On Monday, June 15th, Prudential released a revised PruLife Founders Plus UL (2015). The only revision to the product was the extension of the primary guarantee, no premium or cash value changes occurred. Prudential expanded upon the already a strong primary guarantees of the product. This change results in PruLife Founders Plus UL (2015) being the best primary guarantee in the current assumption UL market, lasting to an average age of 93 for the scenarios Shaw American examines.
When looking at Founders Plus, it is important to note that it also has an indexed component. The primary guarantee is not interest rate sensitive, but is a function of the premium. To realize the full benefit of the long primary guarantee, it is best to allocate to the fixed account or at least buffer the index premium. For further explanation, if you minimally fund the product at the fixed account rate of 4.1%, premiums produce a primary guarantee averaging to age 93 (see page 2 of the Snapshots Exhibit). If you minimally fund it at a higher assumed interest rate, such as 6%, the lower outlay produces lower primary guarantees averaging to age 78 (see page 4 of the Snapshots Exhibit). When compared to the current primary guarantee leader for IUL (Protective’s Indexed Choice UL), the guarantees fall about 10 years shorter, with much less cash and some better/worse premiums.
All primary guarantee data for the current assumption universal life benchmarks were added on Wednesday, June 17th. Note: by the end of the summer, you will see primary guarantees added to the indexed universal life benchmarks.
Denis McCarthy says
” To realize the full benefit of the long primary guarantee, it is best to allocate to the fixed account or at least buffer the index premium.” Does this mean that you should go for the fixed rate as opposed to the Plus 50 or Plus 100 options?