Is Indexed Universal Life Insurance a Scam? The Truth About IUL for Retirement Income

You sit through an IUL presentation.

The numbers look incredible.

Potential indexed growth.

A death benefit.

No direct stock-market losses from the indexed crediting formula.

Access to policy value through loans.

Potential supplemental retirement cash flow.

You leave thinking:

“Why isn’t everybody doing this?”

Then you go home and Google it.

Now you find:

“IUL is a scam.”

“Never buy whole life or universal life.”

“Just buy term and invest the difference.”

“IUL is the greatest retirement strategy nobody tells you about.”

Within 20 minutes, you’ve gone from excited to completely confused.

So let’s answer the question without pretending IUL is either magic or evil.

Is IUL a Scam?

No.

Indexed universal life insurance is a form of permanent life insurance.

But that doesn’t mean every IUL is a good policy.

It doesn’t mean every IUL is designed well.

And it definitely doesn’t mean every sales presentation about IUL is reasonable.

Those are separate questions.

The Better Question Is: “What Am I Actually Being Shown?”

This is where I would start.

Don’t ask:

“Is IUL good?”

Ask:

“What does this specific policy actually do?”

Then:

“What assumptions are being used to make it look this way?”

Then:

“What happens if those assumptions are wrong?”

Those three questions will tell you far more than an internet argument.

Why Do People Call IUL a Scam?

There isn’t one reason.

Some criticism comes from people who simply dislike permanent life insurance.

Some comes from legitimate concerns about costs and complexity.

Some comes from seeing policies that were poorly designed.

Some comes from seeing aggressive illustrations presented as though the projected values were guaranteed.

And some comes from sales language that makes the product sound almost impossible to lose with.

That’s where problems start.

Red Flag #1: “You Get All the Market Upside With None of the Downside”

If someone describes IUL this way, ask more questions.

An indexed universal life policy doesn’t directly invest your policy value in a stock-market index.

Instead, indexed interest is determined using a contractual crediting method tied to a referenced index.

That difference matters.

You Don’t Necessarily Receive the Full Index Return

Suppose a referenced index has a very strong year.

That doesn’t automatically mean your policy gets credited the full index gain.

The policy may use:

• A cap
• A participation rate
• A spread
• A combination of crediting mechanics
• Other contractual limitations

So saying:

“You get market upside without market losses”

can create the wrong impression.

Red Flag #2: “You Can’t Lose Money”

This is another phrase that needs context.

An indexed account may have a contractual floor that prevents a negative index-crediting calculation from directly producing a negative indexed interest credit for that period.

That’s useful.

But your policy still has costs.

Insurance charges don’t disappear.

Administrative charges don’t necessarily disappear.

Loan interest doesn’t disappear.

Withdrawals still reduce values.

A 0% indexed crediting floor does not mean your total policy cash value is guaranteed never to decline.

Here’s the Difference

Imagine the applicable index has a bad year.

Your indexed account receives 0% indexed interest under the hypothetical example.

You might think:

“Great. I didn’t lose anything.”

But policy charges still come out.

If you have a policy loan, loan interest may continue accruing.

Your cash value can therefore be lower even though the indexed credit itself wasn’t negative.

That’s a much more accurate explanation.

Red Flag #3: “Tax-Free Retirement Income for Life”

This phrase gets thrown around constantly.

It’s too casual.

A properly structured and maintained non-MEC life insurance policy may provide tax-advantaged access to policy values through withdrawals up to basis and policy loans under applicable tax rules.

That’s different from saying:

“Every dollar you take from an IUL is guaranteed tax-free forever.”

Policy Loans Are Still Loans

You aren’t simply withdrawing unlimited money with no consequences.

Policy loans generally accrue interest.

Outstanding loans can reduce policy values.

They can reduce the death benefit.

And large loan balances can put pressure on the policy.

If a heavily borrowed policy eventually lapses or is surrendered, there can also be tax consequences based on the policy and applicable law.

Red Flag #4: Nobody Explains MEC Status

If someone is selling you an IUL primarily for future access to cash value and never discusses Modified Endowment Contract rules, I’d want to know why.

MEC stands for Modified Endowment Contract.

Federal tax rules contain tests that can cause a life insurance contract to receive MEC treatment.

That changes how distributions and loans are taxed.

If tax-advantaged access is a major reason you’re considering the policy, this isn’t a footnote.

