Life insurance proceeds paid to a beneficiary because of the insured's death are generally excluded from federal income tax under IRC Section 101(a). Tax can still apply to interest earned on delayed or installment payouts, to policies sold for value, and to federal estate tax when the insured owned the policy and the estate exceeds the exemption.
The same $3,250,000 death benefit can reach the heirs in full, or it can push a $14.15 million estate $2.4 million past the exemption and cost them roughly $960,000. Whether life insurance proceeds are taxable is decided less by the policy than by how it is owned, how it is paid out, and whether it ever changed hands for money. For income tax, the beneficiary usually keeps every dollar of a lump-sum payout. For estate tax, it depends on a question almost nobody asks when the policy is bought: who owns it. The difference is paperwork done years earlier.
At BetterWealth, we have structured more than 2,000 whole life policies across all 50 states, many of them for business owners and investors whose estates grow faster than their planning. We also use those policies as capital while the insured is alive, through a framework called The And Asset. That makes the tax question two questions: how the policy is treated at death, and how it is treated while you borrow against it.
This guide covers the general income tax rule and where it comes from, the three exceptions that make proceeds taxable, how the estate tax reaches a policy, the step-by-step for keeping proceeds out of your estate with an irrevocable trust, the tax rules on loans and surrenders during your life, and the myths that cost families real money.
- A death benefit paid because of the insured's death is generally excluded from federal income tax under IRC Section 101(a).
- Interest earned on installment payouts or funds left with the carrier is taxable to the beneficiary as ordinary income.
- If you own the policy at death, the full death benefit counts toward your estate, with 40% federal tax above the exemption.
- An irrevocable life insurance trust keeps proceeds out of the estate, but existing policies transferred in face a three-year look-back.
- Selling a policy for value can make most of the death benefit taxable income to the buyer unless an exception applies.
- Policy loans are not taxable while a non-MEC policy stays in force; a lapse with a loan outstanding can create taxable gain.
01 / The RuleAre Life Insurance Proceeds Taxable?
No, in most cases: life insurance proceeds paid to a beneficiary because of the insured's death are excluded from the beneficiary's gross income. The rule sits in IRC Section 101(a), and IRS Publication 525 restates it for individual taxpayers. A beneficiary who receives a $1,000,000 lump sum does not report it as income and owes no federal income tax on it.
The exclusion applies whether the policy is term or permanent, whether it was bought personally or through an employer (employer-owned coverage has its own condition, covered in the next section), and whether the beneficiary is a spouse, a child, a business partner, or a trust. It covers the death benefit itself. It does not automatically cover everything that happens around the death benefit.
Income tax is only one of the taxes that can touch a policy. The federal estate tax is a separate system with separate rules, and it looks at who owned the policy rather than who received the check. A payout can be fully income-tax-free and still be counted in a taxable estate.
Income-tax-free is not the same as tax-free.
"Tax-free" is a conditional statement. Ownership, the payout election, and how the policy changed hands decide whether it holds.
02 / The ExceptionsWhen Does a Death Benefit Become Taxable?
A death benefit becomes taxable in three main situations: when the beneficiary earns interest on it before it is paid in full, when it is included in a taxable estate, and when the policy was sold or transferred for value. A fourth applies to business-owned coverage: an employer-owned policy issued without the notice-and-consent steps in IRC Section 101(j). Naming your own estate as beneficiary is a separate planning error that feeds the estate tax problem directly.
Interest on a Delayed or Installment Payout
If the beneficiary takes the proceeds as installments, or leaves them with the carrier in an interest-bearing account, the interest portion is taxable as ordinary income in the year it is received. The principal stays excluded. A beneficiary who leaves a $500,000 death benefit with the insurer and earns $5,000 of interest before withdrawing it reports $5,000 of income, not $505,000. In a 32% bracket, that is $1,600 of federal tax on the interest, and nothing on the benefit.
Installments work the same way. The carrier divides each payment into a return of the excluded principal and taxable interest, and it reports the interest to the beneficiary. The choice between a lump sum and installments is a cash flow decision, but it is also a tax decision, and the beneficiary should make it knowing that.
Estate Tax Inclusion
If the insured held any incidents of ownership at death, the full death benefit is added to the gross estate under IRC Section 2042. Incidents of ownership include the right to change beneficiaries, borrow against the policy, assign it, surrender it, or cancel it. Holding even one of those rights is enough. The next section covers the math.
