The Pyramid Scheme aspect of Primerica Financial Services
I ran across a blog that did a series examining Primerica Financial Services, a multi-level marketing company that purports to sell financial products. While the company does offer life insurance, investments, and other financial products, like a typical MLM… they’re really out there selling the opportunity. The name of the game is endless recruiting.
The Financial Blogger did several nice posts about the company, but this explanation of the pyramid scheme aspect of Primerica was exceptional:
Is it a pyramidal scheme? In legal terms, the answer is no. However, it does not mean that because it is legal that the company’ structure is not shape like a pyramid. Everybody is making a cut on the people below them; it goes up to four level. I think this is clear that the guy on the top makes the big bucks. They will answer that every company is like that as the President and the VP’s are in the driver’ seat and the other employees are left with nothing. It is right also.
However, they do not explain why they are able to give a commission to four people for the same sale. The answer is pretty easy: they have to cut down the commission compared to the regular industry. As an example, if a life insurance of 100K would provide another agent with $1,500 in commission, a Primerica advisor at the lowest level will earn $900, then his recruiter will receive $300, the recruiter’s recruiter will get $200 and finally the guy who put all of them together will earn $100.
So for those who are in to sell, Primerica is definitely not the right place to be. “Yeah, but you could build a team and create your own business”, I guess they forgot that the best sellers on earth are not necessarily interested in building a team compared to earning the big bucks right away. The main problem I see with this approach is that you have to convince individual to work hard for less that they could earn only because they have the option of building a team a earn extra commission on somebody else’s work. In fact, if everybody concentrates on recruiting individuals, who will make the sales? You may have a hundred people below you, if nobody sales, it still makes 0$ in your pocket.
Check out the blogger’s whole series on Primerica.
I would like to offer a rebuttal to the previous post(s).
When you are approached about an organization that you suspect might be a pyramid scheme or MLM scam, utilize websites such as MLM watch or Quackwatch and see what others are saying. Ask critical questions like – Does the money I would be earning come from the sale of the products/services or from getting recruits? Would I be required to purchase *pricey* training materials or company products? Would I be expected (pressured) to attend events where an admission fee is charged? If yes, that could indicate the money is generated by recruiting or those “training” materials or workshops, and not from the products and services. I asked myself these questions prior to making the decision to join Primerica and i’m glad I signed up because my experience has been very positive.
Primerica is in the business of financial education and debt elimination, aimed at the under-served middle income market. An individual can make a decent supplementary income, even on a part-time basis, without recruiting anyone. And the clients are often in dire need of the products and services we (licensed agents) are educating them about.
Going with the aforementioned life insurance example, those commissions are possible because that is a one-time payment based on the annual premium of that policy. If a person “recruits’ you into Primerica, they are instrumental in your training and development, so yes, they do have a vested interest in your success. There is no bonus or pay incentive to sign people up that won’t invest the time and energy it takes to get licensed/ trained (AND most, if not all, fees associated with obtaining the license of your state are reimbursable) so the “name of the game” is not endless recruiting.
If one has an entrepreneurial mindset and wants to build a team and run an office – that is an option as well.
Primerica is not in the business of financial education. It’s in the business of recruiting.
The under-served middle income market is far better off doing business with a real insurance agency or a real mortgage broker. The products Primerica sells are overpriced, and their main goal is recruiting you!
It is next to impossible to make a real living in MLM schemes like Primerica without recruiting. Why? Because the full commission you’d be paid if you worked for a REAL insurance agency is instead split among many levels of the Primerica pyramid. You make less so the rest of the pyramid can make more.
If you want to sell financial products, stay away from the MLMs. You can do much better elsewhere.
