Pacific Life IUL Review (2026)

Pacific Life at a glance: who stands behind the policy

Pacific Life began in 1868 as The Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California. It became a mutual company in 1959. In 1997 it reorganized under a mutual holding company, and the insurer took its current name, Pacific Life Insurance Company.

The structure has three layers. Pacific Mutual Holding Company sits on top. Its members are Pacific Life's policyholders, and it owns all the voting stock of Pacific LifeCorp, a holding company. Pacific LifeCorp owns the insurer. There are no public shareholders. AM Best notes that the law requires the mutual holding company to keep at least 51% of Pacific LifeCorp's voting stock, so a partial stock sale is possible in principle, though AM Best says one is not contemplated.

The insurer moved its legal home from California to Nebraska in 2005, so its home office is in Omaha. Its headquarters and administrative office are in Newport Beach, California. A subsidiary, Pacific Life & Annuity Company, is based in Arizona and holds the New York license.

This is a very large life insurer. Pacific Life reported $275 billion in company assets and $1.6 trillion of life insurance in force at the end of 2025, and more than 1 million members. It says it finished first in LIMRA's 2025 U.S. life insurance sales rankings, with $776 million in total sales. Fitch notes that most of its life sales are IUL. For its annuity side, see our Pacific Life annuity review.

How strong is Pacific Life?

All four major rating agencies place Pacific Life near the top of their scales:

AM Best rated the group's balance sheet very strong, its operating performance strong and its risk management very strong. Fitch cited a risk-based capital ratio of 536% at the insurer, a sign of a thick capital cushion.

The agencies also name weaknesses, and they are worth knowing. S&P says Pacific Life's operating performance lags similarly rated peers: its statutory return on assets was negative in four of the five years from 2020 to 2024. Moody's points to an above-average share of lower-rated investment-grade bonds, 46% of its bonds at the end of 2025, which could mean bigger losses in a severe downturn. AM Best notes that the insurer has issued surplus notes and uses a Vermont captive to reinsure some no-lapse guarantee benefits. None of these stopped the agencies from affirming high ratings.

A rating measures the company, not the policy. It tells you how likely Pacific Life is to pay claims decades from now. It says nothing about whether a given IUL's caps and charges suit you.

For how we weigh ratings against other factors, see how we rate life insurance companies.

Pacific Life's IUL lineup

Pacific Life currently offers four indexed universal life (IUL) policies. All are issued by Pacific Life Insurance Company. Each has a 1% guaranteed minimum rate on its fixed account and a 0% floor on every indexed account.

Pacific Horizon IUL 2 is the flagship, launched April 8, 2024. At issue you pick one of three designs: higher early cash surrender values, long-term accumulation, or a balance of the two. The choice cannot be changed later. It includes a no-lapse guarantee to age 90 on eligible policies and offers a loan with a guaranteed 4.5% interest charge.

Pacific Horizon ECV IUL is built for higher cash surrender values in the early years. Pacific Life aims it at business owners and affluent buyers who want the cash value to count as an asset soon after purchase. An optional term rider can raise early values further.

Pacific Trident IUL leans on guarantees. It includes 4 to 20 years of no-lapse protection at no added charge for issue ages 75 and under. An optional rider can guarantee that the cash surrender value equals 85% of premiums paid for up to the first ten years, if you meet its premium rules.

Pacific Horizon Survivorship IUL 2 covers two people and pays at the second death, a common tool for estate taxes. It launched August 4, 2026, replacing Pacific Horizon Survivorship IUL, and includes a no-lapse guarantee that can last to the surviving insured's lifetime. In September 2026 Pacific Life's product page did not yet list it in Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon or Wyoming.

Pacific Life no longer sells Pacific Discovery Xelerator IUL or IUL 2, the Pacific Indexed Accumulator series, Pacific Indexed Performer LT, Pacific Indexed Protector 2, the original Pacific Horizon IUL, or Pacific Horizon IUL 2022. Its IUL page still shows a card for an older survivorship policy, Pacific Indexed Estate Preserver 3, but lists it as available in no state, and its rates page marks it as no longer sold.

Index options and how interest is credited

An index account does not buy stocks. It credits interest based on how much an index rose over a set period, limited by a cap or participation rate, and never below a floor of 0%.

Pacific Life's index menu is broad. On Pacific Horizon IUL 2, its November 2024 guide lists accounts on the S&P 500, the Invesco QQQ ETF (which tracks the Nasdaq-100) and the BlackRock Endura Index. Terms run one, two or five years. The newer survivorship policy uses volatility-controlled indexes from Barclays and Societe Generale instead of the BlackRock index. A volatility-controlled index shifts between stocks and cash or bonds to damp swings, which is why it can carry participation rates above 100%. See our guide to volatility-controlled indexes.

Two Pacific Life features deserve a close look:

• The 1-Year No Cap Dynamic Par account has no cap, but Pacific Life can reset its participation rate for new segments as often as monthly, and the guaranteed minimum is only 5%.
• The Enhanced Performance Factor Rider multiplies index credits in exchange for a monthly charge. On the survivorship policy, Pacific Life publishes the guaranteed charge for its richest design: 7.50% a year of the account balance, for a guaranteed multiplier of 1.72. You pay that charge whether or not the index credits anything. Read IUL bonuses and multipliers before you choose one.

Current caps and participation rates are available on request. They are current rates, not guarantees, and Pacific Life says it can change non-guaranteed elements at any time and for any reason.