Red Flag #5: They Only Show You One Illustration

You see a beautiful projection.

Cash value grows.

Retirement income begins.

The policy lasts.

Your family receives a death benefit.

Everything works.

Great.

Now ask:

“Show me what happens if the policy performs worse.”

A Pretty Illustration Isn’t Proof

An insurance illustration includes assumptions.

It also contains guaranteed and nonguaranteed values.

Those aren’t the same thing.

If you’re looking at projected retirement income based on nonguaranteed values, you need to understand that actual results can differ.

Potentially by a lot.

Ask to See Lower-Performance Scenarios

What happens if indexed crediting is lower?

What happens if policy values don’t build as projected?

What happens if you start retirement loans earlier?

What happens if you need more income?

What happens if loan balances grow faster?

What happens if you live longer?

What happens to the death benefit?

What happens to the policy’s lapse risk?

If the strategy falls apart the second you touch the assumptions, you need to know that before buying it.

Red Flag #6: Nobody Talks About Surrender Charges

Permanent life insurance is generally a long-term commitment.

If someone makes an IUL sound like a high-yield savings account, stop.

Early cash surrender values can be substantially lower than cumulative premiums paid.

The policy can have surrender charges and other liquidity constraints.

If you may need the money soon, that’s a serious consideration.

“So My Money Is Locked Up?”

Not necessarily in the same sense as a locked account.

Policies can provide access to available cash value under their contractual provisions.

But access and economic efficiency aren’t the same thing.

Being able to access money doesn’t mean surrendering or heavily borrowing against a new policy after a short period is a good outcome.

Red Flag #7: The Premium Is Stretching Your Budget

This is one of the easiest ways to create a bad policy experience.

Someone gets excited by the long-term projection and commits to a premium that only works if life goes perfectly.

Then life doesn’t.

A child needs help.

The business slows down.

A spouse stops working.

A major home expense appears.

Suddenly the premium feels enormous.

A Strategy You Can’t Sustain Isn’t a Good Strategy

I don’t care how attractive the illustration looks.

If the premium creates financial stress today, that’s a problem.

Your retirement plan shouldn’t require you to ignore your current cash-flow reality.

Red Flag #8: “Put Everything Into This”

This should make you uncomfortable.

Your 401(k).

Your IRA.

Your brokerage account.

Your emergency fund.

Your savings.

Move it all.

Why?

A retirement plan can have multiple tax buckets and multiple types of assets.

An IUL doesn’t need to replace everything else to have a potential role.

We Don’t Have to Hate 401(k)s to Talk About IUL

Employer retirement plans can provide meaningful benefits.

Employer matching contributions can be valuable.

Pretax contributions can be valuable.

Market investments can provide significant long-term growth potential.

You don’t need to pretend those advantages don’t exist to make a case for considering life insurance.

And We Don’t Have to Pretend IUL Is Just an Investment

It’s life insurance.

That means insurance costs are part of the policy.

There’s a death benefit.

There’s underwriting.

There are contractual provisions.

There are policy charges.

If you’re evaluating an IUL only as though it’s a mutual fund with a tax trick attached, you’re missing what the product actually is.

Red Flag #9: Nobody Talks About Health Underwriting

Your age and health can materially affect the economics.

Two people putting the same premium into a similar strategy may not receive the same result.

One may receive favorable underwriting.

Another may have higher insurance costs.

That matters when you’re trying to build cash value efficiently.

Red Flag #10: They Show You the Biggest Possible Retirement-Income Number

This is one of my biggest issues with retirement illustrations.

The question shouldn’t be:

“What’s the biggest annual loan we can make this illustration show?”

The question should be:

“What level of retirement cash flow can this policy reasonably support while maintaining an appropriate cushion under the assumptions we’re using?”

Maximum Illustrated Income and Responsible Income Aren’t Always the Same

Maybe an illustration can show $150,000 a year.

Would $125,000 leave substantially more cushion?

What about $110,000?

What happens under lower crediting?

How much projected value remains at age 90?

How much debt is against the policy?

What’s the projected net death benefit?

Bigger isn’t automatically safer.

So Why Would Anyone Use IUL?

Because when it’s appropriate, properly designed, adequately funded, and monitored, indexed universal life can combine several characteristics in one financial vehicle.

