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
Financial incentives credited to the policy to encourage the policyowner to keep the policy in force. The incentives may be utilized by: (1) applying them to the policy cash value after a ...
Accidental death benefit option that can be added to a disability income (DI) policy under which a lump sum is payable at the loss of life, dismemberment, or loss of sight. ...
Reserves required by state regulators. Because regulators must assure that an insurance company remains solvent and that it can pay future claims, they set conservative standards for ...
Terms specifying obligations of an insured to keep a policy in force. For example, an insured must pay the premiums due; in life insurance, if death occurs, the beneficiary or the insured's ...
Same as term Fortuitous Loss: loss occurring by accident or chance, not by anyone's intention. Insurance policies provide coverage against losses that occur only on a chance basis, where ...
Process of the continual reinsurance of a ceding company's portfolio of insurance policies. All premiums that have been ceded become earned premiums. ...
Statistical function that displays the probability of determining a stated number of successes in a series of trials in which the probability of success is the same in each trial. In ...
Marketing of insurance through independent agents; also called independent agency system. Independent agents usually represent several insurance companies and try to insure the risk ...
Provision of a reinsurance contract that states that the reinsurance company remains liable for its predetermined share of a claim submitted by an insured, even though the primary insurance ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.