Summary
The newest star in the life insurance universe -- based on sales growth, at least -- is indexed universal life (IUL) insurance. According to Advantage Compendium, the St. Louis-based research and consulting firm, sales in 2006 rose to $352 million, up by 89% over those in 2005. Several factors are driving the surge in indexed life sales. At a conference presentation in April, Dale Visser, a consulting actuary with consulting firm Milliman Inc, said insurers have been able to leverage their experience with equity indexed annuities (2006 premium of more than $25 billion) to acquire the hedging knowledge and infrastructure necessary for indexed life. Also contributing to sales growth is that many IULs illustrate very well versus other products since 2000. While many variable universal life insurance owners, for example, recorded big losses in the stock market drop from 2000 to 2003, IUL owners recorded no losses or even small gains.
See the full content of this document
Extract
A Small Bright Star
The newest star in the life insurance universe-based on sales growth, at least-is indexed universal life insurance.
According to Advantage Compendium, the St. Louisbased research and consulting firm, sales in 2006 rose to $352 million, up by 89% over those in ^H 2005. The big gain came after years ^ of muddling along with minimal sales and slow growth.Last year's performance doesn't mean the indexed life produ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
