daccs

Need some help please.

I am currently renting my UK home, whilst living in the US.

What have other people done with regards to Live insuance on the UK mortgage. do we cancel the UK policy as its probably void as we're living in the US, and then pay a US policy or is there a product out there for this scenario?

Thanks
Dave

MidAtlantic

Check the policy. Some remain valid when living in the US, others don't.

ChocolateBabz

Ours is still valid (I checked).

daccs

never thought it would be. I will check now though, thanks

Pulaski

If you don't have dependants living in the home, I would argue life insurance is unnecessary. Despite some fairly high-pressure from the bank's sales department when I bought my home in the UK I had no dependants and I flatly refused to buy life insurance which would have primarily provided ease of administration for the mortgage lender in the event of my death.

MidAtlantic

Who knows anything about the IRS tax on foreign issued insurance policies?

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ch08.html

I have a UK issued life insurance policy which I retained when I moved here, but have never paid this tax.

Pulaski

That's news to me, but I haven't had any foreign policies for more than a decade.

mrken30

Does the IRS monitor BE threads?

thinbrit

We do. Typically incognito as a loud mouth, know-it-all, Brit.

slices

Was going to cancel my UK policy after we got here but on checking it was still good kept it, I did enquire about an equivalent policy here rates are about the same but the US wanted me to go for a medical.
This is level term though and not explicitly linked to the mortgage, and the value is actually quite a bit higher. Good idea with dependants.

daccs

anyone care to share their provider so I can look for a policy?


Thanks

mrken30

I got the best rates from ING/Reliastar/Voya. It was ING when I took out the policy.

kodokan

I have a policy with Aviva. It was taken out when still in the UK though, so not sure if they'd open one from scratch with a non-UK resident. But they've been perfectly happy to keep it running for us while we were Swiss and then US residents.

durham_lad

For the first 6 years after we moved over we had a life insurance policy in the UK while we had our house rented out. Our taxes were handled by the company's international tax accounts, Deloitte and Touche, and we were never asked by them to provide information on life insurance premiums.

A quick scan of the US/UK Tax Treaty and it looks like they are exempt from US tax.

"The United States excise tax on insurance policies issued by foreign insurers shall not be imposed on insurance or reinsurance policies, the premiums on which are the receipts of a business of insurance carried on by an enterprise of the United Kingdom. "

Pulaski

Insurance is a regulated business, so while policies can continue if you move between the UK and US (in either direction), if the insurance broker realizes you are in "the other country" they will likely decline to find a policy for you.