Can You Sell a Genworth Indexed Universal Life Policy? (2026)

Identify the product, then find the guarantee

Start with the policy specification page and the form number, not the marketing name someone used years ago.

• Foundation Builder Index Universal Life. Designed around a long secondary guarantee, reported at roughly thirty years. If yours is this product and the guarantee is intact, the death benefit is protected even if the account value performs poorly — which makes it far more valuable than the account value alone suggests.
• Asset Builder Index Universal Life II. Built with a shorter guarantee, on the order of ten years. On a policy sold in 2010, a ten-year guarantee expired around 2020, which means the contract has been running on account value alone for several years.
• A guaranteed universal life contract with no index account. Genworth also marketed guaranteed universal life; if your contract has no cap, participation rate, or index strategy table, it is not an IUL. See what guaranteed universal life is and the Genworth guaranteed universal life page.
• A conventional universal life contract. Fixed crediting, no index account. The Genworth universal life page applies.

A true indexed universal life contract will name a reference index — usually an equity price-return index — and list a cap rate, a participation rate, and a floor, typically 0%. Read what indexed universal life is if the terms are unfamiliar.

Then ask Genworth in writing, in these exact terms: Does this policy carry a no-lapse or secondary guarantee? Is it in force today? If it has terminated, on what date and for what reason? If restoration is available, what would it cost? Get the answer before you change anything about how you fund the policy.

How the secondary guarantee is actually measured, and how people break it

A no-lapse guarantee keeps the death benefit in force even if the account value falls to zero, provided a premium test is satisfied. Almost nobody understands how that test works, which is why the guarantee is lost so often by accident.

The test does not run against your account value. The insurer maintains a separate shadow account for the sole purpose of determining whether the guarantee is still on, with its own crediting rate and its own charges defined by the rider rather than by the base policy. Premiums paid on time and in full keep the shadow account positive, and the guarantee holds as long as it is.

What breaks it:

• Late payment. The shadow account is timing-sensitive; a premium paid in April instead of January costs it interest it never recovers.
• Paying less than the guarantee premium. Even small shortfalls accumulate over years.
• Taking a loan or a partial surrender. On many forms this reduces the shadow account or terminates the guarantee outright.
• Changing the face amount or adding a rider. Can trigger a recalculation.

The consequence people do not expect: on many forms a lost guarantee cannot be reinstated. On others it can be restored only by paying the accumulated shortfall plus interest, which after several years becomes a large lump sum. Insurers reserve for these guarantees under Actuarial Guideline XXXVIII, the NAIC standard governing universal life with secondary guarantees, which is one reason the test is administered strictly rather than generously.

Practical rule: if the guarantee is intact, protect it and change nothing without written confirmation of the effect. If it is gone, the account value is the only thing keeping the policy alive and you need the illustration described below. Read what a no-lapse guarantee is.

Closed-block dynamics: what happens to caps when nobody is selling the product

Here is a point specific to a runoff block, and it is worth thinking about clearly rather than cynically.

Cap rates, participation rates, and spreads on an indexed universal life policy are declared by the insurer, within the guaranteed minimums written into the contract. The insurer funds index credits by buying options with part of its general account yield, so declared rates respond to the option budget and to portfolio yields. That is the legitimate mechanic.

On an open block there is also a commercial constraint: a carrier actively selling indexed universal life has an interest in its in-force rates looking competitive, because agents and prospects notice. On a block closed to new sales since March 2016, that particular pressure is absent. The insurer remains bound by the contractual guaranteed minimums — those are enforceable and they are the numbers to plan from — but the discretionary space above the minimum is not disciplined by new-sales competition in the same way.

This is not an accusation about any specific rate action. It is a reason to plan from the guaranteed floor rather than from current declared rates. Look up the guaranteed minimum cap and the guaranteed minimum interest rate in your contract. If the guaranteed minimum cap is 3% and the current declared cap is 8%, the difference between those two numbers is discretion, not a promise.

