A question we are getting frequently right now is how safe is your money in a Bank On Yourself plan if the debt crisis in Europe continues and spreads to the United States?
Let’s start by answering the question…
Life insurance companies are highly regulated and required to maintain sufficient reserves to ensure they can pay all future claims.
They are regularly audited by the state insurance commissioners’ offices, and sometimes by dozens of states, to ensure they are on solid financial ground. And a multi-layer safety net exists to assure your money in a life insurance policy is secure.
You may be wondering, “What about AIG?” Many people missed the fact that AIG’s problems were caused by a holding company, not its life insurance subsidiaries. Their insurance companies were walled off from the problems, have always been solvent and did not receive a bailout.
The companies recommended by Bank On Yourself Professionals are among the financially strongest life insurance groups in the world.
They enjoy some of the strongest surplus positions in the industry, approximately double the industry average.
These companies are, in essence, owned by policyowners, rather than stockholders, which allows them to focus on the long-term interests of policy holders, rather than the short-term demands of Wall Street.
Here’s what the companies used for Bank On Yourself invest in:
Bill Clinton was President, the world awaited the potentially disastrous consequences of the Y2K computer bug, and – oh, yeah – the Dow closed above 11,000 for the first time in history.
The date was May 3rd, 1999, and to quote Yogi Berra, nearly eleven years later,
This is like deja vu all over again”
The Wall Street spin-makers are pointing out what a “big accomplishment it is for a measure that was below 7,000 only a year ago” to recapture the 11,000 level.
Before we pop the cork on a bottle of champagne, here’s a few sobering questions to ask yourself…
The recently released paperback edition of Pamela Yellen’s first book on the Bank On Yourself concept will debut at #3 on the coveted New York Times Best-Seller List on April 11.
It also hit #2 on the USA Today Money Best Seller list for the week ending March 28th.
The hardcover edition was released a year ago and immediately hit the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists.
Oh what a roller-coaster year this has been! Our entire financial system and economy almost fell off a cliff.
And while there are some hopeful signs of new life in the economy, this year has also brought us:
Massive bailouts
A tripling of an already-bloated federal deficit
A falling dollar
Rising foreclosures (and likely to spike as billions of dollars in ARM’s are now coming up for adjustment)
Major banks and investment houses taking on three times (!) the risk they were before the collapse
So what do you think next year has in store for us?
No one really knows for sure. (Well, except maybe the folks at the Psychic Hotline.) So how do you prepare for a very uncertain future?
Here’s a quick quiz that may reveal an answer for you…
What’s the one financial asset that increased in value during the market crash of 2008? And in 1929? And in every period of economic boom and bust in between?
Answer: The product used for Bank On Yourself: Cash-value life insurance.
As I’ve mentioned, my husband Larry and I now have 18 Bank On Yourself policies. I’ve picked one of them to show you how a dividend-paying whole life policy like this can grow over time – even when the markets are plummeting. It’s a great example of how Bank On Yourself gives you the peace of mind that lets you sleep at night.
Here’s how much this plan has grown each year since the beginning of 2000, a period that includes not one, but TWO devastating market crashes. In four of these years, the S&P 500 was down for the year, as you can see in this side-by-side comparison:
If you had put $10,000 into an S&P 500 Index fund at the beginning of 2000, how much do you think it would be worth today?
If there’s a different financial product or strategy that you think can match or beat the Bank On Yourself method, I encourage you to take the $100,000 Challenge. If you’re right, you could pick up an easy $100K!
FAQ #2: How does Bank On Yourself let you recapture every penny you pay for major purchases like cars, vacations, business equipment or a college education?
However, for a more detailed explanation, you’ll want to review Chapters 2, 6, and pages 52-54 of my best-selling book, Bank On Yourself. If you don’t have the book, we offer a 35% discount on it.
FAQ #3: I’ve heard people like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman say whole life insurance is a lousy place to put your money. Is a Bank On Yourself-type policy different from the kind they’re talking about?
