Infinite Banking: The Secret To Lasting Wealth An Interview With Jason I. Henderson, Ph.d.
Dr. Jason Henderson, a seasoned expert in Infinite Banking, has a unique journey that sets him apart in the financial world. With a strong background in chemistry, including advanced degrees and significant contributions to nanotechnology, Jason transitioned from a successful scientific career to becoming a passionate advocate for financial independence.
His journey began with a profound question from a professor: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” This question sparked a quest for financial mastery that led him to the principles of Infinite Banking. For over a decade, Jason has been dedicated to teaching individuals and business owners the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC), helping them achieve true financial freedom.
Through his coaching and educational efforts, he has empowered many to take control of their financial destinies, ensuring their wealth grows securely and efficiently.
In this interview, Jason shares his insights into Infinite Banking, compares it with traditional retirement accounts, and discusses why this strategy is a game-changer for anyone looking to build and preserve wealth.
What is your background and how did you come to be so passionate about Infinite Banking?
Jason Henderson: My father grew up during the Depression and then volunteered to serve in WWII. He always encouraged me to get a great education and then find a good job. After graduating from BYU, I went on to get my Ph.D. and did post-doctoral work in chemistry.
I was well respected in the field as I had published dozens of articles in top scientific journals and had several US patents. I wrote my thesis in three weeks. Purdue University opened an entirely new department and built a huge building to expand on research. I worked with top scientists around the world on what is now known as nanotechnology.
A Nobel Prize winner at Caltech invited me to work with him. I was riding high and feeling good. Then, during a casual conversation in the lab one day, a professor asked me, ‘Henderson, if you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?’ I didn’t have a good answer, and it really bugged me.
I continued to work and consult in the chemical field for several years. I made good money, and the work was challenging and fulfilling. However, that question lingered: ‘Why aren’t you wealthy?’ Despite being monetarily rich by many standards, I lacked financial freedom and true, lasting wealth.
I realized I was essentially living paycheck to paycheck. When I stopped working, my income would stop too. I wanted freedom, so I began to dig. Ironically, while my dad told me to get a job, he worked for himself. He owned companies and real estate, managing his own money. As he got older, he could do just about anything he wanted – my parents had true financial freedom.
They didn’t need to work; they could travel with our family. There was no stress or worry about retirement. My dad lived to be 100 years old, and throughout his life, he never once said, “I am retired” when asked about his work.
When I began to study the topic, I recognized the principles that had brought my dad real wealth and started to institute them into my own life. I left my position as Vice President of Research and Development at a chemical company and started my own business.
I invested in commercial and residential real estate and acquired a couple of restaurants, which brought me some passive income. However, there was still a significant piece missing.
My dad knew how to earn money and how to position it so it grew. However, he didn’t have his money in places where it was continually compounding for him, and he didn’t have a good plan for passing that wealth on to future generations.
He and my mother did the best they knew how to do; they had some entities set up and owned properties and land, yet his children and grandchildren were left without a system or structure for protecting and growing the legacy he and mom had left us.
I desperately wanted true financial freedom for my family. I wanted to have time with my wife and children, attend their games and performances without worrying about missing work, take trips, enjoy life’s luxuries, and do good in the world.
Most importantly, I wanted to provide security for their future and future generations. I knew there were wealthy families that had mastered that piece, so I made it my mission to find out how they did it. I studied and learned from the wealthiest families in the world and wealth managers for huge family offices. I ran numbers for virtually every kind of account, investment, and retirement plan out there.
I talked to banking experts, insurance experts, wealth advisors, and tax accountants. Finally, the missing piece became clear to me: Infinite Banking.
So what exactly is Infinite Banking?
Jason Henderson: Infinite Banking is a strategy built on whole life insurance. It’s a powerful tool that offers a unique blend of control, flexibility, and tax benefits—all wrapped up in one package.
Unlike term life insurance, which provides coverage for a specific period and gets more expensive the longer you have it, whole life insurance benefits you for your entire life. It offers a death benefit for protection and security and a cash value component that builds over time and can be accessed for various financial endeavors through a loan against your policy.
Because the loan is secured by your cash value and death benefit, you can borrow at low-interest rates. Better yet, your policy continues earning interest and dividends on the gross amount despite borrowing against it. The power of compounding cannot be overstated.
Think of Infinite Banking policies as your personal financial fortress. Not only does it form a safe foundation from which to invest in other opportunities, but it also shields your wealth from market volatility and economic uncertainty. Perhaps most importantly, it reduces the IRS’s involvement in your affairs.
