Course Description

Life insurance is a unique product. While many use it to protect their loved ones, it may also be used to gift money to charity, transfer for a business interest, or pay off debts. Life insurance is one of the more useful financial products that a client can own. However, the amount of life insurance that a client needs can change over time and can vary drastically depending on how it is being used. We often need to recalculate the life insurance need multiple times throughout a client’s lifetime. In this course, we will explore some basic planning techniques involving life insurance as well as some approaches to calculating the actual life insurance need. Utilizing real-life examples and discussion, we will compare the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We will also discuss when an ILIT may come in handy, how life insurance can supplement retirement benefits, and the taxation of life insurance for both employers and employees.

Learning Objectives

  • State the basic differences between term, whole, variable, and universal life insurance

  • Identify the steps in the Human Life Value Approach to calculating the life insurance need

  • Recognize how employee life insurance benefits are taxed

  • Recognize how an ILIT may be used in basic estate planning

  • State how life insurance may be used to enhance the benefits of a retiring employee

  • Recognize the different types of buy-sell agreements

Additional Required Materials

  • Level: Overview

  • Field of Study: Finance (NASBA); Life Insurance (CFP); Life Insurance (Insurance)

  • Who Should Attend: CPAs, financial advisors, and insurance agents that are looking to improve their knowledge of how life insurance may be used to satisfy a variety of client needs.

  • Required Knowledge: Basic life insurance product knowledge

  • Advanced Prep: None

Instructor

CPA, CPCU, MST, MBA David Peters

David Peters is the Founder and Owner of Peters Tax Preparation & Consulting in Richmond, VA. He has over fourteen years of experience in financial services, including 3 years in the hedge fund industry and six years in the insurance industry. David was the first-ever Chief Financial Officer at Compare.com - a position he held for over three years. He is a national CPE Instructor/Discussion Leader for the AICPA, Surgent, and Kaplan. He regularly teaches courses in accounting, finance, insurance, and ethics throughout the United States. He holds four Masters degrees and contributes regularly to various CPA publications, including NCACPA’s Interim Report, SCACPA’s CPA Report, and VSCPA’s Disclosures. He was also a co-author of the 2018 Virginia CPA Ethics course – a required course for all CPA’s licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.