Advanced Markets 2026 On Demand: Split Dollar Updates for 2026 and Beyond

Life insurance still provides an integral role in estate, retirement and wealth transfer tax planning, regardless of the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 permanent estate tax changes.  In the Ultra High Net Worth space, the proliferation of the use of Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI), has renewed interest in utilizing private split dollar planning to achieve desired results in implementation.  While interest rates are no longer at historical lows, so the financial leverage is not as robust, the use of private split dollar (and third-party bank premium financing) to facilitate substantial life insurance premium payments continues to show resilience and demand.  In the employer-employee arena, split dollar continues to serve a role in deferred compensation and executive benefit planning to attract and retain key executives and other individuals.   This tool is equally available, with some different planning hurdles, in the non-profit and exempt organization world.  This program is designed to provide advisors with an understanding of the basic features of, and variations, in split dollar life insurance planning with key updates in these three different planning worlds.  We hope to provide those advisors who have not previously worked in this space, core knowledge of the emerging opportunities that exist for their clients to consider based on their needs and objectives.   

By the end of this session learners will be able to:

• Participants will be able to describe the fundamental structures and variations of split dollar life insurance arrangements across private, employer-employee, and nonprofit contexts. 

• Participants will be able to analyze the tax and regulatory considerations associated with split dollar planning, including current interest rate and legislative impacts. 

• Participants will be able to evaluate when split dollar strategies, including premium financing and PPLI structures, may be appropriate within estate, retirement, and executive benefit planning. 

• Participants will be able to compare the risks, benefits, and design trade-offs of split dollar arrangements in different client scenarios.