PPLI.com Editorial Standards

What this research covers

The site covers PPLI definitions, tax and regulatory questions, investment restrictions, policy economics, ownership, jurisdictions and market developments. We write for families, family offices and the lawyers, accountants and advisers who work with them.

Our articles explain how things work. They are not an insurance offer, a view on whether a policy suits you or a legal opinion on your circumstances. A real proposal comes with its own policy documents and needs your own professional advice, because no general explanation can tell you which insurer will accept an application or how your particular transaction will be taxed.

English content, the UK, Singapore, Gulf and Hindi editions, and the Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, French, German and Italian editions carry the same legal qualifications, numerical assumptions and source dates as the original. A rule described in Spanish or German is still the rule of the country it came from; translation does not move it to another jurisdiction.

How legal and tax statements must be supported

Every legal claim tells you which jurisdiction it concerns, the date it speaks to and the source that actually governs the point. We check that each citation supports the sentence it sits next to, conditions and exceptions included.

We go to the statute, regulation or decision for the rule itself. Professional commentary is useful for how a rule is read and applied in practice, and when we rely on it we say whose view it is and when it was written. Where practitioners disagree, or the evidence is thin, the article says so and names the point that is unsettled.

Quoting a section number is not enough if the text leaves out a condition that changes the answer. And when a figure comes from a long report, we point you to the exhibit or passage it came from.

Numbers, comparisons and calculators

• Name the measure: Premium, cash value, assets under administration, face amount, net worth and investable assets must not be substituted for one another.
• State the period and population: Identify whether a number describes one carrier, a sample, a jurisdiction or a wider market.
• Separate evidence from illustration: A hypothetical charge or return must not be described as a client result, verified quotation or industry norm.
• Publish the method: A worked example must disclose formulas, timing, tax assumptions, charge bases and material exclusions.
• Explain the output: Projected account value is not automatically an insurance death benefit. A result before surrender tax is not a result after that tax.
• Test the operation: Calculator inputs, error messages, rounding and boundary cases require testing as well as the underlying arithmetic.

We use software to help with drafting, translation, source handling and calculations. A person still checks the facts and takes responsibility for what is published. When we test a model with software, we treat the result as proof of the cases we tested and nothing more.

Who is responsible for an article?

Writing an article, reviewing it as a specialist and overseeing the site as a whole are different jobs, and our credits say which one a person did. We name a professional reviewer only when that person actually reviewed the material, and we keep a record of what they reviewed, in which field and on what date.

The advisory-board page explains what the board does. Sitting on the board does not mean a member has reviewed a given article, and we never use a member's name, title or photograph to suggest they approved something they have not read.

We are also careful about what a review covers. A lawyer checking the legal points has not checked the actuarial ones, and someone verifying the arithmetic is not recommending the policy. The author and review details in the article and in its structured data always match.

Commercial relationships and provider coverage

We hold statements about our own business to the same standard as statements about the law. If we say there are no commissions, affiliations, sponsorships or referral payments, that has to be true of our actual arrangements, and we keep it up to date.

Where compensation, sponsorship, a referral arrangement or any other relationship could color how you read something, the page tells you what the relationship is and who is involved, in plain language. Saying we are "independent" is not a disclosure.

If you decide to work with any firm you meet through your research, get it in writing first: what services it provides, whom it acts for and what fee, commission or referral payment is involved. Reading an article here does not create an engagement with anyone.

When we write about providers, we keep documented facts, comparison criteria and any view of our own clearly apart. A list of insurers that have offered PPLI is a record of the past, not a guarantee that each one is accepting business today or a ranking of their products. Whether you qualify for a product and whether it suits you are two separate questions.

For questions about an introduction, a service or a commercial relationship, use the contact page and tell us which article or conversation you are asking about.

How the News Desk works

The News Desk reports dated developments for eleven regional editions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Spain and Latin America, Brazil and Portugal, France and its French-speaking neighbours, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Italy, India, mainland China and Hong Kong, and the Gulf. Each edition is reported from the authorities and the financial and legal press of its own jurisdictions, in its own language.

• What counts as news: a ruling, regulation, bill, circular, official notice or market event that changes, or materially informs, how a life insurance wrapper is structured, taxed or held in that jurisdiction. Product launches, analyst notes and promotional material are not news. A week with nothing that qualifies produces no article.
• Facts: each fact in a story is taken from a named source and checked against that source's own wording before the story is written. Background comes only from PPLI.com's published explainers. A number that does not appear in the sources is not published.
• Process: research, writing, an independent check of every factual sentence against the sources, editing, and a final check. Software assists each of these steps, as described above; the editor decides what is published.
• Sources: every article lists the sources it draws on and links to the publisher. Quotations are reproduced as published and attributed by name and role.
• Updates: when a published story is revised, the article says so and gives the date. Corrections follow the process set out below.
• LinkedIn: stories that matter to the professional market are also summarised on LinkedIn. Those posts use only facts from the published article and link back to it.

Corrections and material updates

To report an error, send us the page URL, quote the statement and tell us what is wrong. If you have the primary source or a calculation that shows the correct position, include it.

1. Check the disputed statement against the relevant source and effective date.
2. Correct the affected explanation, example, table, calculator or other component.
3. Update related FAQ answers, structured data, excerpts and translated versions where the same error appears.
4. For a material correction, record what changed and when, and make clear whether we fixed a mistake or reported a new development.
5. Keep the original publication date. We only show a page as updated when its substance has actually been reviewed.

Past correction notices are backed by retained versions or a change record showing what was affected. We keep that record page by page rather than announcing that the whole site has been checked.

Broken source links are worth reporting too, even when the explanation around them looks right. Any replacement citation has to support the original claim, not just cover a related topic.

Ask about these standards or report an error

Email info@ppli.com or contact PPLI.com. Include the page URL and the issue you want us to look at.

Please read the Privacy Policy before sending personal information. You will not need account numbers, identity documents, medical details or a complete policy file to report a correction.

For an introduction to the subject, start with the PPLI guide or browse the research library.