Who regulates your policy in Delaware
Insurance is regulated state by state, so your policy is governed by Delaware law and overseen by the Delaware Department of Insurance — not by a federal agency. It licenses the agent who sells to you and handles complaints if something goes wrong.
Two things worth doing before you sign: verify your agent's license is active in Delaware, and keep the consumer line ((800) 282-8611) on hand. Both are free, and an agent not licensed in your state is a hard stop.
Your window to cancel in Delaware
No single fixed statutory free-look period for ordinary individual life policies was found in Delaware Code Title 18 Chapter 29 (required life policy provisions). The Delaware Department of Insurance consumer Life Guide states new life policies have a 10-day free look and replacements have 20 days; Delaware Admin. Code 18 § 1204-7.4 separately requires a 20-day unconditional premium-refund right only for replacement transactions.
Because the rule is not a single fixed number here, the period that applies to you is whatever your specific policy states. Find that clause in the contract before you sign, rather than assuming a standard period exists.
If a carrier fails in Delaware
If your carrier became insolvent, the Delaware Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association is the backstop. In Delaware it covers a death benefit up to $300,000 and cash surrender value up to $100,000. Those are separate ceilings, so an IUL's accumulated cash value is protected independently of the death benefit.
This protection is not a reason to skip carrier due diligence. It caps what you would recover, and a policy designed above that cap leaves the excess exposed.
What Delaware adds to the cost
Delaware levies a state premium tax of 1.75% on life insurance premiums. That sits below the 2% median of the 50 states covered here. You do not pay it as a separate line item — carriers price it into the premium, which is part of why the same policy design can cost differently across state lines.