Transfer for Value
If a policy is sold or transferred for money or other consideration, the transfer-for-value rule in IRC Section 101(a)(2) limits the new owner's exclusion. The death benefit above what the new owner paid for the policy, plus premiums the new owner paid afterward, becomes taxable income. Take an illustrative $1,000,000 policy bought for $120,000, with $45,000 of premiums paid afterward by the buyer: $835,000 of the death benefit is taxable to the buyer as ordinary income.
The rule has exceptions written into the statute. Transfers to the insured, to a partner of the insured, to a partnership in which the insured is a partner, and to a corporation in which the insured is a shareholder or officer do not trigger it. This matters most in buy-sell agreements, where business owners move policies between partners or entities. A transfer that looks like housekeeping can turn a tax-free benefit into a taxable one.
Check the exception before the policy moves.
Employer-Owned Policies Under Section 101(j)
When a business owns a policy on the life of an employee, including an owner who works in the business, and the business is the beneficiary, IRC Section 101(j) limits the income tax exclusion to the premiums and other amounts the business paid. The rest of the death benefit becomes taxable income to the business. The full exclusion holds only if the employee received written notice and gave written consent before the policy was issued, and one of the statute's exceptions applies: the insured was a director or highly compensated employee when the policy was issued, the insured was an employee at any time in the 12 months before death, or the proceeds are paid to the insured's family or heirs. The notice-and-consent requirement applies under every exception. Take an illustrative $1,000,000 entity-owned policy with $90,000 of premiums paid and no consent on file: $910,000 is taxable to the business. For a buy-sell funded with entity-owned coverage, the signed consent belongs in the file before the policy is issued.
Naming the Estate as Beneficiary
When proceeds are payable to the insured's estate, they are included in the gross estate regardless of who owned the policy. They also pass through probate, which adds cost, delay, and public record, and can expose the money to the estate's creditors. Naming individuals or a properly drafted trust avoids all three.
03 / The Estate TaxHow Does the Estate Tax Reach a Life Insurance Policy?
The estate tax reaches a policy through ownership: if you own the policy when you die, its full death benefit is counted in your gross estate alongside your business, real estate, and brokerage accounts. The cash value while you are alive is irrelevant to this test. The death benefit is what gets counted.
For 2026, the federal basic exclusion amount is $15 million per individual under current law, indexed for inflation in later years. A married couple can shelter up to twice that by electing portability of the unused exemption when the first spouse dies. Amounts above the exemption are taxed at rates up to 40%. Several states levy their own estate taxes with thresholds far below the federal figure, so a family that owes nothing federally can still owe state tax.
Exemption amounts change with legislation and inflation adjustments, which is exactly why a plan built on last year's number needs a review. Confirm the current figure with the IRS estate tax page or your estate attorney before you act on it.
The Math on a Personally Owned Policy
Consider an illustrative business owner with a $17.4 million estate, which includes a $3.25 million death benefit on a policy the owner holds personally. The taxable amount above a $15 million exemption is $2.4 million. At the 40% top rate, the federal estate tax is roughly $960,000.
Have an irrevocable life insurance trust buy and own that same policy from the start, and the estate drops to $14.15 million. That is below the exemption. Federal estate tax: $0. The heirs still receive the $3.25 million death benefit, outside the estate and income-tax-free.
Same policy. Same heirs. $960,000 apart.
The death benefit is often what pushes an estate over the line. A business owner with $14 million of other assets may not think of themselves as having an estate tax problem. Adding a $3 million policy they own changes that answer.
For a policy you own, naming a trust as beneficiary changes nothing for estate tax. Ownership decides inclusion, and so does naming your own estate as beneficiary.
04 / How It WorksHow to Keep Life Insurance Proceeds Out of Your Taxable Estate
The standard tool is an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), which owns the policy so that you hold no incidents of ownership. The precise term matters, because a revocable living trust does not remove a policy from your estate. Only an irrevocable trust, drafted and run correctly, does. Here is the sequence.
- Map owner, insured, and beneficiary. List every policy and confirm the owner, the insured, and the named beneficiary. Ownership drives estate inclusion. A policy payable to your estate is included no matter who owns it.
