Help with L99 policy changes

Looking for recommendations on modifying my L99 policy.

I purchased a Whole Life policy a couple of years ago for a premium of $25k a year. I was looking for ways to diversify my portfolio when i bought this policy as a “fixed income like alternative” with tax advantages.

Fast forward two years, I paid close to $50k in premiums. The policy was NOT set up as an early cash value policy (since most of the $25k in premiums was going to the insurance and not the PUAs) so two years later, the cash value of the plan is ~$1000. Plan breaks even in year 15 and starts building materially CV from year 5 onwards.

I have a major change in life situation where I would avoid these large payments if I could so I wanted to ask why my options are

Ideally, I would like to modify the policy to another one that generates more cash value upfront and faster but I don't know if that is allowed by the insurer. So far, I have not gotten a confident response from my agent or the company (Guardian) Downgrade the policy to a lower death benefit value – this feels like a bad IRR choice because I lose the higher premium paid thus far – I understand that the revised cash value growth schedule will look identical to what the cash value schedule would be had I paid the lower premium since day 1. For example, if I reduce my annual premium to $10k, then I think that the new policy would look as if I had been paying $10k from the start of the policy – so I would get no benefit for 30k out of the 50k paid in premiums so far. I am not sure if this is correct but please let me know if that is not the case After doing some research, I learned that I could do "RPU" after a certain point where I can stop making payments and the policy would adjust the death benefit in favor of cash value. For a policy breaking even in year 15, when is a good time to do RPU if i have to swallow the pill for the next couple of years?

I recognize the the benefits of the policy and I am looking at options due to my current situation so any help is very much appreciated.

I reached out to my agent to explore but want to do my own research as well, hence the post.

Thank you.

submitted by /u/Individual-Fox-8163
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