Business owners and individuals appreciate creative solutions that put their money to work for them. A cash value life insurance policy offers multiple benefits, making it an attractive alternative to other cash assets for clients wishing to maintain liquidity but still earn a greater return.

When someone plans to leave a charitable legacy, the typical approach is to include a bequest in the will. Instead, try using life insurance. Have the charitable organization purchase life insurance on the life of the donor or name the charity as beneficiary of an existing policy.

A charitable lead trust (CLT) is a “split-interest” trust with both an income and remainder beneficiary. The trust makes distributions to a qualified charity for either a specific term or the life of an individual. Upon death, remaining assets are distributed to the donor’s beneficiaries.

Many clients are trying to make pension decisions for the future now. This can be especially tricky if they are trying to figure out whether to take a single life benefit or joint/survivor benefit annuity payout option from a defined benefit plan. This pension max overview can help.

Buy-sell agreements are frequently funded with life insurance, assuring that if an owner dies, the surviving family has a buyer with the cash to pay a fair price. Whether it's as stock redemption or cross-purchase agreement, it will help remaining owners retain control of the business.

Sequence of returns can sink a retirement plan. Timed withdrawals from a life insurance policy's cash value create a tax-advantaged pool of money, insulated from market volatility, so clients can turn off withdrawals from qualified retirement plans following years of negative returns.

Clients who wish to leave assets to their families should consider IRA Legacy Maximization. To use this strategy, clients must be sure they won't need the IRA for retirement. The owner establishes an individual life insurance trust (ILIT) with distributions to fund the life insurance.

Start the conversation to help protect your business owner clients against the loss of a key employee. The business purchases life insurance or disability insurance on a key person and pays all premiums. Upon death or disability, the benefit is paid directly to the business.

Even for affluent clients, pre-funding death expenses with discounted dollars remains effective. Life insurance is uniquely able to deliver a specified pool of tax-free liquidity at exactly the time needed to cover final expenses, debt, liquidation, taxes, probate costs and bequests.

You may have clients holding on to a surprisingly large concentration of stock in a single company. At older ages, diversifying may be in their best interest. Life insurance can act as a noncorrelated asset, providing a natural hedge against the market risks of concentrated stock.

With a spousal lifetime access trust (SLAT), one spouse makes a gift to an irrevocable trust using the gift tax exemption. The SLAT names the other spouse as a current beneficiary, which allows the trustee to distribute funds to the beneficiary spouse during their life.

When it comes to recruiting and retaining key employees, nonprofits are limited due to IRC Section 457. Here are three executive comp plans that help nonprofits including split-dollar, restricted executive bonus arrangement (REBA) and nonqualified deferred compensation.