27 Nov Protection During a Financial Storm
Mike Jaap’s Story: Protection During a Financial Storm
Being a small-business owner is rewarding. It gives you the freedom to do what you love and to control your destiny. This appealed to Mike Jaap, who took a wealth of experience and built a metal recycling business. It paid off with exponential growth and profits.
His insurance professional Bill Cassidy was there to offer him advice—unique advice he hadn’t heard from his other advisors. Bill recommended that Mike put a whole life insurance policy in place to protect his family and as a means to build cash value.
Then came the economic crisis of 2008. His business took a huge blow when markets contracted and several major overseas clients were unable to pay their bills. Mike thought it was the death knell of his business. That is until he called Bill.
Distraught, Mike laid out the facts. His bank had withdrawn his line of credit. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to keep his business afloat, which would mean laying off a few dozen employees as well. Bill had a simple question for him: “How much money do you need to keep your business going right now?”
Perplexed, Mike gave him a figure. “No problem,” said Bill. “We can have that money in your account in two days.” What Mike had forgotten was the power of his whole life policy and the cash value it had accumulated over the dozen years he had had it.
The infusion of money from a loan against the cash value in his policy allowed Mike to regroup and keep his business going, and in the process it protected his family financially as well as his employees. Once things were stabilized, Bill and Mike set up a plan to repay the loan, so the money would be there in the event that outside forces again came to bear on his business.
Mike is thankful for these living benefits of life insurance that helped him weather a financial storm. “There were a lot of sleepless nights, but my whole life insurance policy allowed me to stop worrying and keep my business,” he says.
Contact QQIS today and protect yourself from financial storms with our Life Insurance products.
Protection During a Financial Storm – Video Transcription
Mike: Twenty-five years ago I started my own company and quickly became successful in doing a lot of work for a lot of major companies.
Bill (Insurance Professional): He had a significant line of credit and significant revenue that came in on a regular basis. I recommended that he start taking some of those profits and sliding them away from the business and sequester them inside of a whole life insurance policy.
Mike: In the year 2000 – roughly – we began to get quite a bit of momentum. Our reputation was good, we were being referred by others to others. There was a lot of success and there was very little fear that this was ever gonna end.
The financial crisis caused a lot of turmoil in the industry, and specifically to my business. We were asked to pay the bank back what we had been loaned to operate our business. Several of the businesses that I was doing work with had gone bankrupt. Several of the clients that we were working with had reneged on some of their contracts.
Ronnie (Wife): It was terrifying. You could be doing well, and successful, and hard-working – as Mike always has been – one minute. And then the next minute the rug is pulled out from under you.
Mike: So I went to Bill and asked him for advice.
Bill: He said, “You know, I’m really in trouble.” And I said, well Mike how much would you need to kinda keep the wolves away and stay in your own world? And he told me the number and it was well into six digits. And I said wow, that’s a lot of money. And I said Mike you have a significant amount of cash value in your policy and I can have the company pull that money out, put it on a wire to your bank account, and it’ll be there day after tomorrow.
Mike forgot completely that he had been funding this life insurance policy for the last 10, 12 years and that it was growing to a significant amount.
Mike: Never did think that a life insurance policy especially when I took it would ever have a bearing on saving my business. And glad to say that it did.
Bill: I was able to save a family. I was able to save a business. I was able to save all of those, you know, the domino effect of all of those people associated with Mike’s business.
Ronnie: I think that people should hear this story and understand this because you need to prepare, you need to have a longer term view and a plan for your life to be confident that life will unfold the way you want it to.