North American Company for Life and Health Insurance Announces Builder Plus Indexed Universal Life 2 Product
WEST DES MOINES, IA - Sept. 9, 2019 – North American Company for Life and Health Insurance®, a member of Sammons® Financial Group and one of America’s leading insurance companies, today announced the launch of its Builder Plus Indexed Universal Life (IUL) 2 insurance product. The new IUL offers strong death benefit protection, a return of premium death benefit option, as well as accelerated benefits for a qualifying critical, chronic, or terminal illness1. Furthermore, the product includes a redesigned Account Interest Multiplier2, high index caps, and an interest bonus, which together provide strong cash value accumulation and income potential.
“We know our policyowners have many different needs in life - that’s why this product is designed to perform in a variety of scenarios. Strong death benefit protection coupled with high income potential really make the Builder Plus 2 stand out, and help make this product truly built for real life,” says Jerry Blair, chief distribution officer of SFG’s Life Division.
One of the product’s strengths is its Account Interest Multiplier, which has been redesigned to help further maximize potential cash value. The multiplier starts five years earlier3 - year one instead of year six, and is higher. In addition, a one percent interest rate bonus4 on index account values is available starting at year 11.
“Today, we cannot stress the importance of critical and chronic illness coverage enough. According to a recent report5, two-thirds of people who file bankruptcy say that medical bills were a major contributor to their distress,” continued Blair.
Builder Plus 2 is the latest addition to North American’s comprehensive line of life insurance products offering their innovative accelerated death benefit endorsement for critical, chronic, and terminal Illness, which allows the policyowner to accelerate a portion of the death benefit for a qualifying illness.
Builder Plus 2 is available with North American's WriteAway® Accelerated Underwriting, which provides a faster and less invasive process for issuing a policy. The average time for an application that qualifies for WriteAway is a speedy 6.5 calendar days from submission to approval.6
North American is continually rated A+ by agencies including A.M. Best, Fitch and S&P Global Ratings. To learn more about the new North American Custom Guarantee Universal Life product, you can find an agent near you.
About North American Company for Life and Health Insurance
North American Company for Life and Health Insurance® is a member of Sammons® Financial Group, Inc. Since 1886, North American has established a tradition of providing quality insurance products to consumers throughout the U.S. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of term, universal life, and indexed universal life insurance products. North American also offers a wide variety of traditional fixed and fixed index annuities and consistently ranks among the top fixed index annuity carriers in the U.S. (Source: Wink Sales & Market Report, 2018). For more information, please visit here.
About Sammons® Financial Group, Inc.
The companies of Sammons® Financial Group, Inc. help families and businesses protect their future to enjoy life’s moments today. A subsidiary of Sammons Enterprises, Inc., Sammons Financial Group is privately owned with member companies that are among the most enduring and stable in the financial services industry. Our companies include Midland National® Life Insurance Company (including Sammons® Corporate Markets); North American Company for Life and Health Insurance®; and Sammons Institutional GroupSM (including Midland Retirement Distributors® and Sammons Retirement Solutions®). Together, we offer today’s most sought-after life insurance, annuity, and retirement planning products. Sammons Financial Group: With You for Every Moment®.
1. Return of premium death benefit option and accelerated death benefits are subject to eligibility requirements.
2. Account Interest Multiplier is applied after interest credit or index credit is determined and before any interest bonus. It is not applied to the interest bonus or any portion of the Account Value that is Policy Debt or the Minimum Account Value. The multiplier is guaranteed on the index account, and conditionally guaranteed on the fixed account. The multiplier is paid on the fixed account when the declared interest rate is in excess of the guaranteed rate of 1.5%. The multiplier has the guaranteed minimum of 10% starting in year 1, but it could be higher and it could vary by index selection.
3. Compared to North American’s Builder Plus IUL.
4. The current 1% interest bonus percentage is not guaranteed and subject to change; however, once a policy is issued, the percentage will not change. Interest bonus is contractually guaranteed on all indexed accounts, including those backing policy loans. The bonus is conditionally guaranteed on the fixed account and will be paid if the declared interest rate is greater than the guaranteed rate. For standard policy loans or net zero cost loans the interest bonus is not applied to any loaned amount.
5. Source: This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy. CNBC. Feb 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html.
6. Source: Internal underwriting data, 6/14/2019. This process is not available in California.
5. Source: This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy. CNBC. Feb 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html
A.M. Best is a large third-party independent reporting and rating company that rates an insurance company on the basis of the company’s financial strength, operating performance and ability to meet its obligations to policyholders. A+ is the second highest rating out of 15 categories and was affirmed for North American as part of Sammons Financial Group on August 7, 2019. For the latest rating, access www.ambest.com.
S&P Global Ratings awarded its “A+” (Strong) rating for insurer financial strength on February 26, 2009 and affirmed on August 14, 2019 to North American, as part of Sammons Financial Group. The “A+” (Strong) rating is the fifth highest out of 22 available ratings.
Fitch Ratings, a global leader in financial information services and credit ratings, on April 17, 2019, assigned an Insurer Financial Strength Rating of A+ Stable for North American. This rating is the fifth highest of 19 possible rating categories. The rating reflects the organization’s strong business profile, low financial leverage, very strong statutory capitalization and strong operating profitability supported by strong investment performance. For more information, read the Fitch Ratings Report.
THE ACCELERATED DEATH BENEFIT ENDORSEMENT FOR CRITICAL ILLNESS IS NOT HEALTH INSURANCE NOR IS IT INTENDED TO REPLACE HEALTH INSURANCE.
THE ACCELERATED DEATH BENEFIT FOR CHRONIC ILLNESS IS NOT LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE NOR IS IT INTENDED TO REPLACE LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE.
Indexed Universal Life Insurance products are not an investment in the “market” or in the applicable index and are subject to all policy fees and charges normally associated with most universal life insurance.
Agents offering, marketing, or selling accelerated death benefits for chronic illness in California must be able to describe the differences between benefits provided under an accelerated death benefit for chronic illness and benefits provided under long-term care insurance to clients. You must provide clients with the ADBE Consumer Brochure for California that includes this comparison. Comparison is for solicitation purposes only, not for conversions.
Builder Plus IUL 2 & Builder Plus IUL (policy form series LS183), the Accelerated Death Benefit Endorsement for Critical, Chronic and Terminal Illness (form series LR508) Accelerated Death Benefit Endorsement for Critical Illness (form LR498, CA only), Accelerated Death Benefit Endorsement for Terminal Illness (form series LR466, CA only) and Accelerated Death Benefit Endorsement for Chronic Illness (form LR492, CA only) are issued by North American Company for Life and Health, Administrative Office, One Sammons Plaza, Sioux Falls, SD 57193. Product, features, endorsements, riders or issue ages may not be available in all jurisdictions. Limitations or restrictions may apply.