The Family Banking Engine models a complete lifetime banking system — from first premium through legacy transfer via death benefit. It quantifies the flywheel effect that builds over decades of consistent operation.
Launch status: Coming soon for consumers. The walkthrough below describes preview behavior and may change before public launch.
What the Family Banking Engine Does
Most tools in Policy Stack model a single deployment, a single loan, or a short-term projection. The Family Banking Engine zooms out to the full lifetime picture: how does the system look at age 40, 50, 60, 70, and at death? What are the living benefits? What transfers to the next generation?
It answers questions like:
- "What does my total system look like in 20 years if I maintain current premium and deploy consistently?"
- "How much of my death benefit is accumulated PUA by the time I reach 65?"
- "What would a second or third policy add to the long-term trajectory?"
How to Use the Family Banking Engine
- Navigate to Tools — click Tools in the sidebar, then select Family Banking Engine
- Load policy data — the tool can use your recorded policies as a starting point. You can also upload a carrier illustration PDF for more detailed projections, or enter assumptions manually.
- Set deployment assumptions — enter the expected deployment frequency (how often you deploy capital), average deployment return rate, and average repayment pace
- Set the projection horizon — choose your age or a future year to project through
- Review the phase timeline — see the lifecycle broken into four phases with key metrics at each stage
- Explore the flywheel chart — see how each completed capital cycle adds to the system's capacity for the next one
- Review the legacy summary — at any projected age, see both living benefits (net CV, deployment income) and the legacy benefit (projected death benefit)
The accuracy of the projection improves significantly when grounded in a real carrier illustration. Generic assumptions produce a useful directional model but cannot account for your specific policy design, carrier dividend scale, and premium structure.
The Four Phases
Phase 1: Capitalization
The early years — typically the first 3–7 years of consistent premium and PUA contributions. The capital base is building. Cash value grows steadily but is not yet large enough to fund meaningful deployments. This phase ends when available cash value reaches a threshold where the first deployment makes sense.
Indicators you are in this phase:
- Cash value is growing but available CV is modest
- No active policy loans
- Death benefit is primarily the base face amount + initial PUA accumulation
Phase 2: Early Utilization
First deployments begin. A policy loan funds a capital deployment — real estate, a note receivable, a business need. Restoration begins alongside the deployment. The system starts generating throughput. Each completed cycle builds a small amount of additional capacity.
Indicators you are in this phase:
- First active policy loan
- Deployment income beginning to flow
- Net CV temporarily lower than total CV as loan balance grows
Phase 3: Mature Utilization
Full velocity. Multiple policies may be active. Multiple deployments cycle simultaneously. Loan repayments from earlier deployments is funding new ones. The flywheel is turning: premiums feed cash value, which funds loans, which fund deployments, which generate returns, which fund restoration, which rebuilds capacity for the next cycle. Each cycle compounds the base for the next.
Indicators you are in this phase:
- Multiple simultaneous deployments
- Deployment income funding restoration on previous loans
- Capital velocity at 1.5–3x or higher
- Total cash value growing substantially from PUA accumulation
Phase 4: Legacy
The system has matured. Cash value is substantial, death benefit has grown significantly from decades of PUA accumulation, and deployments may be winding down or transitioning to the next generation. The tool shows the total legacy value: accumulated cash value available during lifetime plus the death benefit that transfers to beneficiaries.
What the legacy view shows:
- Net CV at various future ages — the living benefit available to you
- Projected death benefit at various ages — the wealth transfer amount
- Cumulative deployment income earned over the lifetime of the system
- Total premiums paid vs. total system value created
The Flywheel Visual
The tool includes a flywheel diagram that quantifies the capital cycle:
Premiums → CV Growth → Policy Loans → Deployments → Returns → Restoration → Larger Capacity → Repeat
Each node shows the cumulative flow through that stage by the projected age you select. The visual makes concrete what "compounding" means at the system level — not just interest on a single account, but capital moving through multiple cycles, each one building on the last.
Using Real Policy Data
Uploading a carrier illustration produces a much more accurate model than generic assumptions, because:
- Your specific premium structure (base/PUA split) determines how fast cash value accumulates in Phase 1
- Your carrier's historical dividend scale drives long-term PUA growth
- Your policy's issue age and underwriting class affect the death benefit trajectory
After uploading, the tool extracts your year-by-year values and uses them as the foundation. You layer deployment assumptions on top.
All projections are labeled "Modeled · Illustrative · Not recorded." Actual performance depends on future carrier dividend scales, which are not guaranteed.