Be Careful With COLI

Most of you are familiar with it. If you've ever been in corporate HR or Finance, someone has undoubtedly tried to sell it to you. It can look like the greatest thing since sliced bread, and frankly, before 1986, it probably was, but corporate-owned life insurance, commonly referred to as COLI, is not the be all and end all.

It has its uses. I have recommended in favor of it and I have recommended against it. But, understand that I have never sold it. I am not licensed to sell insurance products. I never have been. That makes me relatively agnostic to COLI. I don't make money from its sale. The work that I have done and do with respect to COLI is either analysis of its merits or performance, or helping a client unwind it if they decide they don't like it.

So, why am I writing this? While I have no insurance credentials, I do have a bunch of actuarial credentials. As such, I am held to a whole set of professional standards. They start with the Code of Conduct and include adherence to a set of Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs). While adherence to all of this can feel annoying at times, I fully support that my profession has adopted this framework. If only all of the other professions that we deal with had as stringent a framework, in my opinion, the benefits world would be a more honest and straightforward place.

Let's go back to COLI. I looked at a COLI illustration this morning. It was based on a Variable Universal Life (VUL) product. Note the variable part. That means that the product invests typically in a mixture of equity and fixed income instruments, usually chosen (all or in part) by the policyholder. So, like a defined benefit trust or defined contribution account, it has a return of return that is closely linked to the rates of return on those instruments (there are often charges and or loads).

What was alarming? The cash value seemed to be building up really quickly. I did some analysis. The agent who produced those illustrations chose to assume a 10% rate of return inside the policy. I checked. That is legal in his state. It is in many states. But, as an actuary who has to make similar assumptions for defined benefit trusts, I would tell you that it's not reasonable. In fact, if I put in writing today in a Statement of Actuarial Opinion that a 10% rate were reasonable, I would expect to be reported to my profession's disciplinary body.

You know what, if you can get tax-favored asset build-up that has a geometric mean 10% long-term rate of return guaranteed, you should put all the money that you can afford to into the underlying instrument. And, you had better tell me about it so that I can invest in it as well. It's just not feasible, it's not reality, but it was in an illustration presented by an agent to a prospect.

So, the message is this. COLI has its uses. It has its purposes. But, the guy who has the goal of selling you COLI is not going to be unbiased, no matter how hard he tries to convince you. If you can do the analysis yourself, do it. Find out if the COLI product is, in fact, good for your company. If you can't, then find an unbiased third party to do it. And, if either you or a third party find that the illustrator thinks he can get you a 10% annual rate of return, run away from it as fast as you can.