Rarity and Value

PPLI Will Take You Home

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Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) is a refuge in today’s stormy sea of compliance and tax regulations. When we are distraught and confused our home becomes a safe haven. This is exactly what PPLI does for the assets of wealthy international families.

The rarity of an item tends to give it value. When this item becomes the subject of theft, it can produce more interest, and, even, greater interest if the item is later recovered. This was the case recently with the ruby slippers in the American musical, fantasy film The Wizard of Oz. In the film the ruby slippers have the magically property of taking you Home.

Let us first explore how PPLI creates a safe haven for the assets of wealthy international families. This is best done by diving into the stormy sea of compliance and tax regulations. One understands a subject by the way it is framed. In this case we are speaking about intellectually framing. Let me explain further.

When we wish to go into more depth about a subject, we must first choose a source. How this source of our new knowledge presents the topic becomes part of our new understanding of the topic. This is what I mean by intellectual framing.

Politics gives us a clear example. When we read about a political event from one news source, and, then, read about the event from another news source that has a very different political perspective the two stories can sound very different indeed.

Filippo Noseda of the Mischon de Reya law firm in London is an attorney who is active in privacy issues for wealthy international families. In Trusts & Trustees, “CRS and beneficial ownership registers—what serious newspapers and tabloids have in common,” we think his framing of the privacy vs. transparent issue is excellent. We will express his viewpoint in excerpts from the article.

“The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) published a damning opinion in which he decried the unclear objectives pursued by the AMLDs and, more generally, the invasive nature and lack of proportionality of the proposed registers.”

“As if they were living on planet Europa rather than in Europe, the European Parliament, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and politicians show complete disregard for the warnings raised by their own data protection bodies and instead appear hell-bent on introducing a system of total transparency.”

“Data protection has moved to the forefront of people’s minds, prompting the EU to overhaul the existing data protection rules and has also led to a number of ground-breaking decisions by the European Court of Justice which confirms that the pendulum has started to swing back towards greater protection of privacy and data protection.”

“It is somewhat curious that serious newspapers who have been covering both the private banking scandals and the erosion of privacy seem unable to make the connection between data protection on the one hand, and the CRS and beneficial ownership registers on the other.”

In structuring assets for wealthy international families, the insurance company of the PPLI policy becomes the beneficial owner of the policy’s assets. This structure gives compliance simplification, as what is reported to tax authorities is the total of the assets inside the PPLI, and not the individual assets inside the policy.  At the death of the insured life in the PPLI policy, the assets pass as a tax-free death benefit to the beneficiaries.

Let us return to The Wizard of Oz and the ruby slippers. These magic, ruby, slippers had the property to take you Home once you clicked your heals together three times.  The slippers were stolen thirteen years ago from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.  They were recently recovered by the FBI and returned to the Museum.  Of course, this publicity gave the slippers added value, and increased their rarity as something unique.

With PPLI you don’t need the ruby slippers to take you Home. You gain protection from the stormy seas of tax compliance by having your assets inside a PPLI policy, so you are Home from the beginning. You also won’t have your assets taxed, since they are inside a tax-free environment.

We invite your participation in our quest to take you Home to a truly unique structuring tool that has rarity and value. Please write your thoughts and questions at the bottom of the page. If you want to communicate privately with me don’t hesitate to drop me a line: michael@michaelmalloy.solutions

Thank you.

 Michael Malloy, CLU, TEP, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

 

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PFIC + subpart F + GILTI rules

PFIC + subpart F + GILTI rules = PPLI Opportunity 

A lot of acronyms to swallow!  Yes, the recently enacted U.S. tax reform legislation has been very unkind to those subject to these sections of the U.S. tax code.  Our good friend Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in combination with Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) can soften, and in some cases, eliminate these taxes. We will discuss each of these tax rules separately, but first some basics on how you can achieve this success.

Distributions from a properly structured PPLI policy are distributions from a life insurance policy. Like all policies, both U.S. and issued in other jurisdictions around the world, the distributions are subject to the tax code sections that apply to life insurance.

In the U.S. context one can withdraw all basis in the policy, which are the premiums paid, tax free, and take very low cost loans to withdraw the remaining funds.  The costs of these loans is equivalent to an administrative charge, and is usually in the range of 25 bps. PPLI companies are most frequently found in Bermuda and Barbados, and have similar very friendly client access to the funds inside the policy.

The concept of a distribution is important, because a properly structured PPLI policy can hold many different types of assets, basically anything that can be hold by a trust company. More pointedly for our short blog, passive foreign investment company (PFIC) income and subpart F income can be structured inside a PPLI policy, and, therefore, shielded from tax.

It is not in the scope of this blog to discuss the technical tax aspects of these code sections, so we refer you to an excellent article by James Meadow CA, CPA (NC), LLM (US TAX), MBA published recently in Moodys Gartner Tax Law, “The US “Transition Tax” for 2017: More Sad News for Many US Citizens Residing Abroad,”

The article discusses tax from the standpoint of how it affects U.S. persons residing outside the U.S., but gives a very clear and cogent review of how PFIC holdings and those taxed under subpart F are treated under the new U.S. legislation.

The recent legislation has brought an increase in taxation for those who have subpart F income. Thus, we encourage those in this situation to explore using PPLI.  Using PPLI to shield PFIC income has been used for many years.

Section 951A gives us GILTI

The new U.S. tax legislation gives us a new section of the tax code, Section 951A. For those who have an interest in a controlled foreign corporations (CFC), particularly if they are not C corporation shareholders, there is a new opportunity to use a PPLI structure to shield this income from tax. Section 951A gives us global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI), which if held in other than a C corporation, has very unfavorable tax consequences that can be greatly mitigated by using PPLI.

We use the concept of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) that allows income with unfavorable tax consequences to be reclassified as a distribution from a properly structured PPLI policy.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your continued trust and support.

 

 by Michael Malloy CLU TEP RFC, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

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