I was walking with my wife this morning on the windy country road near our house.
In the distance behind us, we heard a car approaching.
The road is shady, beautiful, and usually very quiet–but it is quite narrow, so a car intruding on our walk forces us to walk single file, ready to leap into the creek if the car gets a tad too close.
“Get over,” my wife said.
Feeling a little smug, I said, “Don’t worry. I have life insurance. You’ll have plenty to enjoy with Husband No. 2.”
I told her that besides that, life insurance proceeds to a beneficiary (like her) are non-taxable. Being a tax geek, I did mention that my estate would have to include the life insurance proceeds in my gross estate for estate tax purposes, but I wasn’t really too worried about that, not with the $5 million exclusion. Being a little out of breath from the walking and talking at the same time, I failed to mention that I could remove the insurance from my gross estate by setting up an irrevocable life insurance trust. All of the ends and outs of that kind of estate planning would have taken up the last few minutes of our walk, and it was too pretty a morning to waste on the fine points of the Internal Revenue Code.
Thinking I had impressed my wife with my ability to expound on tax law, I waited for her response.
The car behind us had already come and gone, but there would probably be another one along soon.
“You can walk in the middle of the road, if you want,” she said, smiling.
Death, taxes, and a beautiful morning on a country road with my bride and life insurance beneficiary–definitely, a walk to remember.