Description: COLI products continue to be the focus of litigation by the IRS over the deductibility of policy loan interest. This COLI Update consists of two articles concerning COLI cases and their most recent court decisions. The first concerns a District Court’s ruling on insurable interest, and the second provides an analysis of the Sixth Circuit reversal of a trial court decision in a case involving economic substance.

Description: This article discusses the temporary waiver and how it provides only limited relief from the section 401a9 minimum distribution requirements.

Description: This editorial highlights the hot topics happening in the tax industry today.

Description: This article discusses XXX reserve financing, one of the most common life insurance industry capital markets funding transactions.

Description: An interview with William J. Wilkins, Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service and the Assistant General Counsel in the Department of the Treasury.

Description: In September 2009, the Internal Revenue Service IRS released a private letter ruling PLR 200939018 June 18, 2009 addressing a contract in which the right to receive annuity payments and otherwise access a contract’s cash value is contingent upon the annuitant living to a specified age. The ruling holds that the contract is an annuity contract for purposes of section 72 of the Code. This article reviews the specifics of the ruling.

Description: A discussion of spousal provisions that are governed by federal income tax law, specifically the difference between some state laws and the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA.

Description: A discussion of the three private letter rulings addressing the tax treatment of group insurance contingent annuity contracts providing guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits linked to an investment account released by the Internal Revenue Service.

Description: An explanation of the reasons why the IRS should rule on the application of section 351 to the transfer of assets and reserves in an indemnity coinsurance transaction where the ceding company transfers more assets to the assuming company than it would in an arms-length transaction and, therefore, the ceding company actually receives or is deemed to receive stock in the exchange for the transferred assets including the value of insurance in force. We also will summarize other interesting rulings in the PLR.

Description: This article begins with an overview of how the tax treatment of partial exchanges has evolved over the last decade or so, including the concerns that led the Service to resist giving taxpayers carte blanche on such transactions.The new guidance shortens from 12 to six months the window following a partial exchange in which the transaction could be called into question, and simplifies the regime by de-linking it from the exceptions to the section 72q penalty tax.4 Finally, the guidance provides coordination with recent partial annuitization legislation and answers to other open issues. This article then summarizes Rev. Proc. 2011-38 and elaborates on why the features outlined above are important and helpful improvements over prior guidance.