SEC - Variable Life - 12%

  • 1996 - NAIC - Variable Life Illustrations Subgroup of the Life Disclosure (A) Working Group - June 2, 1996
    • Mr. Morse reported that under the current rules, a personalized illustration may be prepared using 0% and 12%.
    • The 12% includes the current morality and expenses and the 0% illustration uses the maximum mortality and expenses allowed in the contract.
    • Mr. Morse opined that this approach does not do consumers the best service.
      • He saw two problems with this approach:
        1. it does not do a good job of showing a consumer what the risks and results might be. The risks in a variable life product include:
          investment risks, a risk that the cost of insurance charges may go up, and a risk that the mortality costs may go up as time passes;
        2. not all purchasers invest in an aggressive stock investment option.
      • If 50% of the investment goes into treasury bills and 50% in stocks, the return shown should be 8% or 9% rather than 12%.
    • James Hunt (Consumer Federation of America) said that the illustrations of variable life that he had seen had been relatively cleaner than those illustrations of nonvariable life.
      • He was unaware of the reason why the SEC chose 12%, because the highest average return he had seen for historical returns on stock funds was approximately 10%.
  • Consistency across UL products
    • The maximum illustrated rate should be set at a level that is consistent with other products and allows IUL illustrations to illustrate these differences.
    • The 12% maximum illustrated rate was selected for VUL because it was unlikely that an average would exceed 12%.
    • The maximum for IUL illustrations should be set with a similar goal.
  • 2014-1, NAIC Proceedings
    • Attachment Twenty-Six - Life Actuarial (A) Task Force - 11/14-15/14 - October 28, 2014
    • To: Mr. Mike Boerner, Chairman - NAIC Life Actuarial Task Force
    • From: ACLI
      • Re Actuarial Guideline on Illustrations of Indexed Universal Life Policies