On Wednesday, March 1st, 2017, American National released their new Signature Whole Life product, a more aggressively priced offering than their existing, Affinity 7. Signature Whole Life entered the market as one of the more dominant low-cost death benefit-oriented contenders with a strong internal rate of return (IRR).
By design, Affinity 7 is a very limited product, offering only a full-pay option for endowment solves that generally falls towards the back of the pack competitively. The new Signature Whole Life expands upon American National’s offering to now include broader limited-pay options. The pricing for these new options touts some of the lowest guaranteed endowment premiums across the board. While full-pay premiums are about 10.5% lower on average than Affinity 7, the new product generally finds its way into the first quartile, while limited-pays often end up in the top 2 lowest premium options.
Aside from low competitive premiums, the most convincing story is the death benefit IRRs for 20 pay scenarios, having exceptional returns up to age 60. However, when considering IRRs on the current cash surrender value, unfortunately the story is different. In almost every case, Signature Whole Life finds itself at or near the back of the pack.
Rates were uploaded to the LifeTrends website on Tuesday, March 7, 2017.