How I Discovered the Rockefeller Method

I am a coal miner’s son. 

Both of my grandfathers were coal miners. Hell, even my great-grandfather, Biagio Eaquinto, was a coal miner. 

Yet I have never set foot in a coal mine. My parents imagined something different and better for me. They wanted to create for me a life without undue physical stress and danger; one with more purpose, upside, and fulfillment than they had experienced.  

I go bowhunting with my dad every year. During the downtime, I’ve started documenting my dad’s story. I want to know more about his childhood and early life. One thing I’ve learned about is his regret that he didn’t put more effort into school. But instead of being a victim or complaining, he got a college degree while working in the mine full-time. 

Choosing action over regret, he led by example. 

It was certainly a team effort. While he studied, my mom worked full-time, cooked, cleaned, and made sure our homework was done. She enforced boundaries and standards and encouraged me and my siblings to participate in sports, join clubs, get good grades, and sample what life has to offer. 

That is my parents’ legacy. 

I am grateful that my ancestors had the foresight and courage to provide a better life for their descendants. It wasn’t easy. It was a tough road.  

It began in 1913, with a difficult but transformational choice. 

My great-grandfather, Biagio, was unable to make a living in his hometown of San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy. So he made the courageous—and risky—choice to leave for America. 

He left his pregnant wife and made a long and arduous journey that eventually ended in East Carbon, Utah, where he found a job as a goatherd and later as a coal miner. He spent seven long years there, separated from his wife and family, living in a tent. 

By the time his wife and children joined him, his youngest daughter, whom he had never seen, was seven years old. 

Biagio’s journey and sacrifice created folklore that was passed down through our family—some of it inspiring, most of it debilitating. 

We heard stories of hardship, fear, and worry. My great-grandfather did all he could to avoid poverty, only to get stuck in a cycle of scarcity. But his journey was a bold, critical move that would alter the destinies of generations.  

His son James, my grandfather, built on Biagio’s legacy and took even more steps in the right direction. 

He too was a coal miner, but he also had two side businesses repairing televisions and playing the accordion in a band. As a kid, I often tagged along as he drove his red repair van filled with tools and gadgets or sat and watched him work in his shop. 

Everyone in our small community knew and respected him. I grew to admire him more and more. 

My grandfather is my hero. He was the patriarch who held our family together. 

He always found and made time for family; he was at every ball game, birthday party, and holiday. His time, attention, and example were also key to freeing our family from the shackles of generational scarcity. 

It wasn’t easy. It required facing decades of fear and choosing a new path. 

Imagine if he’d had all of that and the power of the Rockefeller Method early on.  

My grandfather was my first client. When I started out in financial services at nineteen, my family, being the nice, supportive people they are, agreed to let me help them out. 

I managed some of their money, and as the market rose in 1998 and 1999, their finances grew, too. In my little community, I was initially viewed as a financial Einstein. 

Initially.  

But when the market went down in 2000, I realized that I had been riding a wave. 

As Warren Buffett said, “After all, you only find out who’s swimming naked when the tide goes out.” 

I was definitely swimming naked.   

This was one of the most pivotal times of my life. Instead of telling people they were “in it for the long haul,” or “the market is on sale,” I chose a different path. 

I faced each of my clients and got them completely out of the declining market between March and May of 2000. This saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars. (It would have been millions if I had been managing more money, but I was in my very early twenties and had fortunately just started.)

I also admitted to them that I didn’t know what I was doing. My training at the time was mainly in sales and products, not in markets and strategy, and I came clean with each client about my limited training. 

This was difficult for me. 

I wanted to be seen as a genius, as someone with all the answers. 

But I had fallen prey to the faulty philosophies perpetuated onto the middle class. 

The myths that increase risk, limit cash flow, lack accountability, and rarely consider legacy. 

Things like:

“High risk equals high return.”
“Diversify and dollar-cost-average.”
“You’re in it for the long haul.”
“Avoid debt like the plague.” 

These “commonplace” ideas are rarely, if ever, practiced by the wealthy. I discuss these money myths in detail in my book, Killing Sacred Cows 2.0.  

