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Life Insurance Trends Heading Into 2026

The process of purchasing life insurance has become faster and more digital. More than ever before, consumers are choosing to apply electronically, with approvals taking hours or days rather than weeks.

The underwriting process is getting faster and easier for many clients. Thanks to AI and advanced data analytics (health records, wearables, lifestyle data), many carriers can approve policies without the need for a medical exam.

Today, consumers expect personalization and flexibility. Younger clients want policies tailored to their life stage, with living benefits (long-term care, critical illness, wellness rewards) rather than just a death benefit.

What it Means for Advisors
  1. Make sure you can offer and explain digital purchasing options. Younger clients might go elsewhere if they don’t have the option to apply for and secure coverage through a fully electronic process.
  2. Emphasize living benefits—not just what happens when someone dies. Highlight how clients access living benefits to improve their health and live longer, happier lives.
  3. Segment your marketing. Many younger buyers look for low-cost options with flexibility powered by AI, while established clients may look for solutions that offer more value.
  4. Use plain language to educate clients on the benefits of fully electronic, end-to-end insurance solutions that can significantly simplify the process of securing life insurance protection.
Need help bringing digital life insurance solutions to your clients?

Our team is here to guide you every step of the way—from implementing electronic applications to highlighting living benefits that resonate with today’s buyers.

Contact us today and let’s make your process faster, smarter, and client-focused.

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The Overlooked Value Of Life Settlements For Seniors And Their Families

For many seniors, a life insurance policy is one of their most valuable—but least understood—assets.

Too often, policies are surrendered or allowed to lapse simply because premiums become burdensome or the original need for coverage has changed. That’s where life settlements come in.

A life settlement allows a policyholder to sell an existing life insurance policy to an institutional buyer for more than the cash surrender value but less than the death benefit. The buyer assumes responsibility for future premiums and collects the death benefit later. For the policyholder, this can unlock significant value—often tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars—that would otherwise disappear.

For families, this liquidity can make a real difference.

Proceeds from a life settlement can help cover long-term care costs, supplement retirement income, pay off debt, or simply improve quality of life. It’s a dignified financial option that rewards years of premium payments rather than letting them go to waste.

Advisors and insurance professionals play a key role here.

By identifying clients who no longer need—or can’t afford—their coverage, you can help them turn a dormant asset into an active financial resource.

The bottom line: life settlements aren’t a niche solution. They’re a smart, regulated, and increasingly essential planning tool that can deliver real financial relief and flexibility to seniors and their families when it’s needed most.

Contact your Life Sales Associate for more information on this strategy.

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It’s Time To Rethink Indexed Universal Life

Indexed Universal Life (IUL) isn’t just another permanent life product—it’s a modern financial tool built for flexibility, control, and client value. For advisors, it bridges the gap between protection and performance.

Today’s IUL designs offer more than tax-advantaged accumulation tied to market indexes—they deliver powerful living benefits your clients can actually use. Long-Term Care (LTC) riders provide access to death benefits while living, helping fund care without draining investment portfolios or forcing fire-sales of assets.

It’s real liquidity when life throws a curveball.

Return of Premium features add another layer of appeal.

Clients like the idea of “having options”—knowing their money can come back if priorities change. Combine that with Critical Illness benefits that accelerate funds upon diagnosis, and you’ve turned a death-benefit product into a comprehensive financial safety net.

For insurance agents, registered reps, and investment advisors, IUL offers something few other vehicles can: tax-efficient growth potential with protection against life’s biggest risks—all in one chassis. If you haven’t revisited IUL recently, it’s time. Your clients aren’t just buying insurance—they’re buying flexibility, security, and peace of mind.

Contact your Life Sales Associate for more information!

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Term Insurance That Offers More!

Most clients think of term life insurance as basic death benefit protection. But today, one carrier delivers much more—valuable term coverage with powerful living benefits that provide financial support during life’s toughest moments. These features turn traditional term insurance into a true living safety net.

Today’s savvy consumers want more than low-cost coverage that only pays if they die.

For those who value protection and flexibility, this term insurance policy offers the following living benefits:
  • Accelerated Death Benefit for Cancer: Provides early access to funds following a cancer diagnosis, helping clients cover treatment, travel, and recovery expenses without derailing their financial plans.
  • Critical Injury Rider: Pays benefits for severe, life-changing conditions such as heart attack, stroke, invasive cancer, or paralysis.
  • Alzheimer’s Rider: Allows early access to funds to help manage long-term care costs and maintain family stability during one of life’s most difficult challenges.

