North American Builder Plus IUL 4 Review (2026)

How Builder Plus IUL 4 works

Builder Plus IUL 4 is indexed universal life insurance. It pays a death benefit when the insured dies. While the insured is alive, part of each premium builds a cash value that can earn interest tied to a stock index. North American launched it in mid-2024 as its policy for building cash value. It is issued by North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, which AM Best rates A+ (Superior). For the company's full record, see our North American company review.

Here is the money flow in plain terms:

1. You pay a premium. North American takes a premium load off the top.
2. The rest goes into your account value. You split it between a fixed account and up to nine index selections.
3. Every month, North American deducts the policy's charges from the account value: a policy fee, a per-$1,000 charge, an account value charge and the cost of insurance.
4. Once a year, each index selection earns a credit based on how its index moved, within its cap, participation rate or spread. The credit is never below 0%.
5. Later, you can borrow against or withdraw from the cash value, often to supplement retirement income.

The key point: the 0% floor protects the index credit, not your cash value. In a year the index falls, the credit is at the floor, but the month-by-month charges still come out. The cash value can shrink.

This is life insurance, not an investment account. If you are weighing it against one, read is IUL a good investment first.

Index accounts and current rates

North American offers nine index selections on Builder Plus IUL 4. Current caps, participation rates and spreads are available on request. North American changes them from time to time for new index periods, so ask for the rates in effect on the date of your illustration and for the guaranteed minimum on each one.

None of these indexes include dividends. The Fidelity index mixes U.S. stocks with U.S. Treasuries, which its licensor says may reduce volatility over time. North American licensed it for exclusive use on its IULs.

What the terms mean

• Cap: the most the account can credit in a period.
• Participation rate: the share of the index gain that counts. At 140%, a 5% gain counts as 7%.
• Spread: a fixed amount subtracted from the gain, with no cap on what is left.
• Monthly point-to-point: each month's change is capped, with no monthly floor, then the 12 months are added up. One sharp down month can erase several capped up months. The 0% floor applies only to the yearly total. North American's rate sheet notes that the first policy year uses an 11-month period.

Hypothetical crediting examples

These examples are hypothetical. The rates below are made up to show the math. They are not North American's current rates and not a forecast.

Notice the pattern. The capped accounts do best in modest years. The uncapped and spread accounts need a big year to pull ahead. No one account wins every year, which is why many owners split their money. Our guide to IUL index crediting methods goes deeper.

Interest bonuses

Builder Plus IUL 4 adds bonuses on top of the index credit. These figures come from North American's October 2025 consumer brochure. Current bonuses can change; the guaranteed ones cannot fall lower.

• Fidelity index account (not the high par version): 1.00% current in policy years 1 to 10, then 1.50% current from year 11. The guaranteed bonus is 0.50%. It applies to money you have not borrowed.
• Other index accounts and the fixed account: 0.50% from policy year 11, on money you have not borrowed. On the fixed account it applies only when North American is crediting more than the 1.5% guaranteed rate.
• Fixed participating loans: 2.0% current on loaned money from policy year 3, with 0.50% guaranteed. That money gets no other bonus, and no other loan type earns a bonus.

A bonus sounds like free money. It is priced into the product, and every IUL illustration is limited in how much credit it can give bonuses (see the illustration section below). Read our guide to IUL bonuses and multipliers before you let a bonus drive the decision.

The fixed account

The fixed account credits a declared rate, with a 1.5% guaranteed minimum. North American's consumer materials do not state the current rate; it appears on your illustration.

Minimum account value

Builder Plus IUL 4 has a lookback feature. Every 10 years, and at death, lapse, surrender or maturity, North American compares your account value with a minimum account value. If yours is lower, it is raised to that minimum. It only helps if charges and weak crediting have left you below that line, so do not count on it to rescue an underfunded policy. Ask for the minimum account value interest rate on your illustration.

Charges

North American's consumer materials name the charges but not their amounts. Here is what the policy charges. Ask for each amount, current and guaranteed maximum, on a signed illustration before you apply.

The premium load is the charge to weigh hardest. It comes out of every premium for the life of the policy, so for a policy you plan to fund for decades it adds up. Compare the total charges in the illustration, not just the cap. See IUL fees and charges for how to compare.

The riders you add at an extra cost carry their own charges. The accelerated death benefits have no premium but carry a discount and may carry an administrative fee when used.

