The Beauty around us.

The Estate tax exclusion will most likely reset to $1,000,000 with rates as high as 60%! Alarming I know… Plan your estate now.

Also the Estate Tax will not be reformed, I guarantee it.
Might want to look into Fixed or Indexed Annutities.

Also my prediction is that Interest Rates will be over 10% in 2012.  You heard it here first.

If you need Term Life Insurance check the link

Joint life is ALWAYS more efficient premium wise than individual so it always amazes me when I see an ILIT drafted for an individual especially in cases where the insured is married and the goal of said ILIT is Wealth Transfer Planning.

In any case if you need advanced planning or have any life insurance needs in Aspen call Drew Kitchell with Devlin Financial Services.  970-379-7777.

1. Advanced Estate Planning with Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance.  We broker through the largest General Agent in the nation to submit our cases.  Therefore we get preferential underwriting, in addition to the most competitive pricing.  We specialize in concierge case design and management with large cases.  Our commitment to you is to deliver top notch customer service that we know your clients demand.

2. Given a client is in good health we can potentially offer substantial decreases in premiums and or increases in death benefit with a review of policies that were put inforce prior to 2001.  For example an insured with 1MM in Death Benefit may get 2MM of coverage for the same premiums.  IRR’s for insured’s in good health can be quite good in many cases.

3. Clients in high tax brackets may be able to take advantage of 412 I Fixed Defined Benefit plans that allow the MAXIMUM PRETAX CONTRIBUTIONS of any qualified plan, potentially as large as $300,000 per yr, in contrast to an IRA maximum of $6000.

4. Clients that have maxed out contributions to qualified plans or who have employees may be able to use other insured products to great advantage as well.

5. Key Man, Buy Sell, Split Dollar and “Golden Handcuff” Agreements.

6. Planned Giving, Planned Gifting and Charitable Annuities.

7. Fixed and Indexed annuities which can offer the peace of mind of a guaranteed income stream.

Let us know how we can help with your case design or any other questions about life insurance you may have.

Call Drew Kitchell, – Devlin Financial Services  Ph # 970-925-9090

Advanced Estate Planning – Life Brokerage – Insurance Solutions in Aspen Colorado

970-925-9090

Individuals that may be subject to the Estate Tax in the future often consider using Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts for the purpose of Estate Tax Mitigation. Given that affluent individuals whose estates are larger than current exemption amounts are subject to the 45% Estate Tax, it is wise to use any means possible to attempt to mitigate this tax.

The current Estate Tax is zero. Meaning that if you were to pass away today you would owe no Estate Tax, however, read on as this will change. The previous exemption of $3.5 Million is a large amount in light of previous exemptions and it is this author’s opinion that given the state of the economy and the Trillions of Dollars that the US Government is committing to the economic crisis that it is also an unsustainable one. The previous exclusion is $3.5 Million in 2009, Zero in 2010 and a repeal or sunset in 2011 back to a $ 1,000,000 Exclusion. A total repeal or sunset is highly unlikely and the Estate Tax or “Death Tax” is currently very much a hot topic in Washington with some Democrats siding with Republicans in an attempt to repeal or raise the limits. However, political leanings aside, it is my forecast that the Estate Tax will return to the Clinton era levels of $1 Million. This is again due to the overwhelming pressures of stimulus/bailout spending for the economy in addition to the Billions upon Billions committed or already spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been years of astronomical spending and the Government appears to be fairly quiet about how all of it is going to be paid for. The Estate Tax is a 100 Billion Dollar question, and as we all know every 100 Billion counts.

What does all of this mean to the high net worth individual who wishes to protect his or her nest egg from predation by the IRS? What it means is that we use any and every tool possible to attempt to mitigate the Estate Tax. One of the most effective and efficient tools available for Wealth Transfer Management is the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. How an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust works is a Life Insurance policy is put inside of a Trust which transfers the proceeds of said Life Insurance Policy outside of the Grantors estate upon their passing thereby making the proceeds Estate Tax free. Annual Gifts are made to the trust, with which the trustee can make premium payments. An attempt is always made to keep these gifts within both the lifetime gift exemption of 1 Million Dollars and the yearly gift exclusion of up to $12,000 per beneficiary. If the estate is extremely large this gets very complex and is outside the scope of this article, however it is possible to use a variety of other methods such as Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts in conjunction with the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust very effectively even for estates at the highest levels.

Due to the nature of the trust beneficiaries must have a limited right to withdraw the gift for a short time after the grantor makes the gift. Also the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust can be used with both existing and new life insurance policies however existing life insurance policies present challenges that are not present with new policies specifically designed with the trust as the beneficiary. An existing policy that is put into an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust for the purposes of Estate Tax Mitigation is subject to a 3 year inclusion period. This means that the Death Benefit will still be subject to the Estate Tax for the 3 year inclusion period. Additional drawbacks to using a current policy in trust include the potential for the cash value of the policy being counted as a gift subject to the gift tax.

If the insured is still in good health it may be better and cheaper to use the cash value in the previous Life Insurance Policy to fund a new replacement Life Insurance policy to be put into the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.

If you need term life insurance check http://quicklifecenter.com/termratequote/

If you want any of the aforementioned products or services call at 970-925-5900 or EMAIL