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July 19, 2013 at 12:59 AM
Generation-skipping trust (GST) planning has become more common over the last 20 years, as successful business owners, executives and wealthy individuals have enjoyed economic success.
Life insurance owned by a GST can offset large estate taxes due when the grandparent estate owner dies, providing significant financial leverage with income, estate and generation-skipping tax-free funding. This injection of insurance proceeds into the GST can provide a tax-free inheritance to the grandchildren while “skipping” estate taxes on the middle-generation children.
But, what if the first generation grandparent is uninsurable? Or rated so high as to make the premium unaffordable from a cash flow point of view? Or financially non-competitive from an internal rate of return (IRR) point of view? Is there a way to eventually restore asset value to the family, which will be lost to large federal and/or state estate taxes when the first generation grandparent dies? The answer is yes!
The first generation grandparent can be the grantor of a generation-skipping “estate restoration” irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) for the benefit of the third-generation grandchildren. The grantor can make annual gifts to this trust to fund premiums on the lives of the second-generation children. Eventually, the death proceeds will be income, estate, and generation-skipping tax-free to the ILIT for the benefit of the grandchildren.
If desired, a time value of money factor can also be assigned to the estate assets lost to taxes to determine the total death benefit that may be placed subject to the financial underwriting guideline limits of the carrier.
Case example: The grandparent is a female, age 85, who is uninsurable based on medical history. She has an estate of $10 million and is facing about $3 million in federal and/or state estate taxes. She wants to find a way to offset these taxes and restore this impending lost asset value to her family. Her son and daughter-in-law are both 60, and they have a significant estate of their own. There are three grandchildren in this family who would ultimately benefit from any multi-generation planning.
Solution and case design: Create a generation-skipping “estate restoration” ILIT where the remainder beneficiaries of the trust are the three grandchildren. The trust is authorized to purchase insurance on the lives of any direct descendents of the grantor and also authorizes direct descendents and trust beneficiaries to make their own contributions to the trust.
