“Thanks you for taking the time to meet with me yesterday, it was very helpful to get some actual numbers. I have given this a lot of thought and have done quite a bit of research in order to play the devil’s advocate. However, I haven’t been able to find much downside to the infinite banking strategy using whole life policies. I think if more people would take the time to look into it they would likely find the same thing. As such, I am on board and am slowly getting my wife on board to start funding a policy. With your help I should be able to show her the advantages of doing such."

           -Ryan Rees, CPA, MAcc, Hartle Knighton LLC 

"I worked with several different financial advisors, some of whom were and still are good friends.  They were following all the current wisdom and trying to both benefit my financial well-being as well as their own.  The bottom line is that it didn’t work for me or them.  I was looking for something different, with much of the upside but none of the downside of a normal stock market or business investment.

It is not rocket science, nor is it get rich scheme of the month.  It is a hybrid of something that has been out there for a long time.  I knew the basic concept was out there, but I was convinced that the other “wall street” wisdom was a better way to go.  Not so much right now.

My Advisor, Jeff Jaramillo, is a great young man and he and his wife, Heather, have been a big help to me in both understanding this concept and getting me started with my own program.  I would really encourage you to take a serious look at this concept." 

          -John Bock, St. Joseph, Michigan

"I met Jeff and Veracity via the internet. I had learned about the concepts of Infinite Banking and Nelson Nash from another investment I was involved in. I am Realtor and computer consulting business owner and I have always been on the look for the best investments. Infinite banking intrigued me. I began researching it. I found Jeff via some blogs where he had responded to the concepts of infinite banking. I am a very skeptical person. There are plenty of scams out there, especially in the investment arena, so I proceeded with lots of caution. I also found him on Nelson Nash’s website. I quickly learned that only a handful of agents in the state are really qualified or know  enough on how to sell the “right” policy for me and my family and our needs. Jeff set me up with a great policy.

Being self-employed, I was concerned about what happens if my ability to contribute to my policies became limited, etc. Jeff worked through all my questions and concerns. At the time I did my policy, I was preparing to purchase a home. I was concerned about the ability to really get a loan for usage on whatever I needed. Jeff and team walked me through the steps when I needed the money I had put into the policy to use towards my down payment on my new home. It was amazingly easy to get access to my money in the policy.  Within a few days of submitting the request, I had it wired to my bank."

          -Kyle Pettit, Realtor and owner of ALTAsoft Inc

- Kok Keng (KK) Goh, Real Estate Investor, Chicago, Illinois

We’re Ken and Sonja Herbert. I was 63 years old when I was introduced to the infinite banking concept and Sonja was 62. We were in Barnes & Noble where I was perusing the personal finance books when I came across one called “Bank on Yourself.” The title was intriguing and much of the first couple of chapters struck a chord with me. However, when the author finally revealed that the vehicle through which all of this amazing stuff could be accomplished involved life insurance, the blinders came on and my mind closed.

Nevertheless, I kept on reading. Afterwards, I showed the book to Sonja and we discussed the infinite banking concept. But in the end, while it all seemed reasonable, we didn’t think it would be for us. We felt that at 63 and 62, we were too old to begin a plan like the one the book described. If we were just ten years younger, it would have made more sense.

Over the next couple of weeks, the ideas behind the infinite banking concept percolated on the back burner. Then, as I was making a credit card payment at 14% interest, it hit me that we could be making that payment to ourselves, along with that interest rate. Then we thought about the remodeling we wanted to do, and the fact that we would have to borrow the money from some financial institution. Why not borrow it from ourselves, instead? So, we went to the website noted in the book and were put in contact with Jeff Jaramillo.

Jeff insisted that Sonja and I do our “homework” before we committed to anything. He pointed us to his website, and sent us suggestions for further research. Over the next two months, all of the questions we had were answered to our satisfaction:

• What are the risks versus the rewards inherent in this plan?
• Can this work at our age?
• Should we cash out our IRAs and put that money to work for us under the umbrella of infinite banking?
• How long do we have to wait before we have enough funds to do anything?
• When we actually want to borrow from ourselves, what kind of hoops will we have to jump through to get it?
• Should both of us or only one of us participate?
• Will such a system allow us to meet both our long-term and short-term financial objectives?

What are the risks versus the rewards inherent in this plan?

I am the CEO of a small business where risk and reward are important factors. We design tools to help Forex (FOReign currency EXchange) traders manage risk. As a trader myself, I understand the relationship between risk and reward. My research into the infinite banking concept led me to the conclusion that there is almost no risk unless the entire economy collapses, in which case it wouldn’t matter where you have your money working for you. But even during the Great Depression, most insurance companies survived. On the other hand, the rewards are tremendous: a guaranteed rate of return, tax-free dividend growth, the ability to be your own banker with very liquid assets, the ability to borrow money and recoup it all plus interest, and more.

