Thanh and Sara Image
Thanh Ngo and Sara Truong, DDS
Sara Truong, DDS, President
trugoservices@gmail.com

Perhaps it is destiny that has brought me to the insurance field. Looking back, I feel as though I was being guided to serve in this field. At a young age, I was interested in the art of dentistry. I worked in the dental field as an orthodontic assistant during high school and college. Attended the University of California at Davis and then later the University of the Pacific Dental School. I practiced dentistry for over 17 years, 16 of which was in my own private practice in Mountain View, CA. In total I’ve been in the field of dentistry for 28 years.

My ultimate mission is to leverage my own experiences
to pave an easier path for the next person
on their road to taking responsibility
for their own life and success.

My first experience with insurance was when I was pregnant with my son, Anthony. I was completing my last year of dental school at the time. Early in my pregnancy the doctor told my husband, Thanh, and me that we may have some complications with my pregnancy. We were only in our early 20’s and I was still in dental school. If something happened and I wasn’t able to practice at all, we would be burdened with a very heavy debt and I would possibly have no ability to make a living. At that time an insurance agent came to my school and asked me to buy disability insurance. We were on one income and I was still in dental school. My thinking was: after all of my training and education, if I was somehow made unable to practice dentistry, we would not have a way to pay back the school loan. A very real and frightening thought. So even though we were on a limited budget we bought a small policy with what we could afford at the time. Luckily, everything worked out and I was able to practice my craft. Throughout the years as our incomes grew, we added to this policy. Little did we know that after paying into it for 17 years, we were forced to have to use this disability policy. We have had many discussions about whether to keep the policy or get rid of it. We still remember these discussions, and if we had made a different decision, our situation would be very different. Our decision to keep the policy was very fortunate and as a result, our family’s livelihood was protected. It gave me time to care for myself, and our family as a whole, time to readjust and refocus.

After we had our daughter, Alexis, we knew that if something happened to us there must be funds for our relatives to take care of our children. We did not want to burden our families, at least financially, with not only taking care of their kids but our kids as well. We did not want them to have to choose to give to their kids or ours. So we bought some cheaper term policies, just in case. Even though there was no return for these policies, they did serve us well for many years. At the time my sister worked in an insurance office and so she bought a small policy as a gift for my kids as a savings vehicle. We were doing better and added some universal life policies, because that was what was popular at the time. It was promoted as a way to save and invest in the stock market at the same time. It sounded pretty good, so we paid into these policies for 11 years. We were busy with young children and never bothered to check on how these policies were doing. Later on when we started to learn more about the Infinite Banking Concept we did go back and reevaluate these policies. It turned out that during that time the S&P 500 averaged 14.47% return with 8 years of high double digit returns and only 1 year of negative return of -3.1% and yet our policy was only able to break even. Obviously, these policies did not perform as expected. Something was not working as it should, so we reevaluated and changed course.

In 2011, we looked further into the infinite banking concept. We traveled all over the US to learn from different providers and reevaluated our insurance needs. With our experience with the Universal Life Policies we were hesitant to use another insurance vehicle, but on the other hand our experience with them allowed us to know what to watch out for. We discovered that the policies used for the Infinite Banking Concept had minimum guarantees built in to the contract. Just as long as we follow the plan, the results are very predictable. When things are predictable, planning is clearer. We learned that the design of the policy is very critical for its success and insurance company selection is also critical. So we exchanged all our old policies into these new policies that were designed for the Infinite Banking Concept. As we used these policies, we discovered that the projections were very close and the guarantees were spot on or better. It took us 11 years to break even in the universal life policies we had previously, even during a great economic boom, but the way our infinite banking policies were designed we broke even in our 3rd year. Meaning all the money we had paid as premiums, was available for us to access. We started experimenting and testing the infinite banking strategy and proved to ourselves that it really did work. We discovered that we could use these policies in my dental practice to fund equipment purchases, payroll, business loans, etc. We found it very useful and have used it ever since in our businesses, real estate purchases and remodels, and business investments. It has served as a high interest savings account that never loses its compounding power, a revolving line of credit, as well protection for our family, college funding accounts for our kids and our retirement plan.

After 28 years in the field of dentistry, I loss the dexterity in both my hands. As dentist, we operated in millimeters or quarters of a millimeter increments, precision is absolute. I was no longer able to practice with such precision, so I sold my dental practice in Mountain View, California and retired from dentistry.

I could have just rested quietly and enjoyed my retirement, but my personality would not allow it. I have to be doing something useful to have purpose in life. I was asked to teach dentistry, but the classroom setting, and lecturing was not for me. I enjoyed the hands-on demonstrations much more, but that was not possible. Then I realized, the reason why I was able to sit around and ponder these questions, was because of these insurance policy contracts my husband and I put in place. I would never wish that anyone have to experience the health scare I had, if preparations are in place, it doesn’t have to turn their world upside down, in case it does. I did not know how good these policies were until I had to experience and use them. This is why I became a broker with these same companies that help me set these policies up and now they have become my business partners. I am very blessed to have gotten this information when I did. Good information should be shared, I hope to be able to do the same for you.