Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Annuities > Variable Annuities

IRS Sends Security Benefit an Annuity Advisory Fee Letter Ruling

By Allison Bell

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Security Benefit today said that it has an Internal Revenue Service interpretation that should make offering fee-based annuities cheaper and easier, both for the fee-based advisors and for the clients.

The Topeka, Kansas-based company has received an IRS private letter ruling that will allow the company to pay fees to advisors directly from an annuity contract’s cash value, without creating a taxable event for the contract holder.

The letter ruling covers fees for ongoing investment advice equal to up to 1.5% of a contract’s cash value per year.

Security Benefit now offers the commission-free ClearLine non-variable indexed annuity and the commission-free Elite Design variable annuity through a platform operated by DPL Financial Partners.

Security Benefit did not provide the date or number of the letter ruling it received.

The IRS has issued similar letter rulings to other life insurers since August.

Letter Ruling Basics

A “private letter ruling” is a document that shows how one IRS official has applied the tax rules to one taxpayer’s situation.

Life insurers who like the looks of the new letter rulings can use the text when writing requests for their own letter rulings. But, if life insurers want to help annuity buyers keep advisory fees out of taxable income, they have to apply for their own letter rulings. They can’t apply Security Benefit’s private letter ruling to their own advisory fee payment mechanisms.

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.