Editorial Standards

Drafting

Each guide on this site is written from a research brief prepared for that page.

Checking

Before a guide is published it goes through a set of checks, including checks for a complete source list, required disclaimers and valid structured data. The draft is then checked again for errors. That second check is not trusted on its own: where it questions a statement about a statute, the statement is compared with the text of that statute before any change is made.

Passing these checks does not publish a guide. Publishing is a separate step taken by the people who run this site.

No guide on this site is presented as reviewed by a licensed professional, and none should be read that way.

Sources

Guides rely on sources in this order:

• Primary authority: the IRS, the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Code, the Department of Labor and its Employee Benefits Security Administration, the SBA, and state insurance regulators.
• Technical and institutional: carrier technical materials, actuarial organizations, major accounting firms and recognized financial institutions.
• Secondary commentary: reputable professional commentary and established industry publications.

For §412(e)(3) plans, split-dollar arrangements, employer-owned life insurance, tax treatment, qualified plans and similar high-risk subjects, guides use primary authority wherever it is available. Each guide lists its sources.

The rules guides are written to

• No promise of a return, a tax saving or any other outcome.
• No statement that premiums are tax-deductible without the rule that limits it: generally, no deduction is allowed for life insurance premiums when the business is directly or indirectly a beneficiary.
• No statement that a death benefit is tax-free without the exceptions that apply.
• No suggestion that life insurance is always required for an SBA or other business loan.
• "Section 162 plan", "executive bonus", "restricted executive bonus arrangement" and "double bonus" are described as industry terms, not as types of qualified plan.
• A §412(e)(3) plan is never described as an insurance tax deduction.
• An insurance contract is not presented as an investment, a savings plan or a retirement plan.
• Examples use clearly labelled hypothetical facts.
• Calculator results are illustrations, not advice.

Corrections

Tax rules and guidance change. If you believe something here is wrong or out of date, use the contact form and say which page and statement.