Thankfully, I did the hard thing and kept my clients’ trust as I saved them money. 

I also told them to find another advisor or wait until I figured out what to do—which I did. 

I immersed myself in financial education for years. 

Among many other things, I discovered the origins of the Rockefeller Method and what the best in the business do to support the wealthy. 

During this time, my grandfather’s sister—my great-aunt—got really sick and entered the hospital. This concerned my grandfather and his other sister in part because my great-aunt, who had never married, stored all of the family money in her account—even though two-thirds of it belonged to her siblings.  

When she went into the hospital, my grandfather and other great-aunt sat me down and said, “Garrett, we really need your help.” 

No one was just being nice anymore. They desperately wanted to figure out how to use their money to care for my great-aunt and avoid losing it to nursing care expenses and medical care costs.  

I came up with a strategy for them to take care of their sister without having the money that was meant for all three of them evaporate in a year or two. 

This left a deep impression on my grandfather, who rarely spent money on anything other than his grandkids. 

Some might call him cheap, others frugal. And if my grandfather was frugal, my great-aunt was a miser. She hoarded money in Folger’s coffee cans, which she put in the cellar. It is rumored that she applied for welfare even though she had over half a million dollars in her savings account.  

My family never talked about money, wealth, or value creation. 

Their fear and lack of understanding governed their thoughts and actions around money. They weren’t taught to be stewards of their money, and therefore all they did was hoard it.  

I felt really good about helping my family out, and my family was pretty impressed with me. 

But a different reality set in when my grandfather asked me:

“When you graduate, are you going to get a real job?”

Even after I had helped them with this great financial strategy, my grandfather didn’t believe being in business for oneself was a real job because that is what his father had taught him. 

For my family, it wasn’t stable or secure enough. It seemed like a risk and was unfamiliar territory. The trip from Italy to the United States left scars and created generational baggage. 

My grandfather and father both belonged to unions that went on strike. I remember my parents eating saltine crackers for weeks at a time because they didn’t have money for food while the mining union was on strike. 

And yet to them, being an entrepreneur seemed risky. 

During my senior year, I got more and more sad and frustrated. 

I couldn’t see a clear vision of my future. 

I had job offers from Arthur Andersen, Merrill Lynch, American Investment Bank, and Strong Investments (the number two mutual fund family in the world at the time). 

But because of the doubt that had permeated my family for generations, I was constantly questioning whether I should continue with my business or if I should just take one of the job offers.  

Even though I was already making money in the financial services field, I almost decided to work for Strong Investments in Milwaukee. 

My girlfriend at the time, and now wife—my favorite person in the world—advised me, “I don’t know if I want to go to Milwaukee, but you should follow your dreams.” 

The problem was, I couldn’t tell if that was what I was doing.  

Even in school, almost nobody was encouraging me to stay in business—except one professor: the dean of the business school, Carl Templin. 

In a meeting, Dean Templin said to me, “You’re already making more than all of your professors, and you love what you do. Why would you take advice from them about your career? They are here to educate you in other areas. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”  

I chose to stay in business, even though it wasn’t a “real job” according to my family at that time. 

As it turned out, by helping another one of my professors (who had managed $5 billion in a municipal bond fund before becoming a professor), I ended up making a single commission that was higher than any of the salaries I had been offered.  

That professor was Steve Harrop, and helping him became one of the most formative experiences of my career.

As a student senator for the business college, I was among the first to meet Steve when he joined our faculty. What I didn’t know at the time was that his $250,000 donation to our investment class—giving us real money to manage—would fundamentally shape how I think about wealth, legacy, and relationships.

Steve wasn’t your typical professor. 

Before walking into that classroom, he had been managing the top-ranked municipal bond fund in the world for the number two fund family globally at the time. His name was synonymous with results. When his boss slid him a blank check to stay, it wasn’t a negotiation tactic—it was an open door to unimaginable wealth.

Steve walked away. He wasn’t chasing more money. He was choosing meaning over more. Teaching over trading. Impact over accumulation.

