Site Content

A LIRP is a life insurance policy that incorporates many of the tax-free features of the traditional retirement accounts, like a Roth IRA.

The cash grows income tax-free inside your policy during the contribution years and income is taken income tax-free through policy loans.  In addition to the distributions being completely tax-free, these distributions do not increase your taxation of Social Security.
 

You can learn more about how LIRPs and Indexed Universal Life Insurance works by reading David McKnight's book “Look Before You LIRP”.

No income thresholds to be concerned about

When it comes to a Roth IRA, there are limits on the amount of income that can be contributed. In 2019, for example, high income earners who are married and filing jointly, can’t contribute any of their income to a Roth IRA if their combined taxable income exceeds $203,000. If you are eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, you are limited to a contribution amount of $6,000 or if you are age 50 you can contribute $7,000.  

The deadline to make your Roth IRA contribution for 2019 is April 15, 2020.

You may also find yourself limited in what you want to contribution to a 401k or IRA.

The same limits apply to a traditional IRA as they do with a Roth.  The maximum IRA contribution for 2019 is $6,000 or if you are 50 or older by the end of the year it is $7,000.

The LIRP has no such limitations and can offer the flexibility needed to shift around highly taxable assets into a tax-free account. Depending on the amount you would like to contribute to your retirement savings, a life insurance retirement plan or LIRP might be the answer. Even if taxes don't go up in the future 

No contribution limits like a 401k or IRA

The 401(k) limits for 2019 are $19,000 and SIMPLE 401(k) deferral limit is $13,000.

Many of our LIRP clients max out IRA and 401(k) plans before contributing to their LIRP.  We only recommend this for high income earners that are in the top tax brackets.

It just doesn’t make sense to defer taxes now if you will be in the same or higher tax bracket at retirement.

Little or no risk of government control

These large amounts of cash that are sitting in individual’s life insurance policies have always been a target for government.

These accounts are full of cash that will continue to grow income tax free, distribute tax free income and at death, pass income tax free to your family.

However, as has been noted on the side of history, the LIRP has been resistant to the impact of any such changes to tax law.

In fact, when Congress adjusted the rules on LIRP policies in the 1980s, those LIRP policies already in existence were continued to be taxed under the pre-existing laws (grandfathered clauses). 

Index Options available

The LIRP offers the flexibility of choosing how exactly to allocate and grow funds within the tax-free cash value accumulation account.

The S&P 500 is the most common indexed used in these policies, however policyholders have the choice among many indexing strategies to choose from.  You can also change from one or more indexing option to another and have access to a fixed account earning a guaranteed amount of interest.

Your risk strategy will change throughout the life of your LIRP so make sure that you choose a policy that is flexible.

Depending on the type of life insurance policy you choose, you will have the following options.  As mentioned earlier, you can use whole life, variable universal life, current assumption universal life and indexed universal life insurance.

• Stock      Market (Variable      Life)- Policyholders can deposit their contributions into mutual fund      portfolios, known as sub-accounts by the insurance company they’ve chosen.      Even though this method may provide more substantial returns, it does put      the policyholder at risk if the market severely declines.  Some      consumers stay away from this approach due to the economic collapse      experienced in 2008.
• Index (indexed      UL) The accumulated cash value associated with this strategy is tied      to the upward performance of a specified stock market index, such as      S&P 500. Participation in growth on behalf of contributors can occur      up until the cap of 13-15%.  Conversely, if the stock market index      performs negatively, the accumulation account is credited 0%.  This      is a safe, but manageable way to grow your tax-free money for retirement.
• Insurance      Company Investment Portfolio (whole life or current      assumption ul) Policyholders also can accumulate their cash value within      the selected insurance company’s investment portfolio. Since insurance      companies do largely manage risk, the return of these types of      arrangements are usually safe, although modest. The average return of      these types of policies ranges between 3 and 5%.

Life insurance has expenses

A life insurance retirement plan (LIRP) sounds like a problem-free retirement tool, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all recommendation for tax-free growth.  A qualified insurance professional is going to recommend that you diversify your streams of eligible tax-free income.

In order to keep the definition of life insurance, you will need to have your policy structured properly.

You will need to maintain a minimal amount of life insurance and this amount is based on the amount of contribution you want to make.  We strongly encourage that there is a need for life insurance before deciding on a LIRP.  This is life insurance after all.

You may not see a huge need for additional life insurance but when you weigh all the benefits, you can make your decision.

Most of the indexed universal life insurance policies that we see today offer an accelerated death benefit.  This will allow you to access the death benefit without having to die.

The LIRP death benefit can be accelerated in the event of a terminal illness, critical illness or chronic illness.  This makes for a great alternative to purchasing a long-term care policy.

If a policyholder doesn’t need to access the accelerated benefits available, then the tax-free death benefit will be distributed to your beneficiary at the time of your death.  This is a lot cheaper than paying premiums for long-term care insurance that you might never use.

Keep in mind, however, that unless the LIRP is designed appropriately, the expenses associated with the policy can overpower the growth made within the accumulation account.

In order to fully maximize the advantages of the LIRP strategy, you will want to buy the minimum amount of insurance required while investing the maximum amount possible according to IRS guidelines.

LIRP Closing Thoughts

As we said earlier, when choosing life insurance to serve as a retirement income tool, there are a few key points that you’ll want to consider.

A LIRP is a long-term play

You will typically need at least 10 years for your accumulation period, but we have set some LIRPs up with shorter time frames.    The more time you have the better.

You will need to make sure the policy is structured to maximize the growth and minimize expenses.    

You will fail if you allow your policy to become a modified endowment contract or MEC.   

A MEC is a life insurance policy that has too little death benefit to support the premiums being paid.

We set your LIRP up so that it has no chance of becoming a MEC.

We will direct the carrier to send back funds to the policy owner in excess of the maximum allowed keeping them safe from becoming a MEC.

If a policy is found to be a MEC, the policy will not fall under the favorable income tax treatment of the LIRP because the IRS will deem it as too “cash value rich”.  Remember, not all cash value life insurance policies are identical.

We can advise you throughout the LIRP process.  You must consider what carrier will work best for your situation and this will all depend on your personal funding level, health status and future needs and goals.

IUL can be a great retirement planning vehicle for most age groups.

Many of our clients today are finding that their old traditional 401k or IRA accounts are a huge tax liability and are considering IRA to ROTH conversions.  While this is not recommended for everyone, an IRA conversion may be ideal for our clients age 59 1/2 and older. Being over 59 1/2 is the age where the 10% IRS penalty for early withdrawal goes away.  By paying the tax on the converted funds now, an IRA holder can possibly eliminate hundreds of thousands of taxes over their lifetime. If you happen to be younger the 591/2 we us an IRS Code call Section 72t.  

 The Substantially Equal Periodic Payment rule allows you to take money out of an IRA before the age of 59 1/2 and avoid the 10 percent early distribution penalty tax. ... If you choose to use 72(t) payments, also called SEPP payments, you must withdraw the money according to a specific schedule. 

Rule 72(t) actually refers to code 72(t), section 2, which specifies exceptions to the early-withdrawal tax that allow IRA owners to withdraw funds from their retirement account before age 59½, as long as the SEPP regulation is met.