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Difficulty calculating tax basis for life insurance surrender

πŸ’Έ moneysocial problemSingle report ●●●●● severity 3/5

A long-term life insurance policyholder is unsure how to accurately calculate their cost basis for a policy surrender, as the insurer's provided basis figure appears lower than the total premiums paid and reinvested dividends over 60 years.

Who's affected: A long-term life insurance policyholder who has held a policy for several decades and is facing tax withholding upon surrender.

⚠️ Single report. This is one person's account. We mark it so until more voices confirm it.

What people do today

πŸ”§ Fix this

Ideas a builder, maker or community group could start on:

  1. A specialized tax calculator tool that allows users to input historical premium payments and dividend reinvestment data to estimate adjusted cost basis.
  2. A template or guide specifically for veterans and long-term policyholders to request detailed historical cost basis reports from insurance providers.
  3. A service that aggregates historical insurance policy data to help users reconstruct their financial history for tax reporting purposes.
I want to build this

Real voices

β€œthe insurer says my basis is about $5600, which seems low, as I've been taxed on the dividends for years.”

Source: Stack Exchange (money) Β· CC BY-SA 4.0, user-contributed content from Stack Exchange; summarized and modified

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