Most Americans have a life insurance policy. Why does the next SEC president have Paul Atkins and his wife 54?
Paul Atkins, the candidate for President Donald Trump to chair the Securities and Stock Exchange Committee, is a comprehensive financial. It has royal rights at the giant SILBA technology company, property in encryption companies, and risks in investment capital companies. He also possesses a group of puffed life insurance policies: 54 precisely, which he carries with his wife and family.
This is according to the last disclosure of ethics, which the agency’s heads must be completed (ATKINS is likely to be confirmed as SEC President this week), members of Congress and other high -ranking officials.
To put the 54 -year -old life insurance policies in the context, in 2023, there was slightly less than 260 million active policies in the United States, According to To the American Council of Life Insurance Companies – a player more than one, on average, for every American adult. Meanwhile, life insurance policies represented approximately 10 % of the net value of Takins, which Bloomberg He puts at least 327 million dollars.
Atkins decision to collect dozens of life insurance policies, even some experts.
James Carson, a professor at the University of Georgia, who is looking at the insurance market, told the insurance market, told the insurance market. luck. Why, then, does Akins have a lot?
luck He arrived at ATKINS to comment through Patomak Global Partners, where he is the CEO, but he did not receive a response.
Death and taxes
Dozens of life insurance policies in SEC may be a way to reduce the taxes it owes, as Timothy Harris, professor of economics at Illinois State University, told luck.
There are two main types of life insurance: the term and complete. Range policies are valid for a specific period, for example, 20 or 30 years. The latter actually remains for the life of the document holder. All policies of ATKINS 54 in the entire category, or their contrast known as “Universal”.
The entire life insurance combines savings account with death. Documentary holders deposit money in their account and receive tax postponed interest. When they die, the beneficiaries receive money, interest and the broken amount. Harris said: “It is less than that related to early death, and more than an investment vehicle,” Harris said.
Harris said that for those who have never increased their contributions to traditional retirement vehicles, such as 401 (K) and Roth Iras, full life insurance plans are not the best investment. But “for the high owners who have already exhausted all the benefits of 401 (K), you can resort to full or comprehensive life insurance policies to try to circumvent some taxes.”
Complex financial affairs – or speculation bet
ATKINS’s HOARD of Life Insurance Policies are not “natural,” said Patricia, a professor at the Florida State University Business Administration, who studies risk and insurance management, said. luck. She said there is an explanation that exceeds taxes.
Financial Affairs of the SEC President is complex. He has multiple boxes, sitting on the Board of Directors of multiple companies, and is the CEO of Patomak Global Partners Financial Consultant. She said that companies often grant employees or members of the Board of Directors to life insurance. “It will be logical to be policies specially written to pay each of these funds.”
But Carson, a professor at the University of Georgia, believes that dozens of policies reflect something else: Atkins decision to purchase life insurance for others.
These transactions are not uncommon. In some cases, the policy holder may decide that the insurance premiums are very expensive, or that they no longer need to provide loved ones. Those who wish to empty their lives can sell it to the company that issued it for “the value of surrender”, or the repurchase price.
Nevertheless, policymakers can choose to sell to a third party that offers more than the original source. In these cases, the third party will continue to pay the political premiums, and if the original seller will die, he will receive a surprise. Those who buy other life insurance policy are betting on a person’s life. Will this person die soon enough to make pain in the short term from the monthly or annual fees worth it?
Carson is convinced of this reason for Atkins 54 life insurance policies. “This man clearly loves to have a large group of various investments,” he said. “I think these are investments.”
He referred to a variety of exporters on the document of detection of Atkins as well as the difference in the value of life insurance policies. Some of them are north worth one million dollars, while others lie between $ 1,000 and 15,000 dollars.
Attins is currently in front of the Senate in a confirmation session on Thursday. He plans or has already cleared a large part of his property, but not his life insurance policies, according to the ethics agreement.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
