Is the Infinite Banking System the Answer?
by Garrett B. Gunderson Some of the most frequent questions we get at Freedom FastTrack have to do with infinite banking. The financial strategy, which leverages the living benefits of cash value life insurance, was created by Nelson Nash and is detailed in his book Becoming Your Own Banker. Other popular books on the subject include Bank on Yourself by Pamela Yellen, The Banking Effect by Dan Thompson, Prescription for Wealth by Tom McFie, and Live Your Life Insurance by Kim Butler. I would characterize my attitude toward infinite banking as “cautiously positive.” I’ve personally interviewed Nelson Nash twice by flying him to Utah. I’ve ran hundreds of infinite banking calculations using financial software and consulting financial software developer Todd Langford. I’ve even used the concept in my own life. The problem with the strategy is that most people who do it or want to do it ignore the larger context of their full financial blueprint. It is frequently sold as a magic bullet. It tends to be a classic case of, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The truth is that it’s just one strategy and technique surrounding one product. And as you frequently hear me preach, strategies are only as useful and profitable as the people executing them. Infinite banking is a one-trick pony that can be useful in certain circumstances for certain people, but it’s not for everyone and it doesn’t solve every financial problem. To echo another theme I stress, if you’re asking whether or not you should use the strategy, the obvious answer is that you shouldn’t because you’re not educated enough yet. When you know enough about the strategy, you’ll know whether or not it’s appropriate for you, and how to execute it to fit within your particular financial blueprint and meet your specific needs. So let me give a brief overview of the strategy, then I’ll reveal its blind spots and pitfalls and explain how to use it appropriately. What is Infinite Banking? In concept, the strategy is simple: You use your whole life insurance cash value essentially as a line of credit. Instead of paying banks interest when you finance cars or other purchases, you pay that money back into your policy and essentially to yourself. This is done by funding dividend-paying, equity-building permanent life insurance. Once your policy is funded enough to make a major purchase, you utilize your cash value, take out a policy loan to make the purchase, then make “payments”—with interest—back to your own life insurance policy. The cash value of permanent life insurance is referred to as a “living benefit,” because you can access it throughout your life. Whereas term life insurance provides a death benefit only, permanent life insurance offers living benefits, such as the cash value, tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals (under specific guidelines), liquidity, dividends (on certain policies), and liability protection (in most states). The strategy is smart, to be sure. Consider a five-year, $20,000 auto loan at 7 percent interest. On that loan your monthly payment would be $396.02. At the end of five years, you’ll have paid $3,761.44 in interest alone. Why not recapture that interest to build your own wealth, rather than padding bankers’ accounts? By the time you pay off the car, instead of just having a dramatically-depreciated asset, you’ll have the car, eventually you can build a way to have your $20,000 restored, and you can even have an additional $3,761 (not fully considering the interest that the insurance company may charge you on the borrowed money). So what could possibly be wrong with the strategy? Problem #1: Insurance Protection Comes First The trick to making infinite banking work as quickly and effectively as possible is typically getting a low amount of insurance coverage (face value, or death benefit), then max out your premiums (also known as over-funding the policy). Remember that the goal is to build up your cash value. The focus is on the living benefits, not the death benefit. But fully protecting your human life value with the proper death benefit amount should take precedence over any living benefit. Infinite banking makes the cash value the main benefit of permanent life insurance and overshadows the importance of the death benefit. Before you even consider infinite banking, you first need to maximize your insurance protection. That is the primary and most important purpose of life insurance. Living benefits are nice, and in most cases I highly recommend permanent life insurance with living benefits over term insurance. But they should be viewed in their proper context as supplemental benefits, not the primary benefit. In fact, before you even consider the type of insurance you should buy, you first need to understand how much death benefit to have. Your amount of life insurance to protect your economic value (replacement of income) is the primary consideration to drive all decisions regarding the type you purchase. This is why I don’t always advocate whole life insurance 100 percent of the time. I’ve seen too many cases where insurance salesmen sold permanent policies people couldn’t afford, and who then lost their policies because they couldn’t fund them. Just as it’s a problem to get too little insurance coverage, it’s also damaging to get too much whole life insurance. Focusing on death benefit first avoids problems like this. Some people may purchase convertible term insurance now to get the proper amount, then convert it to permanent insurance as their cash flow situation improves. (HINT: make sure your term insurance is convertible and with a company that has whole life insurance). This is another way to say that a person’s comprehensive financial blueprint should govern financial decisions, which leads me to my next point. Problem #2: Lack of Context Infinite banking, if right for you, should be just one piece of a much larger puzzle. It shouldn’t be the one thing you implement at the expense of other important things in your life. Your complete financial blueprint
What Business Owners Should Prepare for in the Current Political Environment
