A policy illustration is the spreadsheet a carrier prints to show how a policy might perform over the decades. It's useful and it's also the single easiest place to get oversold, because the biggest, most exciting numbers on the page are projections, not promises. Learning to read one takes maybe twenty minutes.
The first thing to find is that there are two sets of columns. The guaranteed column shows what the policy does if everything goes the way the contract minimally requires: the guaranteed interest, no dividends, worst-allowed costs. The non-guaranteed column layers on assumed dividends or index credits and current costs, and it's always the rosier picture. Both are on the page on purpose. Only one is a promise.
So read the guaranteed column first, and ask yourself a blunt question. Would I be content owning this policy if this floor is all it ever does? If the answer is yes, you're looking at a policy built on a foundation you can live with, and any dividends are upside. If the guaranteed column looks thin and you're only excited by the projected one, slow down. You're being sold the weather, not the climate.
A few other honest checks. Notice what dividend or crediting rate the non-guaranteed column assumes and whether it looks optimistic. Notice how internal costs behave in the later years. And be suspicious of any illustration whose whole appeal lives in the last, farthest-out rows, because those are the least certain numbers on the sheet.
Something to be aware of: dividends and index credits are not guaranteed, illustrations are projections and not contracts, and policy loans reduce your available cash value and death benefit until repaid. If you want a second set of eyes on how a policy is designed rather than just how it's illustrated, that's what Build a Life LOC is for.