LEAP and Cheaper Alternatives?

[hmandalia]

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[PrivClientSG]

Well, since this was revitalized just a few months ago, I will chime in, LOL. While I've spent a fortune on software, I can't speak to "financial planning" or that marketplace, because my experience with that software is limited, and I am not in that marketplace.

Bob Castiglione, the founder of LEAP, whether you like him or not, was really the first to bring together and formalize the life insurance concepts that LEAP was all about. The living benefits of life insurance, the death benefit as an asset, a capitalized asset, etc. -- all of it was inside of LEAP. Was it a system? Or was it a "sales process" -- I'll let you decide and everyone else to argue, LOL. Sure, there were others who spoke about these concepts, but Bob really formalized it and brought it into a system. While I've seen software systems that portrayed these concepts, most of them were either market-specific (like InsMark in the estate planning marketplace for example), however, LEAP was very early on and covered all of it for the masses. If you read the Economics of Life Insurance, by Solomon Huebner, which was updated and re-published by Bob Castiglione, you can see all of these concepts. I took LEAP -- in the mid to late 90's, kept my license active, did all the updates, symposiums, etc., but I did not adopt it as it was meant to. I adapted it to my marketplace and used many of the concepts. I also bought the software when it came out and was licensed with it until about 7 years ago or so.

In the end, I can't speak to alternatives as I don't directly and intentionally look at them. However, I do think there is some great software out there in certain marketplaces, with certain uses, applicability, etc.

 

[Lloyds of Lubbock]

Try Circle of Wealth.
It is like leap light.

 

[DHK]

Try Circle of Wealth.
It is like leap light.

Two completely different 'ultimate' planning objectives.

LEAP uses the "permission slip spend-down" concept (minimum pay permanent policy to offset other assets) while Circle of Wealth advocates more of the max-funded cash value life insurance policy approach.

I went into more detail with Tom Love (who learned from Don Blanton and evolved from COW) and John Ocweija (who was a LEAP trainer and now a co-founder of Wealth Building Cornerstones):

Starts about 10 minutes in:

 

[Lloyds of Lubbock]

Spending down assets is only one LEAP move, there are over 20.
There is a reason LEAP sued Circle of Wealth and came to a settlement.
The main theme of LEAP is you should be insured for your Human Life Value.
LEAP is not anti PUA, it has a philosophy of first obtaining HLV before contributing PUA.
You can do this with a term and whole life policy, an integral term rider or choose not to have your HLV and add PUA from the start.
COW likes to show the minimum you can pay and the maximum and may be more cash value oriented than death benefit oriented.
LEAP does a great job of explaining how a whole life policy integrated in your financial plan makes everything else better
If you can find the presentation of Bob Castiglione explaining why you should be insured for your Human Life Value, you will be enlightened.
It has been many years since I have looked at LEAP.
There is some type of joint ownership with Penn Mutual.
I think COW is easier to start with and I know many agents who are quite successful using it.

https://support.moneytrax.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001380272-Circle-of-Wealth

BTW I have not looked at this stuff in a long time.
If you are affiliated with an agency you may want to seek out producers and get their opinions.

 

[DHK]

If you can find the presentation of Bob Castiglione explaining why you should be insured for your Human Life Value, you will be enlightened.

 

[PrivClientSG]

The human life value discussion is an excellent one, and was rarely had before Bob Castiglione brought it to the forefront of his LEAP system. Prior to him, many software systems, selling systems, etc., were very much "needs based" oriented.

Penn Mutual ended up "buying" or "acquiring" LEAP systems, although they continued to operate it separately I guess. Deals fell through with Guardian, and another one (maybe Mass Mutual, I don't remember). Bob was not the easiest person to get along with, and certainly not the nicest person, LOL. But he certainly had conviction.

 

[DHK]

John Savage certainly spoke about Human Economic Life Value in his circles talk.



Guardian created their own 'in-house' system with Living Balance Sheet being a "bolt-on" software interface on e-money.

MassMutual may still support LEAP (they did when I was with them 17 years ago), but I think they're mostly focused on Wealth Building Cornerstones now.

I'm a broker with Penn. I get plenty of emails about LEAP webinars and other training events. My Penn wholesaler even offered me a free year of LEAP software, but I turned it down as I wouldn't use it.

 

[PrivClientSG]

John Savage certainly spoke about Human Economic Life Value in his circles talk.



Guardian created their own 'in-house' system with Living Balance Sheet being a "bolt-on" software interface on e-money.

MassMutual may still support LEAP (they did when I was with them 17 years ago), but I think they're mostly focused on Wealth Building Cornerstones now.

I'm a broker with Penn. I get plenty of emails about LEAP webinars and other training events. My Penn wholesaler even offered me a free year of LEAP software, but I turned it down as I wouldn't use it.

Guardian certainly did. A retired Guardian GA spearheaded the initiative, and developed a very comprehensive and robust framework, and yes the software was e-money based and on their platform. Guardian actually built out some proprietary features, and that's because Guardian actually owned an ownership interest in e-money (along with TD).

Edmond Walters, who I know well, developed e-money. It ended being sold to Fidelity for about $250 million.

 

[Lloyds of Lubbock]

Funny Castiglione story.
I was doing a presentation at an agency, I went on right after him.
He actually sat through the presentation and came up to me afterwards and told me he enjoyed it.
He then asked me if I had a list of each state and how they protect life insurance cash values.
I told him I did and he asked me for a copy.
I told him I did it in the employ of my company, it was their proprietary info and had not been compliance approved.
He did not like my response.
Later the GA came up to me and asked me about it.
I told him that if I gave him the list he would put his letterhead on it and sell it back to your agents.
He laughed and said probably.
When the industry was down on whole life, he was rare in that rather than jumping on the bandwagon, he never stopped championing whole life.