The purpose of an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) is to keep the death benefit of life insurance on your life out of your estate so as to eliminate the estate taxes that would rob some of those proceeds when you die. It keeps it out of your estate by the trust owning the life insurance policy on your life. If you own the life insurance policy on your life, then the policy’s death benefit will be added to your gross estate when you die, and thereby increasing your estate taxes.