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Rich Best has spent 28 years in the financial services industry, as an advisor, a managing partner, directors of training and marketing, and now as a consultant to the industry. Rich has written extensively on a broad range of personal finance topics and is published on several top financial sites. Recent books include The American Family Survival Bible and Annuity Facts Revealed: What You MUST Know Before You Invest. |
Using Life Insurance for Tax Diversification of Your Retirement Income One of the more common mistakes people make in planning their retirement income is to assume the best way to maximize their income is to defer as much of their taxes on current investments as possible. Depending on your current situation and your situation at retirement, that can actually result in the least favorable tax consequence. It can also result in reduced flexibility in the way you can access your assets, which may force you into a higher tax bracket. Understanding the current and future tax treatment of different investment options can help you arrange your assets for optimum returns, flexibility, and tax efficiency. Most people can benefit from diversifying the tax treatment of their retirement investments, which can be achieved using a three-bucket strategy. One bucket might consist of a tax-qualified retirement plan such as an IRA or 401(k) plan that utilizes before-tax contributions and tax deferral to maximize accumulation. However, the income would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates. The second bucket could be invested in investments made with after-tax dollars, which can be taxed at a more favorable capital gains rate. For optimum tax diversification of your retirement income, consider cash-value life insurance for the third bucket. Here’s why. Cash value life insurance has unique tax properties that, when utilized properly, can produce some uncommon results. Tax-Free Death Benefit: Most people know that life insurance provides a tax-free death benefit, which is the biggest incentive for buying it if the protection is needed. Tax-Free Cash Value Accumulation: Cash value life insurance has a savings component in which accumulated earnings grow tax-free. This gives cash-value life insurance a leg up on most other accumulation vehicles, especially after the policy has been in force for a number of years. Tax-Free Access to Cash Value: With most cash-value life insurance policies, the cash value can be accessed via tax-free loans up to a certain limit. In many cases, the loans do not have to be rapid, except upon the insured’s death when the loan balance is deducted from the death benefit. If the insured chooses to repay the loan while living, he is actually repaying himself at a low interest rate. There are several advantages to utilizing tax-free cash-value loans as an income source:
Although some financial advisors oppose using life insurance as an investment, it is hard to ignore the remarkable tax properties of cash-value life insurance and what they can help you accomplish in the context of an overall financial plan. When structured properly, a cash-value life insurance policy can provide a lifetime of tax-free income while preserving your financial legacy for your family. Archive |