This month, our “get to know” introduces you to the IPL team member who makes sure everything we do is done with the highest level of compliance. This month, we sit down and talk to Alex Phillips.
Read on to learn more about Alex, how he came to join us here at IPL, what he wished more people knew about PPLI and, of course, what he’s watching on TV these days.
Managing Director, Compliance and Administrative
I grew up in Bothell, WA, a suburb of Seattle. I studied philosophy at Western Washington University near the Canadian border before earning a law degree from Seattle University.
My father was a career life agent, and my mom started a P&C brokerage when I was fairly young - which my sister still runs. So, I had early exposure to financial services but took some convincing to join - I worked overseas in the automotive crash-testing industry out of college, and also worked as a public defender during law school. From there I took a job doing anti-corruption compliance for a logistics firm, which lead into another position doing SEC compliance and multi-state licensing at an RIA. At that point I was hooked and worked with a private equity real estate group out of Austin before moving to Gilbert to join the Investors Preferred team in 2023.
The tax advantage – life insurance is often portrayed as a watered-down investment strategy that can be improved by simply buying an index fund and term life. But with PPLI this is not the case - it combines the lowest cost insurance coverage available with tax-advantaged investment options whose returns will exceed their taxable counterparts. This tax advantage is time-tested and codified by the IRS, giving PPLI a distinct advantage over other insurance products – or buying an index fund and term life.
PPLI contracts are surprisingly simple, combining transparently priced life insurance coverage with an investment account. I wish people better understood how different this is from other index-linked and synthetic index life and annuity products. These products use convoluted factors, crediting rates, and caps/floors to distort and reduce investment earnings – where PPLI investment earnings are credited directly to the policyholder’s account, without any gimmicks. Investors Preferred’s transparent, institutional pricing allows our policyholders to ultimately retain more of their investment earnings, while keeping the protections of life insurance – and anyone can understand it!
Our team! Each IPL employee brings a specialized skillset unmatched in the industry and works hard to create tailored solutions to fit policyholder needs. We work to find answers where others put up barriers and hold each other accountable to the highest standards of customer service and support.
Besides Oswald which my 2-year-old daughter loves (and is voiced by Fred Savage), Tulsa King because Stallone is a great mobster, and Outer Banks as I have a soft spot for treasure hunting!
