ILITs Present Challenges to Trustees

Melvin A. Warshaw (attorney, Needham, MA) recently published his article entitled ILIT Trustees: Bridge Out Ahead . . . Lock in Your Navigation System Now, Prob. & Prop., July-August 2010, at 32.

The introduction is below:

The irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) has been a popular estate planning tool for many years. Whether passing large amounts of policy death benefit to heirs or providing estate liquidity, trust-owned life insurance has been a fairly tax efficient estate planning tool for wealthy clients and their advisors.

Due primarily to the recent economic downturn, clients and their advisors are increasingly scrutinizing all the client’s assets, including trust-owned life insurance policies. Because such policies often represent a concentrated investment in an often hard to understand asset, management of trust-owned life insurance presents some unique challenges to a trustee.