Illustrations highlight the growth of cash value while omitting the premiums paid to build it. Our IRR calculation treats every premium as a cash outflow, producing the net annualized return on your total out-of-pocket cost.
A proper alternative strategy comparison requires accurate term rates, year-by-year compounding, and consistent return assumptions. The tool automates the calculation and lets you adjust assumptions interactively.
Whole life policies carry front-loaded commissions and fees, so surrender values in the first several years typically fall below cumulative premiums. We map this gap explicitly.
A short form captures the key details from your policy illustration: premiums, years paid, and projected values at future ages. Most people complete it in less than 10 minutes with their illustration in hand.
Step-by-step guidance is included for major carriers, with general instructions for others.
The tool runs IRR on your policy's full cash flow history, estimates term life rates matched to your age and health profile, and builds a year-by-year comparison at a market return assumption you control.
The Linton Yield Method, the same framework used by the CFA Rate of Return Service since 1984.
Your full analysis opens as an interactive report. Adjust return assumptions, toggle between more conservative scenarios, or change term coverage. Every table and chart updates live.
The report maps out the math and head-to-head comparisons, giving you the structured data required to evaluate your options.
One-time payment. No subscription.
The report presents the numbers in context, lays out assumptions clearly, and shows the results without telling you what to do.
I bought a whole life policy in my mid-twenties and was spending about $1,800 a year in premiums for a $155,000 death benefit. My agent walked me through the illustration. At a glance, it seemed reasonable.
I've spent my career analyzing investments, underwriting transactions, and evaluating business cash flows. When I applied that same analytical thinking to my own policy, I realized that after eight years, I had contributed more in premiums than the policy's surrender value. Seeing the policy framed as cash flows and annualized returns changed how I understood it.
Constructing the analytical framework took weeks of manual work, and there was no reason that level of analysis should have been so inaccessible. This tool is what that work should have been: a clear, structured report with assumptions stated plainly, the numbers in context, and no recommendations about what to do.

Pay once, get the full report and the interactive model.
Ten minutes of data entry. An interactive, assumption-transparent report. $39, once.
One-time payment. No subscription.