One elegant strategy that combines lifelong life insurance protection with cash value designed to grow through index-linked interest — creating a financial resource you may be able to use throughout your life.
An IUL is permanent life insurance designed to do more than one thing at once: provide lifelong protection for the people you love, while building cash value you may be able to use during your lifetime. When properly funded, it is designed to last for life.
At its core, an IUL creates a death benefit — a financial foundation for your beneficiaries that is generally received income-tax-free. The cost of that protection is built into the policy, so coverage and cash value work together within one strategy.
After policy costs, the remainder of each premium builds the policy's cash value. That value has the potential to grow through credited interest on a tax-deferred basis — creating another financial resource over time.
Rather than a single declared rate, interest can be credited based on the positive movement of an external market index, such as the S&P 500®, according to your crediting strategy. A floor helps define the minimum credited result in negative periods.
Your premiums aren't placed in the stock market. The index serves as a reference point, and your crediting strategy determines how its performance translates into interest credited to your policy — index-linked potential without owning the index directly.
Follow the flow of a premium through the policy. Select any stage to see what happens there.
Step 01
The advantage
Results depend on policy design, funding, charges, and credited interest. Illustrated values are hypothetical.
Lifelong life insurance protection — a financial foundation for the people and goals that matter most.
Cash value with the potential to grow through index-linked crediting — on a tax-deferred basis.
Potential access to your cash value during life — liquidity and flexibility for whatever comes next.
Loans and withdrawals reduce cash value and death benefit, and are best planned with your advisor as part of the policy design.
A direct market investment can lose value when the market declines. An IUL works differently: it can use a crediting method linked to an external market index as a reference point for crediting interest to your cash value.
Under an applicable indexed crediting method, a 0% floor on credited interest means a negative index return does not produce a negative indexed interest credit for that method.
The crediting path
01
An external index, such as the S&P 500®, rises or falls over a crediting period.
02
Your strategy defines how that change is measured — for example, from one policy anniversary to the next.
03
Caps and participation rates shape how positive performance is credited; the floor defines the minimum.
04
The resulting rate is credited to your policy for that period.
05
Credited interest is added to your indexed account, helping cash value build over time.
Two directions. One protected floor.
Reference only
External Market Index
Your policy
IUL Cash Value, Linked to the Index
Positive indexed performance
Potential interest credit
Interest may be credited to your cash value, subject to the method’s cap, participation rate, and other limits.
Negative indexed performance
0% floor on the applicable method
A negative index return does not produce a negative indexed interest credit for that method.
You don’t invest directly into the index. Crediting depends on the specific crediting method; caps, participation rates, and other limits may apply. Policy charges, loans, withdrawals, and premium funding all affect policy values, and the policy’s terms and carrier guarantees control.
Choose a hypothetical strategy and move the index result. Watch positive performance become interest credits — and see how a floor helps define the result when the index is negative.
1 • Hypothetical strategy
Or try a scenario
Index result
+12.0%
Crediting rules
Credited interest
10.0%
Credited up to the cap
Strategies A, B and C are simplified hypothetical examples for a single crediting period and do not represent any actual product, carrier, or current rates. Policy charges are not shown.
Your policy uses the index as a reference point. Only performance information crosses between them — not your premium.
Outside the policy
Your contract
Discover the many ways a properly designed IUL may support protection, accumulation, access, retirement, family legacy, business planning, and more.
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The right design can bring many of these possibilities together in one strategy.
Explore Your Possibilities With an AdvisorEducational information only. Policy features, costs, credited interest, guarantees, tax treatment, and availability vary by carrier, policy design, underwriting, funding, and contract terms. This information is not a guarantee of results or tax, legal, or investment advice.