How Pacific Life treats existing policyholders

You will own an IUL for decades after the sale, so this section matters most. We looked at rates on older policies, cost of insurance charges, and lawsuits and regulatory actions.

Rates on policies it no longer sells

Pacific Life publishes a consumer page listing declared participation rates on its 1-Year No Cap Dynamic Par account for current and closed IULs alike. When we checked in September 2026, its latest entry was February 2025, so it shows a short window, not a long history. In that window the gap was clear:

Different products are priced differently, so a lower rate on an older policy is not proof of unfair treatment. It does show that owners of closed policies do not automatically get the rates offered on new ones. If you own an older Pacific Life IUL, compare the rates on your annual statement with those in your original illustration.

Cost of insurance charges

The cost of insurance is the monthly charge for the death benefit itself, and a carrier raising it on existing policies is one of the biggest risks in any universal life policy. In our search of court records and company releases, we found no case alleging that Pacific Life raised cost of insurance rates on its IUL policies. We could not verify this against company filings or state records, so treat it as unconfirmed rather than a clean record.

Lawsuits and regulatory actions

Pacific Discovery Xelerator class action. In Mamboleo v. Pacific Life (Orange County Superior Court, California, case 30-2021-01208045-CU-BT-CXC), a policy owner claimed that the illustrations used to sell Pacific Discovery Xelerator IUL showed inflated profitability that hid costs. The class covers people who bought the policy in California. It was sold from 2017 to 2019, with a few issued in late 2016. Pacific Life denies the claims. The proposed settlement has two parts. The first is a $33 million fund that, after attorneys' fees of up to $10.89 million and other deductions, is credited to policies still in force. The second is up to $25 million of face amount in three-year term coverage for owners whose policies had ended. The final approval hearing was set for May 7, 2026. By June 2026 the court-authorized settlement website listed a Final Approval Order and an order on class counsel's fees among its case documents. We could not open the order itself, so we cannot confirm its date or whether the court changed any terms. The court-authorized site says the case does not cover Pacific Discovery Xelerator IUL 2, which it calls a substantially different product.

Busch v. Pacific Life. Kyle and Samantha Busch sued Pacific Life, its appointed agent and the agent's firm in Lincoln County, North Carolina state court on October 14, 2025. They alleged the IUL policies they bought were sold with misleading projections and undisclosed risks. The case moved to federal court (Western District of North Carolina, case 5:25-cv-00195). The docket shows a settlement notice on February 26, 2026 and a stipulation of dismissal on March 13, 2026. The docket does not show the terms.

We found no class action over an IUL Pacific Life currently sells, but our search was not exhaustive. We have not completed a state-by-state review of regulatory actions and market conduct exams, so we make no claim either way on that point. Our guide to IUL lawsuits covers the wider picture.

Riders and living benefits

Pacific Life's IULs offer three living benefit riders, depending on product and state:

• Premier Living Benefits Rider 2. It lets you take part of the death benefit early after a permanent chronic illness or a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or less. On the survivorship policy there is no upfront or monthly charge, but the death benefit is reduced by more than the payment you receive.
• Premier Chronic Illness Rider. An optional rider for chronic illness. Ask for its cost.
• Premier LTC Rider. An optional long-term care rider. Ask for its cost and benefit limits in writing.

Accelerated benefits are not the same as a standalone long-term care policy. See IUL living benefits.

For owners who plan to borrow, Pacific Life offers indexed loans alongside standard loans. On the survivorship policy it publishes the terms: a standard loan charged 2.25% (3.25% maximum), a fixed charge indexed loan at 4.5%, and an indexed loan with an 8% maximum rate. We did not find an overloan protection rider in Pacific Life's consumer IUL materials. That rider keeps a heavily borrowed policy from lapsing, so ask whether your policy has one. See overloan protection.

Underwriting and service

Pacific Life's survivorship IUL requires full underwriting, with no simplified or guaranteed issue option. Its consumer materials for the other three IULs do not describe an accelerated, no-exam path, so ask your agent what your health and the coverage amount will require. For what the process looks like, see IUL underwriting.

Who Pacific Life fits, and who should look elsewhere

Pacific Life is a strong candidate if you:

• Want an IUL from one of the highest-rated and largest life insurers in the country.
• Can fund a policy steadily for many years and want a choice of designs within one product.
• Want a long no-lapse guarantee as a backstop, including lifetime options.
• Need survivorship coverage for estate planning.

Look elsewhere if you:

• Live in New York, where its IULs are not sold.
• Want public, current cap figures before you talk to anyone. Its newest public figures date from November 2024.
• Would be tempted by a multiplier rider without testing a string of 0% years. The rider charge keeps coming out.
• Might need to surrender in the first 10 years. Surrender charges apply on all four of its IULs in that window; the early cash value designs soften that cost but do not remove it.
• Mainly want the cheapest death benefit. Term insurance or a guaranteed universal life policy may cost less. See who should not buy IUL.

A word on taxes, since IUL is often sold on them. Income from an IUL usually comes from withdrawals up to your premiums paid, then policy loans. Both are tax-free only while the policy stays in force and is not a modified endowment contract. If the policy lapses or is surrendered with a loan outstanding, the gain can become taxable in a single year. Our IUL taxes guide walks through the rules.

To compare Pacific Life with other carriers, start with our list of the best IUL companies.