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 [...]
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 The original reason for the policy is no longer applicable and now the Grantor wants to cease paying premiums (and trust fees).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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Sally Wylie, a retiree living on an island in Maine, was stunned when her long-term care (LTC) policy premium almost doubled. According to the Wall Street Journal article that recounted her dilemma, the one-time learning specialist took on part-time work to help with the finances, and she and her husband cut back on expenses to afford the premium for the policy that was purchased to [...]
On August 1st of this year, RIC joined the Longevity Holdings family of companies. RIC is a leading provider of fiduciary risk management solutions for institutional trustees and wealth management organizations. Longevity Holdings is also the parent company of ITM TwentyFirst. Both ITM TwentyFirst and RIC provide industry leading solutions for Trust Owned Life Insurance. This combination will ensure that we can continue to build on [...]
When we first ventured into the trust-owned life insurance (TOLI) servicing business, our lead product was a policy tracking and trust administration system - later called InsuranceIQ, and it was light years ahead of anything TOLI trustees had at their disposal. At the time, most trustees simply got an in-force ledger every couple of years, along with a rating update for the carrier, placed it [...]
In the last two posts, we explained the popularity of the equity index universal life policy, as well as the mechanics of the policy. While the policy is tied to an equity index, it is a fixed product, with the bulk of the premium going into the carrier’s general account to satisfy the floor and the balance – a much smaller amount – going [...]
Last month, ITM TwentyFirst was proud to sponsor FIRMA’s (Fiduciary & Investment Risk Management Association) 35th Annual National Training Conference in Nashville, TN. This marks the 16th consecutive year ITM TwentyFirst has sponsored this important industry event for trust fiduciary risk, compliance and audit professionals, and this year’s event represented the first in-person event since 2019. FIRMA’s Executive Director, Hale Mast, reflected on the [...]
Over the last several years, we have posted several entries dealing with the cost of insurance (COI) increases we have seen in Current Assumption Universal life (CAUL) policies. Starting back in 2015, we were among the first to bring notice on this issue. This week, our Iowa office received yet another COI notice from a carrier joining the ranks – Midland National Life Insurance [...]
