Summary: For many, life insurance can be an essential ingredient of a
well-thought-out estate plan. Using life insurance may help achieve many of
your key estate planning goals, like the continuity of your small business or
allowing a child to continue their college education. Just like the rest of
your estate plan, your life insurance policy can benefit from periodic
"check-ups" to make sure that no updates, such as beneficiary
changes, are needed to make certain that your plan will accomplish what you want.
Life insurance policies can serve a
wide array of benefits. Life insurance can be an invaluable component of your
estate plan, allowing your loved ones or other beneficiaries to accomplish many
of your estate planning desires. Life insurance can help pay taxes or other
bills, keep your small business continuing after your death, keep a child in
college or achieve any of a number of other objectives.
Generally, the proceeds from a life
insurance policy pass directly to the people or entities you name in your
policy's documents, without requiring a probate process. There are a few
situations, though, where the death benefit from your policy could end up in
your probate estate, and require administration to distribute. If you expressly
name your estate as the beneficiary of your policy, then your life insurance
would go through probate. Also, if you name only one person as your policy's
primary death beneficiary, you risk having your policy proceeds end up in
probate if that person you named dies before you do. That's why it is almost
always a good idea to name several contingent (or back-up) beneficiaries who
you would want to receive that money if your primary beneficiary dies before
you do.
This is also why it is a good idea
to perform an estate plan "check-up" routinely to make sure that none
the pieces of your estate plan require updating. An estate plan check-up
involves everything in your plan, whether it is your will, trusts, powers of
attorney, life insurance, pay-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts or other
assets. Your check-up may help you identify potential risks and make the
necessary changes to address them, such as adding additional or different
beneficiaries to your life insurance or other accounts.
Depending on the size of your estate,
it may also make sense to place your life insurance policy in what's called an
"irrevocable life insurance trust," or ILIT. If your estate is large
enough that you are facing a potential estate tax obligation, you'll want to
take the necessary steps to ensure that your life insurance is not including in
your estate. Your ILIT is special type of trust specifically dedicated to
holding and owning your life insurance. Your ILIT is managed by the person you
name to be the trustee of that trust. You cannot be the trustee of your own
ILIT, because serving in that capacity means that you would hold what the IRS
calls "incidents of ownership" of the policy, which defeats the tax
advantages of the ILIT. You are, however, generally free to name anyone else,
including your spouse or a child, to be the trustee of your ILIT.
This article is published by the Legacy
Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some
information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to
constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any
specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning
matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is
not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more
information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website
at www.legacyassuranceplan.com.
This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)
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