The elephant in the room is the question: “what does it mean to ‘properly design’ an IBC-style whole life policy. This series lays the necessary groundwork in systematic fashion to help answer that question. — As you may or may not know by now, my mentor James Neathery and I co-host a podcast called Banking with Life. March 2022 marked the show’s three-year anniversary. …

A Thanksgiving exploration of how to give the gift of capital creation. — Background This article expands on a topic I first raised on this blog three years ago (this one). That article highlights some of the features of dividend-paying whole life insurance and observes the fact that non-profit entities are not subject to income tax, and therefore, that non-profits can own Modified Endowment…

Changes to the IRS Code pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 effected the pricing of life insurance death benefit. This article describes those changes and what they mean — and don’t mean — for the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) — Background Life insurance is an extremely old financial asset. Long before the United States of America — much less the Internal Revenue Service — was a thing, Lloyd’s of London was issuing life insurance.

Many who are considering implementing, and some who already have implemented, the IBC are concerned about rising price inflation. Is IBC still a good idea given worsening monetary policy in the United States? I discuss below. — The other day a client asked me about my thoughts on the propriety of IBC given the ever-worsening monetary policy in the United States (and the world). I came to this blog to find…

Some websites identifying with the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) advertise the ostensible benefits of purchasing dividend-paying whole life insurance that receives direct recognition and using a third party lender to borrow against cash values so as not to suffer a reduced dividend. This article investigates. — A new client recently mentioned a term I had not heard before: a “synthetic non-direct recognition policy.” I had never heard such a term from Nelson Nash neither publicly nor privately, nor had I seen it in any of his writings. I suspected it had something to do with justifying…

The core of ordinary financial planning is rotten and no one wants to talk about it. — Occasionally, clients of other financial professionals will contact me asking for a consultation. My advice is complimentary to my clients, since life insurance companies pay agents directly. But for clients of other agents, we have to make alternative arrangements. …

Background Mega popular radio show host and online financial entertainment personality Dave Ramsey can’t help but attack the idea of “banking” with whole life insurance. In November of last year, Dave made that explicit on YouTube with his video entitled “Why Infinite Banking is a SCAM!” …

The financial industry has made a killing compartmentalizing various financial objectives into individual silos, each of which is purportedly addressed by unique, financially engineered products. This article explains why this is a case of treating symptoms, rather than the underlying disease. — Everyone knows on some level that as they mature, generate income, and think beyond the immediate present, that conventional wisdom instructs us to develop a financial plan.

I find that many do not understand the essential relationships between base and PUA premium, cash value, and death benefit in whole life insurance. Maybe this will help. — This very simple thought experiment will inoculate you against the many errors that circulate online regarding why the values (cash values and death benefits) change relative to premiums (base and PUA) the way they do in dividend-paying whole life insurance.