How to read your life insurance statement (term, whole, universal & IUL)

By the Fix My Life Policy advisor team · Reviewed by [REPLACE: licensed agent name & license number] · Last updated June 11, 2026

What's on every life insurance statement, no matter the type?

• Policy number and carrier name — keep these somewhere your family can find them.
• Insured and owner — usually the same person, but not always. The owner is the one with the power to make changes.
• Death benefit (or "face amount") — what the policy pays when the insured dies.
• Premium and payment mode — what you pay, and how often.
• Policy status — you want to see "in force." Anything else deserves a phone call.

What should I check on a term life statement?

Term statements are the simplest. Check three things:

1. The premium — level term means it shouldn't change during the term. If it jumped, your level period has probably ended.
2. When the term ends — after that date, coverage either stops or renews annually at much higher rates.
3. The conversion deadline — many term policies let you convert to permanent coverage without a medical exam, but the deadline is often years before the term ends. If your health has changed, this date matters more than any other line on the page.

What's on a whole life statement?

• Guaranteed cash value — the savings component the contract promises. It should rise every year.
• Dividends — many whole life policies pay them, but they are not guaranteed. Your statement shows the amount and your dividend option: buying paid-up additions, reducing premiums, accumulating at interest, or paid in cash.
• Paid-up additions — small chunks of extra, fully-paid coverage bought by dividends. They raise both the death benefit and the cash value.
• Loan balance and loan interest — if you've borrowed against the policy, the statement shows the balance. An unpaid loan (plus its compounding interest) is subtracted from the death benefit when the insured dies.

What's on a universal life statement?

Universal life statements show the machinery, month by month:

• Premiums received — what you put in during the year.
• Cost of insurance (COI) — the monthly charge for the pure insurance protection. COI rises as you age, which is why a UL policy that was fine at 50 can be starving at 70.
• Expense charges — administrative fees, also deducted monthly.
• Interest credited — what the carrier paid on your cash value.
• Accumulated value vs. cash surrender value — the difference between them is the surrender charge you'd pay to walk away today.
• The lapse projection — wording like "based on current assumptions, this policy will remain in force until age 82." This is the single most important line on a UL statement. If that age is younger than you plan to live, the policy is underfunded.

What extra lines are on an IUL statement?

Indexed universal life adds index-crediting details on top of the UL items above:

• Index segments — your cash value is divided into segments, each tied to an index (often the S&P 500) for a set period, usually one year. Credits are applied when a segment matures.
• Cap rate — the most your segment can earn in a period, no matter how well the index does. Caps can be changed by the carrier.
• Floor — the minimum crediting rate, often 0%. The floor protects you from market losses…
• …but charges still come out in a 0% year, so your cash value can fall even when "you didn't lose money." This is the most misunderstood line on IUL statements.
• Participation rate — the percentage of the index's gain you receive (e.g., 80% of the index return, up to the cap).

What are the red flags worth a phone call?

What do the common terms actually mean?

What's an in-force illustration, and why ask for one?

An in-force illustration is a free projection from your carrier showing how your policy performs from today forward under current assumptions — including when it might lapse and what premium would fix it. One phone call to the carrier gets it. If you do only one thing after reading a confusing statement, do that — and have the illustration in front of you when you talk to any advisor, including ours.