Indexed universal life insurance sales are up double digits as market conditions drive the product line to its eighth consecutive quarter of growth in premiums, according to insurance industry group LIMRA.
Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance sales rose 10% in the third quarter compared with the prior quarter and 12% year to date, LIMRA said, buoying life insurance sales. Overall life insurance sales were up 3% compared with last quarter.
The group declined to provide dollar figures for sales, represented by aggregate new insurance premiums. Wink Inc., a market research firm, pegged Q3 IUL sales at $529 million. The products are similar in nature to indexed annuities.
Growth in a policy’s cash value is linked to a stock market index and capped to the upside; interest credited to a policy over a given period can’t be less than 0%. IUL has steadily increased its share of overall sales of universal life insurance products such as fixed and variable IUL. Year to date through the third quarter,
IUL’s share was 55%, up roughly two and a half times what it was at the beginning of the decade. IUL products have largely experienced double-digit sales growth since 2008.
Indexed universal life insurance (IUL) allows the owner to allocate cash value amounts to either a fixed account or an equity index account. Policies offer a variety of well-known indexes such as the Nasdaq-100 or the S&P 500.
IUL insurance policies are more volatile than fixed ULs, but they are less risky than variable UL insurance policies, because no money is actually invested in equity positions.
Want to learn more? Contact your Ziff Agency professional directly.
(Source: InvestmentNews.com)