Ascendant Financial is a Managing General Agency that helps individuals, families, and business owners across Canada and the United States control the banking function in their lives through the Infinite Banking Concept™. Founded by Jayson Lowe, our team specializes in participating dividend-paying whole life insurance from mutual carriers as the proper tool for implementing R. Nelson Nash’s process. We focus on education, coaching, and long-term partnership rather than one-time policy sales.
The Infinite Banking Concept™ (IBC) is a lifelong financial strategy, developed by R. Nelson Nash, that helps you reclaim control of the banking function in your own life. Instead of storing capital in commercial banks and financing purchases through third-party lenders, you capitalize participating dividend-paying whole life insurance policies and direct your cash flows through them. Over time, you can reduce your dependence on external financing, grow a tax-advantaged capital base, and pass a lasting financial legacy to your family.
Ascendant Financial operates across both Canada and the United States. Our team of 25+ licensed advisors is equipped to work with clients on both sides of the border, and our product recommendations reflect the specific carriers and regulations in your jurisdiction. View our full list of locations to find an advisor near you.
Jayson Lowe is the CEO of Ascendant Financial and one of North America’s most recognized authorities on the Infinite Banking Concept™. Since 2008, Jayson and his team have helped thousands of clients reclaim control of their finances. He has built and exited 12 businesses personally implementing IBC principles, and hosts the Wealth on Main Street podcast.
The Infinite Banking Concept™ is a good fit for people who are open-minded, coachable, and ready to commit to a long-term system rather than chase short-term wins. This includes business owners, professionals, parents focused on legacy, and disciplined younger earners. You don’t have to be wealthy to start, but you do need to be ready to learn. The best first step is to watch our free webinar.
No. The Infinite Banking Concept™ is a financial process created by R. Nelson Nash and protected by the Nelson Nash Institute. It is not a marketing method. It is a lifelong behavioural and financial system. While participating whole life insurance is the recommended vehicle for implementing it (as Nelson Nash specified), IBC is a way of conducting your financial affairs, not a product. Anyone claiming otherwise is misrepresenting the concept. Read our full breakdown of why IBC is not a scam.
No. Life insurance is not an investment, and we never describe it as one. Its primary function is to replace a financial loss, most commonly the future income potential of the insured person. Participating whole life insurance has unique characteristics (cash value growth, dividends, contractual loan provisions) that allow it to serve as the proper vehicle for the IBC process, but the contract itself remains insurance. We place this tool because it supports the system, not because we view it as an investment vehicle.
Yes, considerably more. The Infinite Banking Concept™ is a lifelong financial system, not a product or a transaction. The whole life policy is the vehicle, but the system depends on your behaviour: capitalizing your policies through consistent premium funding, structuring and repaying policy loans like an honest banker, recapturing the financing costs that currently flow to commercial lenders, and applying these principles across multiple generations. Without the behavioural component, you simply have a life insurance policy and a policy loan. With it, you have a personal monetary system you control. Read more about the process of Becoming Your Own Banker.
Most financial pain comes from a single root cause: someone else controls the banking function in your life. We help you address the consequences of that, including unpredictable investment returns, high tax burdens, lack of liquidity, dependence on commercial lending, vulnerability to market volatility, and the absence of a clear plan to pass capital to the next generation. Our work centres on helping you redirect your cash flows through a system you own and control.
Yes. Business owners are some of the strongest candidates for the IBC process because they typically have meaningful cash flow, ongoing financing needs, and a desire to keep more of their capital working inside their enterprise. We help business owners apply IBC principles to fund equipment, manage receivables, finance growth, structure buy-sell agreements, and provide key person coverage, all while reducing the financing costs that would otherwise leave the business permanently.
Business owners typically use participating whole life insurance to warehouse capital that would otherwise sit in low-yielding commercial bank accounts, then redirect that capital toward business needs through structured policy loans. Common applications include financing vehicles and equipment, funding inventory, supporting expansion, structuring buy-sell agreements, and protecting against the loss of a key person. The objective is to keep more of the financing function inside an entity you own, rather than paying it out to third-party lenders forever. Learn more about Becoming Your Own Banker.
Yes. Cash flow and financing decisions sit at the centre of the IBC process. Our advisors help you map where your money is going, identify financing costs that are leaving your control, and design a strategy to gradually recapture them through your participating whole life policies. This is not theoretical work. It shapes how you fund cars, equipment, real estate, and major life expenses going forward.
Yes, with proper management. The IBC process uses participating whole life insurance from mutual carriers, which provides contractual cash value growth, a guaranteed death benefit, and no exposure to stock market volatility. Dividends are not guaranteed but have been paid by leading mutual carriers consistently for over a century. The system does require disciplined management of policy loans. Without that discipline, even a well-designed policy can underperform. For a deeper comparison, see Velocity Banking vs Infinite Banking.
IBC is not intended as a direct replacement for retirement savings vehicles like RRSPs, TFSAs, or 401(k)s. It is a complementary and, for many clients, foundational layer. Over time, as you build cash value in your participating whole life policies and reduce dependence on commercial lending, you may naturally shift more of your financial energy into this system. Your advisor will help you understand how IBC fits within your broader financial picture.
Stock market investing requires you to take on market risk, accept volatility, and rely on long-term returns that are largely outside your control. The IBC process is fundamentally different. Rather than chasing market returns, you build a stable capital base inside contractually guaranteed whole life insurance policies, then use that capital to control your own financing throughout life. IBC is not designed to replace investing. It is designed to give you a reliable foundation that complements other parts of your financial life