(See Chapter 41 for a further discussion of
split dollar life insurance arrangements.)
Survivorship
split dollar life insurance is an arrangement in which two parties split the costs and benefits of a survivorship life insurance policy.
Under
this split dollar life insurance arrangement, the employer retains a security interest in order to be repaid.
For all of the reasons discussed in our recent post about executive bonus plans, we tend to prefer traditional whole life policies, a / k / a cash value policies, when designing any long term
split dollar life insurance executive compensation plan.
If you would like more information regarding how
split dollar life insurance fits into your small business planning, please give us a call today.
Not exact matches
If an employee is interested in a large amount of personal
life insurance but wants the business to buy the
life insurance, a
split dollar plan can be considered.
In a typical
split dollar arrangement, the employer funds all or part of the cost of providing an employee with
life insurance protection and then recoups the cost by sharing in the
insurance proceeds at the employee's death.
Other planning ideas for golden handcuffs AND risk management using cash value
life insurance are featured in previous articles and include keyman
insurance plans, executive bonus plans AND
split dollar plans.
To be clear,
split -
dollar life insurance is not an
insurance product but rather an arrangement to purchase and fund
life insurance between two parties, generally an employee and an employer.
A
split dollar plan must address who will have access to the cash value that accrues in a permanent
life insurance policy.
Funding a
split dollar plan is a way to reward a key employee while accruing cash value in a whole
life insurance policy that can serve as a ready source of funding for the employer.
Things get a bit more uncertain for
split dollar arrangements involving partnerships and LLCs because the IRS rules are very unclear about how to classify the
life insurance benefits.
The term «
split dollar» refers to sharing the economic benefits (of a permanent
life insurance policy) between different parties.
Because other kinds of permanent
life insurance (i.e. indexed universal
life) are simply more speculative as connected to the financial markets with limited guarantees, they simply aren't as reliable (in our opinion) for executive bonus plans OR
split dollar plans.
Two asset protection benefits are, one, that an irrevocable trust may be set up for the employee to own the policy, such as an irrevocable
life insurance trust OR another type of grantor trust, and this can assure that the policy will not be included in the employee's taxable estate for
split dollar estate planning purposes.
For example, assume a male employee, age 40, entered into a
split -
dollar agreement with his employer before January 28, 2002, under which the employer pays all of the premiums, and in 2004 the employer paid a premium of $ 10,000 on a $ 1,000,000
life insurance policy insuring the
life of the employee.
Split -
Dollar Plan Generally used in business situations, a
life insurance arrangement whereby the ownership and benefits of a policy as well as the obligation to pay premiums are divided or
split between an employer and employee.
An insured person may enter into an arrangement with family members or a trust for the family's benefit, but most
split -
dollar plans involve a fringe benefit program in which an employer assists an employee in purchasing an
insurance policy on the
life of the employee for the benefit of the employee's family.
A
split dollar plan is a business paid
life insurance benefit that provides cost recovery for the business.
You can use crummey withdrawal powers or
split -
dollar life insurance.
Tax rules for employer - owned
life insurance policies, such as
split -
dollar and reverse
split -
dollar plans, are more complex.
The
split dollar plan is one of the incentive programs whereby the employer and the employee share the premium payments, or the employer pays the entire premium to buy
insurance on the employee's
life.
A
split dollar plan must address who will have access to the cash value that accrues in a permanent
life insurance policy.
A
split dollar plan is structured by a contract which will ALLOCATE a number of aspects of the permanent
life insurance to either the employer or employee.
To achieve the above benefits, a
split dollar plan provides a way of paying for AND owning permanent
life insurance by ALLOCATING the cost of premiums AND the benefits of the policy between the employer AND the employee.
This difference may be a factor if simply securing a death benefit for purposes such as
life insurance for SBA loans OR otherwise planning to use policy cash value for business purposes such as executive bonus plans or
split dollar plans.
A
split dollar plan is NOT about a specific
life insurance product but rather is a contractual strategy for using
life insurance.
Funding a
split dollar plan is a way to reward a key employee while accruing cash value in a whole
life insurance policy that can serve as a ready source of funding for the employer.
The term «
split dollar» refers to sharing the economic benefits (of a permanent
life insurance policy) between different parties.
Two asset protection benefits are, one, that an irrevocable trust may be set up for the employee to own the policy, such as an irrevocable
life insurance trust OR another type of grantor trust, and this can assure that the policy will not be included in the employee's taxable estate for
split dollar estate planning purposes.
Under a
split dollar plan, employees can often choose from a few different types of
life insurance coverage.
Understand how a private
split -
dollar life insurance plan can help leverage gifts and reduce estate taxes.
This form of the option frequently is used with
split dollar insurance which is commonly used in key person and other business
life insurance applications.