My mechanic had a sign up in his shop, presumably as a joke… It said “hourly rates: Basic Rate $50, If you watch me fix it $75, if you want to help $100.” The sign always makes me chuckle. After all, why would a professional want a filthy amateur like me getting in the way?

Then, after I’ve paid to get my car’s CV joint fix, what do I do? I go home and fire up my stock brokerage account, of course! This is sort of the great irony of the investing world. Americans are willing and eager to accept the value of expertise … at least in some situations.

For example, my wife would kill me if she caught my trying to repair the air conditioner, for example. But if you’re trading away the kids’ college fund on options via Schwab or E-Trade, most spouses wouldn’t think twice. When it comes to basic utilities, maintenance, or medical concerns, we immediately turn ourselves over to the experts. But when it comes to managing a lifetime of hard-earned income, many investors are surprisingly “willy-nilly.”

In fairness, there’s plenty of reason for today’s investors to feel empowered. Thanks to internet connectivity and modern technology, we have more powerful research tools at our disposal than ever before. But the endless flow of information mixed in with advertising and opinion has turned mainstream financial media into something akin to Fantasy Football. The entire experience is “game-ified” with investors impulsively hopping from one trend to another.

As a result, one of JP Morgan’s most exhaustive studies (their Guide to Markets) found that over a 20-year period, the average investor earned a staggering annualized return of … 1.9%. That’s compared to an average return of 10% per year from the S&P 500 index! So … why the massive difference?

JP Morgan chalked it up to two key factors; over-speculation and poor investment behavior. Where the S&P represents a “buy-and-hold-forever” portfolio curated by some of the most brilliant minds in the industry, the average investor is often chasing the latest hot stock, or buying/selling when they shouldn’t be. Investors are gradually coming to grips with their shortcomings and turning to index investing instead — which lets the geniuses at S&P effectively “take the wheel.” But even this strategy can be problematic, as we saw in early 2025 when several of the index’s largest stocks sustained major losses all at once.

I’m not bringing this up as a means to disparage stock investing. I’m hardly an authority on the topic. But I must admit that these statistics frequently come to mind for me when I hear someone compare the potential return of a whole life insurance policy compared to the returns of a stock portfolio. Because this is one of the most common arguments I hear against life insurance. That the overall return just doesn’t compare to other types of investments. An argument that takes on a whole new light when you stop looking at projected stock earnings and instead focus on that realized 1.9% average.

When you sign a whole life insurance policy, you’re not assuming anything. Well, you’re assuming that you’ll eventually die, but that’s generally a pretty safe assumption. Aside from that, everything is scheduled out in full detail. Dividend payments, contract riders, cash value and death benefit, it’s all laid out in perfect detail the day you sign the contract. What’s more, your work is also done. You don’t even have to think about the policy, and it will grow as planned.

Now … what assumptions are you making when you invest in a 401(k) or a self-guided stock account? Quite a few, to be sure.

You’re assuming not just that you’ve invested in the right companies, but also that you’ve invested in them at the right time. You’re assuming that they’re being perfectly honest and forthcoming in their financial reporting, and that they’ve got a good handle on debt and other factors. You’re also assuming that you’ve got a good enough handle on sequencing risk, so that you’re not eventually forced to sell during a downturn and lock in a loss. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of these risks are baked into the process of investing. Others require active management, which means years of diligent management—just when you were hoping to relax and enjoy your retirement. Imagine doing all that work, all those headaches, only to land at an average return of 1.9% at the end of it all? Is it still a better return on your time, effort and money than whole life insurance?

This is all a bit of a hard truth that I don’t often share with clients. No one wants to be told they’re a bad investor. But one prospect, a French-Canadian man named Jacques, once asked me to be “brutally honest” about the benefits of both. So I laid out these facts for him, and he abruptly left my office.

Three weeks later, Jacques was back to sign his policy. A few months after that, the stock market crashed, and he wrote me a note saying that he “couldn’t care less about the market crash, and he had me to thank for it.”

As the old adage goes, time is money. And while some folks genuinely get a thrill out of researching a company and planning out a trade, it’s important to assess whether the active management and the real-world return you’re getting from stocks match up with expectations. To be crystal clear; a whole life insurance policy is an asset and not an investment.

But over time, it can grow to provide consistent, investment-like returns with a massive range of tax advantages. Its value grows independent of what’s happening in the market, and it requires zero input from you in order to do so. So why worry or make assumptions about how to grow your wealth?

Lock in a predictable financial future with whole life insurance.

Key Takeaways

• Whole life insurance offers a predictable, detailed financial tool that grows consistently without requiring active management, making it ideal for protecting and growing wealth.
• Most investors earn significantly less from the stock market than expected due to over-speculation and poor investment behavior, highlighting the risks inherent in self-managed investing.
• Whole life insurance acts as a steady asset with tax advantages, immune to market fluctuations, providing continuity and risk protection for high-net-worth investors, business owners, and families.
• Investing in whole life insurance removes many assumptions required in stock investing, such as timing, company stability, and market conditions, thus reducing uncertainty in wealth accumulation.
• For long-term wealth planning, whole life insurance complements other strategies by locking in a reliable financial future and safeguarding assets amidst volatile markets.

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.