Advanced
The short version
This section is for readers who already have the basics down and want the deeper machinery: the tax law inside a policy, the strategies built on it, business uses, and estate planning. It's heavier going than the Basics, and most readers won't need it. Start with the Basics if any of the core terms are new.
The Basics section answers "what should I buy, and does it fit me." The Advanced section answers the questions that come after that: how the tax code treats a policy, what people build with cash value, how businesses use life insurance, and how it fits into an estate plan.
Using life insurance as a savings and investment vehicle
Guide · 9 min
How max-funded life insurance works
The tax law behind cash-value strategies: Section 7702, the modified endowment rules, the 7-pay test, the 2021 rate change, and how a policy is designed for maximum cash value.
Read it →Guide · 10 min
Infinite banking, LIRPs, and the risks
What people actually do with a max-funded policy — the strategies, the advantages stated fairly, and the genuine risks at equal weight.
Read it →Estate planning
Guide · 16 min
Life insurance and estate planning
Why a policy you control sits in your taxable estate, how an irrevocable trust changes that, the three-year rule that catches existing policies, and the election a surviving spouse loses by doing nothing.
Read it →Reference · 14 min
State estate and inheritance taxes
The twelve states and DC with an estate tax, the five with an inheritance tax, their 2026 thresholds and rates, and where life insurance is exempt.
Read it →Life insurance inside a business
Guide · 20 min
Key person, buy-sell, group life, and executive plans
The four jobs life insurance does in a business, the written notice that decides whether a death benefit is taxable, and how the Supreme Court's 2024 Connelly decision changed buy-sell funding.
Read it →Guide · 16 min
Life settlements
Selling a policy you already own — how it works, who buys, what it's taxed at after the 2017 law change, and the alternatives regulators say to price out first.
Read it →The industry behind the policies
Guide · 11 min
How the industry is built
How many companies there are and how that number collapsed since 1988, stock versus mutual versus fraternal, and why the exact name on your policy is the one that counts.
Read it →Guide · 11 min
How long you live, and what a policy really costs
Longevity is the biggest driver of lifetime cost. The life expectancy figures, what a long life does to term and to permanent, and the crossover number we won't invent for you.
Read it →Last updated: July 23, 2026