I've seen a lot of crazy stuff, but that may just take the cake. 

How could PM take the whole cake??

@Tony Kim I think you`re just looking at the allocation of money strictly from a Return on  "investement" (being a poor investment), where as the point of a Life Insurance/Living Benifits policy. what your Paying for is in case the individual becomes incapacitated/ has an Illness or Dies, there is a large sum of money that the family receives (and would not otherwise have) to help pay for expenses associated with the unfortunate event, and being able to carry on with life with less of a financial burden compounded with the emotional burden . being able to have retirement money liquid is icing on the cake. 

@Jay Hinrichs my parents as were many in that age group were self employed their entire lives and retired early but it was no cake walk.

Debt for a cash flowing investment property in a good neighborhood with a minimum 25% equity stake doesn't make me nervous for the following reasons:  the debt makes the property less of a target for lawsuit scammers,  re-fi loan proceeds are tax free money for me to spend,  with a 20 year loan a decent amount of debt is retired every 5-7, and market appreciation is icing on the cake.

Fruit-cake maybe, wack-job sure, but the psyco is a smart psyco. 

That's like asking which chocolate cake your should eat. 

You are a beginner in REI – so get started first, accumulate some equity, get some serious cashflow going, get some experience with managing real estate, figure out you want to do this long term…and then worry about how to layer an LLC cake.

As an investor it seems like an unnecessary layer of the cake when I can go directly to the sponsor.

@Samuel Olivas From personal experience you can't have your cake and eat it too.