A related regulatory note. Actuarial Guideline 49 took effect for indexed universal life illustrations on September 1, 2015, capping the maximum illustrated rate. Its successors — AG 49-A, applying to policies illustrated on and after November 25, 2020, and AG 49-B, effective May 1, 2023 — tightened the rules further. Because Genworth’s block closed in March 2016, most in-force Genworth IUL policies were illustrated at sale under the original AG 49 or under the looser pre-2015 regime. Whichever illustration you were handed at purchase, it was produced under rules that no longer govern and it has no predictive value today.

Contract feature	Foundation Builder IUL	Asset Builder IUL II
Reported no-lapse guarantee duration	About 30 years	About 10 years
Guarantee likely still running in 2026 if sold in 2010	Yes	No
What protects the death benefit if account value hits zero	The secondary guarantee, if the test is met	Nothing, once the guarantee has expired
Status of the product	Discontinued effective March 7, 2016	Discontinued effective March 7, 2016
Number to plan from	Guarantee premium and schedule	Guaranteed-assumption illustration
Most common way owners lose value	Paying late or taking a loan	Underfunding as cost of insurance rises

The illustration to request, and how to read it

One written request, four items. Send them together; a runoff servicing operation will not batch them for you.

1. A complete certified copy of the policy with all riders and endorsements, including the index strategy schedule and the guaranteed minimum cap and interest rate.
2. An in-force illustration at current assumptions, at the premium you are paying now, showing the projected termination year.
3. An in-force illustration at guaranteed assumptions — guaranteed maximum cost of insurance, guaranteed minimum cap or participation rate, guaranteed minimum interest. This is the worst legal outcome the insurer can impose, and it is the planning number.
4. A solve for the annual premium required to carry the policy to the insured’s age 100 under guaranteed assumptions, and separately, the premium required to maintain the no-lapse guarantee if one exists.

Reading the output: find the column showing account value by policy year and locate the year it reaches zero. It is entirely normal for the current-assumption run to show the policy carrying to age 95 and the guaranteed run to show it terminating at 75. The truth lies between them and the distance is the size of your exposure. If a secondary guarantee is in force, the death benefit column may continue past the year the account value zeroes out — that is the guarantee doing its job, and it is the single most important thing to see on the page.

Allow three to four weeks on a runoff block. There is normally no charge under standard policyholder service practice. See what an in-force illustration is for request language, and what cost of insurance is for the charge that drives most of the decline.

Corporate history, entities, and where a complaint goes

Genworth Financial was created out of General Electric’s insurance operations and taken public in a 2004 initial public offering; GE disposed of its remaining ownership interest by March 2006. The life business was assembled from predecessor companies including First Colony Life Insurance Company, founded in 1955 and acquired by GE Financial Assurance in 1996, along with Federal Home Life Insurance Company and American Mayflower Life Insurance Company. Effective January 1, 2007, Federal Home Life and First Colony merged into Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company in Richmond, Virginia, and American Mayflower Life merged into Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York.

On February 4, 2016 Genworth announced it would suspend sales of traditional life insurance and fixed annuity products in order to concentrate on stabilizing its long-term care business; the suspension took effect March 7, 2016. The individual life block has been in runoff since.

Which entity issued your policy is printed on the cover page and determines the domiciliary regulator:

• Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company — Virginia domiciled, supervised by the Bureau of Insurance of the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
• Genworth Life Insurance Company — Delaware domiciled, supervised by the Delaware Department of Insurance.
• Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York — supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

For a service problem — an unanswered records request, an illustration that never arrives — file with the insurance department of the state where you live and where the policy was delivered. That department regulates the insurer’s conduct toward you as a resident and is generally the faster route. The domiciliary regulator is the right venue for company-level solvency and market conduct concerns. Note too that the state where the policy was delivered, not the insurer’s domicile, supplies the mandated policy provisions governing grace, reinstatement, and incontestability.

Five options, ranked by the guarantee status

The right move depends almost entirely on whether the secondary guarantee is intact.

If the guarantee is in force:

1. Protect it. Pay the exact guarantee premium on the exact schedule. Do not take a loan or a partial surrender without written confirmation of the effect on the shadow account. A policy with an intact long-duration guarantee is a strong asset and the most common way people destroy one is by improvising with the funding.
2. If the premium is unaffordable, ask what a reduced face amount would require to maintain a guarantee. A smaller guaranteed death benefit may be sustainable where the full amount is not.

