August 21, 2026

The 5-Minute Advisor – August 21, 2026

AGENCY UPDATE | New Portal, Same Team

Haven’t logged into the Thompson portal lately? It’s not the same site. We rebuilt the website and agent portal to be faster and easier to navigate, so the tools, resources, and case support you need are easier to find instead of buried three clicks deep. Same people, same expertise, same responsiveness you’ve always gotten from us, just a faster way to get to it.

→ Take a Look →

Prudential New IUL

Discover our revamped IUL portfolio

Protection IUL is part of a broader transformation of our IUL portfolio. Whether you’re helping clients focus on protection, accumulation, or legacy planning, we now offer an updated lineup designed to meet those needs. Since you’re already turning to Prudential for life insurance solutions, now is the perfect time to see how IUL can complement your existing offerings.

EXPLORE THE IUL PORTFOLIO: Spend less time searching and more time serving your clients.

THIS WEEK: Symetra Just Handed You an Automatic Underwriting Upgrade

From August 24 through December 31, 2026, any Symetra IUL case that comes back Standard gets bumped automatically to Preferred or Super Preferred. No negotiating. No crediting program hoops. Just a straight table shave applied to the client.

If you’ve got a client sitting on a Standard IUL quote from Symetra, or one you assumed wouldn’t qualify for better, don’t submit it yet. Call us this week. This could mean a lower premium, a longer guarantee, or a bigger death benefit for the same money, and it disappears at year end.

Where it applies:

Symetra Accumulator (AIUL), up to $10,000,000: Standard to Super Preferred
Symetra Protector (PIUL), up to $5,000,000: Standard to Preferred

What it looks like in practice:

John, 55, wants low-cost permanent coverage for his family. He’s in decent health with no red flags, but at 5’10”, 235 lbs, build alone puts him at Standard Non-Tobacco.

At Standard NT, $500,000 of Protector IUL runs $7,550/year, guaranteed to age 87, solved at 6%.

Bumped to Preferred NT under this program, same $500,000, same 6% solve: $6,297/year. That’s $1,253/year back in the client’s pocket, and coverage now guaranteed to age 89, two extra years for less money. He could also hold the premium flat and increase the death benefit instead.

Call us this week and we’ll re-run any Symetra IUL case you’ve got sitting at Standard.

Symetra Protection IUL_ $500k_ prefnt_ $6297yr

Symetra Protection IUL_ $500k_ STDNT_ $7550yr.

LTC/HYBRID Solutions

LTC │ September Is Your Long-Term Care Conversation Opener

National Preparedness Month gives you a clean hook: HHS data shows 56% of Americans turning 65 will need long-term care, and nearly 22% will need it for five years or more.

CareScout’s 2025 cost data backs it up: median nursing home care runs $129,575 a year, assisted living $74,400, and home care near $80,000 annually at 44 hours a week.

The article makes the case for hybrid LTC (life insurance with an LTC benefit) as a way to fund care without giving up the death benefit entirely, and flags old life policies that no longer fit their original purpose as prime candidates for a 1035 exchange into hybrid coverage.

Any clients sitting on a policy that’s outlived its original purpose?

This is a clean way to reopen that conversation.

Full discussion here…

Annuities Snapshot

Thompson Agency — Rates Effective 8/19/26 — For Agent Use Only

Highest Rate in Year 1 (Guarantee Years & Surrender Years Match)

Guarantee/ Surrender Yrs	AM Best Rating	Carrier Name	Product Name	1st Yr Rate
3-year	A+	Athene	MaxRate 3 ($100K+)	5.30%
4-year	A+	Integrity Life	MultiVantage 4 ($20K+)	5.05%
5-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 5 ($100K–$249,999)	5.55%
6-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 6 ($100K–$249,999)	9.60%
7-year	A+	Athene	MaxRate 7 ($100K+)	5.65%*
8-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 8 ($100K–$249,999)	5.15%
9-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 9 ($100K–$249,999)	5.15%
10-year	A	Lincoln Financial Group	MYGuarantee Plus 10 ($100K+)	5.50%

Highest Average Yield with Equal Surrender & Guarantee Period

Guarantee/ Surrender Yrs	AM Best Rating	Carrier Name	Product Name	Rate
3-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 3 ($5K–$99,999)	5.20%
	A+	Athene	MaxRate 3 ($10K–$99,999)	5.05%
	A+	Athene	MaxRate 3 ($100K+)	5.30%
4-year	A	Corebridge Financial	AP VisionMYG 4 ($100K+)	4.90%
5-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 5 ($5K–$99,999)	5.45%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 5 ($100K–$249,999)	5.55%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 5 ($250K+)	5.70%
6-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 6 ($5K–$99,999)	9.50/4.50 · Avg 5.32%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 6 ($100K–$249,999)	9.60/4.60 · Avg 5.42%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 6 ($250K+)	9.75/4.75 · Avg 5.57%
7-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 7 ($5K–$99,999)	5.20%
	A+	Mutual/United of Omaha	Ultra-Premier 7 ($25K+)	5.45%
	A+	Athene	MaxRate 7 ($100K+)	5.65%*
8-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 8 ($5K–$99,999)	5.05%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 8 ($100K–$249,999)	5.15%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 8 ($250K+)	5.30%
9-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 9 ($5K–$99,999)	5.05%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 9 ($100K–$249,999)	5.15%
	A	American National	Palladium MYG 9 ($250K+)	5.30%
10-year	A	American National	Palladium MYG 10 ($5K–$99,999)	5.05%
10-year	A	Lincoln Financial Group	MYGuarantee Plus 10 ($100K+)	5.50%

Add’l details see Fixed Annuities Comparison Spreadsheet. Rates effective 8/19/26 and subject to change without notice. For Agent Use Only; Not to be Shared with Public.
*Athene MaxRate — see product rate sheet as some states differ in rate %.
American National (ANICO) offers higher interest rate for the Palladium MYG MAX (No Liquidity, except RMD’s). Be sure to check ANICO current rate sheet.

It’s climbing the priority list this year…

What most companies don’t know is how much ID Protection demand is growing, or how tight the window is getting for a 2027 decision.

Gallagher’s newest benefits benchmarking data, published this month, puts employer interest in identity theft protection at 42 percent, up eight points since 2023. That’s one of the sharpest jumps among any financial wellness benefit in the survey.

IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report just recorded a new global high of 4.99 million dollars per breach, up 12 percent year over year. The Identity Theft Resource Center logged 471.2 million breach victim notices in the first half of 2026 alone, already ahead of all of 2025.

This week’s article is a fully updated identity theft protection voluntary benefit guide for 2027, built around the ROI case HR can actually bring to Finance. Inside, we cover:

The one Gallagher stat that just moved this benefit ahead of most others on employers’ shortlists
Why a headline drop in national fraud losses is actually bad news for HR’s inbox this year
The single vetting question that separates a real recovery program from a call center reading a script
The budget deadline most teams miss by exactly one email cycle
What three numbers to hand Finance before they ask for them

Open enrollment planning windows close fast. Carriers typically need 6 to 8 weeks to load a new voluntary benefit before a January 1 effective date. Teams that wait until December are often looking at a 2028 start instead.

Read the full guide and get ahead of the enrollment deadline