Do Business Owners overpay taxes? by Brett Sellers, CPA with Garrett Gunderson We find that 93 percent of business owners are overpaying on their taxes, yet 100 percent say they don’t prefer overpaying them. Plus many are concerned or even afraid about the changes and current tax environment. So with so much talk now about an impending “financial eclipse.” I’m no prophet, but it doesn’t take divine revelation to know that our current situation is tough for business owners, and it will likely get worse. President Obama has defined the wealthy individuals with incomes over $200,000 and married couples with incomes over $250,000. Although he campaigned on not raising taxes on middle class, he wants to increase the taxes on taxpayers earning above those amounts. He wants to reinstate the 36 and 39.6 income tax rates on high-income earners. He is also pushing to increase the capital gains tax rate from 15 percent to 20 percent, and a dividend rate raise from 15 percent to at least 36 percent. So what can you do about it? The best advice I could give any business owner isn’t technical or legal—it’s mental and philosophical. Your decision to increase your productivity will impact your business and net worth far more than any technical advice I could give you. Tax rates will likely go up. Nothing we can do about that. What we can do is increase our production to offset the tax increase. The antidote of a 5 percent tax increase is to increase production by 10 percent. Someone once wisely said, “You’ll never go broke paying taxes.” If you’re not paying taxes, it means you’re not making any money. If you pay more in taxes, it means you’re making more money. So don’t let your attitude and actions be dictated by doomsayers. Don’t be frozen in fear or frustration. Be proactive and productive. Concern yourself less with technical tax code and more with growing your business. Having said that, I’ll also stress that the current environment makes tax planning even more important than ever. If your car insurance rates go up, it becomes important to consider your policies. Likewise, if your tax rates go up, the benefit of tax planning is exponentially higher than it was before. More diligent planning is a vital strategy for dealing with increased tax rates. If your tax rate goes up by 5 percent but you can find 5 percent more in deductions by better planning, you’d be in about the same place. Truthfully, there are no real opportunities to be harnessed now. The best you can do is to mitigate damage by hiring a good tax planner. But, while you’re working on finding more reductions, remember that your best bet is to increase your production. If this philosophy is congruent and you want to know specific strategies, check out the upcoming Curriculum for Wealth where Garrett will interview Brett and get straight to strategy to put money in your pocket. Don’t be part of the 93 percent overpaying tax, find money without having to work harder, hire more people or lose any more sleep. http://www.freedomfasttrack.com/cfw Brett Sellers is a licensed CPA at Stewart, Archibald, and Barney, LLP in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has worked with business owners for more than twenty years. Brett feels strongly that a business cannot achieve long-term success without accurate financial data and a constant measuring of the key activities of the business.
Focus, Identify, Create Value and Repeat
by Garrett B. Gunderson Your recipe for working with people you enjoy, know you can help, and making more money. To be as productive as possible it is essential to be crystal clear about what your business is specifically designed to do, and who you are ideally positioned to serve. This means identifying your best existing patients and figuring out who they really are as people. If you can understand what age group, gender, education level, what they do for hobbies, what books they read, where they hang out, how much money they make, etc. then you can make it a point to go out and find more people who are just like your best patients/customers. To do this make a conscious choice to determine who is already existing and “Ideal”, and build a relationship with them. Have appreciation dinners, invite them out to hike or snowshoe, or share experiences with them. Let them become more than just clients or patients – build a relationship. In this process you will not only learn how to serve them better, you’ll understand how to attract more people just like them. This leads to a business full of people that you love to see and who love to come see you. Once this happens the profits are an inevitable result of serving those that appreciate your value the most. They key is to overcome the concern that is you focus or get to narrow that you will miss out on others you could have otherwise have worked with. Here are some questions and considerations to help address and overcome this objection. If you were to look at your top 20 percent of people you work with what percentage of your revenue are they responsible for? How many people have they referred versus the bottom 20 percent? What percentage of your time is used for addressing people that do not pay on time, do not refer people and do not appreciate your service? What impact does that have on your energy, confidence and ultimately the bottom-line? Do you think there are plenty of people in your community or even your state that fit the “ideal” profile? What would your life look like if that was who you spent your time and focus on? What level of value could you create for them? How would it allow you to focus more on value creation and less on appeasing people that do not appreciate who you are, what you do or that simply are not compliant with implementing your recommendations and getting the full value you offer? So, find the best people that you enjoy working with the most. That gets the best results and refer the most people. Focus on building those relationships, cultivating those relationships, and asking them how you can create the most value for them. To discover other overlooked opportunities most business owners miss and to gain more freedom in your business as we expose models most didn’t think was possible, yet are achievable in a short period of time, check out www.freedomfasttrack.com/cfw as I interview business strategist Brandon Allen. Brandon opened up and built Wells Fargo branches for a decade before becoming the COO of my firm, Freedom FastTrack. In order to more fully express his expertise and purpose he now shares his insights and discoveries through business expansion and management with Freedom FastTrack members. In a bottom-line, no fluff interview he will be sharing how to: Integrate metrics and numbers to improve business Unveil the biggest mistakes business owners make in managing their business (he exposed this for me and transformed my INC 500 business) How can you create and leverage your authority in your market How to address and confront employee behavior in the business Time management The key habits to run a successful business and more
