831 reviews19 followers
Soo this is actually pretty legit. I got this book basically for free because of a promotion in his email list (I just had to pay shipping, and it wasn't the lame $7.99 shipping, but he actually sees how much it'll cost to ship from his HQ to you and you pay that. So for me it was $1.37). I actually have met the author in person, but his original stuff was geared more toward entrepreneurs and I never made it successful with that course of life. I think I'm going to claim authority in my review on this one (it's always lame when someone claims to be an expert, but it's pretty applicable here). I actually spent a few years selling life insurance (mainly whole, some term) out of an independent brokerage (we worked with a dozen companies or so) and then I went on to work for one of the world's largest mutual fund companies, ending up after a couple years there as a retirement specialist with my brokerage license. As much as he went into detail in the book, I can say that what Garrett Gunderson is teaching is accurate. It really is not a gimmick. Now I can't say that fully because he doesn't go into the exact details of the type of whole life insurance he is talking about since that information is what he is selling, but everything he explains about the benefits, the cash value, the loaning off death benefit, the interest rates, the guaranteed built-in value, the returns, the volatility of retirement investment accounts, the potential fees, even the limitation of over-funding the life insurance (MEC), and pretty much everything else is spot on with my own knowledge and experience. With that said, I should quickly follow up with the obvious note that he definitely wrote the book to persuade you into hiring his services. Some of the numbers are taken to extreme circ*mstances to dramatize the potential loss. For example, he quickly cites and glosses through a number of taxes and penalties that would occur if you cashed out your 401(k), but he doesn't explain that some of those penalties only hit if you take it out early, something that most people in corporate America wouldn't be dumb enough to do or if they are it's because the payout is worth it (ie guaranteed entrepreneurial opportunities) or they are irresponsible with their money enough to put themselves into that position in the first place. Another example is his decry of investment accounts. I'm not being biased, there are very conservative accounts that for decades on decades have produced reliable returns. But, there are still limitations to using that money that a Cash Flow Insurance, as he describes it, wouldn't have. So you have to take the drama of what he is saying with a grain of salt. But, as best as I can tell the theory is sound. Enough so that I'm thinking of paying for his Cash Flow class so I can start learning the details. It will take a bit of time to get it up and going, but so does any investment account; but, this one is guaranteed and accessible. With that said, this is as good a place as any to point out that his website is very poorly organized. Looking for more information on the subject he introduces took a painful amount of perusing and skim reading to finally see a vague inclusion in one product he's offering, and then it didn't even really offer any more info on price or availability or anything. He setup this great hook with this book, but leaves the consumer out by not having his site better equipped to guide people to the information they want and the decision points to make quickly and easily. It actually was really frustrating and turned me off almost entirely to the company, but I am on their email list and happened to just get an email with the information I was looking for. Hope this helps anyone! I'd definitely recommend the book if you are looking for a potentially powerful alternative to traditional/well-used methods of investment in your life.
49 reviews3 followers
This is an interesting book that will open up your mind on life insurance, specifically whole life insurance. I was looking to buy term insurance but did not know if this was the right choice for us. This book helped me decide that Whole Life Insurance is a better choice. The author is quite vague on how to implement the Cash Flow Insurance strategy he is talking about. If you're going to write a book, might as well openly share with people how to go about buying a Whole Life Insurance policy or the criteria for selecting such a policy. It is my understanding that with Roth 401(k) you pre-pay your taxes. In this book, there are references to 401(k) / retirement investment subject to as high as 40% tax. This may not be the case for people with money in Roth 401(k). I trust this author but just wished the book had more meat to it. I still got a lot of value and thank the author for his work.
