Does Life Insurance Count In Estate? 
Policy ownership is what determines whether the policy is included in a person 's estate for estate tax purposes . Having someone else own the policy will keep it out of the estate , but you also lose some control . The owner , not the insured , has control over the policy , so having someone else own the policy can be risky . Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts could be used in large estates , but is overkill for most people . Keeping the life insurance out of your estate for tax reasons may not be a big issue but it depends on the total size of your estate and what trade-offs you are willing to accept to keep the insurance out of your estate . 