Standard Insurance Company is one of the country’s larger group life and disability carriers, and that is a different business from retail permanent life insurance. We cannot confirm a retail indexed universal life product on The Standard’s individual shelf. What people usually hold when they describe a Standard indexed universal life policy is a group or worksite universal life certificate purchased through an employer, a group variable universal life certificate with subaccounts rather than index segments, or an annuity contract that has an index cap and therefore looks like life insurance on a statement without being life insurance at all.
The distinction is not academic. A group certificate is owned under a master policy held by your employer, and what you can do with it depends on portability and conversion rights rather than on cash value. An annuity cannot be sold in a life settlement at any price. And an individually owned indexed universal life contract, if that is genuinely what you have, is exactly the kind of asset the secondary market wants – but only after you know how it is funded and where it is heading. This page sorts those cases and then walks the mechanics that decide the outcome.
In This Article
- Who The Standard is and what it actually writes
- Certificate or policy? The owner line decides everything
- Index segments, crediting methods, and why the label matters
- Why the illustration and the reality diverge
- The one report that answers the question
- Ranking the exits honestly
- Frequently Asked Questions
Who The Standard is and what it actually writes
Standard Insurance Company was founded in Portland as Oregon Life Insurance Company in 1906 and took its current name in 1946. It is domiciled in Oregon and supervised by the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, part of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. Business written in New York goes through a separate entity, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York.
The company converted from mutual to stock form in 1999, and the resulting holding company, StanCorp Financial Group, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SFG. In 2015 Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company of Japan agreed to acquire StanCorp for roughly $5 billion, and that deal closed in March 2016. The Standard has been a Meiji Yasuda subsidiary since.
Its franchise is group life insurance, group and individual disability, retirement plans, and annuities. In December 2024 Meiji Yasuda announced an agreement to acquire Legal & General’s US protection business – Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York – with the stated intention of combining it with The Standard. If your coverage originated with Banner Life or William Penn, that lineage is worth confirming with the servicing company rather than assumed, because who administers a block and who owns the parent are different questions. Our guide on a carrier that merged and who owns the policy now covers how to get that answer in writing.
Certificate or policy? The owner line decides everything
Before valuing anything, determine whether you own a contract or participate under someone else’s. Group and worksite coverage is issued as a certificate under a master policy held by an employer, association, or trust. You will see a certificate number rather than a policy number, an employer named as policyholder, premiums taken through payroll, and a benefits booklet rather than a schedule page.
A certificate holder cannot sell the coverage. The master policy is not yours, the coverage generally ends when employment or membership ends, and there is nothing an investor can acquire and keep in force. What may exist is a right to continue the coverage – portability, which keeps term coverage going, or conversion, which produces an individual permanent policy you own outright. Only the conversion path creates something with any prospect of market value, and its deadline is usually 31 days after group coverage terminates. Our page on selling a group life insurance policy explains why the certificate itself is not the asset.
If instead you hold an individually owned contract, the schedule page names you as owner and shows a specified amount, a planned premium, and a monthly deduction. That is a universal life chassis of some kind, and the next question is which flavor.
Index segments, crediting methods, and why the label matters
Assume the contract is genuinely index-linked. Money you allocate to an index account is placed into a segment with a start date and a maturity date, usually one year apart. At maturity the insurer measures the index according to a stated crediting method and applies the result, subject to a cap, a participation rate, and a floor of zero.
The crediting method matters more than most owners realize and is spelled out in the contract:
- Annual point-to-point. The index value on the segment maturity date is compared to the value on the start date. Simple, and the method most quoted in illustrations.
- Monthly average. The twelve month-end index values are averaged and compared to the start value. This smooths volatility, which sounds attractive but systematically produces smaller credits in a steadily rising market.
- Monthly point-to-point with a monthly cap. Each month’s move is capped on the upside but not on the downside, then the twelve results are summed. A single bad month can wipe out an otherwise good year.
Note also that index credits are typically based on a price return index, which excludes dividends. That difference alone is a meaningful annual drag relative to the total return figures most people carry in their heads. And the cap and participation rate are declared by the insurer and can be reset at each segment; the only number the contract guarantees is the minimum cap, which is usually far below anything ever declared in practice. Our explainer on how indexed universal life works runs a full segment calculation.
| Crediting method | How the credit is measured | Where it disappoints |
|---|---|---|
| Annual point-to-point | Index at segment maturity versus segment start, capped | Big up years are cut to the cap |
| Monthly average | Average of twelve month-end values versus the start value | Systematically low in a steadily rising market |
| Monthly point-to-point | Each month capped on the upside, uncapped down, then summed | One severe month can erase the whole year |
| Fixed account | Declared interest rate, no index | Rate can be cut to the guaranteed minimum |
| Any index method | Usually a price return index, excluding dividends | Persistent gap versus total return figures people quote |
Why the illustration and the reality diverge
The policy was sold on a projection, and two forces pull the real contract away from it. The first is the credited rate. If the illustration assumed a 7 percent average and the segments have delivered 4 percent, the account value is far behind – not by three points, but compounded, because every subsequent credit is earned on a smaller base.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners tightened these projections over three rounds. Actuarial Guideline 49 took effect in 2015 and limited the maximum illustrated crediting rate. AG 49-A followed in 2020, addressing illustrations that leaned on bonuses and index multipliers. AG 49-B arrived in 2023 with further restrictions on how non-guaranteed elements may be presented. All three apply to illustrations generated after their effective dates, not retroactively to what a buyer was shown in 2011 – which is why contracts from that era are the ones producing lapse notices now.
