CentraLife
No Pitch. Just the Math.

Run your own numbers.

Every tool below does what a brochure won’t: it takes your inputs, shows both columns, cites the statute, and tells you when the boring answer wins. Because the fastest way to earn your trust is to publish the math everyone else hides.

Compare & Decide
CentraLife methodology

Policy Architecture

Define, compare, stress-test, coordinate, and review the contract—with a three-minute assessment that identifies the right first question.

Open
Interactive calculator

Coverage Need Calculator

Estimate the obligations a death benefit may need to finish, then subtract available liquid resources and existing coverage.

Open
Interactive stress test

IUL Stress Test

Change crediting, charges, funding duration, and loan assumptions to see why the weak scenario matters more than the headline.

Open
Interactive comparison

IUL vs 401(k)

Same monthly dollars, two tax structures — with the tax-drag number your 401(k) statement never shows. Run it on your own assumptions.

Open
Interactive comparison

IUL vs Roth IRA

Both are after-tax in, tax-free out — the difference is the IRS ceiling. Model what happens to the dollars that overflow the Roth limit.

Open
Interactive calculator

Tax-Free Retirement Calculator

You planned a retirement number — did you plan the tax on it? See what your income goal has to gross from each tax bucket, and the lifetime difference.

Open
Interactive comparison

Mortgage Protection vs Home Equity

What your payment actually builds — the bank’s balance sheet or your family’s. Plus the three products everyone confuses, sorted with CFPB citations.

Open
Decision tool

Annuity Review: Keep, Fix, or Convert

Three questions to your likely path — §1035 exchange, staged Roth conversion, or keeping exactly what you have. Sometimes the answer is keep it.

Open
Methodology · no ranking

How to Compare Life Insurance Carriers

The six dimensions carriers should be judged on, fit organized by your objective, our appointed roster disclosed, and a 10-step due-diligence checklist you can verify yourself.

Open
Understand the Design
Underwriting guide

Life Insurance With Health Conditions

Diabetes, cancer history, heart disease, obesity or high blood pressure: what life insurance underwriters look at, what to prepare, and your options after a decline.

Open
Underwriting guide

No-Exam Life Insurance

Accelerated, simplified-issue and guaranteed-issue life insurance compared: what insurers still check, the real trade-offs, and when an exam may still be required.

Open
Design mechanics

Max-Funded IUL & the MEC Line

The 7-pay test, the two §7702 tests, and the funding-pace visualizer — the design rules almost nobody publishes, with statute links.

Open
The mechanism

How Policy Loans Actually Work

Wash vs participating loans, why the IRS doesn’t tax them — and the spiral visualizer showing exactly how a neglected loan lapses a policy.

Open
Honest numbers

What IUL Really Earns

Realistic caps, participation rates, and charges back-tested against 30 years of real market history — next to the glossy illustrated column.

Open
Original analysis · 2026 edition

The Michigan Coverage Gap

An estimated 3.9 million Michigan adults have no life insurance. Our annual derivation from LIMRA and Census data — every source shown, every estimate labeled.

Open
Max-Funded IUL Authority Library

The contract mechanics behind the headline.

Primary-source guides to illustration rules, tax qualification, policy replacement, MEC correction, benefit changes, and loan-driven lapse risk.

MEC Correction

Can an Accidental MEC Be Corrected?

Learn the limited correction paths for an inadvertent Modified Endowment Contract, including the 60-day excess-premium rule and carrier-led IRS relief.

Read guide
Illustration Audit

How to Read an IUL Illustration Under AG 49-A

Understand AG 49-A, illustrated versus guaranteed values, index-crediting assumptions, policy charges, and the questions to ask before buying an IUL.

Read guide
Policy Design

CVAT vs. GPT: The Two IRC §7702 Tests

Compare the Cash Value Accumulation Test and Guideline Premium Test under IRC §7702, including funding patterns, corridors, and 7-pay limits.

Read guide
Policy Replacement

1035 Exchange Rules for Life Insurance

Learn when a life insurance 1035 exchange can defer gain, how loans and MEC testing carry over, and what to review before replacing a policy.

Read guide
Loan Monitoring

IUL Lapse Risk With Policy Loans

Understand how an IUL can lapse with loans, why taxable gain may arise without cash in hand, and what overloan protection riders can and cannot do.

Read guide
Face-Amount Changes

Reducing an IUL Death Benefit: The MEC Trap

Learn how an IUL face-amount reduction can trigger retroactive 7-pay testing, reduce premium limits, affect charges, and create MEC risk.

Read guide
Tax-Code Change

How the 2021 IRC §7702 Rate Change Affects IUL

Learn how the 2021 rewrite of IRC §7702 changed statutory interest assumptions and why newer life insurance designs can differ from older policies.

Read guide

The calculators show the concept.
An advisor shows your reality.

Build My Plan Michigan? Meet Us in Person
Verification

Looking for CentraLife reviews?

The public record is documented and dated on one page: 68 Google Business Profile reviews at a 5.0 average as of October 17, 2026, BBB accreditation for CentraLife LLC in Dearborn, the published D-U-N-S and agency NPN identifiers, and the USA TODAY feature that is clearly labeled Contributor Content rather than editorial endorsement. Read the reviews on the platform that hosts them, because counts and averages change daily and no rating says anything about how a specific policy will perform.

Read the CentraLife reviews and verification record