Insurance Advisory Services

By combining thorough underwriting, technical case design and our Know your story philosophy, the Insurance Advisory Services team is uniquely qualified to provide complex liquidity solutions for our clients.

I-FAQs

Questions you don’t know to ask

Overview

Our Insurance Advisory Services model was built to eliminate conflicts of interest between insurance professionals and affluent consumers.

These conflicts were born of an historic delivery system in which compensation to the financial advisor can motivate and mitigate behavior. Urgency is rewarded by completed transactions. Where does that leave the family?

In order to eliminate these conflicts of interest, we created a model that honors the families, businesses and trusted advisors at the heart of the work.

First, we believe insurance must be addressed through an advisory lens. This means creating space in the relationship to help you get to deep instinctual clarity about how you want your story to play out from here forward. Everyone at your decision-making table must understand your deeper long-range objectives. Alignment with those objectives is the only credible baseline for our recommendations.

Second, we take the time and have the respect to understand the full story of all the stakeholders in the process – family, longstanding advisors and more. This includes deep discovery beyond the silo of the perceived need or problem.

Third, in addition to asking essential questions, we answer yours with authenticity and candor. We’re happy to share as much detail about our business and compensation model as we expect you to share about yourself and your family.

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What We Do

Our Insurance Advisory Services provide comprehensive life insurance advice and liquidity solutions in the following areas:

Ultra-Affluent Family Services

  • Large/Jumbo Case Management
    • Policies in Excess of $50 Million
  • Life Insurance Advice and Consulting Services
  • Premium Financed Life Insurance
  • Portfolio Integration with Complex Planning Strategies
  • Sophisticated Wealth Transfer and Business Planning
  • Proprietary Financial Modeling Tool – IV™

Affluent Family Services

  • Business Use of Life Insurance
    • Keyperson
    • Buy/Sell Funding
  • Accumulation and Distribution Planning
    • Retirement Planning
  • Estate Liquidity Planning
  • Income Protection and Spousal Security
    • Life/Long-term Care Combination
  • Life Insurance Portfolio Assessment/Management
  • Annuity Evaluation and Analysis
  • Life Settlements
  • Comprehensive Life Insurance Exit Analysis

Private Placement Services

  • Mitigate Income and Estate Taxes
    • Maximize Income
    • Increase Net to Heirs
    • Amplify Charitable Legacy
  • Proprietary Investment Portfolio Tax Analysis
  • Jumbo Premium ($50 Million+) Placements
  • Multi-Generational Planning
  • 1035 Exchange Consulting
    • Repurpose Cash Values to PPLI and PPVA
  • Utilize Existing Death Benefits as PPLI Policy
  • Construct Custom Platforms for Institutions
    • FO, MFO, RIA, Large Bank and Trust Companies

Executive Benefits

  • Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation
  • Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP)
  • Phantom Stock Plans or Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR)
  • Executive Compensation, Governance Consulting Services and Surveys
  • Life Insurance Section 162 Bonus Plan
  • Split Dollar Insurance Plan
  • Strategic Partnership with NFP Executive Benefits

The Numbers

5,000,000,000
in total death benefit placed

Policy Type

IUL

29%

UL

21%

VUL

28%

Whole Life/NLG

22%
1,500
Total number of policies currently managed

Uncommon Approach

Life Insurance advice through an advisory lens

Life insurance is simply a tool for solving a specific set of objectives. Conversations need to start with if a need exists, not how much or what type. Together, we determine the nature and duration of any given liability, and whether life insurance makes sense economically, or whether a non-insurance solution is more viable.

The technology and the team: Instinct Verification™

In any professional firm, the behavior of the partners has a trickledown effect on the behavior of the team. If the partners’ primary goal is to complete a transaction, the motive frames how their team designs and presents your options.

If the goal is to determine whether or not insurance can be helpful, there’s a completely different internal directive in the policy design phase. At WealthPoint, our teams are mentored to run all subjective policy design variables through a filter of your stated objectives – not ours.

This mentorship is backed by our proprietary IV™ software. It allows us to stress test policy design against real world objectives. We identify both the upside and downside risks embedded in our proposed solutions, and we uncover intended and unintended consequences in three essential realms: numerical, operational and relational. Most importantly, our presentations clearly communicate the potential positive and negative outcomes of your various choices.

In large, complex situations – such as significant multi-generational strategies, complicated entity structures or unusual financing needs – this combination of technology and team elevates the efficiency and impact embedded in the outcomes.

Mutual Transparency™ creates Mutual Ownership™

Compensation is the largest expense in the first 10 years of a life insurance contract. It can also be a subjective element of policy design. Premium payments flow into a variety of drivers within the policy. Design decisions directly impact the efficiency with which those dollars are applied, and in turn the policy’s short-term and long-term performance.

The professionals who develop your recommendations may have the ability to increase or decrease their compensation – based on the variables they dial into the policy design software. Lower advisor compensation can dramatically increase post-purchase policy performance.

At WealthPoint, we proactively reduce compensation where prudent, by calculating the age of the client, the complexity of the problem we’re trying to solve, and the long-term service needs of the policy. The result is Mutual Transparency – we share as much about our model as we expect the client to disclose about themselves. It creates space for Mutual Ownership – a process that honors and respects all participants.

Underwriting for actual risk

In traditional approaches to underwriting, there are often substantial discrepancies between the insurance companies’ perceived risk, and your actual health and projected longevity. These information gaps and inaccuracies inflate policy pricing. Gaps exist because underwriters lack sufficient medical evidence to support accurate risk assessments.

Standard industry practice is to gather and aggregate existing medical information and present it to underwriters with a cover letter. However, medical records only tell the clinical part of the story. Also, the records typically contain inaccurate and outdated information.

In contrast, we begin with a gut instinct regarding what we can achieve in underwriting for you specifically. We apply our instincts to deep discovery. We discuss your sense of your health and well-being and confirm the accuracy of your medical records. When warranted, we interview physicians and do our own due diligence on medical conditions reflected in the records.

This early-stage strategic work allows us to present underwriters with a full set of accurate information: one that tells the clinical story alongside the human story. They’re able to envision the person whose risk they’re assessing. This diligence is met with respect by the underwriters, allowing us to advocate for you on a peer-to-peer basis. When underwriters have the evidence they need to make accurate risk assessments, policy pricing is no longer unduly inflated.

Post-Purchase Care: a proprietary process for inspecting what you expect

Historically the life insurance industry has operated primarily as a product distribution model. As such, there is a grave void of post-acquisition service. Importantly, and not widely known, insurance vehicles actually change post-acquisition.

Long-term policy performance is directly impacted by the state of the economy, the financial markets, the tax code, and the insurance markets themselves. Lack of diligent, annual care creates a precarious question: will the policies deflate or implode before the time of need? The greater the lapse of time between reviews, the more severe and costly the problems become.

Importantly, we offer the same depth and frequency of post-purchase diligence regardless of where you acquired your policies. It’s a commitment to tire-kick our own work, not just that of another firm.

Learn more about our Review Process

Ideal Client Profiles

  • Affluent Family Groups
  • Highly Compensated Individuals with $500,000+ annual income
  • Individuals/family groups looking to purchase insurance to facilitate liquidity objectives
  • Family or Multi-Family Offices
  • Policy owners looking for a review of their policy/policies
    • $100K+ cash value and/or $25K+ annual premiums

I-FAQs: Infrequently Asked Questions

Infrequently Asked Questions are an educational olive branch to improve your discernment about life insurance.

Know all of your choices, not just the one on the table.

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