Building Wealth Through Infinite Banking and Leadership

This idea of being obsessed and that if you want to be the world's greatest at anything, you've got to have an obsession that to a certain extent is pure focus and you're willing to give things up in order to foster that obsession.

When you begin to think collaboratively versus thinking competitively, opportunities for collaboration begin to appear everywhere. And that has proven to be true time and time and time again. Foreign.

Welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I am your host, Bob Goverow. It's a pleasure to have you with me here today. Just a reminder that this is the place where we dissect the elements that contribute to entrepreneurial success, from mindset and leadership to profits and revenue and even cash flows. This episode is called Breaking Financial Barriers with Jason Low on on wealth building for entrepreneurs. I want to invite a colleague of mine in today, Jason Lowe. Jason is the founder and CEO of Ascendant Financial and chairman of the Low Family group of companies. He's not just a leader in the finance space, but also an accomplished author of five books, with his most recent book being released called Don't Spread the Wealth. As a host of the wealth on Main street podcast, he shares invaluable insights with listeners across North America. Beside Beyond Ascendant, Jason is a dedicated mentor to entrepreneurs, offering guidance through his innovative method called the Lowdown. And I know we're going to talk a little bit about the Lowdown here today. Prepare to be inspired as Jason brings his wealth of knowledge and entrepreneurial expertise. Today's conversation. This is an episode you won't want to miss. He's definitely an individual who he and I have very similar stories. We have this crossing of paths at all times, although never in the same place, but always very big fan of watching his journey take place, surrounds himself with the right people, hires the right mentors, invests in personal and professional coaching, and is just an individual who I can say I continue to admire watching his journey from afar. So without further ado, let's bring in Jason Lowe to the podcast today. All right, Jason Lowe, I am so excited to have you here. 1. I just feel like the world has brought you and I together over the last five years and I don't know that there's one other person that I've seen on my every social media. Like, I see your story all the time and you connect with people that I connect with. And it's like we just, we're never in the same room, but we're always with the same people. And it's an absolute pleasure to have you here and share a little bit about your story with with our audience today?

Sure. Well, firstly, it's an honor to be here. Thank you for having me. And I think that we probably cross paths at about 36,000ft in the air, quite often flying from one place to the next. But it's a real honor to be here. And I love speaking to a community of entrepreneurs or people who. We were just having a discussion before the show. People who are feeling obsessed with wanting to become and continually become a better version of themselves, you know. You know, there's no destination or landing spot for that. That's the wonderful thing about this journey of life. And my story is one that I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to. But growing up in a small mining and forestry community in Timmins, Ontario, that was a time in my life where in the early 1980s, I was just a toddler at that time, and I have an older sister. And back in the early 1980s, what I later learned was that interest rates skyrocketed, and if you were a prime customer of the bank, those rates peaked at 21.5%. And I've never met anybody who's a prime customer of the bank. And so people were paying much more than that. And I didn't know at the time that my parents, when they argued consistently about money, they didn't have anybody to show them a better way or to take them under their wing and coach them and guide them and help them along. And I think that if they would have had that, then circumstances may have been different. But we grew up in a home where we barely scraped by with what we had. And one of the things that my late father would always say to me, don't ever be convicted, guilty of giving up on yourself. And he led by example, because his answer to the problem at that time was to work more that what he believed to be his only option to help our family get through that. And so that's where I developed my workaholism from, was seeing my father as an example. And when I got into business, my journey into being an Entrepreneur began in 2008. What a wonderful time to be, you know, stepping into the realm of being an entrepreneur. And it scared the crap out of me. It really did. You know, my first year as an entrepreneur, after paying all the bills and. And just barely scraping by, my net income was only $186. And that scared me. But I'll tell you, my wife, Rebecca, who I give all the credit to, she is amazing. She said to me, at that time, we were expecting our firstborn. We have four children now. And at that time, she said, jason, I don't care if you're earning minimum wage or you build an empire. I'm going to love you just the same. Now get up, get to work. We're here to support you, and we believe in you. And it was that domino that tipped over for me, where from that point forward, there wasn't any obstacle or anything that would put me in that frame of mind where I was scared enough to consider going back to being an employee. I'm permanently unemployable.

Yeah, me too.

Like, no employer would like me, and I wouldn't like them. And so being an entrepreneur is you. And I talked about this a little bit before the show, that most, if not all, the entrepreneurs that I've ever been blessed to meet and to serve have very little degree of awareness around what's necessary, the work effort that's necessary to achieve success, let alone sustained success. But I came from nothing, and I never forget where I came from. And it's humility and gratitude that keep.

Me grounded 100% and, yeah, for everybody. Jason and I were just chatting beforehand. I said, there seems to be a constant theme that keeps hitting me at every event I go to. You know, there's one of the major speakers or the host of the event is always talking about this idea of being obsessed and that if you want to be the world's greatest at anything, you've got to have an obsession that, you know, to a certain extent is. Is pure focus, and you're willing to give things up in order to foster that obsession. And, you know, I. I was just sort of saying to Jason that Chris Bumstead, who has been on the podcast in the past, he talked about his wife and her saying, do you want to be the best in the world or do you not want to be the best in the world? He said, of. Of course. She said, well, then you need to focus on being the best in the world in one thing. You can't do five things the best in the world unless you're Michael Phelps. I don'. Know, he seems to be doing a lot of different. Different races and whatnot. But, you know, truthfully, the. The idea of it's. It's a hard journey and you have to be a little bit obsessed. And I know you put workaholism on. On the table early on here, but it's, you know, I think that's a form of it where you're just so obsessed with the Purpose and the mission that you're not willing to give that up and you're willing to sacrifice other things that other people wouldn't and in order to get there. And so on that note, knowing you and everything that you've built from the ground up, you started in 2008. What did that journey sort of look like after your first year of 100 and something? $8 of net income, we'll just round it to 100. What did 2020, 2009 and beyond, what did that look like for you?

