Eyeworld

MAR 2013

EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.

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Eye on your money: Insightful by W. Ben Utley, CFP Question: Answer: I just became a partner in a small group practice. My tax person tells me the bump in pay is going to mean a lot higher taxes. I am maxing out my 401(k) but still I got a huge tax bill last year. The agent who sold me my disability insurance policy says I should buy some variable universal life insurance from him because it will save me taxes, but I already have $2 million in term coverage from USAA for my wife and kids. One of my partners thinks VUL is a bad deal. What do you think? Since it's early in your career and you have a family to think about, it makes sense to have life insurance. Based on what I have seen in similar cases, $2 million is a good start but it's not enough to provide everything your family might need to pay off the house, send kids to college (or private school), and pay ongoing costs of living without you. So I do think you need more coverage, but I do not believe variable universal life insurance is the answer. 12 Ophthalmology Business • April 2013 As a form of cash value insurance, VUL combines the benefits of life insurance with the features you might find in a mutual fund investment. The word "variable" refers to the fluctuations in the cash value as a result of changes in the value of the investments it holds, while the word "universal" means that premium payments are flexible (like a universal joint is flexible). I would have named this product "variable flexible life," or VFL for short, but I figure the "F" might be misinterpreted to stand for "fallacious" since misguided physicians who buy this stuff suffer from the mistaken impression that they will save taxes while making a great investment that will protect their families. The promise of tax savings is more fiction than fact. Sure, the cash value has potential to grow taxdeferred and the death benefit might be income tax-free, but these benefits are not the same as true, permanent tax savings. Since Congress closed most of the loopholes with the Tax Reform Act of 1986, permanent tax savings have grown increasingly scarce, particularly for medical specialists and other taxpayers in the top brackets. A VUL policy's tax deferral feature—arguably the only attribute of any value to an investor—may actually cost physicians more money in both the short and long term. Under current tax law, long-term capital gains and qualified dividends are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income, but the gain on complete withdrawals from a VUL policy will be taxed as ordinary income. Given that the top federal tax rate on ordinary income is fully 23 per-

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