Okay, this one will be short to make up for last night’s lengthy, difficult post. The myth: some folks seem to believe that life insurance proceeds are automatically exempt from estate taxes. Not true. Life insurance is income tax free when paid to a beneficiary. But, they are included in your estate for estate tax purposes if the proceeds are payable to your estate or if they are payable to a beneficiary and you possessed “incidents of ownership” in the policy at the time of your death. ...
