How you can become your bank, build cash accumulation, and use those funds in your real estate endeavors, but also on any business endeavors that your wine or have planned for your future. You can even use those funds to plan your children’s college education, any retirement plan, senior care, you name it. We’re going to talk about infinite banking.
Believe it or not, having life insurance has multiple uses. Before we dive in any further, I want to clarify that today’s post, it’s all about educating you on the subject of life insurance. Sadly, there has been a negative connotation attached to life insurance, and people tend to think, “Well, why would I want to have life insurance? I’m going to have to die for others to enjoy the benefit.”
I want to tell you that you don’t have to die to enjoy the benefits. You can have a life insurance policy and enjoy those benefits. At the same time, you are alive. Whether it’s in the expansion of your real estate portfolio or you want to use it to buy more properties or use it to flip a property or become a hard money lender or even prepare for life changes, like putting your kids to college. Where they can accumulate a cash value over time, then by the time they’re ready to go to school, they can even use that money to fund their education, as opposed to having to borrow that money elsewhere and having to repay that back to someone else.
The concept today will be infinite banking, becoming your bank, right. By that, I’m not saying let’s just replace the bank in full. I think banks are a great tool to help you get to where you need to, but it’s nice to have choices. I am my bank now. I don’t feel like asking the other bank for money. Let me just take money out of my bank. It’s very lovely to be able to do that. I have an extraordinary guest, Regina Thompson, TWG Insurance and Financial Services principal.
Sadly, most people have a negative connotation when it comes to life insurance. Still, Regina is here to help us demystify the misconceptions that most people have and let you know or tell you or show you that you don’t have to pay for life insurance and have other people enjoyed the benefits. You can enjoy the benefits while you are alive.
Lucelia: Regina, there are lots of different life insurance types, but what-today we’re going to focus on one specific one that allows you for cash accumulation. I’m going to let you guide everyone through with it.
Regina: Okay. Awesome. Number one, thank you for the opportunity to share and get right into answering your questions. There are several types of insurance, and there are multiple types that will allow you to accumulate cash. Still, today we’re going to focus on a particular one and the various uses. What those benefits are, you’ve got your whole traditional life, that there’s a little bit of cash growth, but that’s just a little. Today, we’re going to focus on something that’s been around since 1997. It’s not new, built off of the Internal Revenue Code 7702, and it’s better known as an Index Universal Life. What that vehicle does, and it’s just that, it’s a vehicle that allows you to get possibly up to 300% more growth over what most people are currently experiencing.
Lucelia: Can you tell us more about the benefits you get from having an Index Universal Life Insurance?
Regina: Yes. I like to educate. I’m an educator first. The Index Universal Life is an insurance policy that you don’t have to die to use. You can use it while you’re still alive. As we know it, life insurance is not life insurance. It’s death insurance. You only get a benefit when you die, but in this case, let’s just say you weren’t able to go to work and provide an income in the event of a heart attack, cancer, stroke, or many different diagnoses. You get to reap benefits from your death benefit proceeds while you’re still alive. What does that mean? It means upon diagnosis, you get to access the cash that’s in your policy, and you can use that for medical bills, living arrangements, your living expenses, whatever it is. If you just wanted to go and clear out your bucket list, you can do that as well.
It’s not determined, predetermined, what do you have to do with those benefits once you access them? The only criteria are there has to be a diagnosis. That’s one way, which is called accelerated benefits or something that we like to call living benefits. That’s just one way. Many people, which is what we’re going to spend a lot of time on today, which initially attracted me to this product, could become my bank. It’s called a private banking concept, infinity banking concept, banking on yourself. You may have heard any of these different buzzwords. They all relate to you, being the vehicle on which this chassis is built. But you have all this accessibility. Living benefits is one. The other thing is some people use it for preparing for college for their children.
Yes, you can get an Index Universal Life policy for your children. I’ve written a policy on a child as young as two months old. There are some criteria with that, and maybe I’ll share a little more about that later. It can be a retirement vehicle, supplemental retirement vehicle, a legacy vehicle. You can prepare for the down payment on the home for your child. But today, we’re going to talk about how you can use this vehicle in terms of real estate investing or doing any type of investment.
Lucelia: Correct, and it sounds incredible. To add more to what you just said, I find it great to have life insurance with your children. By that, I’m not saying betting on your children’s life or anything like that, but being able to send them off to college and not have them graduate full of debt. They will have access to this policy, this cash accumulation, and they’re going to be paying their education worry-free.
