A working library for elder-law attorneys, estate planners, CPAs, and financial advisors. Statute citations, IRS guidance, suitability frameworks, fillable worksheets, and a 50-state regulatory map — all free, all sourced, all yours to cite.
Updated monthly — last refresh May 2026
Choose your role and the library reshuffles to show what your clients ask you about most.
Every guide is sourced, dated, and footnoted. PDFs are firm-shareable. Tools are interactive. Filter by format below.
The three-tier framework explained: tax-free recovery of basis, ordinary income to cash surrender value, long-term capital gain above. Includes the 2017 TCJA basis-reduction repeal and viatical exclusion under IRC §101(g).
Read the guide →The eight-factor screen — age, health, policy size, premium drag, alternatives exhausted, family disposition, replacement coverage need, and tax posture — for advisors and fiduciaries.
Open suitability tool →How the cash surrender value counts as an available resource, the 60-month look-back, and where a settlement net of fair-market consideration sits within the transfer rules.
Read the guide →Trustee duties when the policy outlives its planning purpose, beneficiary consent issues, and the consequences of distributing or selling versus surrendering an ILIT-held policy.
Read the guide →Tile-grid map of all 50 states + DC. One click pulls the regulating body, primary statute citation, rescission window, and any state tax treatment notes.
Open the State Compass →Pick any two states and see their rules side by side: regulator, statute, rescission, broker licensing posture, state tax note. Helpful when a client is mid-relocation.
Compare states →State-aware, fillable worksheet a client can complete in your office — face amount, premium, surrender value, insured health snapshot, beneficiary disposition. Print to PDF, attach to file.
Open the worksheet →Routes you straight to the licensee search at the client's state Department of Insurance. Confirm any broker or provider before introduction. Required diligence step for many fiduciaries.
Verify a license →The patterns that draw state DOI enforcement — premium financing rebates, beneficiary swaps, fake terminal illness disclosures, undisclosed life-expectancy buying. Use it as a client-protection checklist.
Read the checklist →A tiered ranking of all 50 states on five protection axes: licensing rigor, rescission length, disclosure scope, anti-STOLI provisions, and post-transaction privacy. Methodology open and footnoted.
View the index →A two-page summary your associates can keep at their desks: tax tiers, viatical exclusion, NAIC model citations, rescission ranges, and the eight-factor suitability screen — all on one fold.
Download PDF ↓The eight-factor screen as a fillable PDF checklist. Score the candidate transaction, document the analysis, file with your suitability notes. Whitelabel-ready (no Pine Lake branding on body).
Download PDF ↓A plain-English client handout — what a settlement is, who qualifies, what tax to expect, what to bring to the conversation. Designed to be handed to the client at end-of-meeting.
Download PDF ↓Speaker-ready outline: regulatory landscape, Medicaid interplay, transfer rules, ethics flags around referral disclosure, and a 10-minute case study. Co-presentation available with Pine Lake.
Request co-presentation →Suitability framework, tax mechanics, AUM consequences, and the fiduciary obligation to mention the option when a client says they're about to lapse. Built for advisor CE credits.
Request co-presentation →What's federally taxable when a policyholder sells. Use this strip whenever a client asks "will I owe taxes?" — then point them to the full guide for footnoted detail.
Proceeds up to the policyholder's basis in the contract are recovered tax-free. After TCJA (2017), basis is no longer reduced by the cost-of-insurance charge — simplifying record-keeping and improving net-of-tax outcomes.
The "inside build-up" portion — the spread between cumulative premiums and the policy's cash surrender value — is taxed as ordinary income. This is the same character it would have on a straight surrender.
The "settlement premium" — what the buyer paid above cash surrender value — is generally treated as long-term capital gain. This is where most of the after-tax advantage versus surrender shows up.
Four screening questions. Thirty seconds. A defensible read on whether the client is even in the zone before you spend an hour digging into the contract.
This is a screening tool, not a recommendation. Use it as the first filter; full suitability requires the eight-factor analysis in the framework guide.
Most secondary-market buyers underwrite at 65+. Below that, life expectancy is too long to support a meaningful settlement premium.
A genuine change matters more than a number. The settlement premium reflects shortened life expectancy.
Below $100k, transaction cost typically eats the settlement premium. Above $250k, the market is most efficient.
A settlement only beats the alternative if the alternative is lapse or surrender. If the policy is still wanted, the analysis is different.
Screening tool only. Not legal, tax, or financial advice. The full eight-factor framework lives in the Suitability Framework guide.
Every state, every statute, every regulator — already built. Send a client to the page that matches their state, or use the tools below in your own diligence.
Tile-grid view of all 50 states + DC. Click any state for regulator, statute, rescission window, and tax note.
Open the map →Pick any two states side-by-side. Useful for cross-border estate cases and relocating clients.
Compare states →One click to the relevant state DOI licensee search. A clean diligence step before any client introduction.
Verify a license →Every claim in the library traces back here. Verify, quote, and cite — none of this is interpretation, all of it is on the record.
Generate a clean citation in the format your firm uses. Free, no attribution string needed.
Most of what's on this page exists because attorneys and advisors asked for it. If your firm is producing a guide, an event, or a client-education piece on life settlements — let's make it together.
Educational use only. This check offers general information about whether a policy review may be worthwhile — it is not an offer, a valuation, or a guarantee of eligibility. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase policies.