Description: This article is a discussion about the life settlement industry and the tax considerations for life insurance bought and sold in the secondary market.

Description: This article discusses a new procedure for correcting inadvertent failures to satisfy the diversification requirements applicable to variable annuity and life insurance contracts under section 817h of the Internal Revenue Code.

Description: This article considers PLR 201304003, which addressed the application of Internal Revenue Code section 1035 to the exchange of a survivorship, or “second-to-die,” life insurance contract after the death of one of the insureds for a new life insurance contract covering only the life of the surviving insured.

Description: On June 17, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service published Final Regulations implementing changes to loss reserve discounting under section 846 of the Internal Revenue Code made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This note addresses changes made in the Final Regulations, particularly modification of rules for determining the interest rate used for discounting, in response to comments from taxpayers on the proposed regulations.

Description: This article summarizes the treatment of changes in the basis for determining life insurance tax reserves under prior law and describes the changes enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It further explains the procedures for changing the basis of computing reserves under the new rules as outlined in Revenue Procedure 2019-10, the IRS’s December 2018 guidance on the subject, and discusses the uncertainties that remain.

Description: On January 19, 2005, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service the “Service” responded to a life insurance industry request for guidance on the treatment of qualified additional benefits “QABs” under sections 7702 and 7702A of the Internal Revenue Code through the release of Revenue Ruling 2005-6 the “Ruling”.

Description: The article provides an introduction to some of the key limitations that the Internal Revenue Code imposes on business uses of life insurance, focusing on the limitations under Section 264(a) on business deductions for premiums and interest expenses related to life insurance, the similar limitations under Section 264(f) for unrelated interest expenses of businesses that own life insurance, the limitations under Section 101(j) on the excludability of death benefits under employer-owned life insurance contracts, and the recently-enacted rules for life settlement transactions.