I knew I had to learn from him—not just in class, but in life. 

So, I offered him a different kind of mentorship exchange. 

He wanted to get in better physical shape; I wanted to get in better fiscal shape by learning directly from him. 

We trained together. After those workouts, we’d have lunch, and I’d ask him questions, learning to think like an investor and understand why someone would walk away from millions to become a mentor.

Then something unexpected happened. 

Senior year, as I was running my financial services business full-time while finishing school, I hired my first assistant. I had the idea to implement a strategy I thought Steve would appreciate. He agreed to meet.

Here’s what I knew: Steve still had substantial assets, including a portfolio of municipal bonds. But as a professor, his income was much lower. The tax-free advantage of municipal bonds wasn’t as advantageous anymore. He was getting lower yields and carrying the risk of capital depreciation without enough upside.

So, I introduced him to what would later become a cornerstone of the Rockefeller Method: 

Properly structured, optimally funded whole life insurance with a participating mutual company. 

Not just for the tax benefits on cash value or guaranteed interest rates, but for what the death benefit could do for his life.

• Two policies. 
• Participating mutual companies. 
• Strong dividends. 
• No capital depreciation risk when interest rates fluctuated because there was a minimum guaranteed interest plus a non-guaranteed dividend that became guaranteed once paid. 
• And most importantly, a guaranteed death benefit.

That death benefit gave a new dimension of value. There was permission to live fully—to spend, create memories, take trips with his kids and grandkids, and give generously without disinheriting his family. The policy became a tool for legacy, a way to deploy wealth while alive without sacrificing the future.

Yes, there was an initial cost and capitalization period. But nearly twenty-five years later, those policies have outperformed the other fixed income assets (CDs, money markets) while providing peace of mind with the guarantees.

Steve taught me that true wealth isn’t about what you accumulate—it’s about what you activate. 

Your money. Your values. Your legacy with the Rockefeller Method.

The Rockefeller Method is about using strategies that empower you to live well and leave well.

This experience solidified my confidence in the path I had chosen. 

I showed my grandfather my bank account to let him know that everything was going to be okay. I told him about all the ways I was helping my clients. And then he started telling everyone about my new career. 

He would constantly put his hand on my shoulder and look me in the eyes, his own eyes welling up with tears, and tell me how proud he was of me. 

He realized I was doing what I love to do and that I was changing the future and financial destiny of our family. He realized that I was creating and living a legacy.  

The strategy I ended up teaching my grandfather and his sister was another piece of the Rockefeller Method. 

This knowledge can give you the chance to change your family’s financial future so that the next generation isn’t born into financial bondage. 

I started the initial phase of this strategy using trusts and properly-structured, optimally-funded whole life insurance to store and protect wealth. 

It has since evolved into something I use to perpetuate my legacy, increase my cash flow, and create peace of mind for my wife.

This methodology allowed my grandparents to leave an extra $250,000 to their heirs tax-free while enjoying a fuller life in their last ten years. That $250,000 may sound small to some, but they lived in a community where houses sold for $20,000 to $40,000. 

It was nothing short of life-changing for them.  

Now, our family can advance instead of starting over every time someone from the previous generation passes away. 

And I can take what my grandfather wished he could have given me and give that opportunity to future generations.

My family has chosen the Rockefeller Method, and it has served us well. 

How about you? Do you have a system in place to create legacy wealth for generations? If not, would you like one?

How to Get Started with the Rockefeller Method…

If you’re reading this, nodding along, thinking “I want something like that”… I get it. 

And I also know how daunting the process can feel when you’re trying to get started (especially if you’re dealing with negative, scarcity-driven money beliefs that have been handed down for generations like I was)…

That’s why I wrote What Would the Rockefellers Do? – it’s the easiest way learn the concepts behind the system that can change your family’s financial destiny.

You’ll learn the same financial system that’s used by the wealthy… including the Rockefeller family, the Kennedy family, Walt Disney, and many others to create legacy wealth that lasts for generations.

You can get the book right here.