If the guarantee is gone or never existed:

1. Reduce the face amount. The most direct lever in universal life. The cost of insurance charge is calculated on face amount minus account value, so cutting the face cuts the largest deduction immediately. Request an in-force illustration at the reduced face before deciding anything else.
2. Surrender. Compare the net cash surrender value, after any surrender charge and outstanding loan, against what a sale would realistically produce. On a well-funded indexed contract with a healthy insured, surrender frequently wins outright. Our surrender versus sell comparison works through the math.
3. Sell. Realistic when the face amount comfortably exceeds $100,000 and the insured’s health has materially declined since underwriting. Buyers price on a medically underwritten life expectancy, so a healthy insured should expect no offers rather than low ones — good health reduces value in this market. Indexed universal life is a well-understood asset to institutional buyers, so the product type itself is not an obstacle. See can I sell an indexed universal life policy.

Lapsing is the last path and almost always the worst, because it converts decades of premium into nothing. Rule it out deliberately rather than by inaction. Send the policy cover page, the most recent annual statement, and any illustration you have received and we will read them with you at no charge. We do not purchase policies and we will say plainly when no sale makes sense. Call (305) 209-7183.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which Genworth indexed universal life products are in force today?

The names that appear most often are Asset Builder Index Universal Life II and Foundation Builder Index Universal Life, both discontinued effective March 7, 2016 when Genworth stopped selling individual life insurance. Foundation Builder was built around a no-lapse guarantee reported at roughly thirty years; Asset Builder’s ran roughly ten. Check the specification page and form number rather than relying on a marketing name.

How do I know whether my no-lapse guarantee is still in force?

Ask Genworth in writing whether the policy carries a no-lapse or secondary guarantee, whether it is in force today, and if not, the date and reason it terminated and the cost of restoration if available. The guarantee is measured against a separate shadow account with its own crediting and charges, so it can lapse even while the policy itself remains in force.

Can Genworth lower my cap rate now that the block is closed?

Caps, participation rates, and spreads are declared by the insurer within the guaranteed minimums stated in the contract, and that discretion exists on open and closed blocks alike. What is enforceable is the guaranteed minimum cap and the guaranteed minimum interest rate printed in your policy. Plan from those numbers rather than from the currently declared rates, which can change.

Is my original sales illustration still meaningful?

No. Actuarial Guideline 49 took effect for indexed universal life illustrations on September 1, 2015, with AG 49-A applying from November 25, 2020 and AG 49-B from May 1, 2023. Because Genworth’s block closed in March 2016, most in-force policies were illustrated under rules that no longer govern. Use a current in-force illustration at guaranteed assumptions instead.

Does Genworth being in runoff make my policy less secure?

Ceasing new sales does not change your contract. Guaranteed premiums, guaranteed minimums, riders, and any secondary guarantee are fixed by the policy form and by the law of the state where the policy was delivered. What changes is service: requests can take longer, there is no agent with a commercial interest in you, and nobody will proactively warn you if the policy is heading toward lapse.

Does Pine Lake buy Genworth indexed universal life policies?

No. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We help you determine which product you hold, whether the secondary guarantee is intact, and how a face reduction compares to surrender and to a sale. On healthy insureds the honest answer is usually that no sale is available. Call (305) 209-7183 or send the policy cover page.

Related Reading

• Can I Sell An Indexed Universal Life Policy
• What Is Indexed Universal Life
• What Is A No Lapse Guarantee
• What Is An In Force Illustration
• What Is Cost Of Insurance
• What Is Guaranteed Universal Life
• Surrender Vs Sell Policy
• Sell My Genworth Universal Life Policy
• Sell My Genworth Guaranteed Universal Policy

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Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase life insurance policies and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Information provided is for educational purposes only. Eligibility for any option, including life settlements, is not guaranteed and depends on individual circumstances, policy terms, underwriting, and market conditions. Consult independent legal, tax, or financial professionals before making decisions regarding a life insurance policy.