Universal life insurance
With cash value potential and the flexibility to change your payments, a universal life insurance policy can do more than protect your loved ones.
What is universal life insurance?
A universal life policy can provide long-term or even permanent coverage instead of coverage for a set period. It also offers several additional benefits:
Tax protection
As with all life insurance, your beneficiaries will receive the death benefit typically free from federal income tax. Plus, growth within the policy is tax-deferred.
Cash value growth
You have the potential to build cash value in the policy, with a portion of your monthly premiums earning fixed interest.
Flexibility
If your circumstances change, you can adjust the amount of your premium payments.
How do universal life insurance policies work?
Prudential has a competitively priced universal life policy that offers valuable death benefit protection—plus a no-lapse guarantee that can maintain coverage if you meet certain requirements.
- You can make extra payments into an interest-earning account—to potentially build your policy’s cash value
- Your payment amounts are flexible—you can adjust your premiums to fit your financial needs
- You choose the payment schedule (monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually) that works best for you
PruLife Essential UL®
Riders for universal life insurance at Prudential
To customize your policy to better fit your needs, PruLife Essential UL offers optional features, called riders:*
- Living Needs BenefitSM and BenefitAccess Rider can provide benefits if you become terminally or chronically ill.
- Enhanced Disability Benefits help protect your policy from lapsing if you become disabled.
- Accidental Death Benefit Rider provides an extra death benefit to your family if you’re in an accident that causes your death.
- Children Level Term Rider adds coverage for your minor children.
- Overloan Protection Rider lets you avoid a lapse in coverage if you take substantial loans from your policy.
- Enhanced Cash Value Rider offers higher cash surrender values if you need to give up your policy in the early years. (Primarily for business owners.)
*Riders (except Living Needs Benefit) are available for an additional cost.
Have questions about Prudential’s universal life insurance policies? We have answers.
Explore your life insurance options
Disclosure
About the no-lapse guarantee
Generally, the more premiums you pay, the longer the guarantee will last. The length of the guarantee will vary and may or may not keep your policy in effect for the length of time you want. The guarantee is based on several factors, including:
- The amount and timing of your premium payments
- How often you pay premiums
- Whether you take any policy loans or withdrawals
Please note that, by paying only the premium required for the guarantee, you may be forgoing the potential to build tax-deferred cash value. While these policies offer the potential to build cash value, this is not their primary purpose.
Canceling your policy
If you choose to cancel your policy within a certain number of years, you will incur a surrender charge. For SUL Protector, these charges apply for the first 19 years; for Essential UL, they apply for the first 14 years but may apply for a shorter time at older ages. The surrender charges may reduce the policy's cash surrender value in early years. The policy's cash surrender value is the accumulated value less the surrender charges and any outstanding loan. Other charges include, but are not limited to, premium-based administrative charges and monthly charges, including the cost of insurance.
About accessing cash value
You can access life insurance policy cash values through withdrawals and loans. Interest is charged on loans. In general, loans are not taxable. Withdrawals are taxable to the extent they exceed basis in the policy. If you take a loan and do not pay it back before the policy lapses, or is canceled, or the insured dies, it will be immediately taxable to the extent of gain in the policy. Unpaid loans and withdrawals reduce cash values and policy benefits and can also reduce the length of the guarantee against lapse; this can cause the policy to lapse and/or have tax consequences. If a policy is a Modified Endowment Contract (MEC), distributions (including loans) are taxable to the extent of income in the policy; plus, an additional 10% federal income tax penalty may apply. Please consult your tax advisor for advice about your own situation.
Riders
Rider availability varies by product and state. The rider form numbers may be followed by a state code:
- The Living Needs BenefitSM: PruLife Essential UL: ORD 87241-90-P. (not available in WA.)
- BenefitAccess Rider: All states (BAR 6) except CA and NY: VL 145 B6-2018 (Non-Compact) or ICC18 VL 145 B6-2018 (Compact). The Non-Compact States for this rider are: DE, DC, FL, GU, ND, & SD. CA only (BAR 2): VL 145 B2-2013 NY only: VL 145 B6-2020.
- Waiver of Monthly Deductions: PruLife Essential UL: VL 100 B-2018 or ICC18 VL 100 B-2018.
- Children Level Term Rider: PruLife Essential UL: VL 182 B-2016 and ICC16 VL 182 B-2016.
- Accidental Death Benefit: PruLife Essential UL: VL 110 B-2000. (not available in MA.)
- Overloan Protection Rider: PruLife Essential UL: PLI 552-2017 or ICC17 PLI 552-2017.
- Enhanced Cash Value Rider: PruLife Essential UL: PLI 496-2018 or ICC18 PLI 496-2018. (Not available in NY.)
PruLife Essential UL (EULPR-2022 or ICC22-EULPR) is issued by Pruco Life Insurance Company except in New York, where it is issued by Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey. All are Prudential Financial companies located in Newark, NJ. Each is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations.
All guarantees and benefits of the insurance policy are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.
Our policies contain exclusions, limitations, reductions in benefits, and terms for keeping them in force. We can provide you with costs and complete details.
For compliance use only:
| 1011072 | 1011072-00013-00 Ed. 10/2025 |
For Compliance Use Only: