Variable Life Insurance: A Pain In The Asset Allocation For Trustees

When purchasing a life insurance policy, the potential to achieve a higher rate of return than a fixed-rate product has made variable life insurance an increasingly attractive option for consumers over the last two decades. With the option to invest the policy’s cash value in separate accounts (commonly referred to as “sub-accounts”), which function similar to mutual funds, policy owners can participate in gains from [...]

How Whole Life Dividends Are Calculated

Dividends are a return of premium when carrier results exceed a very conservative projection for investments, income, and expenses.  Dividends are paid annually on participating whole life insurance and determined at the discretion of the board of directors.  They are paid in addition to the guaranteed cash values in the policy, but the dividends themselves are not guaranteed and will fluctuate. Over the last twenty [...]

Best Interest Standards for Life Insurance Would Be a TOLI Trustee’s Best Friend

As a TOLI trustee, you have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that every transaction - either a new policy sale or replacement is not only suitable for your client, but also in your client’s best interest.

Trustee Alert: Don’t Be a Casualty of the Life Insurance Illustration War

In the 1980s when current assumption universal life (CAUL) hit the market, sales illustrations were created showing cash value returns of 10% and more every year – for a product that was invested in fixed instruments.  When equity markets soared and variable universal life (VUL) became the rage, many sales illustrations projected 12% returns – again, every year. Life insurance illustrations are at best a [...]

Informing Grantors About Their Policy Makes Good Business Sense

An online survey about life insurance found that 33% of life insurance policy owners do not understand how their policy works. (1) I suspect that this number is probably low. Perhaps the other 67% think they know how it works, but I imagine they could get a refresher lesson. Even if a policy owner does understand how it works, do they understand how a decade [...]

2022-12-15T12:03:19-06:00December 14th, 2022|General Interest, Policy Management|0 Comments

Business Continuity – Unique Asset Management Reality Check

Millions of businesses worldwide have drafted or purchased business continuity plans, some have even practiced or simulated implementation of said plans, but few ever dreamed a worldwide pandemic would force these plans into action.  The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus has impacted all of humanity, including thousands of businesses which include fiduciary services. For those who serve as a fiduciary or provide fiduciary support [...]

Remediation, the Weak Link for Trustees – The TOLI Handbook: Chapter 16

A TOLI trustee we work with received a request from a grantor tired of gifting to pay premiums on his portfolio of whole life policies. His agent suggested that the three policies be replaced with one policy with a reduced death benefit. The existing portfolio totaled $5.7 million of coverage.  The agent proposed transferring the $2.1 million of cash value into a $3 million equity [...]

Life Settlements – A Growing Trend for ILITs

We hear it all the time from ILIT Trustees and Grantors - that a life insurance policy taken out years ago for estate planning purposes is no longer needed. The original reason for the policy is no longer applicable and now the Grantor wants to cease paying premiums (and trust fees). Your client is comfortable with surrendering the policy back to the insurance company [...]

2022-10-14T14:53:05-05:00October 14th, 2022|Life Settlements|0 Comments

TOLI Trustee Work Load and Liability Climbing as Use of ILITs Diminish

As the federal estate tax laws changed, the use of new irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) diminished, but the work required to administer existing ILITs went up along with the potential liability attached to the asset class.  There are several reasons for this. 1. As a country, we are aging and the population of the average TOLI portfolio is aging too. For example, 25% of [...]

Carrier Offers Life Policy Buyback – Another Trustee Decision Dilemma

A couple of years ago, Lincoln National was offering some policy holders the opportunity to receive an “Enhanced Cash Surrender Value” if they surrendered their life insurance policies within a specific time frame.  A few weeks before this was widely known, we began to receive letters from the carrier, along with a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) brochure explaining the offer.The offer is not unlike offers [...]

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