AIG (American General) offers a Guaranteed Universal life insurance (or GUL) policy called AIG Secure Lifetime GUL 3. It’s an apt name, because guaranteed universal life insurance policies seek to provide permanent life insurance without building any cash value. Your heirs will get a tax-free death benefit when you pass away.
A lot of insurance companies no longer offer guaranteed universal life policies, but AIG does. Death benefits range from $100,000 to over $10 million. Here are the best 5 insurance companies for Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance (or GUL).
With the Secure Lifetime 3 policy, you can pay in one of four ways:
- Over the lifetime of the policy
- Until a certain age
- Over a certain number of years
- In one lump sum
The policy’s main focus is providing a death benefit, but it does accumulate a little bit of cash value.
>>MORE: Understanding How Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance Works
Included Riders
There are a few handy features of the AIG Secure GUL policy. The guaranteed rate of premium in included. Once you’ve held the policy for 20 years, if you surrender it, you’ll get 50% of all the premiums you paid. If you surrender it in year 25, you’ll get 100% of the premiums back. There is a maximum of 40% of the face value of the policy that you can get, but most people won’t come close to this.
AIG says this is ideal for someone who may decide they no longer need life insurance—at least they’ll get their premiums back.
Other Riders
Another option AIG offers is the Accelerated Access Solution, or what everyone else called an accelerated death benefit. If you are diagnosed with a qualifying illness, you can withdraw from your tax-free death benefit through monthly payments, for as long as you’re sick or until you die.
They also offer the Lifetime income solution rider. If you live until age 85, you can use the death benefit as supplemental income.
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They also offer:
- Terminal illness rider
- Accidental death rider
- Waiver of premium rider
- Spouse rider
These riders are not included—they will add to your premium.
>>MORE: Compare Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance (GUL) with Whole Life Insurance
Mini-Case Study
Our hypothetical customer we’ll call Mark, is a 31-year old non-smoker, with excellent health class (preferred best). He would like to purchase a $300,000 GUL policy and pay premiums until he reaches 65 years old (or 34 years). We get a quote from AIG for its Secure Lifetime Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance product and below are the details from its illustration.
- If he goes with AIG, at the end of year 10, he’ll have $984 cash value.
- At the end of year 20, he’ll have $1,003
- At the end of year 30, he’ll have $1,820.
- At year 34, when Mark has chosen to stop paying (but still getting lifetime protection) he’ll have $4,177.
- That’s okay, though, because accumulating cash value is not the prime purpose of this policy, even though it’s only a 2% return.
What’s not as okay is that AIG tends to be expensive. For this $300,000 the annual premiums through AIG are $2,736.28. By contrast, a similar policy at Penn Mutual would cost Mark $1,573. Penn Mutual is the least expensive, but there are at least eight other companies that charge less than AIG for a similar policy. Only two, Lincoln Financial and Mass Mutual charge more.
So, while AIG’s Secure Lifetime GUL 3 is a fine policy, it’s very expensive. Of course, they may quote you a different price. But be aware that they tend to be on the more expensive side. Here is our full review of AIG Life Insurance Company.
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