- Measure your estate against the exemption. Add the full death benefit of every policy you own to your other assets. Compare the total to the federal exemption and to your state's threshold, and project it forward, since business owners' estates rarely hold still.
- Decide who should own the policy. If the total approaches or exceeds the exemption, have an estate attorney draft an ILIT. For new coverage, the trust should apply for and own the policy from day one. Transferring an existing policy works too, but if you die within three years of the transfer, IRC Section 2035 pulls the proceeds back into your estate.
- Fund premiums through the trust. You make gifts to the trust, and the trustee pays the carrier. Trusts commonly give beneficiaries a short window to withdraw each gift (often called Crummey powers) so the gifts qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion. You do not pay the carrier directly, and you keep no right to change beneficiaries, borrow, or surrender.
- Avoid transfer for value. Before any policy changes hands for money or other consideration, including in a buy-sell arrangement, confirm the transfer fits a statutory exception.
- Choose the payout election deliberately. A lump sum arrives income-tax-free. Installments and retained-asset accounts earn interest, and that interest is taxable to whoever receives it.
- Keep the policy in force and out of MEC status. Design premiums under the Section 7702A limits so the policy never becomes a modified endowment contract. Manage any loans so the policy cannot lapse with a loan balance above your cost basis.
A trustee who understands the policy matters as much as the document. The trustee pays premiums, sends the withdrawal notices, and keeps the policy from lapsing. A well-drafted trust with an inattentive trustee can still fail.
Tax Planning Around a Policy Fits Specific Situations
A Conversation Makes Sense If
- Your estate, including death benefits, is approaching the exemption
- You own a business with a buy-sell agreement funded by insurance
- You want a policy that works as capital while you are alive
- You can name a use for borrowed capital that beats the loan cost
It Probably Does Not If
- You need legal drafting only (that is your estate attorney's job)
- You want a savings account, not a capital strategy
- You are carrying high-interest debt and need a quick fix
- You cannot identify a productive use for borrowed dollars
We work alongside your attorney and CPA on the policy side: ownership, design, funding, and how the policy is used. We will tell you honestly whether it fits. No pressure, no pitch.
Book a Discovery Call05 / While You Are AliveHow Is a Whole Life Policy Taxed Before the Death Benefit Pays?
While you are alive, a whole life policy's cash value grows tax-deferred, loans against it are not taxable income while the policy stays in force, and only a surrender or lapse above your cost basis creates taxable income. Those rules come from IRC Section 7702, which defines what qualifies as life insurance, and Section 7702A, which defines a modified endowment contract.
Four events matter. A policy loan on a non-MEC policy is a loan from the carrier secured by your cash value, so it is not income. A withdrawal is generally tax-free up to your cost basis and taxable above it. A surrender for more than your basis is taxed as ordinary income on the gain: surrender for $410,000 on a $372,000 basis and you report $38,000. A lapse with a loan outstanding is treated like a surrender, so a loan balance above basis becomes taxable income even though no cash reaches you.
A policy that is overfunded past the 7702A limits becomes a modified endowment contract. Loans and withdrawals from a MEC are taxed as income to the extent of gain first, and can carry a 10% penalty before age 59 and a half. The death benefit stays income-tax-free, but the living benefits lose their advantage. Design keeps a policy under the line.
A MEC limit is a hard line, not a guideline.
Where IBC Ends and The And Asset Begins
Nelson Nash pioneered the idea of using whole life insurance as a personal banking system. His insight holds: you either lose money paying interest to outside lenders, or you lose it to the opportunity cost of capital sitting idle. We respect that foundation. The And Asset shares roots with IBC but operates on different principles.
IBC says use the policy as a personal bank for any purchase. The And Asset says deploy capital only when the borrowed dollars out-earn the carrier's loan cost. Anything less is an expensive way to spend money. The tax treatment supports that math but never replaces it: loans are not taxable income only while a non-MEC policy stays in force, so the tax point is a structural feature with conditions, never the reason to borrow. Loan rates vary by carrier and time period (many fall in the 5 to 6% range at the time of writing). If you cannot find a use that beats that number, do not borrow.
Many IBC marketers also say you are paying yourself interest. You are not. The interest goes to the carrier. Your return is what the deployed capital earns elsewhere while the policy keeps compounding at its dividend rate net of mortality and expense charges. Any unpaid loan balance is subtracted from the death benefit your heirs receive.