By the time they graduate, they can pay back the loan to themselves and continue to make that grow for money that’s going to grow for themselves and not for the banks for any other institution. Thank you a lot for sharing that. Now it sounds like a great product. It’s excellent. Most people will typically react with, “Wow. Since it’s a great product, it sounds like it’s costly.” What can you tell us about the premium? Does somebody have to break the bank to afford a policy like that? How does that work for them?
Regina: There are benefits of being able to “Break the bank,” as you would say, but I will tell you this is a scalable product, which means everyone from your user that only has several hundred dollars a month that they can put toward their premium versus several thousand dollars a year. There’s going to be a huge difference in what you’re able to do. For the family that wants to prepare for college, that just wants your basic coverage to prepare for the down payment on a home. That’s going to be someone who has less money to contribute.
I don’t want to say tax avoidance, but legally can reduce your tax liability, using this as an investment tool. I have people that put 100,000 a year into this policy, from $100 a month to 100,000 a year. The spectrum is that big.
Lucelia: I experienced that with you when you helped me write off my policy. I remember that the planning went through just looking at the whole spectrum, and then that’s how much I can start contributing today. You advised me to adjust some of the premiums as I move along and the timeline. You even helped me create some projections to explain how multiple scenarios would look like in an ideal one, an average, an extremely good one, and stuff like that.
I thought it was very helpful. To Regina’s point, you don’t have to break the bank. Of course, if you start contributing a lot more sooner than the policy, the cash accumulation will grow a lot faster, but we’re all in different financial situations. Some of us can’t afford to put in more, and some of us-well, we just simply have to adjust. As things improve over time, then you can contribute more. Correct?
Regina: Exactly. The key to that is knowing, having a professional who knows the product, and knowing how to structure it. We’re talking about a vehicle that is 100% customizable, and it’s so crucial to do a comprehensive need analysis to know. Number one, “What is the client’s need?” Number two, “What is their desired outcome?” The plan can be structured around that. Knowing your needs, knowing what you have to work with, and coming up ahead could be customizable to meet your desired need and desired outcome.
Lucelia: Yes. Life changes unexpectedly. Having that flexibility and adjusting as you move along is a great perk of the policy. Now, I remember when I was going through the underwriting process. I had a lot of questions, of course. One of them was the ability to take out that money. How exactly does that work? I understand that it works very similar to a 401(k), where you either have the option to take a loan and then repay with interest to yourself or just simply take a withdrawal. Can you walk us a little bit more through the process? How long do they have to wait before they start doing that? Is this something that can be done right away and stuff like that? I’ll leave it up to you.
Regina: Yes. Absolutely. Remember I said, this is a broad span. We’re going to take on the left-hand side, just your average monthly premium. Let’s just say anywhere from 50 to several hundred dollars a month. That type of premium. If you’re funding the policy, to be quite honest with you, you’ve got at least ten years before you even went to think about taking a withdrawal or taking a loan from the policy. You’ve got ten years. Can you do it less than that? Absolutely.
There will be some cash value that’s available to you to loan off of, but ideally, this is something that you’re putting in place, and you’re saying, “Hey, the purpose is supplemental retirement. The purpose is something 10, 15 years down the line.” You will be penalized basically for disrupting that pattern, or you could potentially be penalized for disrupting that pattern if you chose to do so for less than ten years. That’s just full disclosure.
Now, if you’re over-funding a policy, which honestly to get the maximum benefit out of this, I highly recommend anyone overfund it. Let me just say this to a short disclaimer. Even with a $300 a month or $500 a month premium, you’re still somewhat over-funding the policy. Everyone’s over-funding it, but I mean significantly overfunding it. If you’re putting several thousand dollars a month or 25, 30, 50, $100,000 a year in something like this, you’re going to have quite a bit of cash value built up within either upon an issue or after the first 12 months of issue.
Lucelia: This is a long-term planning policy. It’s not something I hate to use the term but get rich– What is it? Get-rich-quick scheme? Yes. It’s meant to provide you with a cushion, and eventually, if you will like to replace the bank, yes, feel free to go ahead and do so, but just bear in mind that it’s something that’s going to take time. It’s like planting the seed. A tree doesn’t grow overnight.
