A life insurance trust is an irrevocable, non-amendable trust which is both the owner and beneficiary of one or more life insurance policies.[1] Upon the death of the insured, the Trustee invests the insurance proceeds and administers the trust for one or more beneficiaries. If the trust owns insurance on the life of a married person, the non-insured spouse and children are often beneficiaries of the insurance trust. If the trust owns “second to die” or survivorship insurance which only pays when both spouses are deceased, only the children would be beneficiaries of the insurance trust.
In the United States, proper ownership of life insurance is important if the insurance proceeds are to escape federal estate taxation.[2] If the policy is owned by the insured, the proceeds will be subject to estate tax. (This assumes that the aggregate value of the estate plus the life insurance is large enough to be subject to estate taxes.)[3] To avoid estate taxation, some insureds name a child, spouse or other beneficiary as the owner of the policy.
