Penn Mutual Launches New IUL Product

Penn Mutual has announced the release of Accumulation Builder Advantage, an index universal life (IUL) insurance product offering four fixed accounts and a fixed account option, as well as a bonus credited in year 11.

Penn Mutual said the 0.75 percent bonus, credited to the policy’s “non-loaned” index and fixed accounts, is credited regardless of the performance of performance. This effectively raises the caps and floors on indexed accounts by 0.75 percent.

Accumulation Builder Advantage IUL joins its sibling, Accumulation Builder Choice IUL, in the company’s universal life insurance portfolio.

Andrew Martin, assistant vice president of product development at Penn Mutual, said in a news release that the 0.75 percent bonus was “unsurpassed in the IUL marketplace.”

“Additionally, Accumulation Builder Advantage IUL offers some of the strongest guarantees in the IUL marketplace, coupled with other dynamic features designed to support the long-term financial goals of our policyholders,” he said.

Index life insurance is designed to limit the downside of market declines in exchange for capping market gains.

Index life insurance policies have been well received.

LIMRA’s Individual Life Insurance Sales Summary Report for the first quarter 2015 shows that IUL new annualized premium grew 11 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the year-ago period.

IUL sales represent half of all universal life premium and 19 percent of all individual life premium, LIMRA also reported.

Ashley Durham, assistant research director for LIMRA Insurance Research, said the first quarter of the year was a strong quarter for individual life insurance sales.

“Index and variable universal life insurance sales recorded double-digit growth in the first three months of 2015, while whole life rebounded after stalling this time last year,” she said in a news release.

LIMRA does not release the raw numbers, but sales of index life in the fourth quarter 2014 reached $498 million, a 24 percent increase compared to the year-ago period, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report. Fourth quarter index life sales were up nearly 34 percent compared with the previous quarter, Wink’s also reported.

Locked in a ferocious battle for clients and capital against banks and mutual funds, and struggling with low interest rates to boot, insurance carriers are doing all they can to spruce up their products by piling on features and riders.

Accumulation Builder Advantage IUL comes with a no-lapse guarantee of up to 30 years. A chronic illness accelerated benefit rider is automatically included where eligible, the company said. Both features come at no additional cost.

Accumulation Builder Advantage and Accumulation Builder Choice are focused on asset accumulation within the life insurance policy.

Penn Mutual offers two other universal life insurance products: Protection Guard Universal Life and Guaranteed Protection Universal Life. Both are focused more on asset protection than on asset accumulation, according to the company’s website.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Writer Cyril Tuohy has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.