A conversational interview where Richard Canfield talks with Troy Tralevan about adopting the infinite banking approach. Troy describes a low-pressure, methodical onboarding (watching Nelson Nash material, videos, conversations with an advisor named Liz), setting up two whole-life policies (one corporate, one personal), using the Ascendant customer portal and Equitable site to track cash values and loan availability, and shifting focus toward building a multigenerational "family bank" for his four children (ages about 18–23). The discussion includes practical steps (application, loan use) and resources (Nelson Nash documentary, books such as Cash Follows the Leader).
Chapters
It was like a very much zero pressure, but still very compelling.
We're joined by the incredible Troy Tralevan, who is a corporate trainer decades with the Dale Carnegie organization in Canada in the Ontario and Maritimes environment.
This has to be customized to your life. Not there's not one size fits all. The ascendant customer portal is, like, amazing. It's like a candy store of ideas and inspiration. How do we make sure that we building this warehouse of wealth that we can all share and help each other out, There's a bigger thing leading this, Right? So that was like.
So walk us through. Like, what was the experience like from your vantage point? Having so many years, you know, decades in business dealing with business owners exclusively and leadership style. I'm just curious, what did you recognize and notice about the process that you kind of went through to eventually get on the other side where now you're embracing this concept and you're actually able to start participating in it?
Yeah, well, the first step, as I remember, professionally booked an appointment with me, right? And so. So my wife and I, we got on the. The call with Liz and she said, so how did you discover it? And what got. Listen carefully to what we were saying. And. And I was at that point going, okay, okay, so, like, do you got.
Like, a form for me to sign or something? And she goes, well, I know I'm gonna go.
And she goes, well, she says, have you. Have you read the book? I said, oh, yeah, I read the book. And she. I said, I watched a ton of videos too. She goes, well, something about like, no, this was before even she got us to, like, figure out our finances and stuff. It was the meeting before. Oh, she said, can you. Have you watched Nelson Nash's documentary?
Film.
Documentary? And I said, no. I said, but sounds good. And so that Friday night, my wife.
And I, we turn on YouTube. We're watching it, and one of my.
Daughters comes home, and they get her and her boyfriend go, what are you guys doing?
Oh, we're watching this video on Nelson Nash on a Friday night. This is. We're loving it.
And right.
It was like, you guys are nerds. No, we really like it. And so, so.
And my wife is going, this guy's like, got great integrity and all this kind of stuff. And so it was, like, really good for me because I need her on side for ideas like this. And so, yeah, so she was really. She was really all in. And then I think the next time we told Liz that and we said.
Can you send us a few more videos? We want to like fill up our.
Friday Saturday nights with some boring. Right.
But so, so she kept loading us up with videos.
But then I think it was a meeting or two later. She got us to, you know, look at our situation, you know like our financial situation where we had debt and where money was going and all that kind of stuff and then carefully analyzed it with us. And then later on like it was not like I kept waiting to say.
Like okay, can we like sign like where do we. How do I put my, my money down?
And, and but it was like a very much zero pressure and, but still very compelling. Like it was like I, I felt like I wasn't definitely not being rushed. It was very methodical in that we want this to work right for you. This has to be customized to your life. Not there's not one size fits all, which I thought there might be.
Like it's. Isn't there just a.
And so she made it very clear to us. And then I got starting with two policies. So the first one, I have a corporation that I own my shares in my Dale Carnegie Corporation. That's another. And so we did one on that and then we did one in our, our personal self. And, and so that was good. And yeah, so that's kind of how we moved into it. So that was.
Got it.
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And then, and then once you went through the application process and the approvals and all that sort of stuff, got your first kind of premium paid, then you had an opportunity to now kind of step into, we'll call it the next phase phase of your journey, which is where the real learning begins. And so what were some of the things that you recognized you started to get access to or were able to tap into once you kind of got into that zone where now you actually have a policy and you're ready to hit the ground running?
Oh yeah, I was psyched. I, I went to the portal and the portal, the ascendant customer portal is like amazing and it's got like, it's like a candy store of, of ideas and inspiration and it's funny one of your on how to track your policy I don't know what you call it.
But doing the amortization and everything, setting up, you know that.
Well, it was the one actually. Yeah. Okay. So I think a few days in I, I got a. I, I did apply for a loan. Right. So. Right.
And I got it obviously.
And so, so I used it and I moved it into some things I needed to move it into but then it would know it was the one about where you, so you, you look at your like on the Equitable site where the values are and you plug in the values and so daily you see where your cash is growing and stuff. Yeah, yeah. And the loan availability and everything. And so I still like do that religiously. I bet I'm gonna stop it soon. But I, every day it's like the way I start my day as I go and I, I update myself just because it's so cool to watch, you know, like I say it's every day, it's growing every day. And again seeing that and it's just a, a great practice and so the whole portal has been great because I'm looking forward to doing some, you know, creative things around ways to, ways to use the policies and ways and investments I can make and want to do different types like hard money lending, do some more real estate even you know, some dividend paying stocks. You know Jason did a great video around that and so things like that like I really like seeing. And then. Okay. And then it was like became more clear. I think it was reading. It was, it was one of your books, the I think Canadians W Guide to Wealth Building Without Risk. I really started opening actually was before I read it but this made it come clear to me. My wife and I really got the idea of family banking and so that was like, like how could we now get our kids? We have four kids and so how do we now set them up? And they're all young adults.
Like they're all.
And so like 18 to 23. And so how do we help them? And so now it's like even more purposeful if that makes sense. Like it's like now it's about how do we make sure that we building this warehouse of wealth that we can all share and help each other out. And yeah, I am.
I got some years left according that. But in terms of them they got.
So much and I just want them to have that peace of mind that I never had through those all those years. They're going to have it. They don't even know they need it yet. But they're. They're going to definitely benefit from what we're setting up and what they're going to continue to grow and all that. So that family banking part of it was not the initial draw, but I think now it's probably. It's the, the goal, it's the purpose, it's the, the spiritual part of it in a way. Like, it's like there's a bigger thing leading this. Right. So bigger than us.
It's got you more connected to the activity of the doing because of the value of what the doing creates for everyone around you.
Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Well said. Yeah, yeah.
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