It definitely does not seem like it is an IRA.

As far as if it is a legitimate investment or not, maybe?  Hypothetically, it might be possible for a company to pay the person covered by life-insurance to be the beneficiary and take over the payments.  Then when the person dies, the 'company' (and investors like your client) would receive the life insurance proceeds.

However, it sound unusual enough that it would scare me, and I would advise your client to do further research on this 'investment' opportunity.  The fact that your client thinks this is an IRA when there is no documentation of such indicates to me that either (a) your client is not too familiar with what is going on or (b) something seems really wrong.

But from what YOU need to do for the tax return, there is no indication it is part of an IRA.