Potential features can include:

• Permanent life insurance
• Cash-value accumulation potential
• Indexed interest-crediting options
• Contractual protection from direct negative index crediting in applicable indexed accounts
• Potential access to policy values through withdrawals and loans
• No traditional IRA-style RMD structure for an individually owned policy
• A death benefit for beneficiaries
• Different tax characteristics from traditional retirement accounts

That combination can be useful for the right person.

The Right Person Is the Important Part

Imagine someone who is 50.

They have strong income.

Their emergency reserves are healthy.

They’re already saving aggressively.

They have a long time horizon.

They value permanent insurance.

They want additional retirement-income options.

And they can comfortably fund the policy.

That’s a very different situation from someone living paycheck to paycheck who was told to put $1,500 a month into an IUL.

Why Does the JUMP Strategy Look Different?

The IUL JUMP Strategy places significant emphasis on what happens when retirement distributions begin.

A key component is the Matching Indexed Participating Loan feature.

This is important because retirement income from an IUL may involve substantial policy loan activity over many years.

How those loans interact with applicable indexed crediting can materially affect projected policy performance.

Not All IUL Loans Work the Same Way

This is something many consumers never learn.

You can have two IUL policies.

Similar premiums.

Similar cash values.

Similar retirement dates.

But different loan provisions.

Once retirement loans begin, those differences can become much more important.

What Is a Matching Indexed Participating Loan?

At a high level, the feature is designed so values associated with policy loans may continue participating in an applicable indexed crediting strategy according to the terms of the policy.

The loan still has a cost.

The policy still has charges.

Indexed crediting isn’t guaranteed.

But the interaction between loan cost and potential indexed crediting can change the modeled retirement-income result.

Does That Mean You Borrow at 5% and Earn 7% Forever?

No.

And if someone promises you that, ask them to show you where the contract guarantees it.

Indexed crediting can vary.

The applicable loan cost is determined under the contract.

There can be periods where crediting exceeds the loan cost.

There can also be periods where it doesn’t.

Positive loan arbitrage isn’t guaranteed.

What Happens When the Index Has a Bad Year?

The applicable indexed strategy may receive little or no indexed interest crediting for that period under the policy’s formula.

Loan interest may still accrue.

Policy charges may still apply.

That’s why a participating loan strategy should be evaluated across many years, not one handpicked example.

Can an IUL Lapse?

Yes.

This is another reason I dislike sales presentations that make IUL sound riskless.

A policy can become stressed when available value is insufficient to support its obligations.

Potential contributing factors can include:

• Insufficient funding
• Lower-than-illustrated crediting
• Policy charges
• Heavy withdrawals
• Large policy loans
• Accumulating loan interest
• Changes in policy management

What Happens If an IUL Lapses With a Large Loan?

This can become a serious issue.

If a policy with gain and outstanding indebtedness is surrendered or lapses, tax consequences may result under applicable tax rules.

Imagine being 83 years old and finding out the retirement-income strategy you’ve been using for years has created a policy problem and a potential tax problem.

That’s exactly what we want to avoid.

Policy Monitoring Isn’t Optional

If you’re using an IUL for retirement income, don’t buy it at 50 and ignore it until you’re 80.

Review:

• Actual policy values
• Crediting results
• Loan balances
• Loan interest
• Current charges
• Death benefit
• Future projected loans
• Policy durability

The plan may need adjustments.

Why Do Some IULs Fail?

There can be many reasons.

A policy may have been poorly funded.

The premium may have been too low for the desired objective.

The death benefit may have been structured differently than needed for the cash-value goal.

Actual crediting may have been lower than assumed.

Loans may have been too aggressive.

The owner may have changed premium payments.

The policy may not have been monitored.

Or the original expectations may simply have been unrealistic.

A Bad Outcome Doesn’t Automatically Mean the Product Was Fraudulent

That’s an important distinction.

A car can be legitimate and still be the wrong car for you.

A mortgage can be legitimate and still be structured badly for your situation.

A retirement account can be legitimate and still be invested poorly.

The same principle applies here.

But Don’t Use That as an Excuse for Bad Selling

If someone hides the costs, that’s a problem.

If someone presents nonguaranteed values as guaranteed, that’s a problem.

If someone tells you policy loans have no cost, that’s a problem.

If someone says you can’t lose money without explaining policy charges, that’s a problem.

If someone promises a specific future retirement income regardless of performance, that’s a problem.

