Certain best practices and ethical standards from the certified public accountant profession could greatly benefit life insurance policy issuers and policy holders alike, say life insurance advisors Barry Flagg, Dave Buckwald, and Brad Sprong.

Non-guaranteed life insurance policies may expire earlier than expected due to decades of reduced sustained interest rates and fiduciaries need guidance on how to prevent that from happening, says Henry Montag of The TOLI Center East.

The Wagner Law Group’s Michael Schloss, who spent more than 30 years at DOL enforcing ERISA, reflects on retirement policies that except ERISA’s primary fiduciary requirements for tax-subsidized plan assets while promoting employee stock ownership as well as environmental and social goals, and barring investments in firms tied to U.S. adversaries.

Individuals who claim abandonment or worthlessness losses for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets typically will not be able to deduct those losses, Libin Zhang of Fried Frank reiterates.

A tax elimination “strategy” widely promoting the use of a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT) to fully escape federal income tax on the sale of appreciated property and to fund tax-free annuity payments to noncharitable beneficiaries of the CRAT has not lived up to the promises of its promoters, and instead has brought heavy legal and monetary loss to involved parties. Indeed, courts have leveled decisions against participating taxpayers and ordered that their names be disclosed to the IRS, and the Justice Department has shut down and penalized the promoters. According to the government, at least 70 CRATs have been used in this scheme, resulting in an estimated $40 million of taxable income going unreported and at least $8 million in tax revenue being lost. The IRS has these abusive arrangements on its radar screen and is conducting audits. Taxpayers should avoid the scheme at all costs.

IFRS 17, international reporting standards for insurance contracts, has implications not only for accounting and finance, but also taxes, policies, and processes, says Mhalou Abadiano of Stout’s Transaction Advisory group.