Private placement life insurance
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Search complete. 60 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Private placement life insurance".
Oct 23, 2026
Ryan EisenmanGUEST
I think there's a lot more to do in that part of the industry in general.
Ryan EisenmanGUEST
Like if you are doing PPLI, you're probably investing in in alternatives.
Ryan EisenmanGUEST
And maybe it's like a specific like insurance dedicated fund.
Ryan EisenmanGUEST
And so you have, or someone has a similar type of like burden of tracking those positions, marking those positions, getting information to custodians or to the client themselves.
John BlanchardGUEST
They have limited liquidity, and they pay a high commission.
John BlanchardGUEST
Then you have the institutional-based, which are considered private placement, what we call PPLI.
John BlanchardGUEST
That's a different animal.
John BlanchardGUEST
There's no commission like when we offer it to hold high net worth.
Lou CorsoGUEST
This case came to us from a private wealth advisor in the Northeast in And the client was a senior managing director with a large financial firm.
Lou CorsoGUEST
And he owned a PPLI, which is a private placement life insurance policy on his life, right? And it was owned by a trust.
Lou CorsoGUEST
And the policy had $46 million of cash in it and a $10 million basis.
Lou CorsoGUEST
So the policy was purchased in 2006.
Lou CorsoGUEST
The client was concerned about a couple of things.
Lou CorsoGUEST
He was concerned about the market, right? He was concerned about market performance over time.
Lou CorsoGUEST
Because the PPLI, private placement life insurance policy, is not guaranteed.
Lou CorsoGUEST
And he wanted to de-risk this policy.
Michael MalloyGUEST
Well, before that I was a risk manager, so it's going back a little even farther.
Michael MalloyGUEST
Um, I ran a, uh, a branch office for a, um, a la- a larger firm, and, uh, then kind of morphed into, uh, advanced life insurance and advanced estate planning.
Michael MalloyGUEST
And for the past, uh, 30 years, uh, we've specialized in what's called, uh, PPLI, private placement life insurance.
Seth GreeneHOST
So for what exactly is private placement life insurance, and why have most successful entrepreneurs never heard about it?
Michael MalloyGUEST
Uh, well, uh, two good questions.
Michael MalloyGUEST
Uh, it's, um, in its basic sense it, all it is is recharacterizing a, an account that's held by a financial institution to one, an insurance company.
Michael MalloyGUEST
And why would you want to do that? Uh, well, basically for tax advantages.
Michael MalloyGUEST
'Cause if, uh, it operates much like, uh, any other cash value life insurance.
Derren JosephHOST
But there's nothing, like, on the government website advertising it, but which when you deal with advisors who are, um, knowledgeable about the jurisdiction, they can talk about three tools that we've seen to be pretty useful.
Derren JosephHOST
PPLIs, uh, foreign irrevocable trusts, and family offices.
Derren JosephHOST
PPLIs is a private placement life insurance policy.
Derren JosephHOST
So basically it involves taking the, the assets that are gonna remain outside of Europe when the family moves and putting them in an insurance wrapper.
Derren JosephHOST
And in most jurisdictions, when something is inside an insurance wrapper, I mean, it offers asset protection once it's done properly.
Derren JosephHOST
I think it's worthy mentioning it here.
Derren JosephHOST
Bear...
Derren JosephHOST
I mean, full disclaimer, I don't speak Mandarin, but I've seen commentary from, um, legal professionals who are bilingual, and their interpretation of the law is that it has been drafted in such broad strokes that it may actually include PPLIs.
Jay JudasGUEST
How much of my portfolio should I dedicate to PPLI? They're looking for me to say 25% or 50.
Jay JudasGUEST
Well, 95% of PPLI is really about identifying wealth in your portfolio or money that you are not gonna touch again in your lifetime.
Jay JudasGUEST
It's money that you've already mentally set aside for your beneficiaries, for your kids or grandkids.
Frazer RiceHOST
[upbeat music] Welcome back to the Wealth Actually podcast, the show that features experts, entrepreneurs, and commentators that will give you the right knowledge, planning, and guidance so you can preserve your assets and enjoy your wealth.
Frazer RiceHOST
Welcome aboard, Jay.
Jay JudasGUEST
Fraser, thank you for having me.
Frazer RiceHOST
It's been a long time coming because PPLI has, uh, r- really started to dominate, uh, not only the headlines, but certainly my practice, practices around me, well, a lot of what trusted states lawyers are talking about, et cetera, and it really is part of your practice, uh, in a nutshell.
Frazer RiceHOST
Maybe quickly j- just talk a little bit about what you do, uh, day job-wise and how you advise RIAs and clients and others about how to think about it.
Derren JosephHOST
So let's continue our conversation on the new offshore trust tax rules for Chinese residents.
Derren JosephHOST
We've spoken a lot in the past about PPLI.
Derren JosephHOST
What is the status of PPLI in the context of these new tax rules?
Mark MorrisGUEST
Yeah, this is interesting because a lot of PPLI broker companies came out the next day and said, this is an alternative to trust and use PPLI, but it's not that simple by far.
Mark MorrisGUEST
Practitioners advising Chinese resident clients on PPLI have generally reasoned that from CRS mechanics.
Mark MorrisGUEST
A life insurance wrapper is a cash value insurance contract held by the insurer, a specified insurer.
Mark MorrisGUEST
And the customer of record for serious purposes is the policyholder.
Mark MorrisGUEST
What powers does he have? Can he direct the investments? Can he withdraw at any time? the protectors authority the beneficiary provisions and the flow of economic benefit not on what the document calls itself this is a fundamental difference from anything in the CRS analysis CRS classifications ask what an entity or contract is for reporting purposes under fixed taxonomy.
Keith SingerHOST
As you and I both know, we both went to UM Law School and we took income taxation where we studied the tax code and Congress built them on purpose, right? The problem is that most people drive right past them.
Keith SingerHOST
One of them, my favorites, is private placement life insurance or PPLI.
Keith SingerHOST
Your investments grow inside a life insurance policy without annual tax.
Keith SingerHOST
And you can invest exactly the way you do now, except in a tax-free world.
Keith SingerHOST
Inside of this contract, most of that 8% keeps compounding, less the cost of insurance, which is much, much smaller than the tax bill you'd be paying.
Keith SingerHOST
Over 20 or 30 years, that gap becomes a different financial life.
David FriedlandHOST
And PPLI is built for larger portfolios and for investors who meet certain wealth requirements.
David FriedlandHOST
It's not for everyone, but for the families it fits, the money's not locked away.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
This isn't the life insurance policy someone sells you for a few hundred dollars a month.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
PPLI is primarily high net worth, ultra high net worth planning strategy.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
You're talking about families with millions of dollars of investable assets, and the concept is pretty fascinating.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
You essentially have a life insurance structure that can hold sophisticated investments, private equity, private credit, hedge fund strategies, alternative investments.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
Sell the hedge fund and then buy the private equity fund.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
If the policy owner exercises too much control over the underlying investments, you can jeopardize that tax treatment.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
And that's one of the reasons I told investors that the biggest misconception is viewing PPLI simply as some type of tax loophole.
Kevin ThompsonHOST
It's not.
Justin DonaldSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So what I have done and what a lot of wealthy families do is they build that whole fixed income segment with life insurance.
Justin DonaldSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
They may use PPLI, they may use whole life, they use different products and it gives them some liquidity and you'll see cash five to 10%.
Justin DonaldSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And so, you know, having cash on hand that can also be quickly accessed could reside in a life insurance policy.
David McKnightSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
What do most people do when it comes to life insurance? They get as much death benefit as they can for as little money as possible.