You’re going to have to nurture it. You have to put money, effort, dedication into it and gradually make it grow, but then once it’s fully grown, the benefits that you’re going to reap out of it, it’s tremendous. There are tax benefits to it like Regina said, and it has multiple uses. You don’t have to qualify through a credit score. There’s no application process because it is your policy. You are acting as your own bank. Yes, the purpose of today’s episode is to focus the use of the policy on your investments and real estate.
But if you don’t do real estate or if you don’t want to use this money for real estate, there are many other uses that are going to help you long-term, whether it’s for your children’s education, your retirement planning, even devastating situations like any major illnesses, medical expenses, senior care, which is something that most of us tend to overlook until we hit that moment. Then we’re going to have to reshuffle things at the very last minute. Until then, it becomes quite stressful because you already have to deal with one thing, and now you’re going to have to deal with it. “Okay, how do I fix my finances, so I can accommodate senior care for your parents, grandparents,” whatever the situation is.
Regina: Well, I just want to piggyback on that. Like only long-term care, this is a justifiable long-term care option. We have quite a few people that will do a single pay-this is called a single pay long-term care option. It’s the same as the IUL chassis, but I will say this. It is statistically insurance. A lot of term insurance will not be paid out ever, but it’s statistics that we need more long-term care, almost more than we need actual insurance coverage because we’ll need that a lot sooner before there’s an expected ending of life. I can identify with this. My father is currently 67.
He’s had his third stroke, and now his wife has become his full-time caretaker at the age of 67 years old. This is not something that my father has in place, but this is something that now, financially, I am set to have to help contribute, take care of him for the rest of his life, but had he had something like this in place. We would have the funds necessary to have the home care services he needs. This is also a long-term care option. Thank you for bringing that up because I neglected to speak on that earlier. Then I want to talk about the tax implications because you did mention that. You have a couple of options.
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You have an option to make a withdrawal, and you also have a chance to take a loan. Now let’s say your death benefit is $500,000, and you take a $50,000 withdrawal. Your death benefit analysis at 450,000. Your policy grows as is. If you’re below the 10-year mark, chances are there’s going to be some surrender charges. You’re somewhat penalized. Now, if you’re ten years and above and you take a withdrawal, then the policy just continues to grow with the money that’s left in there. Now, if you take a loan-a lot of the questions I get, “Is there an interest on the loan?”
By the way, when you make a withdrawal, depending on where you are in your policy, ff your policy has grown so much, there is a possibility that you may have some tax implications. Just make sure your program is properly structured and know where you are within your policy growth to know that you’re not exposing yourself to any tax implications. However, how can we use this as a supplemental retirement from a loan perspective? We call it a tax-free supplemental retirement.
Meaning we set your policy up that upon retirement age-age 65, 70-that you’re now receiving an income for the rest of your life because we run that number through the age of 120. You’re receiving a supplemental retirement income, all tax-free for the rest of your life because there are no taxes on loans. That’s how we’re going to say, “That income is coming to you, and it’s tax-free.” That’s number one.
Lucelia: That’s awesome.
Regina: It’s phenomenal. When you look at where 96% of Americans are putting our money, we’re putting our money into a tax-deferred vehicle-
Lucelia: Like the 401(k)
Regina: For some time down the line, we have no idea what the tax rate will be. From 1960 through 1963, the middle tax bracket was 63%. 63%. Just think about it. If you had a Million Dollars in your qualified account and you’re going to be taxed 63%, and I’m not saying it’s going to happen. Still, history can repeat itself for a nation that’s currently $22 Trillion in debt. There’s $17 Trillion sitting in qualified accounts.
Lucelia: We put our money away in a retirement plan, a qualified retirement plan in this case. We think that that money could be available by the time we’ve retired. Not to mention the fact that those plans typically count when your retiring poor because the way they sell you the idea is, “Well, by the time you’re retired, your tax bracket is going to be lower.” How is it possible that your tax bracket is going to be lower? Only if you’re making less money. They’re betting on you “Being poor.” On top of that, you don’t know whether your money’s going to be, because financial institutions manage it, you don’t get access to use it right away unless you take a loan, and you don’t even know what they’re using your money to invest on, and you have no idea.
Again, back to your point. This is a great investment vehicle. By that, we’re not saying, “Don’t half of our 401(k).” If you have it, that’s your option. It’s already there, but I think we had a conversation on even leveraging the money of 401(k). Let’s say, for example, if you have left your old job and you have a 401(k) sitting on an account that is not part of your current employer. You can borrow against that 401(k) and use it to fund this policy as well. Correct?
