Revisiting Your Survivorship Policy After the First Death: A Comprehensive Review

The survivorship policy was placed correctly. The trust was drafted. The premiums were funded. The structure was sound.

Then the first spouse died. And in most cases, nothing happened.

The first death is the single most consequential change in the risk profile of a survivorship policy. It collapses the joint-life pricing assumption, eliminates one of the two underwritten risks, and triggers a moment when every original planning premise (exemption levels, projected estate size, liquidity needs, trust structure, premium funding source) should be revisited.

For policies placed before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the $15 million federal estate and gift tax exemption permanent, that revisitation is not a formality. The reason the policy was bought may no longer apply. The amount of coverage may be wrong. The trust may need to be restructured. The funding plan may need to be unwound or accelerated.

The right question is not whether the premiums are still being paid, but whether the policy still makes sense given everything that has changed.

This month's Tier One blog walks through what a comprehensive post-first-death review should cover, and how OBBBA's permanent exemption has reshaped the calculus on coverage placed years ago.

#survivorship policy #estate planning #first death review #tax exemption #policy restructuring