In a previous episode of the Power of Zero Show, David discussed the importance of having a guaranteed 0% loan provision in your LIRP.

Beware: even if an insurance company has a guaranteed 0% loan provision, there's still another way that they can get you. There are two ways in which they can configure these loans: they can either charge you interest in advance or they can charge you interest in arrears.

In the case of interest charged in advance, the insurance company charges you the interest rate at the beginning of the year in which you request a loan. If they were charging you 3% on a $100,000 loan, you would owe them $3000 at the beginning of the year.

This means that since you need to pay out the interest at the beginning of the year – instead of at the end of the year – you lose out on the interest that money could have earned you had you been able to keep it inside your growth account and compounded it over the course of a year.

With interest charged in arrears, on the other hand, you get charged the interest at the end of the year. This means the situation is very different, as you will have on hand the interest that they credited to your loan collateral account – and it pays for the cost of that loan.

David shares that there’s an insurance company out there that does charge interest in advance but goes about it differently. They credit your loan collateral account at an interest rate that’s greater than the amount they charge you in advance – to compensate for the opportunity costs you lost out over the course of a year.

In case you have a LIRP and would like to know whether your insurance company has interest in advance or arrears and what implications that might have, David recommends heading over to DavidMcKnight.com. You’ll be connected to an elite member of the POZ advisory group. 

The Index Universal Life is the policy David prefers and recommends. The insurance company doesn’t treat the premium the way a normal investment would get treated.

There’s a problem you may face, the problem of opportunity costs. As David explains, ”if I give you a dollar that I didn't really need to give you, not only do I lose that dollar, but I lose what that dollar could've earned for me, had I been able to keep it and invest it over the balance of my life.” 

According to David, the ideal scenario is working with a company that charges interests in arrears, offers a guaranteed 0% loan, and sweeps your money out of that on a daily or weekly basis.