This month, our “get to know” series features another industry voice making waves in the private placement life insurance space. We sat down with Ben Rainey who leads WealthPoint’s PPLI efforts and is well known for his focus on “demystifying PPLI.”
Read on to discover why he believes some advisors struggle to embrace PPLI, what fascinates him about the strategy, the misconceptions he most often encounters, and, true to tradition, what he’s watching on TV when he manages to find a spare moment.
PPLI is a cornerstone of WealthPoint’s work with ultra-affluent clients. It’s not merely a life insurance product, but a tax-advantaged investment wrapper that complements long-term wealth transfer, estate planning, and portfolio management. We really focus on three core elements of PPLI:
Tax Efficiency: PPLI allows clients to grow investments tax-deferred and access them tax-free. Compared to the typical 2–4% annual tax drag on taxable portfolios, PPLI’s cost structure (0.5–1% annually) offers substantial savings
Investment Flexibility: Clients can use their existing asset managers to run custom strategies inside the PPLI wrapper, including private credit and alternatives via Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs)
Estate Planning Integration: PPLI is often used to repurpose existing insurance policies or design new ones that align with estate liquidity needs.
We have an exceptional track record of turning skeptics into believers and ultimately buyers of PPLI. And I think a lot of that is due to our unique approach.
Many advisors and ultra-affluent clients alike have had previous experiences with life insurance that unfairly taint their expectations of PPLI. That’s why we spend so much time educating them around the essential elements of PPLI and helping them dismiss preconceived and outdated ideas.
Additionally, the market has changed dramatically in the past five or six years. I’ve met with many advisors who still believe that PPLI is expensive and offers limited investment options – both of which couldn’t be more wrong.
What’s more, many advisors just have a dislike and distrust of all things life insurance.
To address these prevalent issues, we spent significant time and resources in developing a comprehensive PPLI Library that is centered around client and advisor education – not selling or pitching, but merely educating. We believe that when properly understood, PPLI sells itself. Some of our biggest skeptics have become our biggest cheerleaders through this process.
Nearly everything. It’s truly simple yet fits seamlessly into the most complex estate plan. It offers unmatched tax benefits that are protected by 160 years of tax law precedent. It allows for the most exotic investments, such as venture capital and private credit, while still being a great place to park “boring” ETF investments such as SPY or VOO. It offers unfettered, tax-free access to the growth of the portfolio during lifetime while still delivering a tax-free death benefit. It’s truly the most unique, powerful asset available in the US today.
Given all this, perhaps I’m most fascinated by the fact that many ultra-affluent advisors and their clients aren’t implementing this on a broader scale.
In addition to everything in my answer above, I really wish more people knew about the easy tax-free access to the account values during their lifetime. Because it’s a life insurance policy, we can pull nearly all the gains out of the policy via policy loans on a completely tax-free basis. Additionally, policy loan costs are very low and fixed so this won’t impair the policy in later years.
This is something that I talk a lot about because I think it’s a barrier to broader implementation. If an ultra-affluent investor truly understands that they’re not giving up access to the account values, then they’re compelled to put more premium into the PPLI policies – and that’s a win for everyone.
I was broke, jobless and getting married. The year was 2001 and I had only a few job options and even fewer marketable skills. It was bleak!
My friend and mentor Scott Beck told me during that dark time that there is a lot of money to be made in less glamorous industries. As an example, he referenced a business his dad started – Waste Management. Now WealthPoint is in no way a Waste Management, but there are some parallels as life insurance certainly qualifies as less glamorous!
As a result of his advice, I started a property and casualty practice in late 2001 and quickly transitioned that practice into a life insurance business that grew over time. Over the years my practice evolved, and I merged into WealthPoint back in 2019. We started the PPLI division in early 2020 and that’s now where I spend 100% of my time.
Well, I’m married and have five daughters, so I have very little time to watch TV shows, but some recent hits include:
