Vanishing Premiums Part Deux?

Those of you with gray hair like me may recall the life insurance vanishing premium lawsuits from the mid-1990s. As a refresher, that flood of lawsuits arose from life insurance policies sold in the 80s (mainly whole or universal life), when policy dividends were high, and policy illustrations showed that accumulated dividends would carry the policy with no additional premiums needed after a certain point in time (i.e., the premiums would "vanish"). The phrase "paid up policy" was heavily used in those days. Unfortunately, when the 90s came along, premium dividends were significantly reduced for a number of economic reasons including much lower interest rates, and suddenly, life insurance policyholders who had not paid premiums in years were getting premium due notices. Needless to say, the plaintiffs' bar had a field day, with thousands of lawsuits and class actions being filed.