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Going To DC
May 6, 2014
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The AALU is culminating its weekend-long annual conference with a visit to Congress on Tuesday, May 6th.
They plan to state their objections in person to these potential tax code reforms that affect the life insurance industry and the individuals and businesses who rely on life insurance and annuities as key parts of their savings strategy.
Join me if you're in the DC area. Send an email and let me know if you're interested in coming along with me and my colleagues. |
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Schedule A Roundtable
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An easy way to learn about Self-Empowered Banking (SEB) and what it can do for you, your family, your business and your colleagues is to schedule a roundtable.
This informal gathering offers the opportunity to see how SEB works, ask questions and hear how actual clients have used their SEB systems to:
- get out debt,
- save for the future or
- finance a home, car, business equipment, a college education or whatever you need or want.
To schedule a roundtable: JULIE ANN
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Building Wealth: Action Alert
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There has been quite a bit of activity in Congress for the past year about tax code reform. In late February, Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) released the latest version of his proposed Tax Code Reform. His goal is to find a way to simplify the tax code for individuals and small businesses, close many of the loopholes that exist for big corporations and create economic growth. There are several provisions in this reform document that affect the way dividends, death benefits and purchase or transfer of a life insurance policy to a third party will be taxed going forward, primarily in a business situation. Right now much of the benefit derived from owning life insurance is that taxes are very limited on income derived from the policy. This is true for individual policies, as well as policies owned by businesses on the lives of individuals, such as partners, executives, etc. As you will note in the video below - over 20% of all long-term savings in this country are in life insurance and annuities. LEARN MORE We believe, and agree with those in the life insurance industry who have done in-depth analysis of the proposed reforms, that the proposed changes are dangerous. Please watch this video below for an in-depth discussion by Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) VP for Legislative Affairs, Chris Morton.
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 | | Tax Reform Could Impact Life Insurance Industry |
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| Awareness & Action: Critical to Protecting Your Savings |
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The Slippery Slope of Reform
The reforms, as proposed, have the potential to open the door for a future change in the way individual life insurance policies, dividends, death benefits and policy transfers/sales are taxed.
In Illinois alone, over $20 billion dollars was paid out in 2012 to beneficiaries, policy holders, annuity holders, endowment funds and others using life insurance or annuities as savings and retirement vehicles. Most of these were non-taxable events and tax code reform may change that.
How Will This Affect YOU & Actions You Can Take
As the owner of a Self-Empowered Banking System, someone considering starting a SEB System, or a life insurance or annuity owner, we encourage you to become more familiar with these proposed reforms to life insurance and annuity benefits and the industry.
They changes could affect your tax liability and may result in higher premiums to offset new regulations. In the meantime, we recommend that you take one of the following actions by Tuesday, May 6th:
- Sign the petition asking Congress not to make changes that take away the incentives to save for the future through one of the oldest and most secure financial instruments available. SIGN THE PETITION
- Write your Congressional representatives directly and let them know exactly how you feel about these provisions. Find your representatives' contact information here: CONTACT INFO
- We have included the letter/email, which we sent to our Representatives and Senators. Please feel free to copy, adapt and use it for yourself. SAMPLE LETTER
While we are very concerned about these changes around the taxation of life insurance benefits, we are equally concerned about many of the changes proposed in this entire document. Here are the links to the complete proposal and the executive summary for your convenience: FULL TAX CODE REFORM PROPOSAL or EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ONLY
If you have questions about how this may personally affect your financial situation or your SEB System, please contact me via email or by phone 312.957.9400.
All the best,
Julie Ann Hepburn
National Private Client Group LLC
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