The answer to bad IUL criticism isn’t pretending bad IUL selling doesn’t exist.

What About “Buy Term and Invest the Difference”?

That’s a legitimate strategy to evaluate.

Term insurance can provide substantial temporary death-benefit protection at a lower initial premium than permanent insurance.

The difference can then potentially be invested.

For some people, that may be an excellent approach.

For others, permanent insurance may solve different problems.

Make Both Strategies Use Real Assumptions

If you’re comparing buy-term-and-invest-the-difference with IUL, don’t rig the contest.

Include:

• Actual insurance costs
• Comparable death-benefit objectives where appropriate
• Investment expenses
• Investment-return assumptions
• Taxes
• IUL charges
• IUL crediting assumptions
• Liquidity
• Retirement distributions or loans
• Remaining values
• Death benefits

Then look at the results.

What About the Claim of Up to 300% More Retirement Income?

This is where we hold ourselves to the same standard.

In certain modeled comparisons we’ve evaluated, the IUL JUMP Strategy has produced projected retirement income up to approximately 300% higher than the compared 401(k) or IRA strategy.

That’s a large number.

And because it’s a large number, you should question it.

We Don’t Want You Buying the 300% Claim

I want you asking:

Compared with what?

How much was contributed?

What taxes were assumed?

What investment returns were assumed?

What IUL crediting was assumed?

What costs were included?

What loan rate was used?

When did retirement begin?

How long did the modeled income continue?

The assumptions have to explain the result.

What About Approximately 40% More Than a Traditional IUL?

We’ve also evaluated certain modeled scenarios where the JUMP Strategy produced approximately 40% more projected retirement income than the traditional IUL design being compared.

Again, that’s not a universal advantage.

It’s not a guarantee.

It’s not a promise that your existing IUL is 40% worse.

It’s evidence that policy design and loan mechanics can create meaningful differences in a model.

Why This Comparison Is Especially Interesting

Comparing an IUL with a 401(k) changes a lot of variables.

Comparing one IUL design with another can help focus attention on differences within the insurance strategy itself.

Loan mechanics.

Crediting.

Charges.

Funding.

Retirement distributions.

Policy durability.

That’s where the approximately 40% modeled difference becomes worth investigating.

“This Still Sounds Too Good to Be True”

Good.

Keep that skepticism.

Don’t shut your brain off because you like the numbers.

But don’t shut it off because somebody on the internet said “scam” either.

Ask for evidence.

Ask for assumptions.

Ask for the actual illustration.

Ask what isn’t guaranteed.

Ask what can go wrong.

“What If We Mess This Up and Regret It?”

This is the thought that hits harder when you’re 55 instead of 25.

You think:

“What if we mess this up and regret it?”

You don’t have another 30-year career to recover from a major retirement mistake.

You don’t want to commit serious money to something you didn’t understand.

And you don’t want to discover at 70 that the policy worked very differently from the sales presentation you saw at 50.

“We Should Be Able to Handle This Ourselves”

You’ve managed your finances for decades.

You think:

“We should be able to handle this ourselves.”

That’s reasonable.

You should understand the policy.

But understanding an IUL means understanding more than the illustrated retirement-income number.

You need to understand the insurance.

The charges.

The crediting.

The loans.

The taxes.

The lapse risk.

The nonguaranteed assumptions.

“I Don’t Want to Ask My Kids for Help”

This is what the retirement discussion is really about.

You think:

“I don’t want to ask my kids for help.”

You want the money you’ve spent your life building to support you.

You want your spouse protected.

You want to maintain control.

You want to leave something behind if you can.

And you don’t want a financial strategy that becomes a problem for your children when you’re older.

The Hidden Conflict: Greed and Fear

This is uncomfortable, but it’s real.

You see a huge projected retirement-income number and think:

“I want that.”

Then five minutes later:

“This has to be too good to be true.”

That’s greed and fear pulling in opposite directions.

Neither emotion should make the decision.

The numbers should.

The Bigger the Promise, the More Math You Should Demand

If someone shows you a modest difference between two strategies, you may not think much about it.

If they show you two or three times the projected retirement income, your standards should go up.

Not down.

A dramatic projection requires a dramatic amount of scrutiny.

What Should You Ask Before Buying an IUL?

