For the Long Term.(Statistical Data Included)

Life insurers struggle to offer level-premium term life products that comply with the new Triple X regulation and that meet the needs of their customers.

Triple X, the regulation that forced insurers to increase their reserves for level-premium term life policies, has consumers, insurers, online aggregators and producers struggling to handle more complicated products, higher prices, fewer guarantees and marketing uncertainties.

Insurers entered the first quarter with some products that weren't Triple X-compliant or didn't know how their new products would stack up against the competition. Some were left with products they could sell in only about 15 states, said Douglas Donnenfield, president of InsureRate, the online division of Homecom HIFS, Houston.

Others, such as Zurich Kemper Life, Long Grove, Ill., had a new portfolio of products ready to go in January, but the company found it had priced the new products too high. Having a new portfolio "actually hurt us," said Ken Sapp, president of Zurich Kemper's life broker division. "We priced them where we thought they should be, but we missed the market," he said. "We then had to make adjustments, and the consumers benefited. We maintained commissions to …