibility to change premiums as circumstances warrant over the years from minimum to maximum non-MEC.  A target premium will not build as much cash value as in the Goal #1 design, minimizing the face amount and the maximum non-MEC premium, but it does quite well in building cash value and that does give you a much higher death benefit.

Please call with any questions, and to find out the name of the high performing carrier quoted.

IUL comparison for maximum cash value accumulation and tax-free loans

Male, age 44, standard non tobacco

$200,000 annual premium years 1-10, zero premium years 11+: total premium $2,000,000
5.00% interest crediting S & P 500 index annual point-to-point, all years.  This is not the maximum crediting allowed but helps compare carrier performance apples-to-apples.

structured maximum cash value accumulation, guideline level premium, minimum face amount, increasing death benefit, non-MEC guideline level premium test

Cash Value Accumulation (non guaranteed based on 5%)

Company A: $2,967,294 initial death benefit, year 20 cash value: $3,749,106, age 79 no lapse guarantee 
Company B: $3,255,183 initial death benefit, year 20 cash value: $3,352,877, age 93 no lapse guarantee 

Tax-Free Loans

Same structure as above except an increasing death benefit years 1-20, level death benefit years 21+, variable loan rate 4.50%

Company A: $803,212 loans years 21-25, total loans $4,0116,060  net outlay ($2,016,060)
Company B: $680,000 loans years 21-25, non guarantee lapse age 86

Comments: Even though company A projects clear advantages in cash value accumulation and policy loans, company B with its age 93 no lapse guarantee (NLG) indicates a fundamentally stronger product impervious to cost of insurance (COI) increases in or cap reductions, any carrier undermining of product support in the future.

Indexed Universal Life (IUL) quotes run April 2023. Please contact me to discuss these two competitive carriers.

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Vape: best life insurance rates

Prudential has the most favorable life insurance rates for vapers.  Thier Non-Smoker Plus rate is possible for vaping as long as no real cigarettes have been used in the last 12 months. The Non-Smoker Plus is one rate class below Prudential’s preferred rate.

Most carriers consider any kind of vaping the same as smoking cigarettes. even if one vapes non nicotine juice. United of Omaha, Brighthouse Financial and Global Atlantic Life are the exceptions worth a closer review. Their underwriting guidelines make a distinction between non nicotine and nicotine solutions.

Wide variations to maximum illustration rates for indexed universal life despite reforms

An Indexed Universal Life (IUL) quote today with Transamerica allowed a 7.75% maximum to their illustration rate for the S&P 500 Index Account.  Consumers should be aware of the wide discrepancies in illustration rates and request, especially for the benchmark S & P 500 index, that all comparison quotes be run at a uniform interest rate, for example 5.00%, not the maximum the allowed.  Otherwise product and carrier comparisons are rather meaningless.

Maximum illustration rate S & P 500, annual point to point, 100% participation:  May 31, 2017

7.75%   Transamerica   “Transamerica Financial Foundation IUL®”

6.96%   Symetra  “Symetra Accumulator IUL”

6.68%   Minnesota Life  “Orion Indexed Universal Life ”

6.26%   Prudential  “PruLife® Index Advantage UL”

6.16%  American General  ” Max Accumulation Plus IUL”

6.09%  Voya  ” Voya Indexed Universal Life Protector”

5.50%   Minnesota Life  “Eclipse Protector Indexed Life”

Life Insurance Illustrations National Association of Insurance Commissioners

To provide guidance to policies whose benefits are tied to an external index or indices, the NAIC adopted Actuarial Guideline XLIX (AG 49) on August 16, 2015. AG 49 was developed to bring uniformity to the illustrations of policies tied to an external index or indices by providing a reasonable cap on the illustrated credited rate. Uniformity across illustrates helps clients to more easily compare the policies of different companies.

John Hancock discontinues Individual LTC Insurance Sales

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John Hancock Life Insurance Company announced today they are ending sales of long-term care (LTC) individual policies. This is not surprising news. I stopped recommending stand alone LTC plans years ago. The fundamental flaw of individual LTC policies from the consumer’s point of view is that they are subject to future rate increases. Carriers sold benefit rich LTC plans with inflation protection, in their heyday top end plans offered unlimited an benefit period with annual 5% compound benefit increases, but in recent years policy owners have been hit with double digit rate increases and the potential of more in the future. Individuals in their retirement years can ill afford those premium increases. Besides traditional LTC plans are use it or lose it.

