Life insurance is perhaps one of the most misunderstood and under utilized forms of insurance.
Most people are aware that life insurance can serve as an effective financial replacement for loss of income when a loved one dies. but it is so much more than that. Structured appropriately, life insurance can protect an estate, provide tax free income for retirement, protect a business, and be used by a business to attract and keep quality employees.
The variety of life insurance uses can best be understood by looking at two different buckets, personal uses and business uses.
Personal
Most people understand the basic concept of income replacement, but often avoid it since it involves talking about death. A more positive way to look at it is you are giving your loved ones the opportunity to live. Looked at this way, the topic isn’t so depressing. To provide this opportunity to your loved ones you need to consider how well you want them covered and how long you want the income replacement to last. A professional insurance/financial advisor can help with this
Two other uses of life insurance for individuals are protecting an estate and securing supplemental tax free income in retirement. These two applications are more complex and so it is best to consult with your financial advisor and tax advisor as well as in the case of an estate, your attorney.
Life insurance protects an estate in two ways. Because proceeds are tax free, you can use them either as direct inheritance in lieu of other taxable means of inheritance, or in the case of cash value policy you can use the cash value to meet the tax demands of the estate. Again, each individual situation is different and it is best to get advice from your financial advisor.
Using a cash value life policy to fund a tax free retirement is one of the most creative and fun uses of life insurance. Because life insurance is favored by the IRS, it is possible to use it like an unlimited ROTH and grow and access accumulation of wealth tax free. For more detail on this feature of life insurance I highly recommend Tax Free Retirement by Patrick Kelly.
Business
Because they operate as entities, businesses can use life insurance in similar ways to individuals. The most common uses are protecting the business from a significant death and rewarding employees.
Businesses need protection from the loss of key employees as well as be safeguarded from loss of a managing partner. Protecting a business from the loss of a key employee is much like protecting a family from the loss of the breadwinner. Instead of having individual relatives as beneficiaries, the corporation or a representative thereof is the recipient of the proceeds and then they are used to replace that loss.
In the case of joint ownership, the owners can fund a buy-sell agreement using life insurance. This is a more complex process depending on the size and value of the business and the number and stake of the partners. It is best not only to have an insurance professional but a legal professional to help ensure things are set out in a proper manner. The thrust behind this insurance is that the remaining partner can buy out the heirs of the deceased partner, and therefore continue the business using the life insurance.
Businesses can also utilize cash value life policies to attract and maintain valuable employees through the executive bonus plan 162. This is based off of section 162 in the IRS tax code and is unqualified money, meaning there are a lot fewer restrictions legally and more freedom for the business.