Regina: Not so much as borrow. Again, I’m a big educator. This is not something I would recommend anyone to do without sitting down, having a detailed discussion with a professional to look and explain why you would make the decision that I’m about to tell you. Having a 401(k) with a previous employer, many of the clients I work with choose to liquidate. Meaning they will take the 10% tax, and they pay the 10% penalty to go ahead and liquidate that account get access to those funds right now.
With that lump sum, remember, I talked about how I work with some people that will load in $20,000. They’re going to front-load their policy with maybe whatever was left in that old 401(k) policy. Why? Because 300% more growth. Even though they’re being hit with tax and penalties, they see where “You know what? If I put my money here, it’s still going to outperform the market over here.” That’s what they’re doing. They’re taking the 10% tax, they’re taking a 10% penalty, and then they’re using that money to front-load into this vehicle.
Lucelia: Then the beauty- If you’re a real estate investor, right. The beauty of taking that expense is that some of it can be offset by your real estate expenses. But to Regina’s point, always work hand in hand with your financial advisor. It can be one that you already have on your own or Regina in this case and with your CPA or your accountant in general. Make sure the planning, the discussion is done beforehand before you proceed to do that because otherwise, taxes can be quite–
Regina: You don’t want to create a tax liability with your policy liquidating too much too fast. It’s almost like converting a Roth-converting an IRA to a Roth. You don’t want to flip too fast. That will increase your tax liability. When you take a loan from this policy, yes, you are paying an interest rate. That’s the very nature of a loan that there is an interest rate associated with it. However, there’s something called arbitrage that you want to make sure you understand.
In this policy, let’s just say on average. I’m not going to quote anything, only your average 7% return. Let’s say you’re getting an average 7% return in your policy. You’re going to take out a loan. The loan may have a three, 4% interest rate associated with it. You’re going to pay 4% on the loan that you took, but you have 7% that you usually gain. You get seven. You’re paying four, and you still have a plus three arbitrage that you’re getting on your policy. You’re still winning. Even when you’re borrowing from yourself, your money’s still growing and working. That’s why this is a fantastic vehicle.
Lucelia: Again, you’re paying interest to yourself and not to the bank or someone else. I–
Regina: You’re paying it to the insurance company, but your money– Remember, I took the example of $500,000. Even though you take 50,000 away, your money is still growing as if all 500,000 were still there and you never took a loan. That’s the magic.
Lucelia: Thank you, Regina. That was quite informative, and I couldn’t have explained it better. Now, moving along, a lot of people have wondered, “What’s the underwriting process like?” Because you heard some stories and some people will need to undergo a medical test to make sure that they qualify, some people don’t. Can you walk us a little bit more through the underwriting process to see what they should be expecting if they choose to move forward with having a policy like this?
Regina: Absolutely. Most policies today can be underwritten, what we call nonmedical. Meaning they do not require any type of fluids, blood, or urine. What they’ll do is they will do a prescription track check. They will do-maybe Department of Motor Vehicles, and there’s another algorithm that they use to search. As long as you, to your best ability, just give whoever’s taking the application for you, the licensed agent, as much information as possible, be real and authentic about whatever your medical history is.
Because if they see that you haven’t mentioned something, but something pops up on your prescription record, they will ask you to do a medical, or they may ask you questions. But as long as you can give them enough information or details, a lot of times, there’s no medical that’s needed. Unless your policy is over a certain value or a certain amount, and then you’re going to be required to have a medical.
Lucelia: I remember you mentioned that too, be as transparent as possible, but I think, in general, that’s with every business relationship and any relationship. If you’re trying to build trust, the insurance company is issuing you a policy to protect you to help you achieve a long term goal, and the expectation is that you are also open about it.
My experience was a very smooth process. I remember working with you through conversations, ensuring that everything was clearly understood, and then I provide you with the answers. I think within a couple of days, if not weeks or something like that, I already got my answer. It was very straightforward. I was expecting to go to a doctor’s office and then get my blood drawn and stuff like that, but it didn’t happen. I was quite impressed.
Regina: I will say this, the companies are getting very savvy, and they intend to make what they call “An easy underwriting process” to make it very smooth. You don’t always have to go to a facility at a private location in your home. That’s still very convenient as well for the client.
Lucelia: I remember you talked about having the ability to use this policy as supplemental income for your retirement. What’s the age for that? How soon can you start doing that?