The movement is to hybrid life insurance LTC plans.  Please refer to my comprehensive guide: Life Insurance that pays for Long Term Care: the hybrids. Long-term care or chronic illness benefits are included with life insurance, a living benefit as well as a death benefit. There are some finer print provisions to watch out for, LTC insurance vs. chronic illness benefit, permanent vs. temporary conditions, but in all it’s high quality coverage. The policy owner receives a benefit one way or another, either accelerating out for LTC or as a death benefit, at a reasonably fixed cost.

John Hancock’s High Performance Protection UL


John Hancock
 recently sent out to life insurance agents and brokers an impressive comparison of its “Protection UL”, Universal Life product crediting rates compared eight other carriers, as well as a comparison of those rates 5 years ago.  Protection UL, a current assumption UL or CAUL, is currently crediting 5.05%.  The other carriers were much lower: two in the low 4% range, two the low 3% range and four carriers are at 3.00%. Back in 2011 John Hancock was crediting “Protection UL” at 5.20%.  Three carriers back then were in the 5% range; the fall off to current levels of all eight competing carriers since 2011 has been significant.  The continued narrative to justify these low rates and ongoing decreases has been the interest rate environment.  John Hancock uses the performance of its institutional investments to enable a better outcome.

The Castle Geyser, Upper Geyser Park, 1874, Thomas Moran, source Wikemedia Commons

 

Yet in evaluating cash value accumulation and policy values besides crediting rates there is cost of insurance (COI) to consider.  That’s harder to track, but this very useful article takes to task Banner/William Penn, AXA, Transamerica and Voya Financial for their huge rate hikes to COI in 2015.  Was that necessary?  John Hancock had better priorities.

Carriers clearly have other options, which protect rather than harm consumers. John Hancock, for instance, took a huge write-down in 2008-2009 that affected shareholders rather than clients. And since then, the company has been a prolific innovator of products and services that manage both interest and mortality risk. The latest example: John Hancock’s “Protection” series of policies, which offers a reduction of COI charges. This approach shows carriers can succeed by putting their clients’ needs above shareholder interests when necessary.

Having been so convinced, I made John Hancock’s “Protection UL” my recommended UL product.  There remains a lingering concern about the challenges to their long-term care insurance policy performance.

Keep in mind COI is a vital component to cash value accumulation for Indexed Universal Life (IUL) as well.  It’s much harder for agents and consumers to follow the trail of a company’s track record for cost of insurance charges, but it’s of a vital importance when choosing a UL or IUL, any products with non-guaranteed elements.

 

 

Sean Drummey

The Level Above Term Life Insurance

What is the best type of life insurance term or permanent? It depends on the individual’s situation, but certainly term life insurance and one permanent product called Guaranteed Universal Life (GUL) are straightforward and similar in concept. A Guaranteed UL, also called no-lapse Universal Life, like term has a fixed premium for a set period of time, up to an age 120+ lifetime guarantee.  Of all the permanent life insurance products, Guaranteed Universal Life offers the lowest cost death benefit.  Pay on time and coverage is guaranteed, and the premium is guaranteed never to go up. All you need to figure out what time period is best and affordable. The only real debate between term and guaranteed UL is the comparative cost for the length of coverage.  For example:

Canterskill_Falls,_Catskill_Mountains,_and_Rip_Van_Winkle_Rock

$250,000 coverage, Male, age 48, super preferred, monthly premiums:

$25.06     10 year term
$29.51     15 year term
$37.99     20 year term
$58.22     25  year term
$63.29     30  year term
$172.21   age 90 Guaranteed UL
$213.25   age 120 Guaranteed UL

In this example, as in most cases, 30 year term covers is less expensive than coverage to age 90. The higher premium is a function of the odds of outliving the policy. Check out the Social Security actuarial life table for life expectancy for your age.  This table gives the life expectancy of a 48 year old males as 31.61 years. If you want a more individualized life expectancy try here.

Historical

Universal Life (UL), also called Current Assumption Universal Life (CAUL), has been around since the 1980’s. UL products promised higher cash value accumulation than whole life insurance, but did have a lifetime coverage guarantee.  Many of the those UL products sold in the 80’s and 90’s under performed.  When cash value sinks to zero in a UL policy will lapse, or terminate, unless bolstered by ever higher premiums.  As a result consumers lost confidence in the death benefit protection of Universal Life.  In the early 2000’s the life insurance industry responded by adding a “no-lapse guarantee” or  “secondary guarantee”, typically a lifetime guarantee, as a line of UL products. These Guaranteed Universal Life (GUL) products, a.k.a. Universal Life with Secondary Guarantees (ULSG), have done quite well in the life insurance market, since they offer a lifetime coverage guarantee for substantially less than whole life. Most consumers, especially those in their 60’s and 70’s, for estate planning purposes are interested in low cost lifetime death benefits guarantees, not cash value accumulation. In recent years the Great Recession and regulatory changes winnowed down the number of carriers offering GUL products, but there are still multiple carriers who offer them, giving the consumer a wide range of competitively priced options.

update with revised quotes: 01/09/2023

Survivorship Indexed Universal Life for cash value accumulation

In a quote comparison of Survivorship Indexed Universal Life (IUL) products with cash value accumulation as the objective, Penn Mutual outperformed the competition with their “Survivor Plus IUL” plan.

