Estate Planning With Insurance Products

Life insurance has a number of important uses in estate planning. Three key ways insurance proceeds can be used are: to create an estate; to provide proceeds to offset tax liabilities, and as an effective way to pass on your estate to heirs.

Creating an estate to provide for your family and loved ones is one of the most popular reasons for purchasing life insurance. When you pass away, insurance proceeds can help ensure your family has been provided for.

Providing insurance coverage to offset potential tax liabilities that are triggered upon your passing is another means of effectively using insurance coverage. If you have illiquid personal property, real estate or business assets that you would like to bequeath one option to provide for the tax liability is through insurance.

Finally, passing an estate to heirs through insurance products is another important use in estate planning. You may use all forms of insurance for this purpose: accumulation annuities and life insurance. By using insurance contracts and designating beneficiaries, you could provide an efficient transfer of a portion of your estate to chosen heirs because insurance products offer unique estate planning benefits. Insurance proceeds are not required to pass through the probate process when a beneficiary is named and are very tax efficient when used for estate purposes. This process expedites the transfer without undue delays, and it also helps to keep your financial affairs private because the asset does not have to be included in your Will.

Additionally, because the insurance proceeds paid to your named beneficiaries are not included in your estate assets, they are excluded from the management of your estate's executors. Again, you save any executor and legal fees associated with settling an estate.

A CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor can help you review these options to determine how life insurance can be part of your estate plan.

Use our Find An Advisor tool to locate a CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor near you and take the first step to achieving the financial future you want.

The information contained herein is considered accurate at the time of posting. CIBC and CIBC World Markets Inc. reserve the right to change any of it without prior notice. It is for general information purposes only.