BALOISE-HOLDING : Baloise achieves solid result 4-traders (press release)
30.08.11
Overview: Good earning capacity
The solid insurance business shapes the half-year result of the Baloise Group. Profit after borrowing costs and taxes amounts to CHF 203.4 million (previous year: CHF 213.5 million). This decrease is largely due to the weaker financial result, which benefited from the realisation of securities in the previous year. In addition, there is the slightly higher claims burden as well as integration and restructuring costs in Germany and Belgium. The measures of the strategic programme Baloise 2012, which will generate additional sustainable profit of CHF 200 million, again contributed substantially in the first half of 2011. Baloises profit is spread over a wide base, on the one hand there are the main divisions nonlife, life and banking, and on the other there are the large strategic business units. Baloises strength is also reflected in the solid balance sheet and excellent solvency. Premium volume increased by 3.2% in local currencies. This was accompanied by a decline of 1.2% in Swiss francs as a result of the weak euro. Premium earnings amounted to CHF 4,522.4 million (previous year: CHF 4,577.6 million). Growth was very distinctive in the nonlife business. Business volume, which includes investment-type life insurances, decreased by 11.0% in local currencies and by 15.2 % in Swiss francs. Although it performed well, it still could not match the exceptionally strong previous year, which profited from extraordinary effects.
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Common bLife Insurance/b Traps And How To Avoid Them
Insurance policy to charity. You’ll get a tax deduction for the cost basis in the policy-generally, the amount of premiums you’ve paid into it.
*Making a gift of the policy to your child or grandchild. The policy benefit will be tax free to the recipient, giving the child a valuable head start on financial security. The gift also will remove the policy from your taxable estate, assuming you survive three years after the gift.
You can avoid paying gift tax on the transfer by utilizing your annual gift tax exclusion (currently $10,000 per recipient, or $20,000 when gifts are made by a married couple) and, if necessary, using part of your estate and gift tax exempt amount.
*Cashing in the policy. This will put cash in your pocket, but you will realize taxable income to the extent that the amount received for the policy exceeds what you paid into it through premiums.
Estate tax planning: If you find you still need some life insurance to finance potential estate taxes, consider using a second-to-die policy that covers both you and your spouse and pays its benefit on the death of the survivor.
The estate tax marital deduction lets all of one spouse’s assets pass estate tax free to the surviving spouse, so it is on the death of the surviving spouse that a couple’s estate tax liability becomes due.
A second-to-die policy can provide funds to finance such an estate tax bill at substantially less cost than that of buying two