Regina: I’m glad you asked that question. The beauty of this is you decide. You have 100% control. I’ve met plenty of people that, “I plan to retire when I’m 50.” If that is the case, then if you start this policy early enough, you can set this up to begin whenever you want. That’s going to be the difference between what’s available now and the qualified market versus in this private entity. I say as a private entity because it’s you. You get to decide when you want to start those payments if you want to decide those payments, and even if we set this up, say to start payments at 65, and you decide, “Hey, I don’t need it right now. I’ll wait until I’m 75.” There are no penalties for you making a change nor required minimum distributions. There’s none of that. You get to avoid all that.
Lucelia: Even I didn’t know this part. I thought you had to wait until you hit a certain age. 60 or 65, which is usually the standard, but now I know. Now, just something came up, and you and I know what a qualified plan is because it’s part of our vocabulary, but I just realized that some of the viewers who are watching today’s episode might not know what that is. Can you explain a little bit further so that they can better understand what a qualified plan versus a non-qualified plan is?
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Regina: Your qualified plans are going to be the tax-deferred ones. For typical 401(k)s, your IRAs, your SEP plans, your-whatever the teacher retirement plans are, those are going to be what’s called a qualified plan because you got to qualify to get your money out.
Lucelia: No, it’s an eye-opening one. You have to qualify, but what’s the qualification? You have to be 65.
To the next point, does it get to a moment or in your life where you will have to stop making payments, or do you make payments until the day you die? What are some of the implications with the premiums?
Regina: That’s a great question. Again, this policy is 100% customizable. That’s– Again, I’m just going to keep referring back to this. You want to make sure that you work with a qualified professional. I sat with an individual last night. They had one of these same plans. However, it was designed to pay premiums for the rest of his life.
Lucelia: Wow. That’s not going to work out as you approach your retirement because that’s the whole point is planning for retirement.
Regina: Exactly. Ideally, you get to choose how long you want to pay the premiums. We do these things called projections and illustrations. We do those to show you what estimation of if you pay premiums until this age, what it would look like for you, but that’s our job. That’s where we come in. This is a great vehicle in a properly structured program, but it has to be correctly structured. I can’t emphasize that enough. It is properly structured in terms of the accumulation, death benefit, increasing level. There are so many things that I won’t even tell you about, but you’ll know if you’re professional can design it based on what your needs. Look at it, make sure the policy doesn’t lapse.
There’s enough cushion built into the program. I’ll tell you this, and there should always be a little bit of cushion built into the program. Meaning, even if your premium is $500 a month, at least half of that is only your pure cost of insurance. That’s how we can give you 300% more growth, but the policy has to be structured properly. No, you do not have to pay premiums for the rest of your life to answer your question. This is considered permanent insurance, but it’s designed to pay premiums until an age that’s designated and customized for you.
Lucelia: Then what happens if, let’s say, 15 years down the road, something like that, I can’t afford to pay the insurance anymore, or I say, “You know what, Regina? I don’t want to pay for this anymore. I’m all set. I have my real estate portfolio. I’m ready to go all over the world, and I don’t want to have to worry about the premiums.” What happens to the policy then?
Regina: You have a couple of options. You have the opportunity to, like I said, decrease your premium towards called the minimum premium amount that will keep the policy in force. You have the option to do that, number one. Number two, you also have the opportunity to surrender the policy. Once you exceed ten years, so from 11 years and above, your cash value and your surrender value become the same. Whatever that surrender value is, is what you would get in terms of saying, “Hey, cancel the policy. I don’t want it anymore.”
Lucelia: Then you take the value of whatever that policy–
Regina: But now-yes-do understand though, you may be opening yourself up to some tax liabilities when you do that because of the growth that has happened in the policy, but yes, that is your option. Then you also have the opportunity to still not pay any premiums, but just allow the cash value built up into the policy to pay the policy for the rest of the duration. That’s your third option.
Lucelia: I run out of questions, but I’m sure you receive a lot more from your clients. Questions that I probably haven’t even thought of. Is there anything you would like to share about the viewers’ policies to educate them on the subject?
Regina: Yes. I always get the, “What’s the catch? This is too good to be true. I don’t know, I don’t trust insurance.”, and, “I don’t know. I’ve had this kind of policy before, and it just doesn’t work out.” I’ll say this, you’re right. There have been policies out there that was not best for the client, but just-everything else evolve. Let’s look at the very first cell phone that ever came out, the big one with the bag and the phone with a big antenna that only received outbound and inbound calls.
