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Upload the indexed universal life (IUL) illustration you were given. We rebuild the illustration from the numbers it prints, run the policy through crashes, flat decades and lower crediting terms, and show you what it guarantees and what it doesn’t.
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What people ask us
Each answer below comes from one real illustration we analyzed. Upload yours, and we answer the 4 questions below with the figures your illustration prints.
Question 1
The rate printed on an illustration is an assumption. Here is how far it can be from what the money actually earns.
6.59%
The crediting rate the illustration assumes
5.9%
The IRR of the premiums against the year-40 cash value, both as the illustration prints them
On one real illustration, the rate on the front page is 6.59%. Put the premiums and the year-40 cash value printed on that illustration into an IRR, and the money grows at about 5.9% a year. The difference is mostly what the charges take out.
How fast is your IUL money really growing?
We applied the current cap and spread of the policy we analyzed to every 30-year stretch of the S&P 500 since 1946. The capped account earned between 4.7% and 5.9% a year, and the uncapped account between 5.6% and 8.6%.
What an IUL would have earned over the last 30 years10 years
Crediting terms held halfway to their guaranteed minimums
Early and late
Two placements, because when it happens changes the result
A carrier can lower the cap or raise the spread, within limits the contract sets. We move your policy's crediting terms halfway to their guaranteed minimums for 10 years, early and then late, and run it through every market we test, slow-growing and flat ones included. You see how much cash value the lower terms cost.
How the calculator tests a policy| Year | Age | Credited rate | Interest credited | Account value, end | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1 | 31 | 6.59% | =M6*O6 | =O6+…+T6 |
| 7 | 2 | 32 | 6.59% | =M7*O7 | =O7+…+T7 |
| 8 | 3 | 33 | 4.00% | =M8*O8 | =O8+…+T8 |
| 9 | 4 | 34 | 4.00% | =M9*O9 | =O9+…+T9 |
| 10 | 5 | 35 | 4.00% | =M10*O10 | =O10+…+T10 |
The report comes with a spreadsheet that rebuilds your illustration with formulas. The credited rate is typed into every year, so you can set it to 4% or 3%, for every year or for one, and watch the cash value and the death benefit recalculate.
How to check an IUL's real growth rate in a spreadsheetQuestion 2
What you would receive depends on the year, and taking money out does not have to mean ending the policy.
One real illustration, at its illustrated 6.59% rate.
On the policy we analyzed, surrendering in year 1 would return about 59% of the premium paid. The surrender value does not pass the total premiums paid until year 6, and that assumes the illustrated rate every year. We read the surrender values from your own illustration.
Is IUL a bad investment? 7 criticisms, tested
On the policy we analyzed, the heaviest charges come in the first 10 years. After that they are small next to the account, until the cost of insurance climbs from the late 70s. How many of your policy's heavy early years are already paid changes what keeping it costs from now on.
How much does an IUL cost?
A partial surrender takes money out and may be taxed. A policy loan is borrowed against the cash value, and the policy stays in force. Both lower the death benefit by the amount taken.
How to access cash value: surrender vs. loan
We searched for the largest loan from age 60 that still keeps one real policy in force to 100. In most markets it was 95% of the account, the most the policy allows. In a weak market it was 0%.
How much can you borrow from an IUL?Question 3
A policy lapses when the cash value can no longer pay the charges. On the policy we analyzed, a crash did not empty the cash value, but a long flat market did.
In the flattest market we tested, the index credited close to nothing year after year while the charges kept coming out. With nothing borrowed, the cash value reached zero at age 89.
How much can you borrow from an IUL?
An IUL lets you pay less in a tight year. The charges still come out of the cash value every month, and the cost of insurance rises with age, so a policy funded near the minimum can run out.
Understanding IUL: can it lapse if you pay less?
If the policy is in force when you die, the loan is paid out of the death benefit and is never taxed. If it lapses first, there is no death benefit, and the gain you borrowed is taxed as income.
How IUL loans workQuestion 4
We put one real policy against an S&P 500 index fund on the same premiums, after every fee and tax. Investing came out ahead, and the policy did some things the fund cannot.
On the same premiums from 1976 to 2025, you could take out about $9.3 million after tax from the index fund and about $5.0 million from the policy. The two stayed close for the first 15 years.
Is the tax-free advantage of IUL as good as claimed?
Against a $500,000 term policy plus an S&P 500 index fund, the term plan paid more at most ages. The IUL paid more just after the term ended at 60, and again after the 2008 fall.
Buy term and invest the rest vs. IUL
We reordered the 50 years of S&P 500 returns from 1976 to 2025 in 5 ways to see whether the result was lucky timing. The fund came out ahead in all 5.
Was it just lucky timing?0%
Credited in a crash year, instead of a loss
For life
How long the death benefit lasts while the policy is in force
3 things held up in our tests. The floor credited nothing instead of a loss in every crash we ran. The loans were tax-free and large enough to borrow the most the policy allows in most markets. And the death benefit lasts for life, for as long as the policy stays in force.
Is IUL a good investment? 5 selling points, testedHow we test a policy
Each chart is 50 years of one market in our library, one bar per year: green for a year the index rose, red for a year it fell, all on one scale. The rate at the top right is how fast that market grew on average. Your policy is run through every market with the charges, cap, floor and spread your illustration prints.
The index's own annual price returns for the most recent years, in the order they happened.
The same years in the opposite order.
10% a year, with small moves from one year to the next.
10% a year, with large moves up and down.
2% a year, with small moves from one year to the next.
2% a year, with large moves up and down.
0% a year, with small moves.
The same 6% market the crashes are built on, except that the first 10 years end where they began, with moderate swings along the way.
A market growing about 6% a year that falls about 40% over two years, then recovers.
The same market and the same fall, twenty years later.
The same market and the same fall, forty years later.
The same market with the same fall in years 4 and 5 and again in years 24 and 25.
The report
Working through an illustration by hand takes hours. The report goes chapter by chapter, and each chapter answers its questions from your illustration and the markets above.
Your IUL, chapter by chapter
Contents
| Year | Age | Credited rate | Interest credited | Account value, end | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1 | 31 | 6.59% | =M6*O6 | =O6+…+T6 |
| 7 | 2 | 32 | 6.59% | =M7*O7 | =O7+…+T7 |
| 8 | 3 | 33 | 4.00% | =M8*O8 | =O8+…+T8 |
| 9 | 4 | 34 | 4.00% | =M9*O9 | =O9+…+T9 |
| 10 | 5 | 35 | 4.00% | =M10*O10 | =O10+…+T10 |
Every year’s credited rate is typed in at the rate your illustration assumes. Change it to 4% or 3%, in every year or in one, and the interest, the cash value and the death benefit recalculate.
How it works
The PDF you were given. Take out your name and policy number first if you like.
We take the figures from your illustration and rerun its calculations to within 5%. You can correct anything we got wrong.
A preview of the findings is free. You decide afterward whether you want the full report.
From the blog
An analysis of one document. Not investment, tax or insurance advice.