Who regulates your policy in New Jersey
Insurance is regulated state by state, so your policy is governed by New Jersey law and overseen by the New Jersey Department of Banking and 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 New Jersey, and keep the consumer line (1-800-446-7467) on hand. Both are free, and an agent not licensed in your state is a hard stop.
Your window to cancel in New Jersey
Ordinary individual life free-look is not a single fixed number: N.J.S.A. 17B:25-2.1 requires a cancel-and-refund period of no less than 10 days after the policyholder receives the policy; N.J.A.C. 11:4-41.3 requires free review of no less than 10 days and not more than one year, so insurers may set any period in that range.
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 New Jersey
If your carrier became insolvent, the New Jersey Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association is the backstop. In New Jersey it covers a death benefit up to $500,000 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 New Jersey adds to the cost
New Jersey levies a state premium tax of 2.1% on life insurance premiums. That sits above 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.