You do not pay yourself interest on a policy loan. The interest goes to the carrier, and the loan balance comes out of the death benefit if it is never repaid.
The Practice Owner Whose Policy Did Two Jobs
Consider a 46-year-old dentist with a practice, preferred non-tobacco, funding a personally owned whole life policy at $48,000 per year: $14,400 of base premium and $33,600 of paid-up additions, a 30/70 split. These figures are an illustrative composite, not a single named client, and actual values depend on the carrier, underwriting, and dividends, which are not guaranteed.
Through year four, cash value trails cumulative contributions, as a real policy should. At year five it crosses them. By year seven, with $336,000 contributed and about $361,200 of cash value, the dentist borrows $143,500 against the policy as the down payment on the building the practice had been leasing. The loan costs about $8,610 in its first year at an illustrative 6%. The rent saved and the equity built return an estimated 11.8% IRR, roughly $16,930 in the first year. The loan is repaid on a 43-month schedule from practice cash flow, and the policy keeps compounding net of mortality and expense charges (how the loaned portion is credited depends on whether the carrier uses direct or non-direct recognition).
Now the tax side. The loan was not taxable income, because the policy stayed in force and was never a MEC. Had the dentist died early in year nine, about two years into repayment, with $61,300 still owed against an illustrative $1,487,000 death benefit, the carrier would have recovered the loan and the beneficiaries would have received $1,425,700, income-tax-free under Section 101(a). With a $6.8 million estate, estate tax is not yet a factor. When the estate approaches the exemption, ownership gets reviewed, and new coverage for heirs goes into an ILIT from the start.
One dollar. Two jobs. That is the And.
06 / Where People Get It WrongWhere the "Tax-Free" Pitch Goes Wrong
The "tax-free" pitch goes wrong when it drops the conditions. Marketers have ruined the way this should be explained, and the tax story is where it shows most. Four misconceptions come up in almost every review we do.
"All life insurance proceeds are tax-free." The death benefit usually is, for income tax. Interest on delayed payouts, estate inclusion, and transfer for value are all exceptions, and a policy that lapses with a loan can create income tax during your life.
"Naming a trust as beneficiary avoids taxes." Beneficiary designation does not remove a policy from your estate. Only a correctly structured irrevocable trust that owns the policy does. A revocable living trust named as beneficiary leaves the proceeds in your estate.
"Life insurance is always hit with estate tax." Federal estate tax applies only to the portion of an estate above the exemption. Most families will never owe it. The families who do tend to be the business owners and investors whose assets grew faster than their planning.
"Policy loans are free money." A loan is not income, but it is not free. It carries interest paid to the carrier, it reduces the death benefit until repaid, and an unmanaged balance can lapse the policy and trigger tax on the gain.
One more point on deductions: premiums on personally owned life insurance are generally not deductible, and interest on a personal policy loan generally is not either. If someone promises a deduction, ask a tax advisor to confirm it against your facts.
The Frameworks Behind 2,000+ Policies, in One Place
The And Asset Vault holds the calculators, design frameworks, and structuring decisions we use when we build a policy, including how ownership and funding choices play out over decades. Free, email-gated, no spam.
Open the Vault07 / The TradeoffsWhat Are the Benefits and Real Tradeoffs of an ILIT?
An ILIT can remove a death benefit from your taxable estate and control how it reaches your heirs, but it costs you the rights that made the policy yours. Both sides deserve equal weight.
On the benefit side, a properly run ILIT keeps proceeds out of the gross estate, lets you set terms for how and when heirs receive money, keeps the proceeds out of probate, and in many states shields trust assets from beneficiaries' creditors (protection varies by state and by how the trust is drafted). For the illustrative $17.4 million estate above, that is $960,000 of federal estate tax avoided.
The tradeoffs are real. Irrevocable means you generally cannot change the terms, name new beneficiaries, or take the policy back. You cannot borrow against a trust-owned policy for your own business, because holding that right would pull the policy back into your estate. There are legal fees to draft the trust, administrative work every year, and the three-year look-back on any policy you transfer in rather than buy through the trust.
Irrevocable means exactly that.
That tension is why many of our clients separate the jobs. A policy they own personally serves as their capital base during life, following The And Asset discipline. Coverage meant purely for heirs sits in an ILIT once the estate warrants it. The right split depends on estate size, liquidity needs, and how the owner plans to use capital.
