’73 English High grad shares ‘Secret’ to family fortune

LYNN – English High School has graduated thousands of students over the years who have gone on to achieve success in their chosen fields. But when it comes to generating financial wealth, David D?Arcangelo, Class of 1973 and former standout running back for the Bulldogs, may be in a class of his own.D?Arcangelo is the second oldest of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald D?Arcangelo?s four sons, raised in the family home on Michigan Avenue, who went on to be an All-American football player at California?s University of Redlands, where he honed his mathematics and business acumen before launching a multi-faceted career in insurance, media and finance.He is a former TV host of ?Money Talk? on satellite network TPN; former business partner of leading American self-help speaker and author Anthony Robbins; served as president of one company listed on the American Stock Exchange and as chairman of another; and is the current founder and president of The D?Arcangelo Companies, providing international business marketing, training and consulting services and working in tandem with life insurance agents around the world.Most impressively, perhaps, is that David?s investment strategies, which he shares in his latest book, ?The Secret Asset,? (2011, Redlands Press) helped his family – his grandparents, parents and three brothers – generate over $170 million in combined additional net worth.The ?Secret,? as he explains in the book and discussed in a telephone interview with The Item, is investment-grade life insurance, which he touts as “the best conservative-to-intermediate risk-versus-return” vehicle for families to amass a perpetual tax-free fortune that multiplies with each generation.?If you understand the mathematics, it?s a fixed investment and there?s no guess work,” he said. “Anybody can do this and it doesn?t have to be a lot of money (invested),” he added, noting policies can be scaled and designed to make premiums affordable for anyone who qualifies for one.He writes: “Only life insurance can be customized and strategically tailored to your family?s unique situation. Only life insurance can provide tax-free returns on your premiums that often exceed 300 percent to 500 percent or more on premiums paid.”The book cites jaw-dropping examples of investment returns with tables and compelling prose written in first-person, of policy designs that closely mirror ones that compounded his family?s wealth.He admits early on in the book, that many, including his family initially, are skeptical about life insurance.?Look, I get it. Many people don?t like or buy life insurance ? and I know that talking about life insurance can be creepy,” he writes in the first chapter. “But this is what I say to people when they say they don?t want to buy life insurance: ?I know you don?t but ? do you like making money?”He goes on to explain, “A lot has changed in the life insurance business since I sold my original business in 1993 and came back into it. And, quite frankly, these changes are so radical and could have a profound effect on every American family, regardless of their worth, that I?m shocked so few people even know about it, much less understand it. Hopefully, one day everyone will.”The theme of the book is perhaps best summarized in one of its chapter titles: “If you?re going to die, why do it for free?”?The Secret Asset,? D?Arcangelo said, is far different from any of the late-night infomercial get-rich programs, because the proof is in the math and math doesn?t lie.Seeds of successD?Arcangelo shared with the Item what it was in his formative years in Lynn that prepared him for who he is today.?Sports really taught me a lot,” he said.He played hockey, baseball and football at English, but it was the latter, a Bulldogs team on which he and his classmate and eldest brother Michael were starting running backs, that he shined under Coach Bill Hall and his staff, and the strong arm of quarterback Clark Crowley.?I was 5?8. I didn?t have the size, but I worked hard a