Most financial products do one job. A properly structured indexed policy protects your family, grows with a floor under the indexed credit, lets you reach the money without asking permission, moves to your family outside probate, and does it inside a tax-advantaged structure. Same dollar. Five jobs.
Waterfall Wealth Creation Strategy™ is the name of the planning method used exclusively by Wealth Builders Insurance Agency. It is our name for our method, not a description of a category.
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Wealth Builders Flagship IUL Solution · 0.75% floor on the indexed credit · Uncapped Balanced Index Account · Conservative Illustrated Rate · Tax-Advantaged Structure · National carriers
When the index falls, you are credited 0.75% instead of a loss. It is a contract term, not a promise from us. Policy charges still come out, so a floor year is flat rather than free.
Uncapped, so you capture more than 100% of the index move with no ceiling. The rate is set by the carrier and can change at renewal. Ask what the guaranteed minimum is before you buy.
Borrow against your own cash value at any age, with no credit check and no early-withdrawal penalty. Loans carry interest and reduce the death benefit until repaid.
Generally excluded from your beneficiary's income under IRC §101(a), and it passes outside probate. In force from the first day the policy is.
Credited on the movement of a blended index at 113% participation with no cap, less the 0.72% index account charge. You are not invested in the market directly.
Cash value can be accessed without an income tax bill when the policy is structured and maintained properly, and there are no required minimum distributions. Structured badly, none of that holds.
Each account is different, and both serve a purpose. Here are the differences side by side, so you can see how each one works.
The balance falls with it. That is the trade for full market participation on the way up.
The indexed credit never goes negative, the 0.75% floor is credited instead of the loss. Policy charges still come out separately.
You capture the whole move. In a strong year this is the better place to be, and it is not close.
You capture 113% of the index move with no cap, less the 0.72% index account charge.
Free money, immediately, and nothing here competes with it. Capture the full match before you fund anything else.
No match exists. This is the clearest case where a 401(k) beats an IUL and we say so first.
Generally a 10% early-withdrawal penalty plus income tax, with narrow exceptions.
Reachable by withdrawal or policy loan at any age, with no early-withdrawal penalty. Loans carry interest and reduce the death benefit until repaid.
Withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income, at whatever the rates are then.
Access can be income-tax-free when the policy is structured and maintained properly. Structured badly, it is not.
Capped by IRC §402(g), and the cap is the point; it is a retirement account with rules.
No IRS contribution ceiling, but there is a federal limit on how fast you can fund it relative to the death benefit (IRC §7702A). Cross it and the policy becomes a MEC: withdrawals and loans are taxed gain-first, for good. A policy designed for accumulation is built to stay under it on purpose.
Your family inherits the balance, whatever it happens to be that day.
A death benefit is in force from day one, generally excluded from the beneficiary's income and passing outside probate.
Fund expense ratios, and any plan administration fee.
Cost of insurance, a premium load, a monthly policy fee, and the index account charge. Real, ongoing, and dependent on your age and health.
The rule that comes before all of it: if your employer matches 401(k) contributions, capture the full match first. That is an immediate, dollar-for-dollar addition to your own money and nothing on this page competes with it. We say this before we say anything else, and we say it to every client.
Coverage runs from 15 days old to age 85. Most people who assume they don't qualify actually do. If you're in any of these, you're eligible, and worth a conversation.
Run a free projection in our How an Index Account Works, or book a session and we will build a custom illustration tailored to your exact goals.
How an Index Account Works Book the IUL Wealth Strategy SessionWe would rather lose a sale than place a policy that lapses in year four. If any of these describe you, the honest answer is on the right, and most of them are not us.
Most people who discover the IUL stop there. It is one piece of something larger. It sits at 7 on purpose, and six steps come before it. One of them is taking your full employer match, and we would rather you did that first. The Blueprint walks all 10 in order, because the order is the strategy.
Free · No Cost RequiredMost people think life insurance pays when you die. It can also pay you while you are alive, when you need care and the income has stopped.
Money taken early comes out of the death benefit, so there is less left for your family. Which of these are available, what they are called and what qualifies all vary by carrier and by state, and every one has conditions in the contract. We go through them with you before you apply, not after.
Most people assume Medicare covers a nursing home. What it does not cover is custodial care, which is help with everyday activities: getting in and out of bed, eating, bathing, dressing and using the bathroom. That is the help most people need, and it is the help you pay for yourself.
Medicare pays for skilled nursing, and only for a while. A stay in a skilled nursing facility is limited to 100 days in a benefit period, and from day 101 you pay all of it. It has to be daily skilled care that a provider says you need, not help getting dressed.
Medicaid does pay for long-term care, after you have spent down to qualify. Eligibility comes after your assets are spent down to your state's limit. Giving money away first does not work. A transfer for less than fair market value in the five years before you apply creates a penalty. The penalty is measured in months of care you have to fund yourself.
National medians, CareScout Cost of Care Survey, 2025, published 2 March 2026. The home care figure assumes 44 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, which is not round-the-clock care.
An add-on to a permanent policy that puts part of the death benefit toward care, at home or in a facility, while you are alive. It is a portion of what you already own, brought forward.
It is not free. A long-term care rider is priced as an add-on, unlike the chronic illness rider, which is usually included at no extra premium.
Long-term care is a separate license above life and health. We hold it in the states we are licensed in.
Availability and terms vary by carrier and by state.
An IUL is a real product with real limits. These are the ones that decide whether it fits, and they are written the same size as everything above.
Permanent policies carry a surrender charge in the early years. It applies if you cancel the policy, or take out more than the contract allows. It typically runs ten to fifteen years, shrinking each year until it reaches zero. It is a charge from the insurance company and it is completely separate from anything the IRS does. So when we say there is no early-withdrawal penalty at any age, that is true, and it is a statement about tax law. It is not a claim that early access is free. Your illustration shows the surrender charge schedule year by year, and it is worth reading before you decide how much to put in.
A policy loan is untaxed while the policy stays in force, which is the whole reason the strategy works. It is still a loan. Interest is charged, and any interest you do not pay gets added to what you owe. The loan and its interest reduce the death benefit until they are repaid. If the loan plus interest ever grows larger than the cash value, the policy can lapse. A policy that lapses with a loan on it can create a taxable gain. That tax bill arrives in a year when no money is coming in to pay it. This is the failure mode of the strategy, and it is why the funding and the borrowing have to be planned together rather than decided separately.
Federal law limits how much premium can go into a policy relative to its death benefit. Cross that line and the policy becomes a Modified Endowment Contract. A MEC keeps its death benefit, still free of income tax. But withdrawals and loans are then taxed on the gain first, and can carry a ten percent penalty before age 59 and a half. The change is permanent and it cannot be undone. A properly designed policy is built to stay under the line on purpose, and the illustration shows the maximum.
An indexed universal life policy pays its costs out of the cash value every month. The cash value has to cover them. If it cannot, the policy lapses and the coverage ends. That happens when funding stops, when too much has been borrowed, or when the credited interest comes in low for a long stretch. It is not a product that runs itself once it is opened. This is why the funding period matters more than the illustrated rate.
Every guarantee in a life insurance policy, including the floor, the death benefit and any guaranteed values, is backed by the insurance company that issued it and by nothing else. It is not insured by the FDIC, not guaranteed by a bank, and not guaranteed by any government agency. This is why the financial strength of the carrier matters and why we look at it before we look at the illustration.
That is not everything a policy does and does not do. The complete list is here, in plain English.