Infinite Banking Systems are becoming a trusted vehicle for growing individual wealth. But there are also many practical and beneficial ways to apply the Infinite Banking concept to businesses.
Understanding the Infinite Banking System
The concept is the same. With the Infinite Banking System, you put yourself in the position of being your own bank. This is done through a dividend-paying whole life insurance policy. As your cash values begin to grow you can begin to lend yourself money. If you need to repair something in your home, for example, you can borrow the money from yourself using the cash values within your policy.
You set the loan amount, the interest rate and the payment schedule. When you pay the loan back, you pay yourself with interest. So you are financing and making money on yourself, instead of paying that money and interest to a bank or other financial institution. Even better, your cash values will continue to earn interest and you may earn dividends on your entire pre-loan amount, as if you had never borrowed money.
Applying the Infinite Banking System to a Small Business
For a small business owner, the Infinite Banking System has a variety of potential benefits. Loans from your whole life insurance can be used to pay for legitimate business expenses, including:
-space rental
-new equipment
-office supplies
-bonuses
-corporate vehicles
-business travel
These are only a few ideas. The limits are infinite. And as with policies that serve individuals, the more you use the Infinite Banking System for business purposes, the more benefits you’ll receive. You can create a cash side account or gain, simply as a bi-product of your regular business transactions.
So why would you do this? Because the IRS allows businesses to write off legitimate business interest expense. By funding business expenses through your dividend-paying whole life insurance plan, you create an investment return for yourself and a tax write off for the business. It’s a win-win relationship. You, the individual, loan money to the business. The business pays back the loan amount plus interest to you, increasing your account cash values. The business gets to write-off the interest paid on the loan as a legitimate business expense.
While business owners can use their personal whole life policies to fund business expenses, policies can also be purchased by the company on key individuals, offering the same benefits of cash value liquidity, loan opportunities and tax advantages.
Making Infinite Banking Work for Larger Businesses
The concept of Infinite Banking has been an accepted practice in larger businesses and corporations for some time. These types of businesses obviously have a much greater need for capital – far bigger in scope and volume than an individual or small business does. But the Infinite Banking concept is carried out through Corporate Owned Life Insurance, and its counterpart, Bank Owned Life Insurance.
Corporate Owned Life Insurance
Corporate-owned life insurance, or COLI, is traditionally purchased to cover a business’s key executives. These policies are also known as “key person” insurance. A corporation will purchase a life insurance policy on a key employee to cover the potential financial cost of losing him or her to unexpected death. The insurance coverage is intended to cover the cost of recruiting and training new talent and to offset the possible loss of business due to the key employee’s absence. It also helps a company recoup the possible cost of benefit payouts to the deceased employee’s family.
COLI accounts can be used in the same way as individual whole life policies. Corporations use their participating whole life insurance policies to build cash values. Just like with individual policies, contributions and gains accumulate tax-free, and loans can be made as needed for any business need.
Bank Owned Life Insurance
The financial industry has its own version of this type of insurance. Bank-owned life insurance, or BOLI, has been traditionally purchased by financial institutions for their key executives. And although its been an accepted practice for many years, its popularity is increasing. In 2008, for example, banks purchased $126.1 billion of whole life insurance.
Using COLI and BOLI as Infinite Banking Concepts
Because these corporate life insurance policies are usually for much larger amounts than individual policies, the potential for reinvestment and explosive cash value growth are much greater. Although the policies cover individuals, they are purchased to protect corporations and banks for their potential losses, boost Tier 1 capital and provide benefits that might not otherwise be affordable. So it is the corporation or bank that is the policyholder, and these purchasing institutions can use these policies much like an individual uses a participating whole life policy to fund the Infinite Banking System. Corporations can use the cash values within their policies to fund legitimate business expenses such as:
-Large equipment or machinery
-Employee retirement plan
-Employee Health & Wellness Plan
-Corporate Vehicles
-Your lease/building space
-Corporate Housing
-Travel Expenses
-Business Loans
-Adding Fringe Benefits to Attract Key Personnel
-Business Acquisitions & Merger
Corporations and banks have long known the financial benefits of infinite banking through their COLI and BOLI policies. By using a dividend-paying life insurance policy as a platform for the Infinite Banking System, now smaller companies can enjoy these same benefits.