Oh, boy. It was a very rapid ascension. And when I say rapid, I'm really not articulating it well enough. I sought out mentors who could help me, and that was one of the best pieces of advice that I had received. Always be coachable, and it's tough to trust but verify that unless you have a coach. And so I was very intentional to surround myself with people who were achieving what I wanted in my life. I traveled across North America often without having all of the financial resources available to me to do that. And so credit cards came in handy, and so did the real estate that I had invested in. I owned 13 properties at that time, and it was my real estate portfolio that got me through 2008, through right around 2011. And when things really started to pick up for me in a big way and I started to earn income that I really could have only dreamt about a few years earlier, it opened my eyes to a whole new world. It exposed me to a center of influence with so many amazing people who have guided me and coached me and helped me along the way. Several people that you also know in your own circle of influence. And so placing a high degree of emphasis on being coached, that's what really helped me rocket along in my entrepreneurial journey. And realizing that, I'll say it again, there's no such thing as having arrived in your potential. No different than there's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. There's always something new to learn. And so fast forward to today, 12 companies as part of the low family group of companies, incredible team members, gainfully employed, succeeding in their jobs and serving the people and creating financial abundance in their lives. That is all the result of being the sum parts of everyone who's coached me and mentored me.

Now we know. I know a couple of your coaches, one in particular. Did you want to talk about some of those coaches and how they've had an impact? I figured, and why not? Let's talk about the goat of all goats. You know, Absolutely.

You know, I want to extend, as I always do, any opportunity to extend all the credit to Dan Sullivan and to his incredible team at Strategic Coach. I started coaching with Dan directly in October of 2018. And the one thing that he shared with me which I hope is really impactful for your listeners, especially those who own and operate businesses, he shared two very critical things that I'll never forget. The first was that when you begin to think collaboratively versus thinking competitively, opportunities for collaboration begin to appear everywhere. And that has proven to be true time and time and time and time again. The second thing is that if you're focused on what your competition is doing, you've got the wrong information. Your competitor doesn't have all of the, the essence, the knowledge, the awareness that you do of your own customers, your own clients, the people that you serve, each and every day. That is where you should be applying. Your focus is on continually developing a deeper understanding of what exactly it is the clients you have or the clients you want to have truly value and continue delivering that to them. And so it was in that moment back in 2018 where I made a critical decision that I was going to step away from being a producer day to day in our financial business, in our senate financial company and focusing on that, you know, the sale and placement of dividend paying whole life insurance and to build a team so that I could learn to get things accomplished alongside great people. And that business is doing incredible. We operate across Canada, including Quebec. We operate now in all 50 states in the US and we're scaling the business there and so just blessed beyond the definition of good fortune, you know, to have had those moments with a great coach like Dan Sullivan. I could spend five days dropping wisdom after wisdom after wisdom that he shared because he's impacted my life personally and professionally in, in an incalculable way.

Yeah. And I, I've never had the pleasure to work with Dan personally. I've crossed paths with him a number of times. He's spoke a number of times in circles that I've been part of. He definitely is admired and respected by all of the best in that business. And you know, I would look at him as really being the founder of the coaching industry and really putting it on the map. He's, he's just that well respected and admired from everyone. I've never heard anyone say something negative about Dan Sullivan or his team either, so, so that's wonderful. And I continue to see you work with him and your relationship. I see you share it online. It's Amazing. And, you know, one of the top advices for you was to have coaching. And I couldn't agree more. And, you know, it's. It's been interesting because sometimes I feel like coaching is to help you with certain periods of time in your life where different coaches can help you. And I know you have multiple coaches and you work with multiple people, as do I, and it's a big investment. But what is a more important investment than in you? And continuing to find those people that help you and support you at different phases of your journey is amazing. And I've got a handful of coaches who've dramatically impacted my life as well, so love that.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Credit to all the great coaches out there.

Credit to the coaches. It's.

We appreciate you.

We do. And you know what? It's, you know, and the coach may not even be a coach in some instances. There's somebody who's done what you want to achieve and you find them and they're willing to help guide you and give you advice. You know, I remember being at a dinner one time and there was a very successful coach sitting across from me and very intimidating guy. I was very young at the time. I remember he had. He was martial arts expert, tattoos everywhere, very serious dude. And he grabbed a steak knife in a very weird way, like I thought he was gonna come across the table at me. But he said to me, you know, what is it that I can help you with? We have this time. What are you trying to accomplish? And I sort of said, well, look, I'm trying to build this hundred million dollar professional services firm. And he said, amazing. You need to change who you are before you can become the leader of $100 million company. I was like, I don't know what that means. And he said, you need to become the leader of $100 million company before you can lead everybody to that destination. And that has impacted me in so many ways. Even just that sentence and the focus of self development on leadership, My own self leadership has been incredible. So, yes, thank you to all the coaches, those inspiring people who've done amazing things. We appreciate you.

