Health and Life Insurance

Answer: D - Inclusion of life insurance death benefits as part of an insured's estate may cause the benefits paid to the estate to be taxable at both the federal and state levels. Inclusion of the death benefit proceeds in the estate may be avoided if the owner of the life insurance policy is someone other than the deceased - as long as the assignment of such ownership away from the insured occurred at least three years prior to the insured's death. If such an assignment occurred less than three years prior to the insured's death, the proceeds may be considered part of his or her estate for estate tax purposes.