Addressing Financial Gravity In Practice
Bringing simplicity to the financial complexities of a Doctor by Garrett B. Gunderson Gravity is no respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter how nice of a guy or gal you are, if you jump off a cliff, there are harsh consequences simply due to the principle of gravity. As a Financial Advocate to professionals that have become business owners (especially doctors), I constantly encounter people that are not efficiently dealing with the financial gravity that comes with being a business owner. Just like gravity, it doesn’t matter if you are a good person, have the right intentions, or are working hard, if you do not deal certain financial aspects, you will lose money. When you raise your hand and opt in to becoming a business owner there are certain rules that apply just as sure as gravity exists. These are more complicated rules of finance and business that if not understood and addressed cost millions of dollars over ones lifetime. At the same time, these are some of the greatest advantages to entrepreneurs when these items are properly understood and addressed. Some of the things that take a higher degree of knowledge and attention include tax strategy, acquiring loans and negotiating the best interest rates, acquiring proper insurance coverages (the types only bought or used by a business owner), employee benefits, and many others. Most of the time rather than being more efficient or effective in these areas, the doctor merely tries to work their way beyond this by adding more space, hiring more people, selling more procedures, working more hours, etc etc. Rather than address the gravity, docs use hard work to temporarily help or even increasing marketing or reducing expenses or eliminating staff and asking some to just do more by working them harder, but this is a limiting view that leads to frustration and eventually can be very destructive. There is a better, although little known way to address this issue and keep more of your money without wearing yourself out by working harder. First, it is critical to realize that financial planners are not the right professionals to address this situation. Unfortunately, most people who call themselves “financial planners” are actually just salespeople. Because they get paid from commissions on selective products, they have little or no incentive to give you an accurate, comprehensive, and efficient financial plan that accounts for every variable. Hence, their recommendations are skewed and incomplete at best and their objective is not one of efficiency and effectiveness, it is mostly about saving, sacrificing, delaying and deferring through the purchase of retirement plans and products. My firm works on a personal level with more than 500 doctors. With thorough research we have proven that 93% of them take home far less money than they should—regardless of if they have financial planners. Even if your financial planner is trustworthy and knowledgeable, most likely he or she is just one part of what should be a more complete financial team and strategy. Use the following guidelines to determine whether or not you are addressing the financial gravity that weighs on you as a business owner. Once again, it doesn’t matter if you are a nice person or not, the numbers just don’t care. It matters if you have an awareness and address the “gravity” of the situation to keep more of your hard earned money. Do you analyze the expense structures and uncover hidden financial fees and commissions in all your existing financial products. Fees on your retirement plans 12b-1 Fees Expense Ratios Administration Fees Advisor Management Fees Do you have any investments that are not outperforming the cost of some or all of your loans? Consider paying off the guaranteed cost vs. earning the non-guaranteed interest. For money that stays invested, do you have strategies for limiting your exposure to market risk while also giving you as much upside potential as possible? Do you analyze your accounting strategy and every aspect of your taxes to ensure you’re keeping as much of your money as possible? Have you considered cost segregation if you own your building? Do you separate out your activities from a salary vs. dividend perspective? Do you have the type of corporation that best fits minimizing your taxes? Do you talk with a tax strategist throughout the year versus just during tax season? Does he teach you to defer your taxes until later when your tax burden will be higher, or do your tax strategies limit or eliminate your taxes when you withdraw on the back end? Do you have a current strategy to provide you with practical exit strategies on all your investments, or will you be subject to unexpected penalties, fees, and taxes? Do you know of ways to prepare your business now if you were to sell it in the future to: Limit taxes Maximize your multiple (how many times earnings you sell for) Have you reviewed all your insurance coverages to check for duplicate coverage and ensure the most efficient structure and best possible premiums while transferring as much risk as possible? Do you have a Business Owner Policy for liability protection? Do you have an umbrella policy to protect from liability anytime you are not acting as a doctor? Does your umbrella policy include uninsured/underinsured coverage? Have you looked into Health Savings Accounts? Have you increased your deductibles to lower your premiums? Have you increased your elimination periods to lower your premiums on your disability policies? Do you know how to present yourself to a bank in order to ensure you’re getting the best terms and rates, maximize deductibility and to provide the best debt payoff strategy? Do you have a credit score above 780? Have you renegotiated your loans in the last year? Mortgage Credit Cards Business Lines of Credit These are just a few of the areas where we find docs leaking money. In the areas of credit score, debt structure, and cash flow optimization (increasing cash flow from efficiency, not reduction or