Wall Street doesn’t like a sure-thing. In fact, anything that is an investor’s best friend is Wall Street’s worst nightmare. Is there such a thing that allows the average investor to capture as much of the markets’ gains as possible without downside market risk? The answer is Fixed-Indexing, and when it comes to permanent life insurance it’s the only way to beat insurers at their own game.

1 out of 1,000 term life insurance policies result in a claim for the consumer. Term is literally the biggest money maker the insurance industry has and it will always be this way. Permanent life insurance has evolved from the clunky days of whole life and endowments to universal life and its hybrids such as variable universal life and equity-indexed universal life (now more commonly referred to as fixed-indexed universal life). Permanent life insurance is the only way to properly ensure that you’ll ever see your money back out of an insurance company and innovative ways of doing so are now time-tested and growing in popularity.

Fixed-Indexed Universal Life Insurance is the traditional insurance industry’s way of competing with the earning potential of a variable universal life insurance policy. Variable policies by their very nature don’t have to be guaranteed and therefore offer much greater earning potential. Many investors who look to universal life for their long-term estate needs, however, seek the security of a traditional insurance structure that can only be offered by non-securities based companies. In other words, having built-in-guarantees but still seeking earning potential that is more in lines with how the outside market as a whole is performing.

Fixed-Indexed Universal Life plans base their performance against an index that is representative of domestic or international market conditions. Typically fixed-indexed universal life plans and index funds in general use either the Dow Jones industrial which is an average of 30 of the most widely held stocks, or more commonly in the insurance world, the S & P 500 which combines the prices of 500 widely held stocks chosen by Standard and Poor’s. Why the S & P? The S & P Index is often regarded as the standard for broad stock market performance and currently the most commonly used equity index. The S & P 500 Index represents approximately 70% of the total domestic U.S. equity market’s capitalization. Historically, the S & P 500 Index has outperformed fixed interest products such as corporate and government bonds and CD’s. This is beneficial for insurance contracts and index fund investors because it offers consistency and reduced expenses.

Index funds don’t try to outperform other funds by picking better stocks, but instead keep management costs low in an attempt to outperform most other funds that are weighed down by far higher costs. It is true that stock analysts can outperform the S & P 500 Index in any given year, but the problem is that stock jockeys come and go while the index funds and earnings reflected against the performance of the S & P 500 Index remain consistent and outperform 55% to 60% of funds year after year. This is reliability that you can depend upon when planning your long-term savings and estate needs. Fixed Indexed Universal Life products are now being offered by many time-tested insurers that have positive debt-to-asset ratios and have been around since the early 20th century. Consumers need security when it comes to making sure their loved ones aren’t left without an estate. Consistent performance from Fixed Indexed Universal Life contracts have now been seen going on two decades proving that there are other ways to attain maximum performance without having to gamble your money in a variable life contract.

In short, traditional insurers look to performance on funds that don’t require superstar managers or that generate lots of fees from investors. Look to Fixed-Indexed Universal Life for your permanent estate needs and consider Wall Street’s distaste for such funds as your ticket to investment success.