Claims related to the sale of Indexed Universal Life Insurance Policies

The Securities Lawyers at Halling & Cayo, S.C. are investigating potential claims related to the sale of Indexed Universal Life Insurance Policies (“IUL Life Insurance Policies”). Examples of IUL policies that are currently being sold are as follows:

• Pacific Life (Pacific Discovery Xelerator IUL)
• Allianz (Life Pro+Elite IUL)
• Lincoln Financial Group (WealthAccumulate IUL)
• Minnesota Life (Eclipse and Orion)

There are different types of life insurance policies available, ranging from term life insurance to traditional dividend paying whole life insurance. Somewhere between term life and whole life is Universal Life Insurance. Universal Life Insurance is cash value life insurance which provides similar benefits of both term policies and whole life policies. And with an Indexed Universal Life Insurance policy (often identified as an “IUL”), the funds in the IUL cash value account grow over time and can be accessed in the form of partial withdrawals or policy loans. Where IUL differs from Universal Life Insurance is that IUL policies enable policyholders to invest some or all of their available cash account in a subaccount that is based on the performance of market indices such as the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ 100. In theory, this would allow IUL policyholders to allocate cash values to certain equity index accounts with the goal of achieving maximum possible returns and, ultimately, a higher yield.

In the sale of an IUL to an investor, insurance companies will use sales illustrations and marketing materials showing some account values gaining favorable growth. In some cases, these illustrations have used current figures to implement projections far into the future, without taking into account the inevitable risk and volatility of stock indexes and have failed to account for changes in account charges to the investor. Using this “look back” approach that failed to account for the likely performance of the indexed life insurance policy over time has been found, in certain cases, to be a misleading to potential investors due to the sales materials not being grounded in financial reality.

Your Broker has a duty to properly train and supervise its agents and to prevent its agents from making false or misleading statements to investors during the sale of an investment. If you were sold a IUL policy and are not realizing the return on your investment(s) that was promised in the sales pitch, you may have a claim against the insurance provider or the Broker that was responsible for supervising the person that sold you the UIL policy. Please contact The Securities Lawyers at Halling & Cayo, S.C. to discuss whether you may have a claim.