PRIMERICA MILICO CITIGROUP A.L.WILLIAMS PAY ME WHAT THOU OWEST Bonnie Doorman, RVP, AL Williams, whom I had met previously when she was marketing Huff Cook, talked to me about a company that “offered a great opportunity through life insurance sales and asset repositioning”. Further, I could work part time and keep my present employ if I desired. Enthused, I worked over 80 hours/week; put in time with the company. Then, within 90 days, Bonnie Dorman, RVP, demanded I surrender my Bureau of Insurance license because I didn’t meet quotas!! THAT’S RAPE!! Deceit in light of the above. It’s their sin; they can’t demand the license because it is false pretenses. It is a fraud. I worked for it; I studied for it. Why should it only be an SCC license that can only be used to sell AL Williams – Primerica products? It is a fraud; a sham. I had the same examination. I had to study just as hard as my competition to receive my license to sell life insurance.
Bonnie Dorman, rVp said you only have to work part-time and can make a lot of money. They lied; they smeared other firms that have protected territories. One needs a protected territory. I would have easily sold 4-12 replacement policies but no protected territory. So another rep had already sold. So you can see from the above I’m still waiting for a fair remuneration for what I would have sold and Art Williams – Primerica can pay me for the time I put in. They haven’t given me anything yet, therefore, there has to be a penalty for what they did in order to discourage further rapes. I wasted a total of 7 months going to the meetings, the class, studying and scouring the supposedly limitless field of “every person you meet is a sale”.
In addition, old AL Williams reps they find me every few years. A quote that I can very well relate to: “I was never told how my name was referred to them”. They say they are headhunters. They are leeches; steal your leads; find your family and friends and attempt to rape you again. They’re just looking for whom they consider to be suckers. I always have to tell them I am still waitng for my money. Not only has ALWilliams not made restitution; he has made an offer of stock in an effort to take away the injury done to me. No remorse, no offer to pay for the expenses to get my life insurance license back that was stolen – nothing AL Williams-Citigroup-Primerica lies and lies and lies. Here is what I found out while I was slaving for A L Williams:
- 80 fee to go to their seminars!! The RVP’s told us it was a great deal!! All the other life insurance companies give their training for no charge AND they pay for your accommodations.
- I started finding insurance policies that were cheaper! A L Williams RVP’s told me I was selling the cheapest. Really began to be disturbed over that.
One of the reasons Bonnie Dorman was able to talk me in to the business was the “fact” that A.L. Williams policies were the cheapest and the riders made them cheaper yet.
- No reimbursement for my travel expenses.
- A sales rep is a rag that they can throw out! They tell you you are going to be wallowing in moola! The RVPs don’t help you; I never, ever was introduced to a RSD or SRSD and they throw you away so they can exploit another one and steal his/her leads!!!
- I started hearing “that person’s not even a potential client”. When Bonnie Dorman talked me in to getting in to the business, every one was a potential sale. “Just start a list”.
- I began running in to people who wanted to buy from me but they had already bought from another guy who didn’t even work in the same state that I was working in. My eyes finally began to open and it began to sink in that an agent needs a protected territory.
- You know it is so: when you go in to business, you don’t recruit other businesses. You stay right there and build your business up wherever you are. You get the help you need. If you start a branch business, or a separate enterprise, you get the help you need. You don’t tell them to pyramid on, for those new recruits to pyramid on, and on until you have exceed the entire population of the world!! Those RVPs and SRVPs know that. Those recruits are customers!
AL Williams-Citigroup-Primerica still owe innumerable commissions plus interest and penalty because they stole my license after 3 months. They never
forced Bonnie Dorman to admit she was wrong and to return my license to sell. That license was only good to sell MILICO products. That’s a conspiracy in restraint of trade!! The license granted by the govt body was good for 2 years. AL Williams deliberately made up the 90 days and I had to pay my expenses on top of it to pass the exam and get my license! What a fleecing!
AL Williams takes away your license without any remorse! It caused me impoverishment and upwards of 99.5% of the other PFS reps wind up impoverished because of the abomination. It is nothing but multi-level marketing. Only those at the top make money: those at the bottom give their time and energy to those at the top. And they charged me for the classes. And I had to pay everything out of my pocket. Neither Bonnie Dorman nor any of other RVP’s, District or Regional Leaders told me that all the other life insurance cos give you training out of their own pocket. They help their reps. It took over a year for me to recover from all the uncompensated work time and expenditures.
http://nextaxpro.spaces.live.com/
All right. A fair restitution:
1. You can’t get around base pay. If you supposedly are going to make this fortune selling “buy term and invest the difference in mutual funds”, “the 72 rule”, etc, they have no problem giving at least $500/week so you can survive; more in high cost of living areas. That’s not unreasonable. As aforementioned,
if the reps did well on the Bureau of insurance examination, and I scored 87 out of 95 total, that’s not unreasonable. They recruited us and told us we were would swimming in dough working part-time!!
