Life insurance as an industry has shifted so much over time, it’s really incredible. Life insurance used to be primarily positioned as simple protection. A way to replace income or provide liquidity upon death in a tax-advantaged manner. The solutions frequently involved guarantees and low risk strategies. A safe asset.

I’m not exactly sure what happened over time. Demutualization, low interest rates and estate tax changes all played a role. But the protection script largely gave way to a retirement income script. IUL enters the picture. Premium finance enters the picture. Ever more exotic options, complex engineered indexes and financial engineering enter the picture. MLMs bring much of this to the masses in ethically questionable ways. Complex products are being marketed with misleading social media soundbites.

Much of what’s being sold now are higher-risk strategies packaged under the same safe-sounding “life insurance” labels. The promises sound familiar but the risks are much higher, especially when leverage is involved.

This isn’t going to end well.