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Life Insurance Policy Selection and Design 2017-03-25Life Insurance Policy Selection and Design 2017-03-25

What works best in various financial and estate-planning scenarios?

34 Min Read
ratner417

Clients routinely ask their estate planners basic questions about life insurance. Sometimes, the questions lend themselves to a quantifiable answer, such as the amount of insurance needed to replace a deceased’s earnings or preserve an estate from estate tax. But, often the questions aren’t about how much. They’re about what type of policy is appropriate for the need, how it should be designed and how it should be funded. 

To be sure, there are no hard and fast rules that govern the selection and design of a policy in a given planning application. However, planners can develop a fairly intuitive approach to help the client determine whether the prescription is best filled with term insurance or some form of permanent policy, and if the la...

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About the Authors

Charles L. Ratner

Charles L. Ratner is a commentator on life insurance and estate planning based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Lawrence Brody

Senior Counsel, Harrison & Held, LLP

Lawrence Brody retired as an Adjunct Professor at Washington University School of Law, after fifty years of teaching Estate Planning and Drafting.  He is a visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami Law School, teaching a course on Life Insurance.  Mr. Brody is the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on the use of life insurance in estate and employee benefit planning, including two BNA Tax Management Portfolios, two books for the National Underwriter Company, and a number of volumes in the ABA Insurance Counselor Series.

Mr. Brody is a frequent presenter for ALI-CLE estate planning programs, Society of Financial Professionals programs, major life insurance industry programs (including the MDRT, LIMRA, the Top of the Table, AALU and the International Forum), the Heckerling Institute, the Notre Dame Estate Planning Conference, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, the NYU Tax Institute, the NAEPC Annual Meeting, and regional and annual ACTEC conferences.

Mr. Brody is a member of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), an emeritus member of the Advisory Committee for the Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning (University of Miami School of Law), and a member of the Editorial Board of the Society of Financial Service Professionals CLU Journal.   Mr. Brody received the designation of Accredited Estate Planner by the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils and was one of ten individuals awarded its Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner designation in the initial class (2004).  He has been named in the Private Wealth Law Section of Chambers High Net Worth Guide. Mr. Brody was named a Distinguished Law Alumni by Washington University School of Law in 2012.