1. I joined Merrill Lynch in 2007 to begin my career in financial services, after playing five years in the National
Football League and running a small Minneapolis mortgage group. Merrill Lynch’s training program was
reputed as the most robust on Wall Street, and I found immediate success there managing the wealth of
young investors in a unique niche: current and former professional athletes with substantial earnings from
before their mid­30s. As I accomplished my primary goal of preserving investors’ principal while earning them
sufficient yield to last through their retirement years, I also quickly developed a unique sense of the markets’
pulse owing to my time in the mortgage industry.
The time came when our training program recommended that we take a larger equity allocation approach
with young investors due to their longer time horizon. Thankfully, I didn't agree with this approach and I
advised my clients to take on larger cash positions as well as substantial investments into municipal bonds
and gold. The visions of mortgage wholesalers walking into my office offering 115% loan to value mortgage
products caused me to enter the 2007 markets as the ultimate bear.
Let’s just say my approach paid off substantially—my subsequent success going against the grain helped
to jump start my career in finance (though I did have a brief scare with auction rate securities). As the
markets healed from the worst financial crisis of our time, my portfolios were able to capitalize on a great
bull market and avoid pain from the severe economic downturn.
Now, after five years of robust markets and a historic run for equities, I am again taking on the challenge of
identifying high yield opportunities for my younger clientele while continuing to protect their principal. This
time around, I have developed a unique investment strategy that my training program at Merrill Lynch failed
to teach me: taking advantage of life insurance as a retirement strategy. A young adult is able to take
advantage of their insurability using certain life insurance products by investing into the cash value of certain
indexed universal life insurance policies, which allow their funds to grow with 100 percent downside
protection. Not only do many of these policies have a one percent guaranteed return as a floor, but they also
offer 100 percent liquidity. Insurance companies offer younger clients very attractive terms, which allow
young investors the opportunity to stockpile cash into certain insurance policies while creating themselves a
tax­deferred income stream. If you want to borrow money for a car or an engagement ring, your insurance
policy acts like your own bank. To throw a cherry on top, life insurance policies are completely creditor
protected!
Most investment professionals like myself heard from our predecessors that the ultimate retirement vehicle
is the 401k plan. I only feel that this is true if your company is matching the amount that you are depositing
into your 401k. If the company isn’t matching that contribution, you may want to consider including life
insurance in your retirement plan. As tax rates continue to rise, it is unknown territory when you defer your
future tax implications by investing in your 401k. More importantly, its very difficult to access your 401k if
you encounter emergencies along life’s journey. I am not saying that there is no place for a 401k—I have
one myself, and no insurance strategy works unless you are healthy and insurable—but every young
investor should certainly weigh these options with their investment advisor and insurance agent, especially
since all of these benefits come with an attractive death benefit that protects your family, loved ones or
estate. My personal recommendation is that my young readers begin investigating the insurance avenue for
yourself.