Lara-Murphy Report – The Greatest Hits

In the May 2017 issue of the LMR, I wrote the first part of this series. I began to tackle a common objection that Carlos and I get, when we talk to crowds familiar with Austrian economics. (Notice the quotation marks around the title of the article: These words are coming from the public, not from me.) Specifically, people wondered how Carlos and I could be in favor of the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC), after we had systematically explained that the Federal Reserve’s actions since 2008 had set the U.S. economy up for another crash, and also threatened the U.S. dollar. In such an environment, why in the world would somebody want to load up on a dollar-denominated asset like life insurance?

In this article we conclude our investigative reporting of Carol Quigley’s monumental volume, “Tragedy and Hope: A History Of The World In Our Time.” In addition to being an excellent historical account of Western Civilization with detailed analysis of the first two World Wars and ending in 1964, it also tells a most incredible story. If it were not for Quigley’s impeccable academic credentials and his use of verifiable facts, the mysterious account he weaves throughout his book could be interpreted as one of the most creative hoaxes ever published.

This LMR article, the second in a series, is exploring an issue that makes many people uncomfortable, including us. We have all heard sensational “conspiracy theories” about nefarious groups pulling the strings of the politicians and effectively running the world from behind the scenes. It is true that much, perhaps most, of what is written in this genre consists of either unwarranted leaps or outright falsehoods. Even so, there really is something here. The patient individual can weed through the speculations and exaggerations and find solid, scholarly evidence that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to world events.

Who owns and runs the world? If you have ever thought deeply on this question, or one similar to it, you most likely became dispirited rather quickly during the exercise. The reason for this is that you found yourself losing all hope in the prospects of a happy future. That’s right. It didn’t take you long in your investigation for your thoughts to travel down dark corridors and open doors you wished you hadn’t. And, if you used the Internet to help you connect certain missing pieces to the puzzle, you may have gotten even more disturbing insights than you bargained for.

My business partner and coauthor Carlos Lara and I have been warning since the financial crisis of 2008 that the Federal Reserve’s response has merely set us up for another crash. In September 2016 we released a video entitled, “How to Weather the Coming Financial Storms” which outlined our prognosis, and gave strategies for business owners and households to protect themselves. (You can still view the video from our main landing page at: ttp://laramurphy.com, or you can search that title on YouTube.) In this video, we recommended that Americans: (1) Acquire at least a month’s worth of currency, (2) acquire 6 - 18 months’ worth of gold (or silver), and (3) start funding a dividend-paying Whole Life insurance policy configured according to Nelson Nash’s Infinite Banking Concept (IBC).

A common method of showing the public the power of Nelson Nash’s “Infinite Banking Concept” (IBC) is to stress its feature of “constant compounding.” In contrast to many other asset classes, dividend-paying Whole Life insurance always increases in value. Indeed, some proponents of IBC enthusiastically declare: “There’s nothing else like it!” In this article I will explain what Nash’s fans have in mind. As we will see, there really is something special about IBC; it allows households and business owners to enjoy “constant compounding” in a very safe and convenient way, which cannot be matched by other (standard) assets. However, as with most claims, there are some caveats involved (particularly the interest accruing on outstanding policy loans), and I want to make sure the readers of the LMR understand all of the nuances on this powerful topic.

The World Population Clock is currently registering 7.6 billion people on the planet. Among those 7.6 billion people, Forbes has identified only 2,208 individuals who are billionaires from 72 different countries. Based on this information our chances of ever becoming a billionaire are pretty slim —somewhere around 0.00002%. What’s more, the United States ranks third in the world, next to China and India, as the most populated country on earth and in 2018 registered 540 billionaires on its own home turf, again according to Forbes. One point of relevant curiosity is that our President, Donald Trump, is listed as number 69 on that list and is probably one of the most closely watched billionaires in the world. But then again, all billionaires are always under scrutiny. Their big incomes, wealth, and lifestyles are tremendously alluring to most of us.

In this third and concluding article about an IBC Tax Strategy, a strategy that I personally use, I would like to shift gears and steer our thoughts in the direction of some very important rules that govern life insurance policy loans. As individuals that practice IBC these discretionary guidelines with regards to policy loans should be fully understood, whether we are members of the general public, or financial professionals. This is the main reason that I reiterated several times in the preceding two articles that this particular tax strategy was not for novices, or those new to IBC.

In this article I want to start by briefly reviewing some of the key components of the groundwork I initially laid out in Part I and then walk through some actual numerical illustrations that will help expand our understanding of this unique tax idea. As a reminder we are specifically discussing a tax strategy that calls for taking the cash flows that are already earmarked for paying your taxes and re-routing them through a correctly designed IBC policy that has the capacity to adjust to your particular situation and provide the freedom to not be dependent on outside bankers. As before, I want to emphasize that this idea does NOT reduce your tax liability—I am simply presenting options for people to redirect cash flows that would occur anyway.

It’s been said that people would rather die than think. But I am going to see if I can incentivize you do just that by showing you a way to fund a large Infinite Banking Concept (IBC)-type life insurance policy, while using cashflows that are dedicated to paying your taxes. I should say upfront that this discussion will make sense immediately to business owners, but I hope that salaried individuals see relevance to their households as well. Now in order to provide this intriguing maneuver a fair disclosure, I will need to do it in two parts. In this first part, I will lay the groundwork, and then in next month’s article I will provide some numerical illustrations to show exactly what I mean.