Hartford Product Update: Bicentennial UL Freedom 2013

Overview:

  • In March, when Hartford announced plans to adjust rates for the Bicentennial UL Freedom 2013 product, they indicated that impact would be:  Single-pays will experience a 5% increase, while short-pay scenarios will see a 1 to 4% increase. There will be no pricing changes to full-pays.
  • The revised rates that Hartford released on Monday were less than what they stated in March.  The ONLY changes that were made to Bicentennial UL Freedom 2013 were to non-tobacco risk classes, single-pay solves, between the ages 55 – 75 (with the exception of Female, Preferred Best NT, A55). 
  • Rates increased 5% for Lifetime solves, less than 5% for Limited Guarantee to A100 solves.
  • Even with the rate increase, for single-pay Limited Guarantees to A100, there is a strong competitive positioning for females, ages 45/50 and above, all risk classes.  In several cells where they are positioned 1st, they are almost 10% below the best priced product in the market.  See below Bicentennial UL Freedom A100 Snapshots, page 3.

The attached analysis includes all of the products we benchmark (24 products considered):

  1. New Ranking for $1,000,000 DB, NLG A100 (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  2. Percent Premium is Above Best Rate for $1,000,000 DB, NLG A100 (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  3. Percent Premium is Below Next Best Rate (when ranked #1) for $1,000,000 DB, NLG A100 (single, full and short-pay scenarios)

Bicent  

  1. New Ranking for $1,000,000 DB, NLG Lifetime (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  2. Percent Premium is Above Best Rate for $1,000,000 DB, NLG Lifetime (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  3. Percent Premium is Below Next Best Rate (when ranked #1) for $1,000,000 DB, NLG Lifetime (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  1. New vs. Old Percentage Premium is Higher or Lower for $1,000,000 DB, NLG – Lifetime (single, full and short-pay scenarios)
  2. New vs. Old Percentage Premium is Higher or Lower for $1,000,000 DB, NLG – A100 (single, full and short-pay scenarios)

Based on what we’ve seen in the past, if left “on the shelf”, we anticipate multiple pricing changes will happen to Hartford’s Bicentennial UL Freedom 2013 product over the course of the year.