Can Space Tourists Get Life Insurance? by Aaron Crowe

The Oct. 31 crash of a Virgin Galactic rocket that killed a pilot hasn’t stopped the company from continuing its quest to offer space tourists a chance to see the Earth from above, giving potential riders a chance to reconsider their life insurance options.

While life insurance might be the furthest thing from any space tourist’s mind, a loophole that allows current life insurance policyholders to retain such coverage if they fly into space remains, though the insurance industry may look to close it.

Skydivers, pilots and people with other high-risk jobs or hobbies must buy extra coverage on their life insurance policies. Space tourists, however, who either already have life insurance or are applying for a policy don’t have to mention their upcoming trip to space because insurers either don’t ask about space tourism or don’t exclude it from coverage.

The loophole means they’d likely have to pay if the policyholder died on a space trip.

There are little or no established life underwriting guidelines specifically for space flight, and such activity would probably be covered under common aviation clauses and exclusions, says Rob Drury, executive director of the Association of Christian Financial Advisors.

“For a life insurance company to deny coverage for space travel would require a specific exclusion of such activity,” Drury says. “If the current treatment of aviation activities is an indication, the greater likelihood is that a proposed insured would be underwritten at a higher risk class.”

Once a policy is issued, death benefits must be paid for any death regardless of cause, unless there is a finding of fraud, misrepresentation, or suicide within the policy’s contestability period of the first two policy years in most states, he says.

Coverage is provided by omission, meaning the underwriter doesn’t ask about an applicant’s plans to fly into space.

“If someone wants to run the bulls at Pamplona, his insurer might not like it, but they must pay in the event of death if the activity isn’t specifically excluded,” Drury says.

Astronauts are rated at $10 per $1,000 of coverage in addition to their approved rate based on amount of coverage, age and other factors, says Ellen Davis, president of Life Health Home Insurance Group. Space tourists can’t buy coverage yet, Davis says.

However, if the insurer doesn’t ask an applicant about space travel, then it would be covered under travel outside of the United States, she says.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight. The craft is designed to carry six passengers on two-hour suborbital flights that offer a few minutes of weightlessness. The company announced after the crash that it plans to continuing selling tickets at up to $250,000 per seat.

The good news is that while flying in a rocket sounds risky, even for insurers, not many people have died riding into space. No one has died in suborbital manned flights. There have been three fatal orbital space shots, including the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia with 14 deaths, and a Soyuz flight that killed one person.

Mention that to your underwriter next time you’re applying for insurance as a space tourist.

Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist who specializes in content about personal finance and insurance.

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How do I figure the tax on the sale of my home?

Answer:

It depends on several factors, including whether the home is your principal residence or takes some other form (such as a vacation home or investment property). If you owned and used the home as your principal residence for a total of two out of the five years before the sale (the two years do not have to be consecutive), you may be able to exclude from federal income tax up to $250,000 (up to $500,000 if you’re married and file a joint return) of the capital gain on the sale of your home. You can use this exclusion only once every two years, and this exclusion does not apply to vacation homes and pure investment properties.

For example, Mr. and Mrs. Jones bought a home 20 years ago for $80,000. They have used it as their principal home ever since. This year, they sell the house for $765,000, realizing a capital gain of $613,000 ($765,000 selling price minus a $42,000 broker’s fee, minus the original $80,000 purchase price, minus $30,000 worth of capital improvements they’ve made over the years). The Joneses, who file jointly and are in the 28 percent marginal tax bracket, can exclude $500,000 of capital gain realized on the sale of their home. Thus, their tax on the sale is only $16,950 ($613,000 gain minus the $500,000 exemption multiplied by the 15 percent long-term capital gains tax rate).

What if you fail to meet the two-out-of-five-years requirement? Or what if you used the capital gain exclusion within the past two years with respect to a different principal residence? You may still qualify for a partial exemption, assuming that your home sale was due to a change in place of employment, health reasons, or certain other unforeseen circumstances.

You should also be aware that special rules might apply in the following cases:

• If you sell vacant land adjacent to your principal residence
• If your principal residence is owned by a trust
• If your principal residence contained a home office or was otherwise used partially for business purposes
• If you rented part of your principal residence to tenants
• If you owned your principal residence jointly with an unmarried taxpayer

Note: Members of the uniformed services and foreign service personnel may elect to suspend the running of the 2-out-of-5-year requirement during any period of qualified official extended duty up to a maximum of 10 years.

Consult a tax professional for more details.

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