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July 29, 2007 at 04:00 PM
At the 50th annual meeting of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, held recently in Washington, AALU president Dermot Healey delivered a message on “doing the right thing.” He showed a moving Korean television commercial, produced by Prudential and tracing one man’s journey through life. It brought a tear to the eyes of the meeting’s attendees as it reminded them of the reason they got into the life insurance business: to help provide financial protection.
That is the one objective that never changes in our business, and the evolution of new and better solutions for helping our clients to save and protect is what keeps the life insurance industry exciting and vital for those of us who practice within it.
In today’s aggressive business environment, baby boomers are leaving the workplace in unprecedented numbers, and young talent is more highly prized than ever. Supplemental executive retirement plans (SERPs) and deferred compensation plans can go a long way toward achieving several important goals. They can provide employers with an important edge in their search to recruit and retain qualified executive talent. Just as important, these plans are excellent vehicles for encouraging retirement savings in the private sector.
SERPs and deferred compensation plans have fallen in and out of favor over the years, largely as a result of economic fluctuation, stock option accounting, negative press, and some regulatory ambiguity. But the clarity brought to corporate-owned life insurance by the COLI Best Practices Act and the new 409A regulations, combined with a favorable market outlook, make this an ideal time to consider expanding or implementing a new plan.
For many companies, the COLI Best Practices Act created a uniform framework by requiring employee consent and notification and defining who could be covered while ensuring favorable tax treatment. The 409A regulations further clarified issues regarding benefit plan eligibility. These clarifications gave our industry the flexibility to design programs that better meet the objectives of both employers and their key executives. As a result, the hesitations that once existed regarding these plans have given way to an increased demand for nonqualified executive benefit plans, including SERPs and deferred compensation arrangements.