By using a specially designed policy (held by certain companies with century-long legacies) as a stronghold, you can access cash value to finance your business, education, real estate investments, or simply enjoy life’s luxuries while simultaneously building guaranteed wealth.
Unlike typical retirement accounts, Infinite Banking policies offer the freedom to access your cash value anytime, without penalties or restrictions. Need to expand your business? Found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Want to travel the world? Need to help your children with college, marriage, or a new car? You can do it all – and you don’t need to wait until you’re 59½ years old!
And that’s only the beginning. Unlike IRAs, where you have a silent partner (the government), Infinite Banking offers you the ultimate tax advantage. The cash value in your whole life insurance policy grows tax-advantaged, meaning you can enjoy tax-free growth and withdrawals for life. It’s like having your cake and eating it too—without Uncle Sam taking a huge bite.
Can you give me some examples of who uses this type of strategy?
Jason Henderson: You’d be surprised at how many companies and individuals have been using this for decades. The majority of Presidents, including J.F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, had significant amounts of cash value life insurance in their portfolios. When he died in 1945, Franklin Roosevelt had $562,000 of cash value in his life insurance policy—equivalent to nearly $8 million today!
A few years ago, I went through the public disclosures of every single member of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Presidential Cabinet. The records showed that the longer someone had been in government, the more money they had in whole life insurance policies.
I don’t condone much of what Congress does nowadays, but knowing they have large amounts of money in these accounts is significant; they are not likely to take away or hinder one of their greatest perks! In addition, roughly 4,000 banks across the country own $140 billion in cash value in whole life insurance.
Bank of America has more money in cash value—$18.5 billion—than the combined value of all its 5,600 branches and the second tallest building in Manhattan. Together, they are valued at $10.9 billion! Citibank has $4.5 billion, JP Morgan Chase $9.8 billion, and Wells Fargo $19.3 billion held in whole-life cashvalue.
In fact, 68% of banks have more money in permanent life insurance than they have invested in skyscrapers, IT, networks, and bank branches. Why don’t the banks have all their money in CDs? That’s what they tell you and me to do. The reason is they put their money in a place where it is irrefutably safe, liquid, compounds, and accumulates tax-free (according to current tax law).
Who else uses these accounts? Well, “the happiest place on earth,” Disneyland, was made possible by using the cash value of Walt Disney’s life insurance policy. J.C. Penney borrowed $3 million from his life insurance policy during the Great Depression and turned it into a $3 billion company.
Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE gets his pension from the cash values of his life insurance policy the corporation set up for him (and they were happy to do that since they will be reimbursed for every cent of that pension).
Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s), the Rothschild family, Doris Christopher (Pampered Chef), the Rockefeller family, the Jason Henderson family, and thousands of other well-known people have established whole life insurance as a major part of their successful financial strategies.
If this is so great, why haven’t I heard about this before?
Jason Henderson: There are several reasons this strategy and type of account are kept quiet. First of all, the government puts extreme constraints on advertising the benefits of cash-value life insurance policies. Why would they do that?
One simple reason: because they can’t make a dime off these policies. If everyone in America had a life insurance policy and knew how to use it, there would be no tax revenue for the guys in Washington to squander.
When the money goes in, it accumulates tax-free. When you take it out as a retirement benefit with our current taxation, it is paid out tax-free.
When you die, the death benefit is paid to your beneficiary income tax-free. Secondly, when these accounts are set up for the maximum benefit of the client (you), the insurance representative doesn’t make as much commission. People want to make more money – it’s as simple as that, so they offer other products and services that give them more profit.
Thirdly, many financial “experts” simply don’t understand the concept, so they don’t know how to explain it or help you optimize it for your personal situation. When you decide to do this, PLEASE be careful about who you select to guide you.
It is not difficult, but many advisors out there think they understand this strategy and then use the wrong kind of account or the wrong company, which will ultimately cause you serious problems.
Make sure you work with someone who has multiple accounts themselves, runs businesses through those accounts, and has been doing it for at least a decade so they can show you how to take full advantage of the benefits.
Can you give a comparison between an Infinite Banking account and a normal retirement account such as a 401(k)?
Jason Henderson: There’s really no comparison between a properly set-up Infinite Banking account and a typical “retirement” account. The compounding interest and lack of taxes in an Infinite Banking account result in a huge difference, even over just a decade or two.
One of the biggest problems for people in their 50s, 60s, and older is that they put money away, trusting their advisors, not realizing that even when their account grows nicely in the market, the fees (which are often hidden in the fine print and seem small) and taxes can drastically reduce the amount they have to live on, often by hundreds of thousands of dollars less than anticipated.
