Winning The Insurance Product Race
How Fast-Moving Carriers Are Winning The IUL Product Race
The bottom line up front: Insurance carriers have a narrow window to capitalize on the most favorable Indexed Universal Life (IUL) market conditions in over a decade. While competitors get stuck in endless development cycles, speed-focused carriers are capturing disproportionate market share. The question isn’t whether your IUL platform will be perfect, it’s whether you’ll launch fast enough to matter, while delivering a seamless, compliant experience for all stakeholders.
The Builders vs. The Movers: How Strategy Determines Market Share
Folks in insurance know that an IUL insurance product offers consumers the dual advantage of flexible life insurance coverage and the potential for cash value growth tied to a stock market index (like the S&P 500), without direct market risk. It provides tax-deferred growth, potential tax-free loans or withdrawals, and the ability to adjust premiums and death benefits, making it a versatile tool for both protection and long-term financial planning. Perfecting the product with bells and whistles can be important, but it often slows down the build process which can stall a business trying to release products quickly.
Walk into any carrier boardroom today, and you’ll find two camps. The meticulous builders are creating the “ultimate” IUL platform—custom everything, every feature imaginable, committee-approved specifications that would make NASA proud. Meanwhile, their faster competitors are already capturing market share with platforms that deliver an industry leading experience for all stakeholders, meet current compliance standards and are able to quickly move on to what comes next for them.
The numbers tell the story. LIMRA’s latest data shows IUL premiums hit $959 million in Q1 2025, growing 11% year-over-year with 75% of carriers reporting growth. Half of those carriers saw double-digit increases. But here’s what should worry every C-suite executive: this isn’t just growth—it’s a market window that’s already showing signs of closing.