In the world of entrepreneurial philanthropy, ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas readily convertible into business models are much tougher to find; ideas with the potential to radically advance the world of philanthropy and generous giving rarely, if ever, come along. LifePoint is that and more; we believe LifePoint represents a fundamentally new opportunity for charities to transform giving and, in the process, gain access to a completely new source of long–term, predictable revenues to carry out their missions.
As founders of LifePoint Charitable Endowment, we believe we have been given an opportunity of a lifetime to produce a generational impact on charities, ministries and educational institutions the world over. Our motivations are derived from life as well as near–death experiences. We believe that the choices and decisions made today ripple throughout eternity.
From Success to Significance
In May 2004, while driving in lunch–hour traffic, I experienced a ventricular fibrillation
– a heart condition that usually results in cardiac arrest – causing me to pass
out. It has been estimated that roughly 98 percent of ventricular fibrillation episodes
result in death. But miracle of miracles for me, my car slammed into a wall, snapping
the seatbelt across my chest, "re–booting" my heart and saving my life. A life–long
heart patient, I have overcome two open–heart surgeries and a stroke all before
the age of 13. Although it had been 22 years since my last trip to the operating
table, it was this near–death experience that began me reexamining my life and my
work – I began to realize with great clarity that I may be on this earth for many
more important reasons than just being a successful business man.
In the contemplative months that followed the accident, I read the book Half Time by Bob Buford. The book planted a seed in my heart and gave me permission to consider charitable endeavors and ministry as a professional option. The entrepreneur in me had never considered the possibility of wrapping my life's calling into a charitable venture. Call it arrogance or call it the search for success, the near–death accident became my wake–up call and helped me realize that there are far more important things than making and spending money. When the idea hit me for taking a for–profit life settlement pool and trading out the players such that charity became the beneficiary of the huge profits, something inside me smiled. The seed planted by Bob Buford sprouted. I just knew there was an untapped goldmine before us – and the opportunity to have an enormous, lasting impact on people's lives became clear. I simply had to figure out the most effective structure possible and organize it in such a way that life insurance policy owners would see LifePoint as nothing more than a catalyst to achieve their goals of leaving a legacy. It quickly became clear that if we made it easy for the would–be donor to repurpose their life insurance, eliminate future premium obligations and enable the donor to receive a tax deduction to boot, managers of charities would sign–on for the opportunity to gain access to an endowment in droves.
On my birthday in December of 2008, Dan Bates and I co–founded LifePoint Charitable Endowment, Inc. with the intention of creating a simple mechanism by which thousands of seniors who own small life insurance policies could repurpose those policies and make an endowment–sized gift to their favorite charity. Charities of all sizes now have access to an endowment, created by life insurance donors who would rather repurpose their policy for good than let it lapse. After months of research we discovered that policies lapsed at an incredible rate – $300 Billion in death benefits vaporize each and every year simply because senior owners of small life policies have no other options when they decide they either don't want or need their life insurance coverage anymore. That's $10 trillion dollars over the next thirty years! LifePoint is the solution – seniors can now donate their policy to LifePoint and name the charity they want to benefit. We handle all the details and pay the premiums until the insured passes on. Upon collecting the death benefits, LifePoint recaptures premiums paid and administrative costs and distributes the balance to the charity named by the donor. It's that simple!
Imagine what capturing just a small number of policies could mean to the longevity
of your charity – the lives you could impact! With the average policy donation approaching
$65,000 each, it does not take long to build a sizeable endowment when partnering
with LifePoint! Contact us today and learn how we can work together.
Sincerely,
Dale E. Toney
Chairman & CEO
