Purchased a ING Investor Elite VUL 9 months ago, no I am having 2nd thoughts. How can I exit out?

We are 36 yrs old and trying to save as much as possible for retirement. Both of us max out our 401k and have a decent amount of cash saved up. We purchased this ING VUL as an insurance / retirement tool, however, after doing more research (I know after the fact) I am wondering if I made the right choice. Or how I can cut my loss and get out? Any feedback would be helpful

Hi. Thanks for the response. The second thought of the VUL purchase, is everything that I have been reading about VUL's is not very positive. To sum up it seems the thing to do is buy term insurance and invest in mutual fund or etc. About exiting the VUL I understand that if I stop paying the plan would lapse. However is there any other way to salvage the money paid in? We pay a total of $921/mo for 600k face amount. Can these funds be transfered to another product? thx

Don't believe all of the hype about buying term and investing the difference (BTAITD). I took a long hard look at the concept and here's a quick summary.

You will be further ahead by using the BTAITD concept during the period when the term premiums are guaranteed.

Due to the nature of the premium structure of level term insurance you will be at a disadvantage when the premium guarantee runs out. You will either have apply for new coverage (assuming you are still healthy) or continue your coverage by paying ever higher and rapidly increasing premiums. You will end up much farther ahead sticking with the VUL concept in this time frame.

I am curious about the face amount of your policy. Do you and your wife have term coverage in addition to the VUL? Is the VUL just on one of you or do you each have them? How did you arrive at the $600k face amount?

For my clients that are in a similar situation, I often use the overfunded VUL concept to supplement retirement savings. It can be a very effective tool. I would never use just VUL to cover a large need, however. As Rich suggested, seek out a financial planner to assist you. The VUL concept is a good one, assuming you need the life insurance, it just may not have been executed effectively for your situation. If it makes sense to do so, you could reduce the face amount of your policy. Premiums on a VUL are flexible within certain guidelines. You could reduce the face amount of the policy, reduce the premiums and still end up with a sizeable account value in retirement.

If you would like me to share more details on my examination of the term vs. VUL concept let me know.

Insurance policies are unilateral contracts. What that means is the only obligation you have is to pay the premiums. If you decide you don't want the contract any more, all you have to do is stop paying for it. You have no other obligations.
As far as the VUL policy, if you bought it as a retirement vehicle, it probably wasn't the best thing to do. I would though, highly recommend you keep some kind of permanent insurance. You protect your future insurability that way, and later in life you can enjoy all of your accumulated assets instead of having to save some for whatever final expenses you may need.
Also, stay away from online insurance companies. You don't get professional advice

Before you started this policy did you meet with an advisor to go over your financial plan? If you did than I would contact that professional to review your second thoughts and discuss as to how you came up with the VUL 9 months ago. If you just purchased this online, then maybe now you should contact an advisor to review your entire financial plan. You can find a list of agents here: http://www.insuremylife.org