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Life Insurance Retirement Plans (LIRPs)

What Is a Life Insurance Retirement Plan (LIRP)?

A life insurance retirement plan is a permanent life insurance policy that uses its cash value component to help fund retirement. LIRPs mirror the tax benefits of a Roth IRA, meaning you do not pay taxes on withdrawals after age 59½, and cash earnings grow tax-deferred. Any permanent life insurance policy with cash value, such as whole life insurance, can help fund retirement. Term life insurance has no cash value and cannot be used for a life insurance retirement plan.  

What Is a Life Insurance Policy's Cash Value?

A certain percentage of your cash value life insurance policy's premium payment goes into a savings component similar to a tax-deferred investment, known as the policy's cash value. The exact amount allocated to savings is determined by your individual policy, and the cash value account grows over time.

After you have held the cash value long enough, or after it accumulates to a certain amount, you can access the money by withdrawing it or borrowing against it. That money can be used to generate tax-free retirement income.

 

How Can You Use a LIRP to Fund Retirement?

LIRPs can supplement existing retirement savings accounts and fill gaps during a stock market downturn. If you maximize contributions to your traditional investment accounts, you can direct additional funds to cash value, creating another avenue for tax-deferred investment growth. In a down year for the stock market, it may be more beneficial to withdraw money from cash value with a fixed growth rate than from a retirement account that has declined in value.

 

Pay More Than Your Required Premium to Fund Cash Value

To accumulate enough cash value to supplement retirement,

some policyholders choose to overfund their cash value life insurance policies by paying more than the required premium each month. The extra money goes toward the policy's cash value and grows tax-deferred. But this strategy works only if you do not need to make withdrawals before age 59½: an overfunded cash value policy that exceeds the annual premium limit established by the IRS becomes a modified endowment contract (MEC) and is subject to additional taxes and withdrawal penalties.

 

Using Cash Value to Supplement Retirement

Many financial experts recommend the “ 4% rule”: withdraw no more than 4% of your savings in each year of retirement. When you own a cash value life insurance policy, you have access to its cash value in addition to your retirement accounts.

Long-Term Care Support

Most life insurance policies, including cash value policies, offer the option of adding a long-term care rider. This rider provides an accelerated death benefit as you get older, if you need to pay for a nursing home or have other medical costs associated with aging.

  Regardless of the type of life insurance policy you decide to buy, dedicated retirement accounts such as 401(k)s or IRAs should remain your primary way to fund retirement.