Insights
Independent Insight for Defensible Decision-Making
Voluntary Participant-Funded Split-Dollar: What to Test Before You Adopt It
Participant-funded split dollar shifts the funding from the organization to the executive, who gives up compensation the organization then lends into a policy. This article covers what a board should test before adopting one, including the benchmarks a proposal should be measured against and the threshold questions that come before any modeling.
Beyond the Proposal – What Boards Should Review in IUL-Funded Executive Benefit Plans
Two IUL policies with the same carrier, premium, and illustrated rate can produce very different cash value. This article separates what design fixes at issue from what the carrier can change later, and sets out what a board should require before approving an IUL-funded plan.
The Five-Dimensional Cost of Executive Benefits
Executive benefit proposals often focus on retirement income and accounting treatment. This whitepaper introduces a five-dimensional framework that helps boards evaluate the full economic impact of executive benefit decisions.
The Questions No One Asks About Life Insurance in a SERP
Life insurance is a common tool for funding SERPs, but success depends on more than the product. Many issues stem from untested assumptions, unclear costs, and lack of scrutiny. This article highlights the key questions decision makers should ask to evaluate performance, risk, and long term viability, helping organizations make more informed financial commitments.
Whole Life Is Not Whole Life – Why Policy Design Matters in Executive Benefit Funding
Whole life insurance is often treated as a uniform product—but in executive benefit funding, outcomes are shaped by design. Two policies with the same premium and carrier can produce materially different results based on how premium is allocated, how funding is structured, and how flexibility is built in. These structural choices directly impact early cash value, risk, and long-term performance—making policy design, not just product selection, the critical variable.
The Hidden Variable in Executive Benefit Plan Design – How Incentives Shape Executive Benefit Plans
The most consequential decision in many executive benefit plans isn’t the product, carrier, or benefit type. It’s how compensation is embedded in the structure — and whether anyone independent of the provider evaluated it.
Who Bears the Risk – A Framework for Evaluating Split Dollar Structures
Collateral assignment split dollar has become one of the most widely used executive retention tools in credit unions and nonprofits. The accounting treatment (a loan receivable rather than compensation expense) is a genuine structural advantage. But it has also become a distraction from a more important question.
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