All right, can I tell you a real quick story, Bob?

Please. Yeah.

So in my early days with developing the ascendant financial business, I would often share with my teammates. I'm not ready to be the CEO of Ascendant Financial yet, but I will be. Just watch me. And it was a great opportunity for me to lead by example in demonstrating to my teammates that there's always something new to learn. And there's no destination or landing spot for potential. And so I spent so much time focusing on becoming a better version of me that one day, I'll never forget it for as long as I live. And we had this all hands gathering and I would often again express that I would say, team, I'm still not ready to be the CEO of Ascended Financial yet, but I will be. Just watch me. And then a few hands go up and a few team members said, you're ready. And I literally, I was emotional in that moment because just it hit, it really landed where it was like, okay, I've got my team. I've got my team. And there weren't many dry eyes after that moment among the team. And it was a really powerful. I can't describe it had to have been there, but it was really amazing. And I'm still a work in progress, I always will be, but I recognize that. And so opportunities to learn that are really high caliber, they continue to track me down because there's more for me to learn and more for me to grow into. And every leader needs to hear that 100%. Yeah.

How many people were in that room that day?

47.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a, that's a big group, right? 47 people. And thinking about, I was actually thinking that you were going to say something like seven. And now you look at this transformation. But, but you're right though. You know, it's, I think our team last year that was here at our two day training, we do a two day training every year in late December. We celebrate the year, we talk about next year. And I think it was last year I had a very similar conversation, although I haven't maybe had a relationship with these people as long because we made an acquisition a couple years ago that brought about 30 of them on. And I remember saying to them, I'm not the leader who's ready to take that company or this company to that level, but I will be and you know, I'll damn well die trying. And you know, it's.

Or invest a lot in coaching all.

All of the above. Right. And it's. But again, you know that I think that's part of that obsession where it's like I am obsessed with not letting anyone down, specifically me. And I love that your dad sort of said that to you as well. Like don't, don't be, don't have that as your regret that you quit on yourself. And that's a pretty, pretty powerful message as well. Let's talk about becoming your own Banker and what that actually means because I think, you know, based on some of the story of growing up and having some financial struggles, you know, very similar, I wouldn't say that I had, my family had any financial struggles. We were very middle class, they would, they worked hard. And my friend David Neagle I think put a really good label on middle class mindset and what that is. And it's, you know, really the understanding that working hard is the way that we can continue to, to generate more income and it's, you know, working more hours and giving more effort and I think it's a really great foundation for everybody because if you can work smarter plus harder that there's a lot that's there. But so I'm guessing a lot of your financial journey and getting into this space was to address the fact that, man, I wish my parents had that guidance. I want to help everybody's parents who would have been in my parents position to support them in getting that right. I don't want to talk your story, but I felt it when you said it and I was like, oh, I feel that that's part of this journey and I like it. So please tell us before I share anymore.