A Surviviorship Indexed UL, second-to-die benefit, will tend outperform an individual Indexed UL for cash value accumulation.  The cost of insurance on two lives for one death benefit is lower than on a single life, so it makes sense for a couple to consider a survivorship product.

Here were the parameters for this case study:

Premium Amount: $250,000
Solve For:  Minimum Non-MEC *
Death Benefit Option: Increasing
Illustrative Rate assumption: 6% (all years);  S & P 500 annual point-to-point
insureds:  both mid ’50’s, both preferred non tobacco
objective: cash value accumulation, downside protection

Penn Mutual was able to solve as a “3 pay”, dividing the $250,000 premium into three annual payments, and maintain competitive cash value accumulation to a 4 pay, which is unusual.  When evaluating  a limited pay scenario, one works down from a “7 pay” non-MEC structure to see where optional cash value accumulation occurs. A 5 pay or 4 pay is most common.  Penn Mutual’s cash value accumulation was superior to the competition looking at years 5, 10, 15 and 20 and on out in 5 year increments.  PennMutual’s has a 2% floor on both its fixed and indexed account, giving their product superior downside protection.

Each case is different in age, health, premium amount and objectives, so it’s not a hard and fast conclusion that PennMutual Survivor IUL will be the superior product, but the next time a cash value accumulation case comes up Penn Mutual will be serve as a benchmark.

  •  Non-MEC =  not a Modified Endowment Contract

Providing Life Insurance Beneficiaries Social Security Number

Social Security Numbers for Life Insurance: Locating Beneficiaries Trumps Privacy Concerns

In a perfect world when the insured of a life insurance policy dies, the beneficiary soon after notifies the company and files a death claim. But what if the beneficiaries are not aware of the policy’s existence or have died themselves? Death creates a void, combined with poor planning, no executor, no immediate relatives, a lack of information. Decades may have passed since the life policy was taken out. Beneficiaries forget details, change addresses and phone numbers.

Evidently life insurance companies, at least up until a few years ago, tended not to fill the void.  A good number of carriers have reached settlements in multiple states, including California, for failure to identify and pay claims for policy holders. They were exposed as having a double standard, using the social security master death file to cease payments on annuity customers who had died. That’s legitimate and in their best financial interest to stop annuity payments, but on the other side of their operations did not use the social security master file to identify deceased life insurance policy owners because it would cost them money to pay out the death benefits. Worse it allowed carriers to drain cash value out of permanent life policies and allow them to lapse when required premiums were no longer being paid.

Social Security numbers for beneficiaries depend on the state, the carrier and product. Most major life carriers, though not all, request the social security number for their term, Universal Life, IUL and participating whole life products. In the past applicants could request the social security number be waived for the beneficiary if not provided on an application, but given the more strict compliance post settlement environment, many carriers not will not allow that.

Simplified issue whole life companies, better known as burial insurance, still tends to require only the most basic information on beneficiaries. I’m surprised life companies, given the predictable results of lost policies or beneficiaries, still get away with that.  For one carrier, unlike the other states, for their New York final expense application, besides name, date of birth and relation to the insurance asks for the beneficiaries address, social security number and phone number. New York sets the gold standard for consumer protection. Even though those standards are restrictively high in many aspects, it’s certainly justifiable here to help facilitate claims.  Florida has recently tightened their laws.

Even if not required, provide social security numbers for all beneficiaries. Plan for the unexpected decades from now. It’s a valuable resource to help locate a beneficiary. Give as much basic information as possible, and as time passes keep the contact information up to date.

Life insurance carriers require applicants to provide social security numbers for the insured and owner of the policy. Don’t expect to get around this requirement primarily to prevent fraud and misrepresentation. Carriers do MIB, or Medical Information Board, check, and may do pharmacy prescription checks.


Sean Drummey for life insuranceLicensed Agent:  Sean Drummey
national producer #5534308
phone: (910) 328-0447
email:   spdrummey@gmail.com