The Use of Permanent Life Insurance for Key Employee Retention (Executive Bonus Plans) Permanent Life Insurance is a valuable tool for businesses seeking to reward and retain top talent through a strategy known as a…
Understanding the Policy's Face Amount: Death Benefit vs. Cash Value The **Face Amount** is the most misunderstood term in Permanent Life Insurance. It represents the base death benefit amount the insurance company is contractually obligated…
Universal Life's Policy Review: The Critical Need for Stress Testing Due to the flexible, non-guaranteed nature of Universal Life (UL) and Indexed Universal Life (IUL), an annual review must include a **stress test**—a simulation of…
Actuarial Risk Classifications: How Gender and Smoking Status Affect Premiums The premium you pay for Permanent Life Insurance is fundamentally tied to the statistical probability of the insurance company paying a claim. This probability is…
The Use of Whole Life as an Emergency Fund: High Liquidity, Low Risk While traditional financial advice recommends keeping an emergency fund in a high-yield savings account, a well-funded Whole Life policy can serve as…
Policy Loan vs. Withdrawal: Understanding the Tax Implications of Each Accessing the cash value of a Permanent Life Insurance policy involves two primary methods—a loan or a withdrawal—with critically different tax consequences. The rule of…
The Use of Whole Life Insurance in Buy-Sell Agreements for Small Businesses For businesses with multiple partners, a **Buy-Sell Agreement** is essential for continuity. Whole Life insurance is often the preferred funding vehicle for this…
The Risk of Variable Life Policies: When Cash Value Performance Falls Short Variable Life Insurance (VL) offers the highest potential for cash value growth among permanent policies, but this comes with the greatest risk: the…
Understanding Policy Dividends as a Return of Premium (Non-Taxable) A key tax benefit of participating Whole Life insurance is the way the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats policy dividends. Unlike dividends received from stocks or…
Maximizing Cash Value: The Strategy of Aggressive Paid-Up Additions (PUAs) For policyholders who view Whole Life insurance as a primary savings and wealth accumulation vehicle, the most effective strategy is the aggressive use of the…