know, a multimillion dollar sum.

So I think that's the issue.

And that's really what drove me to eventually write this book is people today in this defined contribution world, meaning the 401k world or just retirement where your retirement is based on what you're able to save and how your investments do this big volatile bucket.

You are now forced to be an asset manager during your retirement and you're managing against a bunch of variables that you can't predict.

You don't know if you're going to have expensive ongoing medical care that your health plans don't cover.

You don't know if you're going to live for 40 years or four.

You don't know if there's going to be three major market crashes early in your retirement or tax changes, legislative changes, the next pandemic, fill in the blank.

What's your thoughts on all of that? What's the way to keep insurance as part of our mix even when we're getting up into those ages and stages where things are more expensive?

And if I put in a million dollars into a life insurance policy, my initial death benefit and where my death benefit will be 30 years from now is going to be far greater than a million.

Yeah, so for example, so with my policy, I'm at the point now where I have more cash surrender value than the dollars I put in.

So if I put in a dollar, I have $1.10 of more cash surrender value by the dollar I put in.

But I also have a higher death benefit.

So I'm getting... and I'm getting a higher cash surrender value and I'm getting a higher death benefit.

So I'm getting both.

Well, what that means is my death benefits going up and I take out that cash surrender value, well then the net may still be my original, right? You can plan that out.

It really shines even more so in that piece because those other assets, those alternative accounts that we're talking about, those other investments, life insurance is going to make them way more spendable during that distribution phase.

Well, good morning, everyone.

It's great to be back.

And if you don't know who I am, my name's Tom.

And it's a wonderful blessing and privilege to be here sharing God's word with you today as we tackle this important and exciting topic, I think, is there a God out there? I think in choosing, thinking of a Bible reading, I was thinking, well, maybe if I start off with Genesis and in Revelation, then maybe we'll see the kind of God we're dealing with.

But being unconventional, I thought I was looking at the book of Isaiah.

And Isaiah 35 has a beautiful chapter right near the middle.

How do you respond to critics who call whole life a poor investment?

It's not an investment, and when you look at it, where it fits in someone's portfolio is an alternative to cash, when you think about funding it that way, an alternative to maybe money markets or bonds or the safe stuff.

On top of my whole life, I have a tremendous amount in the stock market.

You know, most of my money actually is in the stock market.

I own a business.

I have real estate.

People get too much into the this or that conversation, and what I found in all my research and all, you know, 23 years of experience working with very high-end advisors is the magic comes when you have it all, when- 'cause they all work together in their own ways.

So my question to you is, when that time hit, what effect did it have on you or what did you learn from that time?

Let's dive in.

About five years ago, as I was leaving my 15 year career at MassMutual's home office, I got a call from a young advisor that I'd worked with years ago when I was a life insurance wholesaler.

And his name is Tim, and the thing you gotta know about Tim is when I met him early in his career, all he wanted to do was talk about life insurance, whole life insurance, dividend paying, participating whole life insurance, and refer away the rest.

It took him almost four years to even get an investment license in a culture where you get it in year one.

He calls me out of the blue and says, Tom, I'm having a crisis of confidence.

I haven't talked to you in a few years.

I need to talk to you.

early as year

Amen.

Thank you, Link.

Well, good morning, church.

It's wonderful to be invited here this morning and to have the privilege to share God's word with you.

Just to give you a bit more background than just working at Norwest School, I have also been in pastoral ministry for over 20 years as a Presbyterian minister.

And so, again, it's great to be able to share God's word with the saints here at Riverstone and to be able to look at this wonderful passage that we have in front of us this morning.

And what I thought as I was going through this passage was, what I would do normally I would just go through and explain the verses exegetically and give us a rundown of what it is and how to apply these words but during the week I thought and considering the the theme that you've been going through Jesus in the present How does the vine and the branches speak to us today? What's it saying to us right now in our lives and how are we hearing it? So that's my plan for this morning.