I will. So back in July of 08, I was invited to attend a conference that was being held in the United States. And there were 300 plus people in attendance at this event. And it was an event where the hosts were sharing this concept, the infinite banking concept, the process of becoming your own banker. I had no earthly idea what that was. It was a friend of mine from the US that invited me to go because Rebecca and I had lived in the United States when I was working in my corporate career. And we developed a lot of great friendships that we still maintain to this day. And so at the event I started asking these questions to trust but verify and try and develop an understanding of what I was learning but what I was serving people with. At that time I was a registered insolvency counselor. So given that my parents had gone through that really horrible struggle financially, I said, okay, if I'm going to take this leap into being an entrepreneur, I want to help families who are struggling with debt, especially families with young kids. That brought back a lot of painful memories for me and I just wanted to help. I wanted to show them that there was a better way. And every conversation I was having, I was asking a question, God forbid, Mr. Jones, you pass away prematurely. How is Mrs. Jones and the kids going to go on living? Are you life insured? I wasn't Life licensed. At the time, I wasn't in that space. But the most frequent response that I got was no, no, no, no, no. So that to me was a problem, and I said, I need to solve that. So I went and got life licensed. Right in that timeframe, I was introduced to the process of becoming your own banker, the infinite banking concept. And that was a domino that tipped over for me. That changed my life completely. That book, my late mentor, who's right next to me in every session, every podcast, every meeting, it changed my life completely. It opened my eyes to a whole new financial world that I didn't even know existed. And when I say that and people think, what on earth is he talking about? I'll give you a real example. April of that year. I know I'm kind of being specific with the months, it's helpful. So in April of that year, before I was even introduced to the process, my wife Rebecca and I purchased our home here in Alberta. And the mortgage on the Property was a 40 year amortization. You could still get 40 year amortization schedules then. Incredibly low interest rate, very manageable, easy to afford payment. And I thought, wow, 420 plus thousand dollar mortgage, 40 year amortization, low rate, low payment. We're set. When we began to implement this process in our lives, I had set this goal that I wanted to be mortgage free by age 45. I was 32 years young at the time. I. I had no logic or rationale as to why I selected age 45. I just pulled the number out of thin air. So we ended up achieving that objective. Seven years into my journey with the process, I was 39 years young and we waved goodbye to the conventional bank mortgage. And the way that we did this was ridiculously simple. We paid premium into dividend paying whole life insurance, and we developed a system of those policies. So as each one of our kids came along, we insured each one of our kids the moment that they were born. We had several policies on Rebecca and my life, which we still have to this day. And we began to accumulate what's called cash value, which is not money, it's the liquidity of the policy. That cash value grows every single day uninterrupted. It's not tied to the stock market, to a real estate cycle, to political turmoil, to changes in tax law. That cash value rises uninterrupted. So we began to borrow against that, accumulating cash value on demand, on our terms. That's called a policy loan. We take the policy loan proceeds, which is the Life insurance company's money and we go directly down to the corner bank and we apply that money directly toward the principal balance of the mortgage. Each time we did that, we had a policy loan balance, but the mortgage balance continued declining and every future payment we made became instantly more valuable because we were chomping away at the principal that much faster. So fast forward seven years later, we no longer had a mortgage from a conventional bank. We had a policy loan balance of a couple hundred thousand at that time. But the 1800 plus dollars per month that we were otherwise contractually obligated to continue transferring away from our family is now flowing back into our system. Everything that we repay, we get to reuse. We have ready access capital on demand, on our terms, we pay no tax on the daily buildup, we can contribute almost unlimited sums, and we get to control how we finance everything that we need in our lives. So logic began to inform me, how much of my capital do I not want residing there? And so that's just one tiny example of the implementation of this process which out there on social media today. There's a lot of sensationalism of this concept, you know, the secret black box of the wealthy, you know, grow indestructible wealth by implementing this process. This is meant to be ridiculously simple. This is all about controlling how you finance the things that you need throughout your lifetime so that you can recapture the interest, the money that you presently pay to banks and to finance companies. And for business owners, this is a whole other, a whole other opportunity that, and I'll share when, when you invite me to do so, I'll share an example of a business owner that'll blow your mind. Like this is so simple that once you grasp it, you can't unsee it. And so for us, I decided that I was going to focus and specialize on educating the general public on how to do what I had done. And that gave birth to our virtual and in person live events. And we host, we meet thousands of people every year from across North America and we coach them and mentor them through this process. And I'm now entering my 17th year in specializing in this process. And you couldn't pay me enough money to stop doing this like it is. It's not work. Not to mention the fact that these life insurance contracts have a death benefit associated with them. And we've had to fulfill that duty of care on several occasions where we've delivered a tax free windfall of capital when it was needed the most. And that's my definition of the Best investment, one that pays the most when it's needed the most. And I haven't had a single grieving family say to any of us on the ascendant team, I wish the check was for less. It's never happened. Isn't that good?

That's a pretty powerful way to explain that, honestly, Jason. Especially the last component of it.

Yeah. Because I'll tell you, both my parents passed away prematurely. My father had a dividend paying whole life insurance policy. When he retired as a regional assessment officer, his financial advisor encouraged him to surrender the policy in exchange for the cash value, which he did. And almost a year to the day after he retired, he was gone. Now, I'm going to meet that financial advisor someday and we're going to have words because you can still, you can still do that to this day. If you own a dividend paying life insurance contract, you can surrender it at any time. You can forfeit it in exchange for the cash value. That takes the insurance company off the hook of having to pay a death claim. And because my dad wanted the snowmobile and the new golf clubs and the travel and everything in retirement, nobody explained to him, hey, Bob, you can borrow against that ever increasing accumulation. There's no repayment schedule. These policy loans are unstructured. They're not reported to Transunion, they're not reported to Equifax. They're private loans. And there is no repayment schedule because the insurance company itself guarantees the collateral for the loan. That's why there's no repayment schedule. And nobody explained that to my father. And so there was no death benefit in force when he passed. Same circumstance for my mom. And so I get very passionate about making sure that we don't stop at educating about all the financing characteristics that these contracts have, but the fact that there's a death benefit associated with them, that's going to, it's going to take care of and enable a family to grieve the way that they should, the way that my sister and I didn't have the opportunity to do. And so I get quite passionate about that. And the amount of claims that we've had to deliver is rather disproportionate just based on the sheer volume that we do. You know, we, we serve thousands of people a year. And so naturally people are going to die.

It's bound to happen. Two things guaranteed in life, death and taxes. Right?

Yeah. And the only thing that, the only thing that doesn't get worse anytime politicians meet is death.

Right? Yeah, that is true. That is True.

Isn't that good? I know you like that.

Although indirectly, if we consider the healthcare system, you know, we could incorporate that. Good. You know, an interesting story and, and making it personal with your dad as well. And I'm guessing, you know, based on the tax implications of these policies, which is typically nothing. Right. If they're left to fruition. Right. Tax free death benefit. But if you do cash out the policy, there is likely going to be some sort of tax implication between the cash surrender value and the cost base of the policy. So not only was he not getting tax free money, he was likely paying tax, which probably nobody explained to him at the time on that policy, which left him with less than what he thought he was going to have anyway. Right.

