Traditional IRAs are mostly owned by the government through taxes: up to 40% vanishes to ordinary income taxes, especially after age 70 when required withdrawals kick in. Life insurance can replace those tax-deferred dollars with tax-exempt assets that pass to heirs untouched.
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The money in your IRA is not all yours. As much as 40% of it, maybe more, belongs to the government because your IRA money is only tax-deferred. It is not tax-exempt, and you've got to pay tax on every dollar in your account, even if you leave it all to your family. In fact, the IRS will require you to withdraw money from your IRA and pay tax on it every year after age 70. Even if you don't want the money, and whatever is left in your account when you pass on will all be taxed as earned income before your heirs can inherit the money. So what's the solution? Internal Revenue Code Sections 101 and 7702, which allow you to gradually replace the tax-deferred dollars in your IRA with tax-exempt dollars that will transfer the value of your IRA to your heirs without any risk of either losing the money or depleting the account value, and without any investment fees or management fees.