Imagine that phone today. What do these rugged phones do today? There was a type of a universal policy that was tied directly to the market that people would put their hopes in, and then it will turn out that it would not have the growth. But the chassis in which the IUL is built upon, your money is never in the market. We guarantee that you don’t lose money in a policy like this. If you understand options, we’re just buying into that option to take advantage of the market’s upturn, but your money is never in the market. That’s how you’ll never lose money. You only capitalize on the gains and never on the losses. If you can think about where your money is right now, if you could just avoid any of the losses, just think about how much more exponential growth you have.
That’s why we see this in this vehicle. The other thing is, “Well, how do I trust the company behind it? It’s not even me as a professional that you want to trust, and you’re looking at the organizations. The companies that are writing these policies have been around for hundreds of years. Meaning they survived the Great Depression, they’ve survived ’08, and they’ve survived the technology crash. These companies have Millions and billions of Dollars on assets. How safe is your money right now where it is?
Those are typically the questions that we get because you want to poke holes, and you should. You should know the validity and solid the organization is, but I’ll ask you again, how solid is the organization you have your money with right now? We’re $22 Trillion in debt, but we’re still putting money. Just to give you a little bit of safety and comfort, but that’s usually the question. How solid is the companies? What’s the difference between other universal life? Those are going to be just three things I typically get a lot. Thank you for asking that. I appreciate it.
Lucelia: Thank you. Thank you for walking us through with it. Now, I always leave for last tell us a little bit about you. How you end up where you are today. I feel we all have our personal stories, some experiences that have led us to that ‘Aha’ moment and say, “I want to do this now because I want to give back. I want to do something meaningful.” Share a little bit more with us.
Regina: Yes. That’s true. You just want to share and give back, but I’m living the life of my dreams. Not only am I a financial wellness educator, but I’m also personally an investor myself. I invest in real estate, I also trading stock options. Just this fantastic world of everything that I’ve learned and being able to share with others, but seeing it work in my life has been excellent. But Lucy, it wasn’t always that way. See, not too long ago, I was the same woman that lost my spouse at 36 years old, with a 15-month-old son and a four and a half daughter. My world was forever shaken. Now we were financially stable.
We were debt-free except for our home. It was even double impactful when the wealth and finances we had acquired were lost due to embezzlement. It was because of that, that I like you and, like many others probably watching this-went in is search of not just waiting for someone else to tell me how to manage money, not waiting for someone else to give me the plan, but I went out to get education for myself. Not only did I get the education, but I put it in action, and I got the results. When I stand here today, sharing with you this one concept and many others that I share is because of the life that I’ve lived and because of that tragedy that happened to me. I’ve recently written a book, and it’s called, Live Beyond Devastation.
Lucelia: I read it. It was quite moving. I read it all in one day, and I thought, “Oh, my God. You and I have a lot more in common than I thought.” We even shared some of the same people in the network. I didn’t realize that until yesterday, but your book was mind changing. I’m trying to think of the right word.
It was very inspirational. Painful to read to a certain degree because you and I had similar experiences. I didn’t go through that one with a spouse, but I’ve come close with my dad when he got very ill. We were very crammed with the expenses. It got to a point where I thought, “How am I even going to cover for the funeral expenses?”
Regina: But you got to see it from the view of my children, you got to see it from a different perspective, “What is it like when that primary breadwinner is not here?” It’s the same story, like you said, just a different perspective, but the whole premise is not taking things that happen to us and allowing it to define us and living in that, but learning to take that and live on it. Living it and using it as fuel to propel us forwards.
When you asked me, “Who is Regina today?” Regina is– My mindset is total wellness. My mindset impacts the world, and I never want anyone else’s foundation to shake the way mine shook. I want to make sure people-make sure they’re prepared. Number one, why this product? Protect your income. Whether you live, die, or get sick, that’s number one. Protect your family, protect those that come behind.
Then two, I liquidated my husband’s entire 401(k). He had been on this job for 26 years. But because of the knowledge and what I knew and quite a bit of money, I liquidated it. I’m not asking you to do anything or recommending that anyone do anything that I have not done. I bought real estate, put it into vehicles like this, and trust me. The embezzlement will mean nothing. It already doesn’t mean anything because of the growth, because of where I place that money now. Much better, it’s protected. I’m getting residual income even when I don’t work because I have properties. That’s who Regina is. I’m a mom, I love my children, I have exceptional children that support me.