Super frustrating, really terrible advice. And I wanted to share that business owner example because this is so powerful and you'll be able to relate to this, Bob, given your experience in the accounting field and specializing in delivering great service by the way. We became clients of Bob's firm and we're quite happy that we made that switch. We meet with business owners all the time and in this one instance, a couple who had been operating and still operate a really successful vacuum truck business here in Edmonton. And these vacuum trucks, I had no idea how expensive they were. Like we're talking 400 plus thousand dollars for one of these vehicles and the maintenance cost alone is excessive. And what their accountant had been encouraging them to do over the years, given that they were already in business for 17 plus years at that time, maybe a little longer. 18. The accountant said, look, the way that you go about doing this is we've created a sinking fund. So we understand you don't want to go into debt to purchase these vehicles. So let's create a sinking fund and once we've got enough capital we can go and replace it. And the life cycle of a vehicle typically is around five years. So the objective was to have ready access capital to continue replacing these vehicles when necessary. And they had a terminal tax obligation north of 1 million 2. So God forbid, if the unthinkable had happened, they get on the wrong airplane, we got a terminal tax problem that needed to be solved. So when we went through this process of getting to clarity on the infinite banking concept, that's what initially drew their interest into understanding dividend paying whole life insurance. And we sat down, including the accountant, because the accountant said, well look, we can take care of this in installments. Like if the unthinkable happened, we wouldn't have to write a check for 1.2 million bucks. And I said, okay, well, we've put a solution together where the business owner is going to put $50,000 a year in premium into a dividend paying whole life policy. We're going to start there. And I asked the accountant, I said, if we pay in installments, do we have to pay interest on that? He said, yeah, we sure do. How much interest? Presently on 1.2 million. It was about 5% of that sum, much more than 50,000. So I put a check in front of my prospective clients payable to revenue Canada for 1.2 million. And I put another check payable to the life insurance company for 50. I said, what check do you want to sign? Do you like the bigger number or the lower one? And so they said, well, of course we like the lower one. I said, well, you get to choose today because you're still here. If the unthinkable happened, those left behind don't have a choice. They're signing the big check. So we solved the terminal tax problem, but we also created a pool of ready access capital. Years later, they purchased their first vacuum truck entirely utilizing a policy loan from the life insurance company, which is a phone call. No credit check, no personal guarantees, no review of corporate financial statements, no interruption of the ever increasing daily cash value and ever increasing permanent death benefit. No tax on the buildup. The business utilized the loan proceeds to buy a vehicle that's going to produce taxable income. So they get to reduce the corporation's taxable income by taking control of financing the very thing that the business needs to produce income. So that put them in a position of total and absolute control. Since then, that accountant and colleagues have invited us to come into their firm and do partner training on this process. Because the accountant said, nobody told me this. I thought permanent life insurance was just expensive insurance. Nobody told me and explained to me what could be done here. My clients need to be doing this. And here's the kicker. Now these policies, when corporately owned, are exempt from the passive investment income tax rules.

Yeah, I, I like to think of them as the corporate RSP plan. Oh my goodness.

That's actually a good analogy.

Yeah, yeah. That's actually probably tax free savings accounts, probably a better one.

But yes, with, with no contribution ceiling. Right. So you ask a business owner. Let's tap into each other's logic here for a moment. As a business owner, you need capital. There will never be a point in your business journey where you'll say, gosh, I wish we had less capital. If I, if I could put One thing on my Christmas wish list this year, it would be that we would have less capital. And when you have ready accessible capital, opportunities of high caliber will find you. And when you need to finance business, equipment expansion, human resources, technology, all those things. If I was to walk down an income statement, the expense column, I can immediately see where the business owner's deploying capital. But when I ask the business owner, can you do me a favor and just point out where I can find you on the balance sheet, you specifically, they can't find themselves anywhere on that balance sheet.

And so I was going to say a really bad accounting joke, but I'm not going to, I'm going to hold back.

We're not only solving the need for finance, Bob, but we're also insuring that owner. Because I'll tell you, when death comes, and it will come, we just don't know what anybody's best before date is. But when death comes and there's a tax free windfall of capital that shows up exactly when it's needed the most, it gives the surviving employees, the surviving shareholders, it gives everybody the opportunity to deal with the situation in a way where there's no fire, sale of assets, there's no losing employees, losing contracts, losing contacts. You're providing a guaranteed purchase price for the business, guaranteed. And so business owners grasp this very, very quickly. And then once they do that, and they understand that they can do this as a family. We have 77 dividend paying whole life insurance policies in our family, 27 individual lives insured, 1.56 million in annual premium. Bob, if I passed away today, I told my wife Rebecca, pretend to be upset for at least 15 minutes at the funeral. But we have, here's the kicker, $86,000 a month that flows back to the family for all the cars, home rentals, appliances, anything that the family would have otherwise paid cash for, leased or financed, they're borrowing from the family banking system. Now that, my friend, creates a very peaceful, stress free way of life financially when you get the bankers out of your life. If you can name one client of yours that would complain about having ready access capital on demand, on his or her terms, I'll eat your hat.

