Clark Profits Rise 58% Despite COLI Confusion

The acquisition of a firm that provides portfolio services for COLI and BOLI programs helped boost growth in renewal revenue, but sales revenue was down because of concerns that Congress will wipe out the tax advantages that now encourage employers to insure executives through COLI programs.

The Senate Finance Committee considered a COLI amendment in September that would have reduced COLI tax advantages for life policies purchased after Sept. 17. A provision now under consideration would move the effect to policies purchased on or after the “date of enactment,” and it now seems possible that Congress might wait until 2004, or even later, before changing the laws that govern COLI arrangements, Clark says.

Thanks to the delays in enactment of a change in COLI rules, “we feel we have been able to resume business as usual,” Clark Chairman Tom Wamberg says in a statement accompanying his company’s latest earnings release.