Loans and withdrawals

Builder Plus IUL 4 offers three loan types. You hold one type at a time.

A participating loan is a bet. You pay a declared or variable rate and hope the index credits more. North American's own consumer brochure says it plainly: in the extreme case the amount credited could be zero, and the net cost of a fixed participating loan would then equal the maximum loan rate minus the guaranteed bonus. A few flat years during retirement can grow a loan faster than expected. A standard loan is steadier. The catch is that it moves money out of the index accounts, and money moved before a period ends can lose that period's credit. Ask for the current and maximum rate on each loan type. See IUL policy loans and loans vs withdrawals.

Withdrawals: you can take partial withdrawals of the cash surrender value, subject to limits, fees and, in the early years, surrender charges. Ask for the rules in writing.

Taxes. Withdrawals up to your premiums paid are not taxed. Loans are not taxed while the policy stays in force and is not a modified endowment contract (MEC). A policy that takes too much premium too fast in its first seven years becomes a MEC, and then loans and withdrawals are taxed as gain first, with a 10% extra tax before age 59 and a half, with certain exceptions. The biggest risk is a lapse: if the policy ends with a loan outstanding, the gain above your premiums becomes taxable income that year. See IUL taxes.

Riders and built-in benefits

Included at no added premium:

• Accelerated death benefits. If the insured has a qualifying illness, the owner can take part of the death benefit early and use it for any purpose. The payout is discounted, so you receive less than the death benefit you give up, and an administrative fee may apply. It is not long-term care insurance. See IUL chronic illness riders.
• Overloan protection. Designed for owners taking loan income, it can keep a heavily borrowed policy from lapsing once set conditions on policy age, the insured's age and the size of the loan are met. After you elect it you generally cannot take further loans or withdrawals, and other riders end. Ask for the conditions in writing.
• Protected Death Benefit. Also for the income years: under set conditions you can choose a minimum death benefit to guarantee while you keep borrowing from the rest of the cash value. It cannot be combined with overloan protection.
• No-lapse guarantee. If you pay a required minimum premium, coverage stays in force for a limited period. Paying only that minimum builds little cash value.

Optional, at extra cost: North American offers additional riders on this policy. Ask for the list, what each costs, and whether it is available in your state.

How the illustration is built

You will decide on this policy by reading an illustration, a year-by-year projection of premiums, cash values and death benefits. Two columns matter. The guaranteed column assumes maximum charges and minimum crediting. The non-guaranteed column assumes today's charges and an illustrated interest rate held level for decades.

The NAIC's AG 49-A limits how high that illustrated rate can be and how much extra credit bonuses and participating loans can receive in the projection. North American does not publish Builder Plus IUL 4's maximum illustrated rate in its consumer materials, so ask for it on your illustration. Our own rule for hypotheticals is to stay at or below the AG 49-A limit and never above 6.5%. We also suggest running a second illustration 1 to 2 points lower, because real crediting varies year to year and that order of good and bad years matters once loans begin.

Projections built on participating loans usually look better than those built on standard loans. Ask to see both. Our guide on how to read an IUL illustration walks through each column.

Who Builder Plus IUL 4 fits

• You need permanent life insurance and have used cheaper tax-advantaged options first, such as a 401(k) match and an IRA. See IUL vs 401(k).
• You can fund the policy at or near the tax limit for many years. That is what max-funded IUL means.
• You plan to draw supplemental retirement income through loans and want overloan protection and a Protected Death Benefit behind that plan.
• You want accelerated death benefits for a qualifying illness built in.
• You live outside New York.

Who should look elsewhere

• You may need the money in the early years. Surrender charges apply early on, and the premium load means early cash values sit well below premiums paid. North American's Smart Builder IUL 3 is designed for earlier access to cash value.
• You mainly want a death benefit at the lowest cost. Term insurance, guaranteed universal life, or North American's Protection Builder IUL 2 is built for that.
• You cannot commit to steady premiums. Underfunded accumulation IULs are the ones that lapse. See IUL lapse risk.
• You want your cap locked. No IUL does that. Caps and participation rates are current rates that can fall for future index periods, down to the contract minimums.
• You live in New York. North American is not licensed there.

To see how this policy stacks up against other accumulation designs, compare it in our IUL comparison tool or see the best IUL for cash accumulation.