The second force is cost of insurance. The monthly mortality charge applies to the net amount at risk – death benefit minus account value – at a rate per thousand that climbs with attained age. As the account value falls behind, the net amount at risk grows, the charge grows, and the shortfall accelerates. Our page on rising universal life costs covers what to do when the deductions start outrunning the funding. A contract with a no-lapse guarantee rider is a partial exception, but those guarantees are unforgiving about late or short premiums – see how guaranteed universal life works.
The one report that answers the question
Request an in-force illustration from the administrator and specify the assumptions rather than accepting the default. Ask for three runs: current charges with the current cap and a zero index credit; guaranteed maximum charges with the guaranteed minimum credit; and current charges with a deliberately conservative assumption such as 4 percent. For each, ask for the year the policy exhausts and the level annual premium required to carry it to age 100.
The guaranteed run is the contractual worst case, and it is the run a professional buyer underwrites against. If it shows exhaustion at the insured’s age 80 and the insured is 76, the policy needs a decision this year rather than a review next year. Our page on what an in-force illustration is explains how to read the columns.
While you have their attention, ask two more questions. Whether the contract is a modified endowment contract, which changes how loans and withdrawals are taxed. And the exact outstanding loan balance and interest rate, because a universal life policy that lapses carrying a large loan can generate a taxable gain with no cash available to pay it. Both belong in front of your own tax advisor, not resolved by a website.
Ranking the exits honestly
With the guaranteed-basis numbers in hand the choices narrow. Reduce the specified amount if you want coverage to survive on the money already in the contract – lowering the death benefit lowers the net amount at risk and therefore the monthly charges, and it is the cheapest fix on the list and the least often offered. Increase funding if the required premium is affordable and the coverage is needed. Surrender to collect the account value net of any remaining surrender charge. Let it lapse only after confirming there is no loan and no gain.
A secondary market review earns its place when the insured is generally over 70, the individually owned face amount is at least six figures, and health has declined materially since issue. Health decline raises what a buyer will pay while leaving the surrender value unchanged, and that gap is the entire reason a sale can beat a surrender. Where health is unchanged, expect the carrier’s own check to be the ceiling. Our page on selling an indexed universal life policy explains what providers screen for and what they decline outright.
Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We provide an educational free policy review: send the certificate or policy cover page and your most recent statement and we will tell you whether you hold a certificate or a contract, whether it is life insurance or an annuity, and whether a market path is realistic at your numbers. Call (305) 209-7183. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice. If you hold other coverage from the same carrier see our pages on The Standard term life and The Standard whole life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does The Standard sell indexed universal life?
We cannot confirm a retail indexed universal life product on The Standard’s individual shelf. Standard Insurance Company’s franchise is group life, group and individual disability, retirement plans and annuities. If you believe you hold an index-linked life contract from this carrier, read the statement for index segments with a cap and a floor, and read the owner line to see whether you hold a policy or a group certificate.
Who regulates The Standard, and who owns it?
Standard Insurance Company is domiciled in Oregon and supervised by the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation within the Department of Consumer and Business Services. Its New York business is written by The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York. The parent, StanCorp Financial Group, demutualized and listed in 1999 and was acquired by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company of Japan in a transaction that closed in March 2016.
I have a certificate, not a policy. Can I sell it?
No. A certificate documents your participation under a master policy owned by an employer, association or trust, and it generally ends when employment or membership ends. There is nothing for a buyer to acquire and keep in force. What may have value is the conversion right, which produces an individual permanent policy you own – but that right typically expires 31 days after group coverage terminates.
Which crediting method is on my policy and why does it matter?
It is stated in the index account provision of the contract. Annual point-to-point compares index values one year apart. Monthly average uses twelve month-end values, which smooths results and usually credits less in a rising market. Monthly point-to-point caps each month on the upside but not the downside, so one bad month can eliminate a year’s credit. The method explains most disappointing credits.
What does a zero-credit year do to my policy?
The floor prevents an index-driven loss, but it does not stop the deductions. Cost of insurance, administrative fees and any rider charges still come out of account value every month, so a zero-credit year is a losing year in account value terms. Two or three of them in a row, combined with a mortality charge rising with age, is how a policy that looked fine at year fifteen reaches a lapse warning at year twenty.
Does Pine Lake Life Solutions purchase The Standard policies?
No. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies and is not licensed in every state. We provide an educational free policy review. Send the certificate or policy cover page and your latest statement and we will identify whether you hold a certificate or an individually owned contract, whether it is life insurance at all, and whether a secondary market path is realistic. Call (305) 209-7183.
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Related Reading
- What Is Indexed Universal Life
- What Is Guaranteed Universal Life
- Can I Sell An Indexed Universal Life Policy
- What Is An In Force Illustration
- Universal Life Cost Increases
- Can I Sell A Group Life Insurance Policy
- Carrier Merged Who Owns Policy
- Sell My The Standard Term Life Policy
- Sell My The Standard Whole Life Policy
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.