Universal Life (UL) account values are based on an accumulation (recursive) process – known for well over 100 years. The idea behind UL apparently came up in the 1960’s, was made public in the 1970’s, and took off as a product in the 1980’s. Here are some references from Black and Skipper on Life Insurance,
- George R. Dinney, “Universal Life,” The Actuary, Vol. XV, supplement (September 1981). p. 1;
- Timothy Lynch, “Universal Life Insurance: A Primer,” The Journal of the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters, Vol. XXXVI (July 1982)
According to Black and Skipper, the UL concept was at first not welcomed by most persons in the North American life insurance business. It was perceived as a threat to the orderly development of the industry, and as not being in consumers’ or agents’ best interests.
Universal life policy sales in the United States had a meteoric rise from an effective zero market share of new sales in 1979 to over 38 percent in 1985, its peak year. Since then, its share has declined to around a quarter of new individual life premiums-still a major proportion.