For this month's blog, we wanted to revisit a post we did two years ago with Spring Break season upon us. It is the time of year when many families flock down to Disney World to visit "the happiest place on earth".
It all started when we were watching ‘The Imagineering Story’ on Disney+ during Covid which is a documentary on the history and creation of the Disney theme parks and attractions. At the time we were only 1 episode in but now, having watched the entire documentary, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys learning the historical side to something that has had such a huge impact on our society.
So, as a financial advisor, I couldn’t help but pick up on the comment made during episode 1 about how Walt Disney was able to fund his dream. After failing in the pursuit of traditional means of financing to build what would become Disneyland, Walt provided his own financing which in large came by collaterally borrowing money from his cash value whole life insurance. Would you believe that the Magic Kingdom of Disney would not exist if Walt did not own this life insurance policy?
What’s interesting after learning about this, I did some digging and found there are several other famous brands out there that were either started or saved by life insurance including McDonald’s, Stanford University, JCPenney, The Pampered Chef and Foster Farms. To see the full article on how each of these brands leveraged their own life insurance policies, click here.
It is really quite fascinating to read about. It makes you stop and think about your own personal planning and if you are doing all the right things to make sure you are set up for success. If you have doubt, let’s sit down for a chat to see how we can get you on a roadmap to success.