Indexed universal life
One of the most
powerful tools
in finance.
When it's built correctly. Most aren't — and that's a design failure, not a product failure. Here's the difference in numbers.
What the policy actually returns
Two returns. One policy.
Every illustration you have ever been shown measures one thing — what the cash value earned. That is half of the product. The other half is what happens if you die, and on a life insurance policy that is not a footnote.
These are the carrier's own internal rate of return figures on a real policy. Internal rate of return means the annual return — what the money earned every year, compounded, after every charge the policy takes out.
Male, twenty-six, elite non-tobacco. Five hundred dollars a week for seven years — a hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars total — and then nothing, ever again.
If he dies that yearannual return
If he livesannual return
annual return
0%
1%
10%
100%
1,000%
1,852.20%
−36.12%
Policy year 40
6.43%
7.47%
1
5
10
20
30
40
Policy year
| Policy year | Age | If he livesannual return | If he dies that yearannual return |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 | −36.12% | 1,852.20% |
| 5 | 30 | 0.47% | 57.65% |
| 10 | 35 | 4.30% | 20.73% |
| 20 | 45 | 5.72% | 10.12% |
| 30 | 55 | 6.16% | 8.24% |
| 40 | 65 | 6.43% | 7.47% |
In year one this policy has already returned 1,852 percent — to the only people it was ever bought to protect.
Watch what the two columns do.
One starts underwater and climbs. One starts astronomical and settles. By year forty they are both around six and a half percent, and they have been the same policy the entire time.
That is the part almost nobody explains. You are not choosing between protection and accumulation. You buy one and you are handed the other. And anyone who sells you a policy where that first column stays negative for twenty years has built it wrong.
$500 a week for seven years. $168,000 total. Then never again.
| Age | Cash value | Death benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Age 35 | $226,370 | $673,468 |
| Age 45 | $434,869 | $881,141 |
| Age 70 | $2,389,838 | $3,196,408 |
14.2×
What five hundred a week for seven years turns into by seventy — $168,000 paid in, $2,389,838 of cash value, and a death benefit of $3,196,408 still standing above it.
Real illustration run August 2026 for a 26-year-old male, elite non-tobacco, on a policy from a carrier we represent. Not guaranteed; assumes current rates and charges continue. Your numbers depend on your age, health, and how the policy is built. Policy loans reduce cash value and death benefit.
Why ours are built that way
We take the commission that's 56% smaller.
Agent pay is calculated on the size of the death benefit — not on whether the policy actually performs. Selling you a large, underfunded policy would pay us more than twice what the correct design pays. Same premium from you either way. The difference comes out of our side, not yours.
If we sold it the common way
$7,388
our commission
Built correctly
$2,261
our commission — by choice
Those are the real figures from our owner's own policy. He gave up about $5,100 to build his the right way. Yours gets built the same way.
The Second Opinion
Already been shown an illustration? Bring it. We'll show you which of these two policies you're actually holding — free, whether or not you work with us.
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