Description: A discussion of how issuers and providers of IRAs and employer-provided qualified retirement plans need to consider all situations and possibly modify their administrative systems and/or procedures for purposes of administering the IRAs and plans in accordance with the RMD required minimum distribution rules.

Description: Last March, Congress passed and the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act followed by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which amended the former collectively, the “Act”. The article provides a brief background on the passage of the Act generally and the creation of the new Investment Income Tax in particular compares the existing provisions of the HI tax with the newly enacted provisions, and it then analyzes the import of the Investment Income Tax for annuities and, possibly, life insurance contracts. The article concludes with thoughts on the potential effect of the new tax on the annuity marketplace.

Description: Discusses PLR 201046008, regarding addition of a rider to a variable life policy that provides a minimum annual amount of withdrawal or policy loan. Includes discussion of impact on NSP under CVAT, and Guideline Premium.

Description: Discusses Notice 2011-02 as it addresses most, but not all, of the outstanding questions about health-care-insurance entities to which the $500,000 compensation rule applies.

Description: SSAP 101 is the new standard which replaces the current temporary guidance set forth under SSAP No. 10R regarding deferred tax assets [DTAs] and Tax Contingency Reserves.

Description: Owners of nonqualified annuity contracts, individuals under qualified retirement plans, and annuity issuers are left without any published guidance on when annuity payments can be used to satisfy the SEPP [Substantially Equal Periodic Payments] exceptions to the 10 percent penalty tax under sections 72q2D and 72t2Aiv. This article discusses that problem. The insurance industry requested guidance on this issue.8

Description: On Aug. 11, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service IRS released Notice 2011-68,1 regarding the tax treatment of stand-alone and “combination” longtermcare LTC insurance products. The Notice provides interim guidance on certain issues and requests public comment on others. This article discusses that notice and taxation issues related to Long Term Care products, combination products and long term care riders to annuities.

Description: Issues covered in this article include 1. Tax treatment of advance interest on policy loans, 2. Tax treatment of Credit default swaps, 3 Application of SRLY [Separate Return Limitation Year] Cumulative Register Concept to Dual Consolidated Losses, and 4. FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] Transitional Relief.

Description: The interaction of section 7702 cash value accumulation test [CVAT] and state nonforfeiture laws [SNFL] create a dual limitation on traditional life insurance contratcs. CVAT limiting the maximum permissible cash value and SNFL requiring a minimum cash surrender value. This article examines these dual limitations.

Description: The proposed regulations define a class of products known as “qualifying longevity annuity contracts” (QLACs), which are excluded from the account balance used to determine required minimum distributions. By exempting longevity annuities (up to a specified limit) from the RMD rules, it is hoped that it will provide individuals under defined-contribution plans the option to use an “affordable” portion of their account balance to purchase a longevity annuity. The proposed regulations apply to tax-qualified defined-contribution plans under section 401(a), section 403(b), individual retirement annuities and accounts (IRAs) under section 408, and eligible governmental section 457 plans.