As an added bonus, these benefits can carry over to permanent coverage with no new underwriting during the term conversion period.  This coverage also rewards agent loyalty—paying renewal commissions for the first 10 years and including commission on the policy fee, which many other carriers exclude.

Bottom line: This isn’t just term insurance. It’s a forward-thinking protection plan that delivers real value for clients when they need it most—and a lasting income opportunity for agents who believe in long-term relationships.

Contact your Life Sales & Marketing Associate for more information.

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Generate Premium And Solidify Your Client Relationships With This One Step

Even though the Life Insurance marketplace is ever changing, there are time tested ways to help you to generate premium while providing a valuable service to your clients.

It’s no secret that products change and new enhancements are introduced which can provide additional benefits to your clients. It should come as no surprise that as your clients move through different life stages, their needs also change.

As a result, it is imperative that as their Life Insurance agent, you are periodically reviewing your client’s existing policies to ensure that they still meet their primary objective while confirming that there isn’t a more competitive alternative product available.
 
By staying in contact with your clients and performing annual policy reviews, you are also improving your client relationship and decreasing the chances that they will begin speaking with another advisor to confirm that their plan is performing adequately and continuing to meet their specific needs.
 
A recent success story.
 
Recently, we assisted an agent in reviewing three policies that were each designed with cash value accumulation as the primary objective.
 
As the insured’s have grown older, they have become less concerned with accumulating cash value and more concerned with death benefit protection and transferring wealth to their beneficiaries. By using their current cash value and exchanging into a guaranteed policy, we are able to increase their fully guaranteed death benefit by over 35% while maintaining the same premium commitment going forward.
 
This was not a result of their current policy underperforming or being unsatisfactory in any way. It is merely a result of the client’s needs being different today than they were 15 years ago when they originated their plan. More often than not, these sales are not initiated by the client – they begin with a courtesy call from their advisor recommending a review of their current insurance policies.
 
Get started!
 
We have a Policy Review Kit which can be customized to help you begin reviewing your client’s policies.
 
If you would like assistance reviewing one of your client’s existing policies, please contact us today and we can provide you with an itemized list of what is required to get the policy review started.
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Why Gifting Matters to You

Gifting is an important tool in designing many types of Advanced Markets cases. Gifts can create opportunities but may also generate complications for producers and clients.
 
Questions you may be asking are, “How will knowing more about the gift rules help me in my career?” or “How will gifting help my client achieve their goals?”
 
Because your clients have the opportunity to realize significant financial and emotional value in making gifts, you will want to be knowledgeable about gifting. The financial and emotional value clients experience through gifting can be enhanced with Life Insurance.
 
Generally, it’s not difficult to convince clients that they need insurance, but it’s hard to find the money to pay the premium.

Gifting may be the answer for getting the necessary premium dollars.

With Life Insurance, gifts serve a similar purpose. A client may gift cash to an adult child so that child may purchase a policy on the parent/giver. When the giver dies, the child receives a tax free death benefit that can pay for services or items that the giver may have previously supplied.
 
Consider This
 
For example, a father has three children, but only two of whom have interest in owning real estate that has been in the family for generations.
 
To equalize his estate, the father gives cash to the non-business heir, Jill, so she can buy a Life Insurance policy on him. At the father’s death, the real estate can move to his two children that are interested in owning it, Jill receives cash from the policy’s death benefit while keeping the death benefit out of the father’s taxable estate.
 
Regardless of whether the gift is given for financial or emotional reasons, gifting can be a big part of a strategy to get clients closer to their desired goals.
 
For more information about gifting call your Life Sales & Marketing Representative.
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3 Concepts That Will Place More Life Cases

Life insurance is more than just a death benefit – there are numerous living benefits attached to life insurance which are available before the funeral procession ensues.

During retirement, consumer attention often shifts from income replacement and mortgage protection to concerns about outliving retirement income and health care costs.

Three common pre-retirement uses of life insurance are:
  1. College Expenses
  2. Supplemental Retirement Income
  3. Long-Term Care Expenses
A properly designed Indexed Universal Life (IUL) can help you win more cases by providing customers with options they can use while living.
 