Yeah, I know they would. They wouldn't be my clients because it seems like everybody is the other way. And you know, including present company, you know, like everybody is always wanting, especially if you are obsessed with building something in the future, you're always wanting access to capital, right? And so, you know, there might be people who are extremely conservative who don't you know, have fear of debt. Like, you know, there's an element of where you said, I wanted to have my mortgage paid off, you know, within a few short years. That's the mindset of a lot of people that I have come in here, especially the professionals, you know, like physicians, for sure, come in. They've had lines of credit to get them through medical school. They're in, you know, close to their 30s, and they're like, man, we've never earned a dollar in our life, and we're so sick of this, and how do we, how do we get rid of it as fast as possible? But there's tax implications of dealing with that, unless you have a different structure. So, so let me walk all my listeners through, Jason. This is not for you. This is for them. But you think of, you think of the doctor. Really good example, right? They're getting set up as a metaphor, medical, professional, corporation, right out of the gates. They engage with a hospital or a practice. They're earning maybe $300,000 a year. They've likely got upwards of $1 million in debt. And what they want to do, what they want to do is they want to pull all of that $300,000, which is in a corporation, earn it paying tax at somewhere between 12 and 15%, and they want to pull all the money out and pay 43% extra tax to pay all of that out. Now, let's just say college regulations aside, you know, we're using this example because it's an easy example for people to understand. They understand how doctors work. This is about the amount of money. So instead of pulling this money out, let's just say they transferred it into a holding company that we would set up tax efficiently. And inside that holding company is this life insurance policy that Jason's talking about. And instead of pulling the money out and paying 43% tax on it, what they could do is put it into this life insurance policy and then borrow against it to pay down all of that debt associated with their school. And you know, this. It's one of these interesting things because it's saving 43% tax on. On that million dollars. So when the doctors say, we've got a million dollars outstanding for medical school, that's really $1.43 million that they need to take out to get a million dollars to pay down that debt. So it. And what Jason is saying to you, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, Jason, but I think I'm supporting in a really great way what Jason is saying is instead of giving the government that $430,000 instead, instead you have that cash value sitting in a policy that you can borrow against and you've now got an asset when otherwise you would just be dispersing that to the government. And this is where one of those situations where you go, yes, this type of insurance planning absolutely makes sense for business owners.

It, it does all day long. And I haven't had a single business owner contact me these past 16 years, going into my 17th year, who has said, I'm really, really frustrated that my cash values keep going up every day and I'm paying no tax on the buildup. It's really bothering me. It's like the thing that business owners are remarkably frustrated with. They understand two things. So they're remarkably frustrated when they're not in a position of total control. And when you're dealing with changes to the tax code that leave you in a position where you're not in control, that can really spark frustration, understandably.

So agreed, yeah, I'm there with you, business owner, believe you me.

There you go. And you also would recognize. And the business owners understand, once they understand the problem, the solution becomes clearer. They know exactly what to do. But what they develop a deeper understanding of is that whenever that happens, the changes to the tax code tax free becomes instantly more valuable. And so business owners are looking for a place for capital to reside, because all your capital must reside somewhere. I was just speaking with a dentist. He had $792,000 of loan amount available that wasn't his total cash value. And he was paying, paying off a loan, a term loan that he used to expand, add a few operatories, had an opportunity to acquire a clinic, and the bank had given him some difficulty in renegotiating a term loan. I said, do you have your phone handy? He said, yeah, sure do. I said, would you do me a favor and call this number? He said, yeah. I said, can you put it on speakerphone? I said, sure. So he calls the number. He says, yeah, I'd just like to know if I can request a policy loan for $750,000. And the life insurance company said, yeah, there's only one condition. And he said, what's that? He said, we have to mail you a check.

Oh, come on, Jason. Did they not have any sort of electronic funds transfer?

My. Do you think, do you think he was at all upset with that? No, not at all. And so the one thing that I wanted to share with you, Bob, that I and you can attest to This. I didn't preempt you on this prior to the show.

No, I'm a little bit nervous of what you're going to say.

Oh no, this is so. This is great. So what we do for appearances like this, we just create just a custom URL where we just add value. Nobody's going to bother anybody who goes to get it. It's just a great wealth accelerator package. There's some video based content, some written based content, some audio based content. So based on whatever your preferred style of learning is, you can dive a little deeper into this concept. And you don't need to rely upon our hours of operation. You just need a good Internet connection. And the URL that we created that I think Bob's going to Love is titled CashflowConfidence CA. So if you go to CashflowConfidence CA, again, that's CashflowConfidence CA, you'll have access to an abundance of resources on the house at no charge as a favor.

To Bob and Great. So we'll include that also, Jason, in the show notes and YouTube, we'll include the links and on any of the podcasts. Thank you for providing that resource. That is fantastic. You know, and I think it is important for people to do a little bit of their own self learning as well. And you know, I want to go back to one of my comments because I feel like I said it and then walked away from it was related to the corporate RSP plan. So. So what that actually means business owners is inside these insurance policies. There's an investment component to it. So as you're subscribing to this insurance policy, some of it goes to policy premiums and some of it goes to cash value. Jason, you can tell me if I'm wrong at any point.

Almost. Yeah, well, there's two different types of permanent life insurance. So one is dividend paying whole life, which there's no investment function that the policy owner is controlling or having any involvement in. The insurance company itself assumes 100% of the investment function and the risk associated with that. But the contractual guarantees are very clear. The cash value cannot go backward. And then you have universal life insurance, which is more of temporary insurance with an investment function that the policyholder must decide on in terms of where they want the cash account to actually be invested. So those, they're just two different types of contracts and two different sets of attributes.

