Milliman, a consulting and actuarial firm, this week released the results of its annual study of universal life, indexed universal life and variable universal life issues.
The new study, which was based on a survey of 28 UL/IUL/VUL companies, was expanded to include VUL products for the first time.
Survey participants reported total combined individual UL, IUL and VUL sales of $3.5 billion and $3.6 billion for calendar years 2018 and 2019, and $2.4 billion for 2020 through September.
Year-to-date through September 2020, respondents reported UL sales of $700 million, IUL sales of $1.5 billion and VUL sales of $254 million.
Universal life sales in the first nine months of 2020 accounted for 28% for total UL/IUL/VUL sales combined, down from 37% in 2018. Indexed universal life sales in 2020 were 61% of total combined sales, up from 54% in 2018, and VUL sales rose to 11% from 9% during the same period.
The survey found that sales of combination riders on UL/IUL products remained strong. In 2020 to September, sales of chronic illness riders as a percentage of total sales were 7.7% for UL products and 46.3% for IUL products.
In the same period, sales of policies with long-term care riders as a percentage of total sales were 66.1% for UL products and 10.3% for IUL products.
