This week’s special report on women and wealth comes to us from our friend Kate Phillips of Total Wealth. Kate co-authored Financial Planning Has Failed with Kim Butler.
If you pay attention to the dominant current cultural narratives about women and wealth in the U.S., you might think women are victims.
Victims of the wage gap.
Victims of the wealth gap.
Victims of sexism, rampant discrimination, and, of course, that dark, shadowy testosterone-driven force intent on holding women back and preventing them from reaching their potential: the patriarchy.
I’m not making light of the very real challenges women around the world face—now or in the past—including poverty and wide economic disparities. If anything, I want to raise awareness about financial realities. But let’s look at the whole truth of these matters.
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Mutual funds. A college degree. A home. These are the best vehicles to invest in for a return — so we are told. But does this typical advice have a “blind spot”? We think so. And it’s a whopper.
Mitt Romney came under scrutiny during his presidential run when it came to light that he had socked away a fortune in his self-directed IRA. Romney’s IRA was worth between $20.7 and $101.6 million, according to Forbes.com. How was it possible that he could have acquired such wealth in the qualified plan environment?
These are questions have been debated amongst insurance agents, financial advisors, so-called financial experts, gurus, and financial bloggers for years. And by now, we believe the answers are actually quite clear-cut. The dangers of disadvantages of universal life can no longer be ignored.
About eleven years ago, I wrote 
As you probably know, you can borrow against your whole life insurance policy. Some people do, and some people don’t. Sometimes, people borrow too much, too soon, and too often. Meanwhile, others miss out on opportunities because it doesn’t occur to them to use their policy.