So I probably use the wrong terminology, but in the whole life policy, which is where you spend the majority of your time, right? Yeah, yeah. And so there's this. So the dividend policy that's in there is a very stable dividend policy that's giving a fairly consistent return, correct?

Oh, 1,000%.

Yeah.

Fairly consistent, meaning there hasn't been a single year where the insurance company hasn't declared it. And here's one other point of trivia. When a dividend is declared, which happens once a year, it's contractually guaranteed to be paid, it cannot be repossessed, it does not lose value ever, and it does not trigger a taxable event if you elect to chunk that dividend back into the policy to buy more fully paid up additions of death benefit at no additional cost. And so just super important to be aware of.

Yeah. So one of the things that happens in there, and this is where my corporate RSP sort of point was, is that all of those dividends are essentially sheltered inside a policy. So we don't have to pay tax on that whatever 7% ish sort of policy, dividend distribution every year, non taxable to you. So it continues to grow and accumulate. Just like a tax free savings account that we would have personally, where we put money in, we have, let's say dividend distributions that are in there, we don't pay tax and then we pull the money out and it's sort of tax free money. This would be a similar sort of vehicle that we're able to use inside the corporation. We would not recommend having this in an operating company. We would have this in a separate holding company. And the reason we would suggest that and other, obviously working with a team like Jason's is that if we have an asset of that growing value that's inside your operating company, it eventually will have tax implications that aren't favorable, not related to the policy, and you know, it being taxable. But the fact that you're going to have an asset that's going to continue to accumulate and may accumulate to be more than 10% of your company's value. And if you go to exit, you might have some tax implications. So we usually work with Jason and his team and advisors to make sure that this goes into a holding company where you're allowed to hold all of your investments and insurance policies and whatnot in there that will not have an impact on the operating company. We also like to use family trusts when we start getting involved in this so that we can really do some effective tax planning. But it also gives us the flexibility, ability to pull the funds out into the holding company tax free to pay these policy premiums, investments, contributions, and then you can use that holding company for use with your being your own banker, in essence. So just a few sort of pieces as you guys are going through this information and reading through it, seeing all the valuable insights that Jason has shared with us, thinking of some of the tax implications in the long term, if you, it's really important to have an effective overall plan. And you know, a team like Jason's that's very experienced in bringing these policies to market, they're going to have a lot of great insights on how to take advantage of these sorts of structural changes as well. And hey, we're there to help too. Let's talk about the role of financial literacy in entrepreneurial success, Jason, because I know you've touched on a few components of it, but what specifically would you like to address when it comes to financial literacy?

Well, I would say that it's really, really important that you connect with and work with somebody who can show you how to interpret how capital is moving through your business and what the implications are of that in any of our companies. Anybody who knows me will tell you that every dollar that we deploy somewhere has to have a plan associated with it. And entrepreneurs get extremely busy in their business and most often they've been there, done that, got the T shirt as it relates to financial advice, but they don't implement much because they're super busy, focused, working on their business. And I shared with you that entrepreneurs who connect with me who say, look, we, we love what you're doing. We, we love your track record, we love what you're up to. Can you show us some of the fundamentals of how to get this pinned down properly in terms of financial literacy? Understanding a few very important documents, your balance sheet, your income statement and your statement of cash flows, and understanding that there's a very distinct difference between positive net income and free cash flow. And most entrepreneurs do not know that and when they reach out. So my team aptly named this the Lowdown. And so I'd love to hear from any entrepreneur in your community that I can serve as a favor to you to maybe be a guide in developing that financial literacy. It's so important because as your business grows, if you haven't developed a deep understanding of that at the early stages of your business, when you move from startup to sustainable and then sustainable to durable and then durable to scalable, you are dealing with a whole different set of opportunities, lost opportunities, capital deployment, being a good steward of the capital that flows through your company, developing very razor sharp financial disciplines. Those are all the things That I can show an entrepreneur, regardless of what stage they're at, how to do even more effectively than they may be doing it now. That's for sure.

Absolutely. And I'm going to throw a little plug in for a local organization as well, Jason, with this. We do a lot of work with Junior Achievement. I don't know if you've heard of Junior Achievement.

Sure have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We sponsor them locally. Our team is very active. And so what Junior Achievement is essentially doing is what Jason's talking about in the mature business owner audience. Trying to drive financial literacy down into our kids that are in elementary school and in high school. And it's so important because, you know, even Jason talking about his story and, and not having maybe the financial guidance within his household that he needed, it's partially because our education system is broken when it comes to financial knowledge. And you know, I, there was a few years ago where I'm guessing it's provincial government that's, that's managing the education system for the most part. There was a change in the Ontario education system, which was financial literacy. I was really excited. And so it was a week, a week of financial education was being added to the school system. And I was actually more mad. I was like, what the hell do you think you're teaching in a week long situation for teachers and educators who have likely never had financial education in their their own life, you know, have never been provided that. So Junior Achievement does a really great job in trying to bring financial literacy into the next generation. And yes, it's not a four year program in elementary school, but it is, you know, starting to bring up concepts and ideas of how even entrepreneurship works and financial literacy works. And the more that we can get our next generation of humans access to financial literacy, the better it is. So there's a little plug for Junior Achievement. So for sure. Jason, I'm with you. We do a lot of work in that space as well, which I absolutely love. Last question for you. Looking for advice for entrepreneurs who are seeking financial independence? Wondering what your thoughts are, what your advice and guidance would be, as you know, the finance coach here in how to, how to help create financial independence in people's lives.

