During the early pilot project phase of the Economics of Life Research Project in the mid-1970’s the first planning program that was developed provided highly productive individuals access to special design capital accumulation and capital distribution planning programs, services and products.
In the next phase of the research, special design asset protection, wealth transfer, and endowment creation planning programs, services, and products were developed for affluent individuals.
Losses of savings experienced by savers during and after the Great Recession led to the development of the Savers Planning Program, a guaranteed-outcome loss recovery and savings multiplication program for individuals age 55 – 74 who had savings allocated to bank CD’s that were losing purchasing power and to risk of principal mutual funds and stocks that experienced periodic losses of value that destroyed the efficiency of compound interest.
Losses of endowment funds experienced by 501 (c) 3 non-profit organizations during and after the Great Recession created an expanded need for the Permanent Endowment Program, a guaranteed outcome, perpetually multiplying, endowment creation program that had been developed during an earlier phase of the research project.
In addition to these post-Great Recession planning programs, a budgeting, catastrophic loss protection, and guaranteed life income retirement planning program was developed to assist Millennials and GenXer’s who had experienced post-Great Recession losses of employment and savings opportunities.
DISCUSSION:
The initial objective of the Economics of Life Research Project, when it was initiated in 1971, was to determine what productive individuals needed to KNOW to achieve financial independence. This initial purpose then expanded into the question of what productive individuals needed to DO to achieve financial independence.
These initial objectives led to the related questions as to whether an effective economic education program could be created from findings of the research, and whether effective, personalized planning programs could be developed to manage inevitable changes in income taxation and investment options. The objective of the planning programs would be to create financial structures for productive individuals that would enable them to maximize the efficiency, control, and safety of the conversion of their earnings into savings in order to achieve financial independence.
Over time, the productive individuals’ demographic was expanded to include five categories:
- Highly Productive Individuals (Business Owners and Doctors)
- Savers
- Millennials,
- GenXer’s
- Affluent Individuals.
Early findings of the research indicated that highly productive individuals, i.e., successful business owners and doctors, would not achieve financial independence in an efficient manner if they continued to lose surplus earnings to unnecessary income taxes, and to lose savings to unnecessary risk investments.
These questions and related findings led to the development of planning models and planning principals and rules that formed the basis for an economic education program and a planning program that enabled highly productive individuals to achieve their goals of financial independence in a predictable manner.
Economic education seminars were held for productive individuals across the country. Hundreds of thousands of highly productive individuals attended “Economics of Life” seminars, subscribed to research project newsletters, and received audio programs on components of the planning programs. Attendees at the economic education seminars were invited to become participants in evidence-based planning programs that were being developed for highly productive individuals. The data that was gathered from the thousands of highly productive individual participants in the economic education and the planning programs led to the continuing development of financial programs, products and services that were modified for use by each demographic category.
The first phase of the research project studied highly productive individuals’ economic life cycles and researched tax reduction opportunities that would enable them to accumulate larger quantities of savings earlier in their careers. The research project then identified the most efficient earnings management and savings management structures that were available to highly productive individuals, and flexible enough to fit their needs.
Special financial programs, services and products were then developed with the assistance of insurance companies, banks, and investment companies to meet highly productive individuals’ unique financial planning needs.
The implementation phase of the research delivered an effective financial planning protocol for use by the highly productive individuals who became participants in the Economics of Life Research Project. Data was accumulated from highly productive individuals and affluent individuals for more than 30 years. The accumulated data was used to update and expand the planning programs, services, and products that were provided to thousands of highly productive individuals.
During this phase of the research project, specially trained financial consultants provided some financial planning program, service, or product to more than 60,000 highly productive individuals who became participants in the evidence-based planning program. Information gathered during the multi-year implementation phase of the capital accumulation and capital distribution planning programs for these highly productive individuals was used to create one of the largest databases in existence on highly productive individuals’ financial needs.
The objective of the initial capital accumulation planning program was to help highly productive individuals maximize the efficiency, control, and safety of the conversion of highly productive individuals’ surplus earnings into guaranteed life income. More than 13,000 of the participants in the research-based, pre-Great Recession capital accumulation planning programs achieved or exceeded their financial independence savings goals. Hundreds of millions of dollars of perpetually multiplying endowment funding was created by participants in the pre-Great Recession capital distribution planning program.