Remember the old jokes about what it would be like if Microsoft built cars?
For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day… the airbag would say “are you sure?” before going off… executing a maneuver would occasionally cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you’d have to re-install the engine…
Now imagine what it’s going to be like when the government makes your car… coming soon to a dealership near you!
Do you believe it’s true that you have to risk your money in order to grow a sizable nest-egg?
If so, you’re not alone – that’s the conventional thinking we’ve long been brainwashed to believe. But a shocking new study reveals just how fundamentally flawed this belief is…
For the last 40 years, ordinary long-term treasury bonds have outpaced investing in the stock market! This is according to a just-released study in the Journal of Indexes (May/June 2009 issue) by Robert Arnott.
So, what does that mean?
It means that for the past four decades, the only “rewards” investors have received for taking the extra risk of stocks and equity mutual funds are sleepless nights and broken dreams of retirement”
UPDATED November 2024: It’s been more than a decade since I challenged Suze and Dave to a debate, but they haven’t taken me up on it yet. This post sparked some very lively debate and insightful comments, so be sure to read those, too.
Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey and many other financial advice-givers tell you to avoid whole life insurance. However, the policies used for the Bank On Yourself strategy are dramatically different in three key ways from the kind of whole life insurance that Suze, Dave and others talk about. Here, I reveal these key differences and prove their validity by showing you examples of my own policy statements.
What’s more, my readers have alerted Suze and Dave. But sadly, both have chosen to ignore the facts I reveal below. I’m sure neither Suze nor Dave relish the idea of having to rewrite all their books and materials. But once YOU learn the critical key differences between Bank On Yourself policies and the ones Suze and Dave mention, I’m confident you’ll be asking the same question we hear Bank On Yourself policyholders mention repeatedly: “How come no one’s ever told me about this before!?”
Here are the three key differences:
Suze Orman & Dave Ramsey
Key Difference #1: These experts say the money you can have access to in the plan (your “cash value”) grows too slowly in a whole life policy, and say you typically won’t have any cash value at all in the first few years.
Suze Orman & Dave Ramsey
A Bank On Yourself-type policy, however, incorporates a special – and little-known – rider or option that turbo-charges the growth of your money in the policy so you have up to 40 times more cash value, especially in the early years of the policy. This allows you to use it as a powerful financial management tool from Day One.
Key Difference #2: Most financial experts, including Suze and Dave, talk about policies where your death benefit stays level for the life of the policy.
Please note that this statement is from a policy I started before I learned about Bank On Yourself, and it has grown much more slowly than a policy designed to maximize the power of the Bank On Yourself concept.
Key Difference #3: The financial experts often rant about how, when the policy owner dies, the insurance company “only” pays you the death benefit and keeps your cash value.
But with a Bank On Yourself policy it’s very different, as you can see on this policy statement. It shows you how, had I died on the date this statement was issued, my family would have received a check for more than the original death benefit AND the cash value in the policy… combined!
So I am throwing out the gauntlet to Suze, Dave or any expert who wants to challenge me. Just name the time and place!”
And keep in mind that Bank On Yourself will beat anyone’s best financial strategy or we’ll pay you $100,000!
No two policies are alike, because each one is tailored to the client’s unique situation. So your results will be different. To find out what your bottom-line numbers could be, and how much your financial picture could improve if you added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan, request a free Bank On Yourself Analysis. There’s no obligation. REQUEST YOUR FREE ANALYSIS!
Update! Our hidden video camera captured Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey discussing Bank On Yourself…
If Bank On Yourself is so good, why isn’t everyone already doing it?
If you browse the personal finance section of any bookstore, turn on the TV or open a magazine on finance, you’ll discover that 99 out of 100 financial “gurus” will insist that whole life insurance is a lousy place to put your money. Most will recommend you buy term life insurance instead and invest the difference in mutual funds.
FAQ #1: How does Bank On Yourself compare with traditional investing and savings strategies?
