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Vol. 80, No. 6, November 2026

FEATURED ARTICLES

Life Insurance as a Plan Asset
Ernest J. Guerriero, CLU, ChFC, CEBS, CPCU, CPC, CMS, AIF, RICP, CPFA
Harvey Shifrin, JD, CPA
This article examines the use of permanent life insurance as a plan asset in IRC Sec. 401(a) cash balance plans. It evaluates the asset’s potential role in liability-sensitive portfolio construction, funded-status stability, contribution volatility management, and incidental survivor protection. The analysis situates plan-owned insurance within the governing framework of ERISA fiduciary duties, Treasury qualification standards, nondiscrimination rules, fair market value principles, economic-benefit reporting, and transfer-for-value limitations. The article concludes that permanent life insurance may serve a defensible plan-level function when its use is retirement-primary, prudently selected, appropriately documented, and continuously monitored within the plan’s fiduciary governance structure.

The Depreciation Tax Trap: CPA-Advisor Coordination Before Real-Estate Sales
Michael Schutza, TPCP
Depreciation can improve a rental property’s cash flow while reducing its adjusted basis and creating gains with different tax characters at sale. This article introduces Tax-Asset Planning (TAP), a Client–CPA–Advisor framework for forecasting taxable events and coordinating potentially usable tax attributes before the transaction terms become fixed. Using three stylized rental-property cases and two literature-based transaction illustrations, the article tests how a sale-year outcome changes when sufficient eligible capital-loss tax assets are assumed to be available. The comparisons are illustrative, not a forecast of loss generation. Results show that capital losses may offset unrecaptured §1250 gain and residual long-term capital gain, but generally not §1245 ordinary recapture. TAP, therefore, helps identify the potentially offsetable portion of a projected real-estate tax liability while planning time remains.

Financial Planning and the Use of Artificial Intelligence
Cassandra R. Cole, PhD Stephen G. Fier, PhD
Over the past several years, financial professionals and their clients have become more willing to embrace the use of artificial intelligence (AI). For financial professionals, its use may allow them to more effectively serve their clients and reduce some of the time allocated to day-to-day tasks that take away from their advising responsibilities. For clients, AI can represent a potentially valuable source of financial information and possibly even financial advice. However, a greater reliance on this ever-evolving technology can create new risks which can offset or outweigh any benefits. In this article, we provide an overview of how financial professionals use AI. We offer insight into both the ways in which AI can benefit financial planners and the potential risks that could arise from its use if care is not taken. Finally, we briefly discuss potential risk management techniques and frameworks which may be employed to reduce or mitigate AI-related risks.

DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s View
The Journal of Financial Service Professionals 2026 Year in Review
Kenn Beam Tacchino, JD, LLM
We present to you an overview of the many helpful columns and articles that were published in the Journal of Financial Service Professionals throughout 2026. Reviewing it can help you stay informed about key practice areas and identify ideas and strategies for better serving your clients.

Estate Planning
The Estate Plan After the Signature: Lessons from Celebrity Estates
Mark R. Parthemer, JD, AEP, ACTEC Fellow
Celebrity estate disputes highlight a vital professional lesson: a signed estate plan is not necessarily a working one. Using high-profile cases like Gene Hackman, Jimmy Buffett, and Rupert Murdoch, this column shows how outdated documents, unfunded trusts, poor fiduciary choices, and sloppy execution cause costly litigation. Financial planners and insurance advisors add lasting value by conducting regular reviews, verifying beneficiary designations, ensuring proper funding, and fostering cross-professional collaboration long after initial documents are signed.

Financial Gerontology
The Female Factor in Financial Planning
Sherri Snelling, MAG
While women make up more than half of the U.S. population, they have been underserved by the male-dominated financial advisor industry. However, women are controlling more wealth, participating more on corporate boards, becoming entrepreneurs, and influencing policy and financial markets as key stakeholders. Smart advisors will position themselves to capture the women’s wealth market by understanding the differences in how men and women approach investment opportunities and planning for their future. This includes advisors needing to understand the neuroscience of how female and male brains operate differently.

Social Security Planning
The 2026 Social Security Trustees Report
Bruce D. Schobel, FSA, MAAA, CLU, CEBS
The 2026 Trustees Report presents fundamentally the same financial picture and conclusions as the 40 preceding trustees reports. Only the details have changed over all those years. From a policy perspective, trust fund depletion in 2034 is not very different from trust fund depletion in 2030 or 2040. What is consistently changing is that the depletion date keeps getting closer with each passing year. Congress will need to act one of these days. Each passing year prunes more options from the available decision tree.