VUL

The NAILBA VUL panel was conducted as a part of NAILBA 40 ’ s virtual programming in the fourth quarter of last year . The panel of VUL experts shared their perspectives on the market , selling objections , regulatory factors , and pairing of VUL with LTC or chronic illness riders . The following is a summary of their discussion .

Taking a market pulse

Charles Arnold is the Chief Marketing Officer for The Leaders Group , Inc . located in Littleton , CO . The Leaders Group is a national , independent broker-dealer servicing wholesale distribution firms , independent insurance agents and financial professionals for over 25 years .

Overall , the carriers and BGAs expressed optimism regarding the variable universal life ( VUL ) market . The carriers have seen a larger percentage of their product mix turn to VUL , as opposed to guaranteed universal life or traditional permanent products . Throughout the discussion this was largely attributed to a combination of equity market performance , the low interest rate environment , regulatory changes , and the willingness of consumers to trade better performance for less guaranteed features , which lends to the uptick in accumulation based VUL designs . There was still a great demand and use for no-lapse guaranteed VUL products , which still lead the market .

Cohen : I think the number one message I ’ d like to send out to our BGA partners is if you ’ re not currently wholesaling variable life insurance products , get on board because I truly believe that ’ s where the future is and that is where the growth is going to be for our third-party distributors .

Winkler : The word I would use would be optimism from Prudential ’ s perspective . Five years ago , two-thirds of our sales really consisted of GUL in term . And now today , it ’ s two-thirds VUL and term . Thomas : We really think that the future is variable life , especially in the protection space . Anderson : It is good to have a balanced approach to the different sub-accounts that they ( the clients ) choose , but this is a great time to get into the market and really , it ’ s made our industry better , I think , to have a resurgence of the variable product .

48 Perspectives Q2 2022