“Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve …”
It’s that same old story.
We’ve all missed out on at least one big opportunity at some point. And some folks find it easy to dwell on the past from time to time, wondering what might have happened.

My friend Ronald, on the other hand, has never been one to dwell on the past.

Even now — at the tender age of 83 — Ronald still has the tiger by the tail, forever talking my ear off about wild new investments starting to pop up in the markets.

Ronald spent most of his life as your average, mild-mannered software manager at a mid-tier networking company. He worked ten-hour days, managed his team without a fuss, and delivered one successful piece of software after another.

Over the course of decades, Ronald developed a knack for understanding what kinds of technology would really work on a mass-market scale. And on some level, he admits that he resented never seeing a real upside from this business sense (aside from the occasional pat on the back).

So when he started to hear about a strange new concept called “cryptocurrency” in early 2009, Ronald’s sixth sense started tingling…

Now, Ronald wasn’t much of an investor at the time.

He had a healthy income portfolio, partial ownership of a small, cash-flowing business, and a sizable whole life insurance policy. Ronald’s family had a history of heart health issues, and he loves his four kids more than anything, so he wanted to make sure they’d be taken care of, no matter what.

His premium payments for his life insurance policy were substantial, but he was generating plenty of excess income to cover the premiums and still enjoy the quality of life he was expecting to live throughout retirement.

Bitcoin changed all that. Somehow Ronald knew, almost from the very beginning, that cryptocurrency was going to be a hit. And he was going all-in.

So he exercised what’s called a reduced paid-up (RPU) option on his life insurance policy. This actually allowed him to stop paying premiums on his policy, while still retaining a portion of the death benefit for his family (more on that in a moment).

Ronald talked his business partners into making a “pivot,” and took out a substantial loan against the cash value of his policy to transform their business. Within months, Ronald was out of retirement and running one of the biggest cryptocurrency mining operations in the Midwest.

The rest, as they say, is history.

He eventually sold his crypto mining business for millions, and still trades actively. After accumulating most of his bitcoin hoard at or around $1 per coin, he’s now slowly selling a portion of his portfolio off at around $75,000 per coin.

I love to share Ronald’s story because it really demonstrates the value of that RPU option…

It’s a common misconception that funding a large whole life insurance policy will involve paying large premiums indefinitely. And if you don’t pay your premiums, you’ll be forced to surrender/cancel the policy. That’s just not the case.

With an RPU option, you can elect to stop paying premiums in exchange for taking a smaller, paid-up death benefit.

In Ronald’s case, this meant reducing what would’ve been a multi-million-dollar death benefit down to a little over three-quarters of a million … while also freeing up several thousand dollars to invest in his crypto business.

That’s obviously a pretty major reduction in death benefit. It’s essentially the result of recalculating your policy — except with many of your best compounding years removed. So an RPU option is something that should be used very carefully.

But in the event of a personal emergency, or a significant life change, an RPU can allow you to retain all the cash value you’ve paid in so far … along with all those important benefits that come with a paid-up whole life insurance policy.

You can still borrow against the cash value of your policy. You can also still collect dividends and allocate them towards paid-up additions (PUAs) that will keep growing your policy even though you’ll never add another dime. And you’ll still have a valuable volatility buffer to diversify your asset base.

It’s still the same policy, just with a smaller paid-up death benefit. That death benefit will still pass directly to your beneficiaries tax-free, and without getting tangled up in estate court.

Ronald exercised his RPU option to redirect his cash towards a lucrative opportunity … but that’s obviously not the only kind of use for this feature…

An RPU option can also be a game-changer if you encounter unexpected expenses due to major health issues, if you experience a major transition in your career, or for any number of life’s other “little surprises” that can take you off the beaten path through the years.

It’s also useful for newly-combined families with overlapping life insurance coverage. Taking an RPU can free up enough additional income to fund a home purchase or a college fund.

How big of a reduction in death benefit are we talking about, here?

Each RPU will be different based on the amount you’ve paid into your policy, your age, and several other factors.

You’ll generally have less of a reduction in death benefit if your policy is closer to being fully paid-up. But those last few years are typically the best for compounding, so the reduction is typically substantial. You can actually contact your life insurance agent and ask for a “reduced paid-up quote” at any time that you’re eligible to get an exact number.

Generally speaking, you’ll get the best financial outcomes from fully paying up your policy and maximizing the benefit of compounding dividends through paid-up additions.

I always stress the fact that life insurance is an asset and not an investment … but by fast-tracking that compounding, it’s possible to capture extremely safe investment-like returns later on in life.

But that’s not always going to be the most practical possibility, and an RPU option gives you the ability to hang onto all the amazing benefits of whole life insurance without paying any more premiums.

Key Takeaways

• A Reduced Paid-Up (RPU) option in whole life insurance allows you to stop premium payments while maintaining a smaller, guaranteed death benefit for your beneficiaries.
• RPU options provide financial flexibility to redirect funds toward new investments, unexpected expenses, or life transitions without losing the valuable cash value and benefits of your policy.
• Using an RPU option retains policy features such as borrowing against cash value, receiving dividends, and continuing policy growth via paid-up additions (PUAs).
• An RPU option acts as a strategic risk management tool that preserves wealth continuity and offers tax-free death benefits to heirs without probate delays.
• Life insurance is an essential wealth-building asset, not just protection—RPU options help balance maintaining asset security with adapting to changing personal or financial circumstances.

Ready to see how this could apply to your wealth plan? Click the big yellow Clarity Call button and let’s map it out together.