With Infinite Banking, you have guarantees with your account—you know from the beginning the minimum amount you will have in the end. Typical retirement accounts do not offer such guarantees. Over a longer period, the difference is exponentially greater.
A great comparison can be made between two very well-known families: the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers. Cornelius Vanderbilt created a massive fortune from ferries, steamship lines, railroads, and stock manipulations.
He was the second richest person in American history when adjusted for inflation at the time of his death. Despite this, by 1973, when the Vanderbilts held a family reunion, not one of the 120 family members was a millionaire. In contrast, John Davison Rockefeller, who started as an assistant bookkeeper, sensed an opportunity in the oil business in the early 1860s and became one of the wealthiest men in U.S. history.
He carefully set up a family culture and structure that preserved and expanded wealth generation after generation. The Rockefellers used proper insurance and entities, creating wealth that lasted for several generations. The family remains incredibly wealthy today.
Please tell us some specific reasons this strategy and type of accounts are used so much by business owners and other wealthy people.
Jason Henderson: Wealthy people, often successful business owners, take measures to keep the government out of their business and bank accounts. They control their own money.
The typical American works hard and, after taxes, earns barely enough to cover monthly expenses. Those disciplined enough to save often turn their money over to fund managers who control what happens next, usually resulting in outcomes far from their hopes. I always say that hope is not a financial plan.
The secret to wealth is who controls your finances. When you control your money, you control your financial destiny. Infinite Banking allows this kind of control. Additionally, these accounts have several unique benefits:
- They enjoy uninterrupted compound interest.
- The cash value grows tax-deferred, and the death benefit passes to heirs income tax-free.
- The cash value is liquid and can be used for lifestyle purchases, travel, education, business expenses, equipment, and funding other investments, allowing the same dollar to be used in multiple ways.
- These accounts are tier-one assets for banks, meaning they are considered the safest type of investment.
- They don’t require approval from anyone to get a loan and allow you to create your own repayment schedule.
- Since these accounts are not tied to the market, they offer guarantees regarding account growth, availability at certain times, and death benefit payouts.
- These accounts are protected from creditors and lawsuits (in most states) and, in many ways, from the IRS since the Infinite Banking System is governed by a private contract, meaning growth and dividends are not reported to Uncle Sam.
- Like with my Ph.D., I have deeply studied this concept. I’ve run the numbers, tested the timelines, and personally verified the guarantees. Infinite Banking works.
Is there anything people should be cautious about when considering Infinite Banking?
Jason Henderson: The biggest caution is to ensure you work with a qualified agent who is extremely familiar with Infinite Banking. This person should have extensive personal experience, multiple accounts, and know exactly which companies and account types work best for your specific situation.
Many agents, especially younger ones on social media, claim to know how to do Infinite Banking but end up using the wrong type of account, depriving the client of benefits, or worse, causing the account to collapse at a critical time.
These agents may argue that the accounts are safe, but their mistakes often come back to haunt clients years later. It’s not difficult, but it requires an agent who has delved into the strategy and seen it play out over time. Another caution is to be wary of everything you hear about whole life insurance. Radio gurus and financial “experts” often advocate “buy term and invest the difference,” criticizing the high cost of whole life insurance without fully considering its benefits.
Think of term vs. whole life insurance like renting a home vs. buying one. Yes, the upfront cost is higher, but in the long run, it’s a better financial decision with more options and control.
Don’t make a decision until you talk to an expert who can assess your unique situation and explain how it can work for you. Often, those gurus actually do something very different than what they advise you to do, usually because they receive incentives from certain companies.
Who can do this? What are the qualifications?
Jason Henderson: Anyone can do this. I have clients who put millions of dollars into their accounts every year and others who contribute as little as $100 a month.
Suppose you have health concerns and worry about being approved for a life insurance policy. In that case, there are ways to tie your policy to children, other beneficiaries, charities, or non-profits while still allowing you to control the account.
In my 20 years of helping clients with Infinite Banking, I haven’t met anyone for whom it was impossible to implement this strategy.
Where can people learn more about Infinite Banking?
Jason Henderson: People can read more about this in my book, Master Your Millions, which can be purchased on Amazon or at www.themasteryourmillionsbook.com.
Becoming Your own Banker by R. Nelson Nash is also a great resource for those who want to dive deeper into the specifics. Additionally, I encourage you to schedule a free consultation at www.askjasonh.com.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to WealthDefined and the host of this interview would like to thank Jason Henderson for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jason Henderson or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