• What is guaranteed?
• What is nonguaranteed?
• How is the policy funded?
• How is the death benefit structured?
• What are the policy charges?
• What are the surrender charges?
• What crediting strategy is being illustrated?
• What cap, participation rate, or spread applies?
• Can those nonguaranteed elements change?
• How do the policy loans work?
• What is the loan rate?
• What happens to values associated with a loan?
• What happens if crediting is lower?
• What happens if I stop premiums?
• What happens if I need money early?
• What happens if I borrow too much?
• What happens if the policy lapses?
• What happens to my beneficiaries?

Ask One More Question

This one may be the most useful:

“Can you compare this with what I’m already doing?”

Not with a fake alternative.

Your actual strategy.

Your 401(k).

Your IRA.

Your Roth.

Your brokerage account.

Your existing IUL.

Your retirement goals.

The Retirement Math Method™

This is why we use the Retirement Math Method™.

I’m not interested in convincing you that IUL is wonderful.

I’m also not interested in convincing you it’s terrible.

Those are sales arguments.

I want to know:

Does this specific strategy improve your retirement plan enough to justify the costs, commitment, and risks?

Maybe the answer is yes.

Maybe it’s no.

Maybe JUMP beats the alternative by a meaningful amount.

Maybe your existing strategy wins.

Maybe the right answer is a combination.

I don’t try to sell you on the strategy. I make the strategy prove itself with the math.

Let the math do the talking.

Frequently Asked Questions About IUL

Is IUL a scam?

No. Indexed universal life is a type of permanent life insurance. However, policies can be inappropriate for a person’s situation, poorly designed, misunderstood, or presented using assumptions that don’t reflect actual future results.

Why do people say IUL is a scam?

Criticism can involve high or misunderstood policy costs, surrender charges, nonguaranteed illustrated values, complex loan mechanics, lapse risk, aggressive sales practices, and oversimplified claims about market protection or tax treatment.

Can I lose money in an IUL?

Policy cash value can decline because of insurance costs, policy charges, withdrawals, policy loans, loan interest, and other factors. An indexed-crediting floor doesn’t mean total policy cash value is guaranteed never to decline.

Does IUL get the full stock-market return?

No. IUL isn’t direct ownership of a stock-market index. Indexed interest is determined according to the policy’s contractual crediting methodology and may be affected by caps, participation rates, spreads, and other provisions.

Are IUL policy loans free?

No. Policy loans generally accrue interest according to the insurance contract. Outstanding loans can reduce available policy values and death benefits and can increase policy lapse risk.

Are IUL policy loans tax-free?

Policy loans are generally loans rather than ordinary withdrawals, but universal tax-free claims are too broad. Policy basis, MEC status, withdrawals, outstanding loans, policy status, surrender, lapse, and applicable tax law can affect tax treatment.

Can an IUL lapse?

Yes. Insufficient policy value, inadequate funding, charges, lower-than-illustrated performance, withdrawals, large policy loans, and accumulating loan interest can contribute to lapse risk.

Is IUL better than a 401(k)?

Neither is universally better. A 401(k) and IUL are materially different financial vehicles with different tax treatment, costs, risks, liquidity, insurance benefits, and retirement-income mechanics. They can also potentially be used together.

Is an IUL illustration guaranteed?

No. Illustrations contain guaranteed and nonguaranteed values. Nonguaranteed illustrated results are based on assumptions and shouldn’t be treated as predictions or guarantees of actual future performance.

How do I know if an IUL is right for me?

Evaluate your insurance need, cash flow, emergency reserves, time horizon, health and underwriting, retirement goals, liquidity needs, tax situation, alternative strategies, policy design, costs, loan provisions, and lower-performance scenarios before deciding.

So, Is IUL a Scam or a Retirement Strategy?

That’s the wrong choice of words.

IUL is a financial product.

The strategy built around it can be good.

It can be bad.

It can be appropriate.

It can be completely inappropriate.

It can be designed carefully.

It can be sold aggressively.

The label doesn’t answer the question.

The actual policy and the math do.

Want to Find Out Whether an IUL Actually Improves Your Retirement Plan?

Don’t buy an IUL because somebody showed you a giant retirement-income number.

And don’t reject one because somebody online called it a scam.

Compare it.