An ILIT is not for everyone. If your estate is well under the exemption and you want to use your policy as capital, putting it in a trust takes away the feature you bought it for.
08 / The FitHow Tax Treatment Fits a Broader Capital Strategy
Tax treatment is one input in a capital strategy, not the strategy itself. The income-tax exclusion on the death benefit, tax-deferred growth, and loans that are not taxable income while a non-MEC policy stays in force are structural features. They add value only when the policy is designed correctly, funded consistently, and used with discipline.
For the entrepreneur, business owner, or real estate investor who already deploys capital, the useful questions are practical. Who should own each policy as the estate grows? Does the design stay under the MEC limit? Is there a use for borrowed dollars that clears the loan cost? And will the heirs receive the death benefit without an estate tax bill that forces them to sell the business or the properties to pay it?
This is for entrepreneurs and value creators, not savers. The math has to work on both ends: the deployed capital must beat the loan rate during life, and the ownership must hold up at death.
09 / Head to HeadHow Each Life Insurance Payout Is Taxed
The table sets out how the common payout events are treated for federal income tax and estate tax, with illustrative dollar figures. It is a summary of general rules, not tax advice for a specific situation.
| Payout Event | Federal Income Tax | Federal Estate Tax | Illustrative Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lump-sum death benefit, insured owned policy | None under Section 101(a) | Included in the gross estate | $1,000,000 received, $0 income tax |
| Installments or funds left with carrier | Interest portion taxed as ordinary income | Same as the underlying policy | $500,000 principal tax-free, $5,000 interest taxable |
| Death benefit, ILIT-owned policy | None under Section 101(a) | Excluded if bought by the trust or transferred more than 3 years before death | $3,250,000 outside a $17.4M estate, $960,000 of federal tax avoided |
| Policy sold or transferred for value | Benefit above buyer's cost plus premiums is taxable | Depends on who owns it at death | $1,000,000 benefit, $165,000 cost, $835,000 taxable |
| Employer-owned policy, no notice and consent | Benefit above premiums paid is taxable to the business under Section 101(j) | Proceeds paid to the business count in valuing the insured's stake | $1,000,000 benefit, $90,000 premiums, $910,000 taxable |
| Policy loan, non-MEC, in force | Not taxable income | Unpaid balance reduces the death benefit | $143,500 borrowed, $0 income tax |
| Surrender or lapse | Gain above cost basis taxed as ordinary income | Not applicable once the policy ends | $410,000 value, $372,000 basis, $38,000 taxable |
Lump sum versus installments. The death benefit is excluded either way. Installments add taxable interest, so a beneficiary choosing them should do so for cash flow reasons, knowing the interest is reportable.
Personal versus trust ownership. The income tax result is the same. The estate tax result is not: on a $17.4 million estate, trust ownership of a $3.25 million policy is the difference between roughly $960,000 of federal tax and none.
Transfers for value. A sale can convert a tax-free benefit into mostly taxable income. The statutory exceptions for the insured, partners, and certain corporations are the reason buy-sell arrangements need careful drafting.
Loans versus surrender. A loan on a non-MEC policy is not income and keeps the policy compounding. A surrender or lapse ends the policy and taxes any gain, including a loan balance above basis.
An Honest 30 Minutes About Your Policy and Your Estate
We have structured 2,000+ policies. We have seen this strategy work exactly as designed, and we have seen it fail. On a discovery call, we look at how your policies are owned and designed, and whether The And Asset belongs in your capital structure. We will give you the honest answer either way. No pressure, no pitch. If you would rather learn first, the The And Asset and BetterWealth YouTube channels go deep on the math.
Book a Discovery CallFAQLife Insurance Tax Questions
Are life insurance proceeds taxable?
Life insurance proceeds paid to a beneficiary because of the insured's death are generally not subject to federal income tax under IRC Section 101(a). Tax can apply to interest earned on delayed payouts, to policies that were sold or transferred for value, and to federal estate tax if the insured owned the policy and the estate exceeds the exemption.
Is the interest on a life insurance payout taxable?
Yes. The death benefit itself is income-tax-free, but interest paid on installments or on funds left with the carrier is taxable as ordinary income in the year the beneficiary receives it. If a $500,000 benefit earns $5,000 of interest before it is paid out, the $5,000 is taxable and the $500,000 is not.