Oh, that's such a great question. It, it all begins with specificity. The human brain is really incapable of anything extraordinary. And I say that in all seriousness. So if you, if you've ever established an objective for yourself. I want to be healthier in 2025. I want to have a greater degree of financial security. I want to be More financially independent, your human brain says, okay, that's more like a bumper sticker so I don't have to pay any attention to that whatsoever. Versus if you say, when I'm sitting down December 31st of 2025, and I look back on the entire year to today, here's what specifically would have had to have happened in order for me to feel remarkably happy with my progress toward financial independence. And then you map out specifically what that is, and the human brain begins to get to work on making that real. Because the more specificity you program the brain with, the better equipped the brain is at helping you make that an achievable reality. And so when you sit down with anyone, somebody who's going to help you, you know, set on that path, make sure that you're doing it with someone who has achieved or exceeded what you want that financial independence to be is. It's not just about money. Because, Bob, I got to a point in my entrepreneurial journey making millions of dollars a year, and I wasn't happy because of that workaholism. So if you're pursuing financial independence, what specifically are you seeking freedom from and what do you want freedom to do? You want freedom of more freedom of purpose, more freedom of relationship, more freedom of money, more freedom of time? Because you'll get to a point as an entrepreneur in your journey where you will realize that the financial independence, you'll realize that it wasn't actually the money that you were after. And I can only share that from firsthand experience because I said, when I become a millionaire, I'm going to be financially independent and I'm going to be the happiest guy on planet Earth. Got there, wasn't happy. When I become a Deca millionaire, I'm going to be the happiest guy on the planet and I'm going to be financially independent. Didn't have to worry about money anymore, but I wasn't happy. Then when I did it again, I realized I need coaching. I need to address this. And I realized that it wasn't the money that I was after. Because once you get to a certain point, all the restaurants are the same, all the beaches look alike, all the resorts look the same, all the, like. It's, it's not about that. It's. It's about servant leadership. It's about becoming a better version of you so that you can be in service to others. And money is a great tool to help you serve other people, but it is not. If you pulled up the ingredients list of your favorite food Product. And it just happened that the box was titled Financial independence. Money is not going to be the first ingredient on the list. I promise you that. And I'll close with this. I'll share. So I was with Damon John at Traffic and Conversion Summit a couple years ago and he said, show me an entrepreneur who's built one successful business and I'll show you an entrepreneur who worked his butt off. Show me an entrepreneur who's built two successful companies and I'll show you an entrepreneur who got lucky. Show me an entrepreneur who's built three or more successful companies and I'll show you one with a proven method. And in this case, it's the lowdown.

Hot bag. Low down. Isn't that good? I love that you, you threw out your call there. Babe Ruth too. You're like. And let me close with this.

I'm so excited about it because it's just. Oh. Whenever I can help an entrepreneur not only design a future that's bigger than their past, but actually give them real practical, non theory, actual steps to get there, they. That makes me happy. It's not the check, it's the fulfillment that I get when the entrepreneur calls and says, oh my God, like if I could have looked back on the last year to where I am now, the progress that I've made, it is remarkable. And that type of feedback fuels me. That, that gives me purpose. More freedom of purpose.

100%.

Yeah.

Jason, can you drop your link one more time? Yes, if you would like. I can't remember it off the top. I didn't write it down.

No worries.

That's it.

Okay. Now I got to come up with a different link. They got to be memorable.

So the unit, it was good. I wasn't saying it wasn't good. I just didn't write it down.

It's cashflowconfidence CA Again, that's cashflowconfidence ca. And the reason we selected that is that's I think one of the burning desires of an entrepreneur is to achieve cash confidence. And the method, the process of becoming your own banker, the infinite banking concept, that is one very big piece of that achievement. And so head on over to CashflowConfidence CA. Once you get there, you'll have an opportunity to gain access to just a treasure trove of resources so you can dive a little bit deeper. And as you develop insights, clarifying questions if you'd like to. You're certainly not obligated to, but you're more than welcome to get connected with the right person. On my team and they'll take all the time necessary to make sure that you have clarity. And it's a wonderful experience, as evidenced by thousands of Google reviews that you can quite easily find if you go to Uncle Google and snoop around. These are real experiences, real people describing what it's like to be served by us.

Amazing. Well, thank you, Jason. Jason is the CEO and founder of Ascendant Financial and the Low group of companies also trademarked Low down, as he shared on his closing remarks as well. Jason, it's always a pleasure to connect. I always feel like we have a great time and share some really great insights with each other, which is so incredible. And thank you for sharing those with our audience. For my listeners today, this is the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Bob Govreau. As is usual, if there's something that you've connected with in this episode, please leave a comment. Give us a like, give us a follow. We want to make sure that the next available content comes out for you next week, as it will every single time. If there's something in this content that you feel is benefiting someone you know, grab this, grab the link, share it with them. I am on a mission to empower all entrepreneurs with the financial confidence necessary to change the world. And so together we can continue to do that. Once again, Jason, thank you for joining us today. And to my audience, thank you for being here. Look forward to seeing you again next week.

Thank you for having me.