Sonja is a writer by profession, and has her work published in well-know anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Soul. She also writes content copy for web pages, including e-How and others. She is also a tenacious researcher and really did her homework. She is conservative when it comes to finances, and in the end was completely at ease with what she learned about the security inherent in infinite banking. I felt that if it can pass her scrutiny, then we should definitely get our plan going.

Can this work at our age?

Jeff helped us put together a plan and showed us how, at our ages, it could work for us. I wish I had known about this ten years earlier, but even so, after only nine months, we have seen first-hand not only that it can work, but more importantly, how well it works. I’ll share that with you in a moment.

Should we cash out our IRAs and put that money to work for us under the umbrella of infinite banking?

Like many of you, I’m sure, we watched the value of our IRAs plummet shortly after each of the past few financial crises began. Although the IRAs did recoup some of the losses, the recovery was slow and inconsistent. For us it made sense to cash out, pay the tax, and put the money in a secure place where it could grow at a steady, consistent rate—even while we were using it.

How long do we have to wait before we have enough funds to do anything?

For any venture, there is a necessary capitalization period. That is, we need to deposit money into the plan on a regular, systematic basis in order to accrue a considerable pool of money. If we do so for at least ten years, we will have built up a considerable nest egg.

But what about the meantime? Ten years seems like a long time to wait, doesn’t it? The great news is that depending on your goals, the wait might be as short as 18 months before there is enough to work with; for others, maybe longer. However, Jeff showed us how we could find the money by changing our paradigm about everyday finances. By doing so, we discovered that there was a good deal of cash we could be “socking away.”

Now to answer the question, “HOW LONG must we wait?”

In our case, we capitalized not only with our regular, systematic monthly deposits, but also with our IRAs. Thus, we had almost immediate use of the money. There was a mandatory 90-day waiting period after the initial funds were deposited—for the insurance company to safeguard against money laundering. So, for three months, we made only our monthly deposits. After that, we cashed out our IRAs, and as soon as the deposit check cleared our bank, the funds were available.

After nine months, here’s what we’ve accomplished so far:

• Paid off a $1,500 credit card debt. We borrowed the money from ourselves, paid off the credit card, and then made the same payments back to ourselves, plus interest (which we also kept).
• Our car’s transmission went out to the tune of $3,000. We borrowed from ourselves, and then paid ourselves off with interest.
• Borrowed $6,000 for a new roof on the house. So far, we have paid ourselves all but $2,000 back.

If we had borrowed from a bank or credit card, we would still have had to pay back the $10,500 we spent over the past nine months, plus interest. Our savings account would have been depleted and we would have been $10,500 poorer. The difference with infinite banking is that while we’ve been borrowing and paying back, the cash in our account has actually grown. Not only do we have more cash available than we started with, in two months we will have recouped all the money we borrowed, plus interest.

Here are a couple of projects in the pipeline:

• In a couple of months, we are going to have plumbing and a drain installed in our basement, along with 220 volt electricity so that we can move our washer and dryer there. The cost will be approximately $2,000.
• In the spring, we will do a complete remodel our bathroom—about $6,000 worth.

We already have the funds to complete these projects now, but we want to take a disciplined approach, making sure that we balance borrowing, pay-back, and account growth so that all of those facets of the plan are nurtured.

When we actually want to borrow from ourselves, what kind of hoops will we have to jump through to get it?

This is the incredible part. If we want to borrow less than $5,000 at any one time, we just call the company and tell them “Send me a check for $4,500.” They don’t ask any questions. They don’t want the reasons why you want the money. They just say, “OK. Your request will be processed today and the check will be in the mail tomorrow.” We usually have the check within a week. If we want more than $5,000 at one time, we just fax them a letter requesting the money. That usually takes an extra day, but the point is there is no hassle.

Should both of us or only one of us participate?

In our case, we felt that it would be a good thing for both of us to be involved, so we are each owners of our own accounts, with the other as beneficiary.

Will such a system allow us to meet both our long-term and short-term financial objectives?

Jeff helped us devise a plan that would help us in the short run as well as in the long term. With both of us participating, we can use my account for our short-term plans, such as those outlined above. We leave the cash in my wife’s plan for the longer term objectives.

The point of this endorsement is that for us, infinite banking has been great. It is extremely flexible, very liquid, and helps our savings grow more rapidly and surely than through any other vehicle we can think of.

To those of you who are wondering whether this concept is right for you, all I can say is that it has definitely been right for Sonja and me. We recommend it highly and without reservation.

To Jeff and his wife Heather, we want to say thanks for the highly professional counsel and the caring, low-pressure approach. You both are terrific to work with.

          - Ken and Sonja Herbert, Provo, Utah