After 26 years as my business partner, David Suckey sent me a book with a brief note: “Read this and tell me who it sounds like.”
I did, and before long I understood his point: the book described what we do through our alternative approach to traditional financial planning. It gave me a genuine sense of pride to realize that a strategy once used almost exclusively by the ultra-wealthy is something we have been providing for our diverse clientele for decades.
Published by financial strategist Garrett Gunderson in 2019, What Would the Rockefellers Do? (Abridged) details how the ultra-wealthy preserve generational wealth. The book advocates for the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) to help everyday individuals take control of their finances and bypass traditional banking fees.
Core Strategies & Concepts
- The Infinite Banking Concept (IBC): Gunderson advocates using high-cash-value, dividend-paying whole life insurance policies as a personal banking system.
- Earn Instead of Pay: Instead of borrowing from banks and paying interest, you borrow against your own policy’s cash value. Your money continues to earn compound interest and dividends even while you use it.
- Control and Liquidity: This method eliminates reliance on traditional banking approvals and fees, giving you immediate liquidity to fund investments or major purchases.
- Velocity of Money: The book stresses keeping your money constantly in motion rather than letting it sit stagnant in low-yield savings accounts or volatile market investments.
How the Wealthy Stay That Way
According to Gunderson, the Rockefeller method relies on conservative asset protection, continuous cash flow, and legacy planning rather than chasing the highest market returns. The wealthy protect their principle, collateralize assets, and pass down structured wealth to prevent it from being squandered by future generations.
The book is well worth the read for those who take serious their retirement and estate planning needs.
My partner and I have done three videos that can give you some idea of our work:
