The Complete Guide to Overfunded Whole Life Insurance | Garrett Gunderson
Aug 24, 2023
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Garrett Gunderson, New York Times bestselling author, joins BetterWealth to discuss overfunded whole life insurance, comparing it to other insurance options and financial instruments. They dive into the benefits of saving money, choosing the right insurance company, exploring various financial options, and utilizing life insurance for compounding and control. They also explore the advantages of owning a cabin, and ultimately delve into the benefits of overfunded whole life insurance, highlighting its ability to enhance assets and aid in estate planning.
Life insurance provides stability, availability, and tax advantages, making it a favorable savings vehicle for those looking to save without market risks.
Life insurance serves as a foundational asset for entrepreneurs and investors, offering stability, risk-free capital, and various benefits like mortality hedging and interest rate hedging.
Life insurance stands out due to its favorable regulatory environment, tax advantages, and ability to borrow against the policy, making it a valuable financial tool.
Deep dives
Understanding the Philosophy and Profitability of Life Insurance
Life insurance can be seen as a profitable investment in its term insurance portfolio. The frustration lies in selling index universal life (IUL) policies for income, which involves overfunding and minimizing insurance coverage. However, life insurance should not be solely viewed as an investment but rather as a short to medium-term cash storage for opportunities. Unlike other investment options, life insurance offers stability, availability, and tax advantages, making it a favorable savings vehicle for those looking to save without the risks of the market or other investment avenues.
The Multi-Dimensional Benefits of Life Insurance
Life insurance serves as an asset allocation decision and a foundational asset for entrepreneurs and investors. It provides a multi-use asset that can be a part of one's portfolio, offering stability, certainty, and risk-free capital outside of business ventures. Life insurance offers various benefits such as mortality hedging, interest rate hedging, and greater control and access to cash flow. It also protects against market volatility, inflation, and increasing tax rates. With life insurance, individuals can save more, have future optionality, and utilize their money while it continues to grow.
The Superiority of Life Insurance as a Financial Product
Life insurance stands out due to its favorable regulatory environment, creditor protection, absence of percentage-based fees, and the ability to leverage against the policy. It also offers guaranteed dividends, tax advantages, and the ability to borrow against the policy, making it a diversified and safe asset. In terms of rates of return, life insurance provides competitive growth rates, tax-free growth, tax-free use, and tax-free inheritance, offering superior benefits compared to other investment options like 401(k)s, IRAs, and savings accounts. While life insurance should not be viewed as a traditional investment, its multi-dimensional benefits make it a valuable financial tool.
Different types of life insurance policies
Not all life insurance policies are created equal, and it is important to understand the differences. One type of policy mentioned is a typical policy, which has high base premiums, high death benefit, low cash value in the early years, and takes over 10 years to break even. Another type of policy is a max-funded policy, which involves overfunding the policy and adding a term rider for more flexibility. While the max-funded policy has a lower death benefit initially, it builds cash value faster and has better long-term growth potential.
Utilizing life insurance for control and compounding
Life insurance can offer both control and compounding benefits. By borrowing against the cash value of the policy, individuals can use the funds for opportunities without interrupting the policy's growth and benefits. This borrowing option comes with control costs, which should be carefully considered based on the potential return of the investment. The combination of overfunding life insurance and utilizing the cash value for strategic investments can provide a powerful tool for individuals to grow their wealth and create a perpetual system for their family's financial well-being.
In this episode of the BetterWealth Podcast I had the pleasure of joining Garrett Gunderson in the Wealth Lab studio to discuss all things life insurance with a special focus on properly structured whole life insurance. How should the policy be designed, what are the pros and cons of this type of insurance, and how does it compare to IUL, UL, and term life insurance?
Our guest today is Garrett Gunderson, the New York Times bestselling author of, What Would The Rockefellers Do, and Killing Sacred Cows. Garrett is a wealth expert and has extensive knowledge of the life insurance industry and how to utilize whole life as an asset to amplify your portfolio.