Recent Assignments

  • The owner of two whole life policies wanted to know if she should replace them with the no-lapse universal life policies that her financial planner was proposing. I concluded that the whole life policies were providing good value for the money; indeed, one of them had a cash value growth rate that handily beat other safe fixed-income investments. She decided to keep the policies.
  • The owner of a second-to-die variable universal life policy wanted to know how much he might get in a life settlement sale. He gathered the necessary documents, and I prepared an estimate of the life settlement value for a range of discount and mortality rates. We discussed his options, and he decided to keep his policy in force by paying the minimum premium.
  • A middle-aged entrepreneur was thinking of paying a single premium for a large no-lapse universal life policy, and he wanted to make sure that he was doing the right thing. I explained the pros and cons of no-lapse universal life and the economics of paying now versus later. This information filled in the gaps in his research and helped him reach a decision.
  • A term insurance policyholder on a disability waiver of premium claim wanted to know if he should convert his term policy to a whole life policy to take advantage of a continued waiver of the premium. We discussed his options, including one that his agent had not presented, and he decided to convert.
  • The executive director of a nonprofit organization asked me to review a variable universal life policy that she had bought on her agent’s recommendation a few years ago. She suspected that she had made a mistake in buying the policy, and she wanted to know if she should keep it or drop it. I explained the key provisions of the contract, including all of the charges and the right to adjust the premium payments, and I showed her that the declining surrender charge created a big incentive to keep the policy for at least a few more years. She decided to stop paying premiums while waiting for the surrender charge to disappear.
  • A businessowner asked me to review an agent’s proposal to replace two existing universal life policies with a new no-lapse universal life policy. I concluded that he could earn over 4% per year on his money in the existing policies while waiting for the surrender charges to disappear, so it would be better to buy the new policy with other money. After the new policy was issued, I explained the details of the no-lapse guarantee, and I showed him that the insurance company paid no interest in the first year. He decided to pay minimum monthly premiums until the end of the first year, so that he could keep his money outside of the policy for as long as possible.
  • Working with two actuaries and an underwriter, I helped a pension fund estimate the value of a $350 million life settlement portfolio that it planned to buy. For the no-lapse universal life policies in the portfolio, I created a model of each shadow account to determine the optimal premium schedule.
  • A businessowner asked me to review an agent’s proposal to replace an existing second-to-die variable universal life policy with a new second-to-die whole life policy. After confirming that the existing policy was too expensive and should be replaced, I focused on improving the agent’s proposal by reducing the commission and increasing the policy values for the same premium.