Whether you own a policy or are being shown one, a flat-fee review from someone with nothing to sell tells you how it works, what it costs, and what can go wrong.
Arctis Advisory LLC is a fee-only firm licensed as a Massachusetts Insurance Adviser. We do not sell insurance.
We review permanent coverage only: whole life, universal life, indexed universal life, and variable universal life. The questions differ depending on whether the policy is already in force or still on the table.
Whether it is still on track for the job you bought it to do, using current data from the insurance company.
See Path 1 → Path 2 A policy you are consideringWhat the illustration assumes, how the policy is designed, and how it holds up when the assumptions do not.
See Path 2 →Permanent life insurance is priced on interest rates and costs that may not hold, and the longer a policy has been in force, the further it can drift from what was shown at the sale.
Many universal life policies sold in the 1990s and 2000s were illustrated at interest rates far above what insurers have credited since. When the credited rate falls, cash value grows more slowly, and the monthly cost of insurance, which rises every year with age, takes a larger share of it. A policy once illustrated to last to age 100 can now run out of money in the owner's eighties unless premiums increase.
Whole life dividends have also come down from where they were illustrated. Policy loans accrue interest and can reduce the death benefit or cause a lapse with tax consequences. None of this is easy to see on a yearly statement.
An in-force illustration requested from the insurer with your written authorization, showing the policy under current and guaranteed assumptions.
Where the original illustration is available, how the policy has performed against what was shown at the sale.
What the policy actually costs you each year, separate from what you pay in, along with the cost of insurance trend, policy loan balance and interest, and how each affects the coverage over time.
Whether the policy is on track for its purpose, and if not, the options available and what each would change.
A proposal shows you one illustration of a policy, designed by the person who is paid when you buy it. A review before you sign tells you what that illustration depends on and what the policy looks like when those assumptions do not hold.
An illustration is not a forecast or a promise. It shows what the policy would do if the insurer's current crediting rate or dividend scale and current charges stayed the same every year, and the insurer can change all of them. Two policies with the same premium and the same insurer can produce very different cash values depending on how they are designed. In one comparison we published, two indexed universal life designs with the same insurer and the same premium differed sharply: the lower-commission design had a target premium 83% lower, about three times the cash value at the end of the first year, and reached a positive return four years sooner. The analysis is on arctisadvisory.com for indexed universal life and whole life. The design that pays the agent the most is not always the design that does the most for you, and a proposal does not show you the alternatives.
How much weight the guaranteed column deserves depends on the type of policy. In whole life, the guaranteed cash values are written into the contract and are a real floor, so the question is how much of the illustrated value depends on dividends, which are not guaranteed. In universal, indexed and variable life, the guaranteed column assumes maximum charges and minimum crediting at the same time, which rarely makes a useful planning case. The more useful question there is what happens if crediting falls to zero for a stretch while current charges keep coming out.
Whether the policy is built for what you want it to do. A policy designed for the most death benefit per dollar looks very different from one designed to build cash value, and a proposal can be built for one while being presented as the other. In whole life, how the premium is split between the base policy, paid-up additions and term riders largely sets both the agent's commission and your early cash value.
How the agent is paid on this design and how that pay would change under a different one. Commission is usually figured on a portion of the premium called the target premium, and design choices that raise it often lower your early cash value.
The rate or dividend scale the illustration relies on, how it compares to what the insurer is permitted to illustrate, and how sensitive the results are to it.
How the policy performs if dividends are cut or crediting falls, including to zero, and what premium it would take to keep it in force.
Which features are guaranteed in the contract and which are current company practice that can change, including caps, charges, bonuses, and loan provisions.
What the policy actually costs you each year, separate from what you pay in, whether it fits what you are buying it for, and the specific changes to ask for before you sign.
Personally owned or trust-owned life insurance, in force or proposed, priced on the number of policies and insurance companies. A proposed replacement or 1035 exchange is priced on the total number of policies involved. If a proposal is sound, we will tell you so, and the fee is the same either way.
Call or email. We confirm the review fits, then send the adviser agreement required under Massachusetts law.
For a policy you own, we request current records from the insurance company with your authorization, which usually takes a few weeks. For a proposal, you send us what you were given.
You receive the written review, and we walk through it together by phone or in person.
The fee is set in the signed agreement and does not depend on what you decide to do afterward.
Arctis Advisory does not sell, place, or replace insurance and receives no commission or referral fee from any insurer, agent, or lender. Whatever the review finds, you are free to take it to any agent you choose.
Alex spent five years at a life insurance company, finishing in advanced case design, and four years as a principal at an executive benefits firm designing policies for organizations and their executives. He founded Arctis Advisory to give independent, fee-only analysis of life insurance, without a product to sell.
He holds a Massachusetts Insurance Adviser license and a Massachusetts life insurance license. For organizations and executive benefit plans, see arctisadvisory.com.