Shift To Wealthier Clientele Puts Life Insurers In A Bind

Life Insurance Becoming 'Tax Shelter For The Rich'

In a development all but unnoticed outside the industry, life-insurance companies gradually have shifted away from their broad historical base of middle-class households. Instead, statistics show, an increasing portion of insurers' business consists of selling large policies to wealthier Americans, often as part of complex estate-tax plans.

The shift means that a growing proportion of the tax benefits of life insurance goes to the well-off, not to the middle class that once was the industry's backbone.

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