Theoretically you could take a 5k policy loan in December bringing the surrender value to 15k, transfer the policy to the daughter (still in December) and then pay back the loan in January as 5k gift.

I would be careful doing this. I do know that if you have an outstanding policy loan and you cancel, surrender, or just let the policy lapse, the amount of money that you borrowed shows up as phantom income that you have to pay income tax on. I would assume that there might be something similar if you change ownership with an outstanding loan (not sure the companies would allow you to change ownership with an outstanding loan in the first place).