We can look at:

• Your current retirement strategy
• Your 401(k) or IRA
• Your existing life insurance
• Your annual retirement savings
• Your insurance needs
• Your liquidity needs
• IUL premium funding
• Policy charges
• Guaranteed and nonguaranteed values
• Indexed crediting assumptions
• Matching Indexed Participating Loan mechanics
• Policy loan interest
• Projected retirement cash flow
• Lower-performance scenarios
• Projected policy values
• Projected death benefit
• Potential lapse risk

In certain modeled comparisons we’ve evaluated, the IUL JUMP Strategy has produced up to approximately 300% more projected retirement income than the compared 401(k) or IRA strategy and approximately 40% more than the compared traditional IUL strategy.

Those percentages aren’t guarantees.

They’re reasons to look at the math.

If the assumptions don’t hold up, the headline doesn’t matter.

If the strategy can’t survive lower-performance scenarios, we need to know.

If your current strategy produces a better result, we need to know that too.

We don’t sell you a retirement strategy. We run the math and let you decide.

Let the math do the talking.

Schedule Your Retirement Strategy Appointment

Explore More

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  What Is the IUL JUMP Strategy and How Does It Work?
  
• 
  IUL JUMP Strategy vs. 401(k): Which Can Produce More Retirement Income?
  
• 
  What Is a Matching Indexed Participating Loan in an IUL?
  

Important Disclosure

This article is for educational purposes only and isn’t intended as individualized tax, legal, accounting, investment, securities, insurance, or retirement-planning advice. FPP Financial does not provide tax or legal advice. Indexed universal life insurance is permanent life insurance and is subject to underwriting, policy charges, cost of insurance, surrender charges, liquidity restrictions, premium requirements, policy-specific loan provisions, and other contractual terms.

Indexed universal life policies don’t directly invest policy values in a stock-market index. Indexed interest crediting is determined under the policy’s contractual crediting methodology and may be subject to caps, participation rates, spreads, floors, index-account terms, and other limitations. A contractual floor against negative indexed crediting isn’t a guarantee that policy cash value cannot decline because insurance costs, policy charges, withdrawals, loans, loan interest, and other factors can reduce policy value. Nonguaranteed elements may change subject to the terms and guarantees of the contract. Policy illustrations contain guaranteed and nonguaranteed values and aren’t predictions or guarantees of future performance.

References to the IUL JUMP Strategy and Matching Indexed Participating Loan feature describe a planning approach and policy-specific feature evaluated by FPP Financial. Availability, eligibility, loan treatment, interest rates, indexed crediting treatment, caps, participation rates, spreads, and other provisions are policy-specific. The insurance carrier and product used in an individual recommendation are reviewed during a personal consultation and aren’t identified in this article.

Statements that the IUL JUMP Strategy has produced up to approximately 300% more projected retirement income than a compared 401(k) or IRA strategy or approximately 40% more projected retirement income than a compared traditional IUL strategy refer only to specific modeled comparisons using particular assumptions. They aren’t guarantees, promises, expected returns, or statements that every client, policy, 401(k), IRA, or IUL will experience those differences. Results can change materially based on age, sex, health and underwriting class, premium amount and timing, employer contributions, death-benefit design, policy charges, insurance costs, investment expenses, investment-return assumptions, crediting assumptions, caps, participation rates, spreads, loan rates, loan mechanics, loan timing, withdrawals, actual index performance, actual investment performance, tax assumptions, retirement age, retirement-income period, policy management, and other factors.

Policy loans aren’t withdrawals and generally accrue interest. Loans and withdrawals reduce policy cash values and death benefits and may increase lapse risk. If a policy is surrendered or lapses with outstanding loans, taxable income may result based on policy basis, gain, outstanding indebtedness, and applicable tax law. Modified Endowment Contracts are subject to different federal tax rules, including rules affecting distributions and policy loans. Tax treatment isn’t guaranteed and tax laws can change.

Life insurance death benefits are generally received income-tax-free under current federal law when applicable requirements are satisfied, but exceptions and other estate, transfer, interest, and tax considerations can apply. Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

Before purchasing, replacing, funding, borrowing against, withdrawing from, surrendering, or changing a life insurance policy, consider reviewing the decision with appropriately qualified tax, legal, insurance, investment, and financial professionals. Review the carrier-approved illustration, actual policy contract, guaranteed and nonguaranteed values, policy charges, surrender provisions, loan provisions, crediting methodology, potential lapse scenarios, tax considerations, and available alternatives before making a decision.