Sunday Book Summaries - What Would The Rockefellars Do?

1. Book Details:

   • Title: What Would the Rockefellars Do?

   • Author: Garrett Gunderson

   • Publisher: RipWater LLC

   • Copyright Year: 2018

2. Summary: The book delves into the concept of building and preserving family wealth across generations, using the Rockefeller family as a key example. It contrasts their successful wealth preservation with the Vanderbilt family, who lost their fortune. The central premise is the effective use of trusts and financial strategies, like what we brands as “Cash Flow Insurance”, to keep wealth within the family while protecting it from taxes, lawsuits, and irresponsible spending.

3. Insights:

   • The Rockefeller Method involves keeping family wealth together using legal tools like trusts to shield it from external factors.

   • Cash Flow Insurance is a crucial strategy, allowing for the growth of money without market risks, offering stability, security, and liquidity via whole life insurance.

   • Key aspects of Cash Flow Insurance include safeguarding wealth, growing money and cash flow, and enjoying money both now and in the future.

4. Glitches:

   • The book doesn’t provide a balanced view of potential risks or downsides associated with its strategies. It heavily promotes Whole Life insurance and the establishment of family banks. In short, he’s all in with this strategy.

1. Holes:

   • Just a one-sided perspective but that’s ok. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with all of it, right?!

2. My Takeaways:

   • Legacy minded - Understanding the importance of financial planning across generations and the use of trusts and insurance as tools.

   • Personal Bank - This concept of creating a family bank using Cash Flow Insurance intrigues me and is something I’m actively looking at in my particular situation.

   • Both short and long term strategies - You can use the funds in the short term for other investments and in the long term your heirs also benefit from the death benefit included. Note - If you have borrowed from your policy that gets taken out of the death benefit.

3. Quotes I Liked:

   • "Only the man who does not need it is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started." - Francisco d’Anconia, Atlas Shrugged【58†source】.