By Scott Storace
Looking for a safe place to invest your money? Before you stash that cash under your mattress, consider the benefits of investing in whole life insurance.
Yes, we said whole life insurance. Sure it sounds like something your grandparents would have bought, something safe and reliable. A way to provide for their family after their death. And you, after all, are a savvy financial consumer. You”re looking for sophisticated financial instruments that will grow your money and provide a secure retirement as well as provide a financial legacy to your heirs.
Well, after months of rising unemployment, a plummeting housing market, and ongoing bank and market failures, maybe it’’s time to listen to your elders. Whole life insurance products offer a variety of benefits that make sense in any financial environment. And especially in the current economic upheaval, safe and reliable doesn”t sound so bad does it? Which is why whole life insurance products make sense.
Let’’s start with what you probably know, whole life insurance is guaranteed to provide a death benefit to your beneficiaries. In fact, it’’s the only financial product that guarantees to do exactly what you want. As long as you meet the obligations of your contract, when you die, your loved ones will still be financially provided for.
Now, here’’s what you probably didn”t know. Whole life products can offer a multitude of investment benefits, including:
- low risk and low cost investment portfolio
- tax-free income growth
- tax-free withdrawals up to your basis (amount of money you have paid in)
- policy loans secured with a 1:1 dollar ratio
- can be structured to provide personal loans from your cash reserves
A Safe Investment Vehicle
Your grandparents - the ones who likely survived the Great Depression -knew what they were doing when they bought their life insurance policies. Life insurance is safe and reliable. In fact, during the Great Depression, whole life insurance cash values remained 99.9% safe. In that same time period, over 10,000 banks failed.
One reason for this is the conservative structure of life insurance investments. Unlike other financial product managers, the professionals in charge of life insurance portfolios invest in secure bonds that provide very low risk. Risk is reduced further by industrial, geographic, and maturity diversification. In general, life insurance money managers are planning for the long-term financial success of their clients, not the short-term gain.
Accumulating Cash Reserves
Overtime, your premium payments and policy dividend returns will accumulate, and grow into your policy’’s cash reserves, a convenient source of cash liquidity. These reserves grow tax-free within your policy, and can be withdrawn, up to the amount you have contributed, tax-free and without government restrictions. Which means you can use your money for what you want and without paying taxes on it.
Storing cash within your life policy is also a secure practice, thanks to the life insurance industry philosophy of 100% cash reserves. When a policyholder borrows from his or her cash reserves, every dollar borrowed is backed by a dollar held in reserve. So policy loans are secured by a one to one ratio.
Banks, on the other hand, practice what is known as fractional lending. They may loan $10 for every one dollar they hold in reserve. This practice leads to inflation and when the economy takes a turn for the worse, it often leads to bank failures (as recent experience has taught us!). Which means that saving with yourself (within your insurance policy) can be safer than saving with your bank. In addition, most life insurance companies have insured themselves for major losses. Known as re-insurance, this practice provides even more protection for your investments.
Further Protections in the State of California
There are several other protections in place to safeguard the interests of California policy holders. Life insurance companies, for instance, are not allowed to file for formal bankruptcy. They are protected instead by state mandated reserve pools. If for any reason a life insurance company cannot honor its obligations to policyholders, policies will be honored by other life insurance companies in the state. This is provided for through the California Life and Health Guaranty Association. This association
An insurance guaranty association is similar to the banking industry’’s FDIC, and like the FDIC, protection is provided only up to a guaranteed amount. In the state of California, the California Guaranty Association guarantees (as of December 2009) whole life insurance policy protection up to 80% of the declared death benefit, with a maximum payout of $250,000. Cash values are also protected up to 80% of their full value, with a maximum payout of $100,000. These policy limits apply to individual accounts. If spouses each have a life insurance policy, both policies are guaranteed.
In addition, most life insurance companies are re-insured, meaning they have insured themselves for major losses.
California whole life insurance assets are also partially protected in the event a policyholder must file personal bankruptcy. Under California law (as of December 2009), the cash values within whole life policies are exempt from creditors up to a value of $9,700.
Creating an Infinite Banking System with Your Whole Life Policy
If you”re looking for a way to grow your investments, as well as keep them safe, whole life insurance is still your answer. Dividend Paying Whole Life Insurance is a product that lends itself to Infinite Banking, or the idea of becoming your own bank.
Infinite Banking takes the idea of saving within your life insurance policy one step further. Rather than just creating a personal cash reserve, Dividend Paying Whole Life insurance can be structured to create a personal bank.
In the Infinite Banking System, policyholders are encouraged to use their policy’’s cash value to finance personal loans. Such a structure allows you to cut out the bank - and the practice of paying exorbitant interest, fees and taxes on your loans. When you make yourself a loan from your policy’’s cash reserves, you determine the structure of the loan, including the interest rate and payment schedule. Loans are made tax-free, and of course, there are no loan fees. You may use the loan for anything you want; the government has no say (unlike IRAs and other retirement investment tools). As you repay the loan, you pay yourself back plus interest. So you”ll be making money on and for yourself, instead of giving away all that money to a bank. Your cash reserves will continue to grow, tax free, with every loan you make to yourself.
Infinite Banking is a proven method for increasing personal wealth and ensuring financial freedom. And dividend paying whole life policies, even if used as an Infinite Banking tool, enjoy the same industry protections as other forms of whole life insurance. As long you have the discipline to repay yourself, your personal loan activities are also safe.
A Proven Product
California consumers can feel safe purchasing whole life insurance products as both a death benefit to their heirs, and a reliably performing investment tool for the living. Whole life insurance products are a financially stable and proven product, and California consumers can rest easy knowing their investments are safe, protected and accessible.
About The Author
Scott Storace is a financial expert that teaches the Infinite Banking concept utilizing whole life insurance at http://www.TheBankingSecret.com This concept creates financial wealth by creating your own personal bank. Get your free Infinite Banking report for more information on the concept.