Simply put – IUL’s can provide clients with access, growth and protection at any age.
  • ACCESS: Liquidity window for access to tax free cash withdrawals.
  • GROWTH: Non reportable tax-free retirement savings linked to well known indices like the S&P 500. Clients can’t lose money when the market goes down.
  • PROTECTION: Flexible death benefit provisions that policy owners can utilize for income, health care costs and ongoing care through the chronic illness rider.
Contact your Life Sales Rep today to learn how to position these game changing features of life insurance in your customer presentations.
 
We welcome the opportunity to guide you through the options of new life insurance policies and help you place more of your cases.
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How Policy Loans Affect Your Whole Life Dividends

Whole Life Policies have been around for decades and are considered to be the most conservative type of Permanent Insurance that you can buy.
 
And since more clients are searching for low risk, conservative insurance products with stable returns, Whole Life sales have been on the rise and producers are positioning these plans as a way to deliver their clients tax-favored income.

As a producer, it is your responsibility to educate your client about how the withdrawals and policy loans can affect their policy.

Whole Life providers using direct recognition when taking policy loans.
 
Simply put, direct recognition refers to the carrier crediting a different dividend rate to the outstanding policy loan than they do to the non-loaned portion of the policy. This is important, especially in short pay schedules where the policy will rely on dividend performance and internal cash value to sustain the policy performance long-term.
 
If the dividend performance falls short of the anticipated schedule because of a considerable policy loan and the policy is not being reviewed on a regular basis, the client runs the risk of lapsing the plan and receiving a tax bill for any gains in the outstanding policy loan.
 
While direct recognition is not reason enough to sell away from Whole Life, it’s important to understand this aspect of the policy. Remember that maintaining contact with your client post-sale and periodically reviewing their plan to ensure the policy is in good standing and will not lapse unexpectedly is key.
 
Our Sales Team can help you to better understand the different loan options available and determine whether direct recognition will be applied to the Whole Life policy in question.
 
If you have sold a Whole Life policy where the client will likely take income out of the plan, call us today and we can help you to better understand how the loan will affect the dividend crediting and also the long-term policy performance.
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Why The Connelly v. IRS Supreme Court Decision Matters For Business Owners

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Connelly v. IRS sent a loud wake-up call to business owners using life insurance to fund buy-sell agreements. The Court ruled that the value of life insurance proceeds owned by a corporation must be included when calculating the fair market value of the company for estate tax purposes—regardless of whether those proceeds are earmarked to buy out a deceased shareholder’s interest.

Here’s why this matters:
  • Higher Estate Taxes: Corporate-owned life insurance inflates the company’s value, which can increase estate taxes for heirs.
  • Funding Gaps: The buyout money might not stretch as far as owners expected once the IRS takes a bigger bite.
  • Planning Urgency: Owners must review agreements and consider alternatives, like cross-purchase plans or LLCs, that keep insurance proceeds outside the taxable estate.

For life insurance agents, this is a golden opportunity to start conversations with business owner clients. If their buy-sell agreement is funded with corporate-owned life insurance, they may face a surprise tax bill. Helping them restructure now can save their heirs millions—and position you as a trusted problem-solver.

The Bottom Line: The Connelly decision changes the game—waiting could be costly. Don’t let your clients get blindsided by an unexpected tax hit. Call now for more information.

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Why Life Settlements Should Be Part Of Your Client Conversations

Too many seniors let life insurance policies lapse or surrender them for pennies on the dollar.

As an advisor, you can help them uncover a better option: a life settlement.

A life settlement allows a client to sell an unwanted or unaffordable life insurance policy to an institutional buyer for more than the cash surrender value. The buyer takes over premiums and receives the death benefit when the insured passes away. Your client receives a lump sum — often 4 to 6 times more than the surrender value — and gets immediate relief from premium payments.

Here’s an example:
  • Policy: $500,000 Universal Life
  • Insured: 76-year-old female
  • Annual Premium: $12,000
  • Cash Surrender Value: $25,000
  • Settlement Value: $125K
  • Agent Referral Fee: $12,500

This example puts $125,000 in the client’s pocket — plus she stops paying $12,000 per year in premiums. That’s real money that can be used for retirement, medical costs, or gifts to family. Life settlements are not just a “last resort.” They are a planning tool that can add significant value, particularly for clients who:

  • No longer need the coverage
  • Struggle to afford premiums
  • Want to free up funds for other goals

Don’t let your clients leave money on the table. Explore a life settlement first. Call us today to help clients unlock hidden cash and boost your revenue.

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