I’m a mom first, and then I’m a business owner second. Thank you for allowing me to come on, Lucy. I just want to applaud you for what you’re doing. I think your story is incredible to come, and then know how you’re just building yourself up, educating yourself, and then wanting to share that with others. I also researched you, and I thought that was pretty powerful. I love the platform that you’re building, and I’m honored to be able to team up with you today, and support your vision, your mission, and your goals.
I know what it is to-out here, to grind, and to establish your company, and you want to share what you’ve learned. I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars into my education producing the results. It’s like, “Man, I just know so many people that can benefit from this.” I see you doing the very same thing. I’m elated that you’re a woman, you’re a minority, and you’re doing a great job for the community. I, want to applaud you, I want to encourage you to keep going. Those who resonate, who hear the frequency you speak with, are coming to keep talking.
Lucelia: Wow, thank you. I’m short of words. You caught me off guard with that. [laughs] You’re definitely, a role model. I read the book, I’m not going to spoil it for everybody, but some pages were somewhat painful to even go through that. Like when you found yourself alone carrying on with life with two kids, that wasn’t the original plan. Like most of us, I think. We’ll plan for something, and then, you feel like life has taken something away from you, and you’re angry, but you managed to push it still.
The way I see it is when your kids grow when your daughter grows up, and your son, they’re going to think who my mom is or to a certain degree once they’re all grown up with grandchildren and stuff like that. She left a legacy, and she wanted to make a difference. Not only she worked on growing herself, I think that would be the best term in this case, but she also worked on giving back to the community and helping other people succeed. I think people like you and me, yes, we had our challenges in life, but we also have a gift.
We were able to get access to information, do something with it. We had the tools, let’s say we were at the right time, at the right moment– What was it? That we got the right tools at the right time. We chose to do something about it and not just sit around and say, “Well, look at me, I’m improving,” while you see other people struggling. To me, that’s just something that I just simply can’t turn a blind eye on. I read about your projects, what you’re doing with housing. Funny enough, that’s my next goal. I don’t want to spoil the book, I’ll let everyone read it, but it was quite remarkable. If you’re going to share about that, feel free, but I also want to be private. I don’t know how much you want to talk about it. [laughs]
Regina: No, I would love to share about Widow’s Mansion. I forgot. If I could, that would be great.
Lucelia: Yes, please. Share with everybody what you’re doing for the community. It’s not just the educational part, but what you do for women with your non-profit.
Regina: What I found at 36 years old, that there wasn’t a lot of resources for widows. I don’t know, and my story was pretty tragic. We were on the news. Any time there would be another younger widow, somehow people would always say, “Well, you should talk to Regina.” I became this mentor of widows, and after this embezzlement, there was a house situation. It was a 12,000 square foot home, a very profound area in Dallas. Anyway, the person in this situation ended up leading to the embezzlement. That experience of being at this house, all I began to see were my widowed sisters. On May 1st, I officially founded Widow’s Mansion Foundation two years ago.
Using my knowledge base in real estate investing, Widow’s Mansion is transitional housing for widows, widowers, and young children. It just gives them a place to come, whether they had support, whether they had insurance, or maybe they had a little bit, but now the woman needs to get back into the work field. This is a place where they come, they live. No one knows what a widow is going through like another widow’s sister. There’s support in the house, and there are services to help build the woman up, free support services, career services. Just to build them up to help them transition back into the world. That’s Widow’s Mansion.
Every person I help through TWG Insurance and Financial Services, proceeds from every client we help goes to Widow’s Mansion. We are the corporate sponsor for Widow’s Mansion. Therefore, for anyone who donates to Widow’s Mansion, 100% of your donations go directly to the client. TWG Insurance covers all administrative costs.
Lucelia: Quite remarkable, when I read about it, I was like, “Wow, she’s, going, ‘I’m off and beyond to give back to the community.’ ” Same to you. Thank you so much for joining today. It’s quite an honor for me to have you and the channel and spread your knowledge, share with everyone, and educate everyone who is seeking that financial stability one way or another. It’s great that we’re a minority, we’re both empowering each other, and empowering everyone who’s watching this episode today. It is possible she did it, I did it, and there’s so much more to come, you can’t even imagine.