Do life insurance proceeds count toward the estate tax?
They do if the insured held any incidents of ownership at death, such as the right to change beneficiaries, borrow against the policy, or surrender it, or if the proceeds are payable to the insured's estate. In that case the full death benefit is added to the gross estate under IRC Section 2042.
What is the federal estate tax exemption for 2026?
The federal basic exclusion amount is $15 million per individual for 2026 under current law, indexed for inflation in later years. Amounts above the exemption are taxed at rates up to 40%. Several states levy their own estate taxes at lower thresholds, so confirm the current figures with your estate attorney.
How does an irrevocable life insurance trust keep proceeds out of the estate?
An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) owns the policy instead of you, so you hold no incidents of ownership and the death benefit is not included in your gross estate. The trustee pays premiums from gifts you make to the trust and distributes proceeds to your beneficiaries under the trust's terms.
What is the three-year rule for transferring a policy to a trust?
If you transfer an existing policy to a trust and die within three years of the transfer, IRC Section 2035 pulls the death benefit back into your estate. Having the trust apply for and purchase a new policy from the start avoids the look-back.
What is the transfer-for-value rule?
The transfer-for-value rule under IRC Section 101(a)(2) says that if a policy is sold or transferred for money or other consideration, the death benefit above what the new owner paid for the policy plus later premiums becomes taxable income to that owner. Exceptions include transfers to the insured, a partner of the insured, a partnership that includes the insured, and a corporation in which the insured is an officer or shareholder.
Is a life insurance policy owned by my business taxable?
It can be. If a business owns a policy on an employee's life, including an owner who works in the business, and is the beneficiary, IRC Section 101(j) limits the income tax exclusion to the premiums the business paid unless the employee received written notice and gave written consent before the policy was issued and a statutory exception applies. Without that paperwork, most of the death benefit is taxable income to the business.
Are policy loans from a whole life policy taxable?
A loan against a whole life policy that is not a modified endowment contract is not taxable income while the policy stays in force. If the policy lapses or is surrendered with a loan outstanding, any amount above your cost basis becomes taxable. Loans from a modified endowment contract are taxed as income to the extent of gain and can carry a 10% penalty before age 59 and a half.
Is cash value taxable if I surrender the policy?
Only the gain is taxable. If you surrender a policy for more than your cost basis (generally the premiums you paid, less any tax-free amounts you already received), the difference is taxed as ordinary income. A surrender for $410,000 on a $372,000 basis produces $38,000 of taxable income.
What is The And Asset?
The And Asset is BetterWealth's framework for using a properly structured whole life policy as a capital base. You only borrow against it for an activity that produces a return greater than the carrier's loan cost, so your dollars do two jobs at once: the policy keeps compounding net of its internal charges while the deployed capital earns its own return.
How is The And Asset different from infinite banking?
Infinite banking, as Nelson Nash taught it, says use the policy as a personal bank for any purchase. The And Asset shares those roots but operates on different principles: deploy capital only when it out-earns the carrier's loan cost, and if you cannot find a use that beats that cost, do not borrow. The policy's tax treatment is supporting detail with conditions, never the reason to borrow.
- IRS Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income: the treatment of life insurance proceeds and the interest paid on them.
- IRC Section 101 (Cornell Law): the exclusion of death benefits from gross income and the transfer-for-value rule.
- IRC Section 2042 (Cornell Law): inclusion of life insurance proceeds in the gross estate.
- IRC Section 2035 (Cornell Law): the three-year rule for transferred policies.
- IRC Section 7702 and Section 7702A (Cornell Law): the definition of life insurance and of a modified endowment contract.
- IRS Estate Tax: current exemption amounts and filing rules.
- Nelson Nash, Becoming Your Own Banker: the origin of the infinite banking concept.
- BetterWealth resources: The And Asset book, the The And Asset YouTube channel, and the BetterWealth YouTube channel.
I founded BetterWealth to treat life insurance as the wealth and capital tool it actually is, not the product most people get sold. Our team has structured more than 2,000 policies across all 50 states. I wrote The And Asset and host the BetterWealth and The And Asset YouTube channels. This article is general education, not tax or legal advice; your estate attorney and CPA should confirm how these rules apply to you. If you want an honest read on how your policies are owned and designed, book a discovery call.