Split Dollar Life Insurance
Definition of "Split dollar life insurance"
Policy in which premiums, ownership rights, and death proceeds are split between an employer and an employee, or between a parent and a child. The employer pays the part of each year's premium that at least equals the increase in the cash value. The employee may pay the remainder of the premium, or the employer may pay the entire premium. When the increase in cash value equals or exceeds the yearly premium, the employer pays the entire premium. If the employee dies while in the service of the employer, a beneficiary chosen by the employee receives the difference between the face value and the amount paid to the employer (the cash value or the total of all premiums paid by the employer- whichever is greater). Thus, during employment, the employee's share of the death benefit decreases. If the employee leaves the employer, the latter has the option of surrendering the policy in exchange for return of all premiums, or selling the policy to the employee for the amount of its cash value. There are two types of split dollar life insurance policies: Endorsement-the employer owns all policy privileges; the employee's only rights are to choose beneficiaries and to select the manner in which the death benefit is paid. Collateral-the employee owns the policy. The employer's contributions toward the premiums are viewed as a series of interest-free loans, which equal the yearly increase in the cash value of the policy. The employee assigns the policy to the employer as collateral for these loans. When the employee dies, the loans are paid from the face value of the policy. Any remaining proceeds are paid to the beneficiary.
Popular Insurance Terms
Modified collateral split dollar life insurance plan under which the employee purchases and owns a life insurance policy on the employee's own life. The employer makes the unscheduled ...
Status in which an insurance company holds funds of its insureds (the payment of premiums) in trust, and through an insuring agreement promises to make all benefit payments for which it has ...
Reinsurance: surplus reinsurance contracts under which the agreement between an insurer and a re insurer is based on the ceding company's line guide, such that the amount re insured is ...
In property insurance, percentages of basic coverages which may be applied to provide coverage for other real and personal property. For example, under the homeowners INSURANCE POLICY ...
Procedure for offering reduced auto insurance rates to drivers with good records, and imposing higher rates on bad drivers. Typically, premiums are weighted under a system that assigns ...
Clause in a property insurance policy that stipulates that either the insurer or the insured has the right to demand an appraisal in order to determine the monetary damage or loss to an ...
Provision in commercial property coverage under which an insured must report the value of an insured property at periodic intervals in order to preserve coverage up to values reported. In ...
Combination property, liability, and business interruption policy. It is usually written to cover expenses of small and medium size businesses resulting from damage or destruction of ...
Nonparticipating life insurance under which the first few annual premiums are smaller than would be the case under a traditional nonparticipating policy. While the maximum amount of these ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.