If you aren’t familiar with Bank on Yourself, it’s one of many different philosophies like Infinite Banking, The Infinite Banking Concept, Private Family Banking, the 770 account and others. All of these philosophies and programs have a foundation in the general principle that a life insurance policy can be used to build savings and ultimately allow you to leverage cash values for self-financing. Obviously, I leverage this same principle and recommend it to many of our clients. But it’s just a subsequent detail of the bigger picture. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen some of these other programs fail to prioritize individual client success, which is our main focus at McFie Insurance.
Like most programs, I agree with pieces of this system–but not its entirety. According to bankonyourself.com, there are a couple of key benefits to their program. But, let me show you what I do and don’t agree with, my own, mini Bank on Yourself review.
Benefits to their program, According to bankonyourself.com:
Using a life insurance policy gives you steady financial growth. A situation could go awry and cause this statement to become false. But for the most part, I consider this to be true. The catch here is keeping the client’s best interests at the forefront of their financial plan. If taking out a life insurance policy is not the best option or is not a viable option for an individual, it’s important to have other recommendations. With the Bank on Yourself program, this isn’t possible.
You never have to use bank, credit card or finance companies for car loans, college tuition or other large purchases. The emphasis on never needing these services is not something I use to make the program look radical. That is simply their messaging, and it’s the part of this benefit that I disagree with. Yes, by leveraging the cash value of your life insurance you can bypass taking out loans with high interest or other methods. However, there may be times to turn to those resources.
Have the ability to take out cash value from your life insurance plan, and have interest continue to accumulate on that money. Bankonyourself.com gives this benefit with the caveat that this is only possible through certain policy providers. This is an important stipulation, and with it this benefit is true. It’s a useful benefit of leveraging life insurance for your personal wealth. However, I make sure that my clients understand the ins and outs of how this works before recommending that they start the process.
These are the opinions of an insurance advisor, not a customer. Obviously, Bank on Yourself reviews from customers will illustrate what other people do and don’t like about the brand and philosophy. I ultimately feel that there are useful concepts in their program, but that those concepts are best applied through a more flexible financial plan.
Obviously, I turned the offer down to work as a Bank on Yourself agent. The rest, as they say, is history. You see, I wanted to pursue a path that allowed me to provide what I believed to be the very best for each of my clients and prospective clients. Besides I didn’t want to get distracted by the ideas of some marketing group or guru about how to sell more or expand my commissions. Knowingly, I have never regretted the choice I made. And here are just a few reasons why:
We’re able to offer the best-suited services for our clients. Accepting this offer would have inhibited me and the team at McFie Insurance from providing the assistance we are so well known for today. Whether it is finding the best product or company, writing articles and publishing videos, or designing the financial blueprints that our clients so greatly appreciate and benefit from, McFie Insuranceis about service. Belonging to a large marketing group would have restricted our ability to provide these services. In fact, at that time, one of the stipulations required of an agent to join this group was to give up the right to choose which life insurance company their clients’ life insurance applications were submitted. That didn’t make sense to me then, and it certainly doesn’t make sense to me today. The responsibility to know what different companies offer and the art involved in finding the product that best fits our clients’ needs is very important to us at McFie Insurance. That is because it makes a huge difference in how successful our clients and prospects can become.
We have the freedom to design the right policy for each client. Speaking of design, designing the best policy for the needs of our client or prospect is something we take great pride in accomplishing here at McFie Insurance. Without the right policy design, unintended things can happen to the policy owner. But we’ve “got your back.” Participating whole life insurance is a great place to hold your savings while allowing you to still leverage and manage money that normally wouldn’t be under your direct control. For example, policies designed with bundled term coverage, in order to hold more premium, can cripple your control over the extra money paid in premiums and therefore create a financial liability, a monetary loss and even excessive taxation in the future. McFie Insuranceteam members typically advise (except in infrequent situations where it appears advantageous) to stay away from these term riders, giving clients more control over their own money.
We view owning life insurance as an asset, not an investment. At McFie Insurancewe don’t believe owning life insurance to be an investment. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life insurance is an asset. Several states even have laws prohibiting life insurance being sold or classified as an investment. And one of the reasons for these laws is that purchasing life insurance will NOT make you rich. Not even if you purchase multiple policies, leverage one policy to purchase another, or borrow money from your policy/policies and pay the loan(s) back with extra interest. All of these things are certainly doable and at times may even be practical, but they are not always as profitable for the policy owner as they are for the marketing group or agent(s) advocating these practices. Here are the real reasons participating whole life insurance is such a valuable financial asset:
a. It can cover your liabilities.
b. It can be part of a non-qualified tax free retirement plan.
c. It can be used to finance asset purchases.
d. It can help you to recover the cost of acquisition on things you purchase.
Our clients can thoroughly benefit from using whole life insurance. These four qualities of life insurance are the reason banking corporations choose to own and use life insurance. At McFie Insurancewe help our clients understand how to utilize participating whole life insurance by implementing the Perpetual Wealth Code™. Joining a particular marketing group involved with a particular guru would have limited McFie Insurancefrom referencing “banking” according to the recruiter that was attempting to recruit me. And that would have limited our ability to help you benefit from these four awesome qualities. That is unacceptable.
We can uphold our value of transparent and comprehensive financial guidance. Finally, all of us at McFie Insuranceare liberty-loving individuals who value your rights and freedom as much as our own. We realize that violating your rights or failing to share the entire truth with clients and prospective clients destroys the foundations of the economy that this great country was built upon. Belonging to marketing groups that would limit our freedom to share the entire truth simply to create a more easily marketed, “uniform” product doesn’t jive with our world view.
Today McFie Insurancehas become one of the most sought-out, independent life insurance agencies in the United States because we are known for honest and straightforward opinions. And, unassumingly, everybody knows that what we offer are opinions because we don’t provide paid advice or fee-based evaluation and management services. We never pressure you to do anything that you can’t afford to do or are uncomfortable doing. We know if it isn’t affordable, you can’t do it and if it’s not comfortable, you won’t do it. Our mission is to make sure you know ALL your options so that you can make an informed choice that is comfortable, affordable and profitable. It’s all about you, your money and your future. And that’s how it should be.
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Dr. Tomas P. McFie
Most Americans depend on Social Security for retirement income. Even when people think they’re saving money, taxes, fees, investment losses and market volatility take most of their money away. Tom McFie is the founder of McFie Insurance which helps people keep more of the money they make, so they can have financial peace of mind. His latest book, A Biblical Guide to Personal Finance, can be purchased here.
