Is indexed Universal Life a scam? What a great question!

To start, I'm fond of using famous quotes to help put questions like this into context...Here are two that I think help:

First, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

AND

Second, "Happiness equals reality minus expectations"

Keep in mind, anyone who tries to tell you one way or another that Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is 100% great or 100% terrible is doing you a disservice.

The real question is not:

"Is Indexed Universal life a Scam?"

Instead it's:

"Is IUL going to do what I think/or what I've been told it's going to do?"

"Does IUL work the way I think it does?"

"Is IUL a good idea for me based on my situation?"

What is Your Expectation?

Unfortunately, if you think that an Indexed Universal Life Policy (IUL) is going to out perform the market every year and be able to be your sole source of income in retirement that is 100% tax free with no risk...Then yes Indexed Universal Life (to you) is a scam.

Conversely, If you see Indexed Universal Life as a way to diversify from market risk, diversify from taxes, and you realize that an IUL IS A LIFE INSURANCE POLICY that has fees (its probably front-loaded with fees for 10 years). Then to you it's probably not going to be a scam.

​There is one caveat to all this

Most insurance only agents (meaning they have no other licenses, are not a fiduciary, they don't manage money, or do investments) have a couple things working against them:

Does that sound too harsh?

It's not...

As a result, I spend hours a week helping clients make painful decisions about their poorly structured IUL policies sold to them by bad agents.

Above all, there are two questions that matter most to me.

First, Do you have an Indexed Universal Life policy?

Second, Is it structured the right way?

Let me know in the comments below!