2. Honest disclosure about the commission structure. We’re still trying to find out what it truly is!! Art Williams got around one lawsuit because Alabama {then} had only a one year Statute of Limitations for plaintiff action.
3. Fair remuneration for selling the policy. Primerica can’t pound and pound that ludicrous “higher cost first year, lower later” because the reps don’t get paid commission in subsequent years. That’s laughing in the agent’s face! That’s an admission that they treat their reps very badly. AL Williams- Citigroup – Primerica owes me for the renewals.
4. I put seven months of my time in to that scheme, overall. Should I hold my breath that Primerica will pay me fair remuneration for all the mental stress and impoverishment that multi-level marketing causes? Paying compensatory damages to me is not unreasonable, especially since there should be penalty as AL Williams never paid me a dollar. With no disclosure of the commission structure, how do I know I was actually paid an agreed upon stipend?
5. Fair reimbursement plus interest for my travel expenses to take the course. That’s not unreasonable. I obtained the license required by the state governmental body and passed their test with a high grade. Reimbursement for my travel expenses to obtain the license and stay at a motel. That’s not unreasonable. AL Williams, Inc, forced me to give up the license that I earned! No argument of sincerity can be made by AL WIlliams, Bonnie Dorman or any of the RVP’s. They want those leads and will be very swift to steal them from you. When you franchise a store, if you’re smart, you check the contract for a fair evaluation of what the franchisor contributed to the good will and growth of the business. AL Williams staff and lawyers knew and Primerica knows about clauses like that. I was so young and am really surprised at the number of potential clients I visited and the enthusiasm I had and how I helped the image of that company. I was rewarded with termination and theft of my time. That’s theft of services! That’s theft of promised commissions!! I gave them my time. AL Williams and his people are thieves! Never again will it be done to me.
6. A fair evaluation and restitution for sales missed when forced to surrender the license I had studied for and earned. That means they owe me for the
bonuses I would have made as well as the sales I lost, not only in the valid period of the license, but in subsequent periods; volume build up; more sales, bonuses, etc! After 7 months with absolute minimal income, I was impoverished and forced to take job so I could get back on my feet. Multi-
level marketing impoverishes workers! Hundreds of thousands of others have been raped, also, worldwide.
7. The theft by AL Williams means lack of credentials for the next insurance place. The sin of A L Williams. Once again, you must have a protected territory. Reimbursement for travel expenses; fair restitution for my time to unnecessarily have to restudy for the examination. Boy, does AL Wiliams-Primerica-Citigroup screw people!! Taking away your license when no laws nor ethics were broken by the agent is an abomination!!! Art Williams, Bonnie
Dorman, Primerica-Citigroup who bought them out [hence bought their debts] and the rest of them should be thankful I’m not asking for compensatory and punitive damage awards! Boy, do they fleece you! A lot of time and energy for what? To be used and thrown away so they can get your leads!! Aha!! Know you know why AL Williams and all the RVP’s ordered you NOT to make the sale on the first visit! Why? After 3 months, they will steal their license to sell, which is not even rightfully theirs!!! I studied for the test, put out by the state regulator, not by AL Williams; not by MILICO; not by Primerica: not by Citigroup. What a corrupt outfit! You can’t even recover unless you take the courses; then the examination all over again!!
They owe for the mental stress!! Those sales District and Regional Leaders really have their nerve in demanding that you surrender the license when you have committed no legal, propriety, moral nor ethics violations.
8. License was good for 2 years. Out and out fraud and nefarious extortion to only allow a license to sell insurance and securities through AL Williams!! That really takes nerve. whom do they think they are? God Almighty? The intent is to issue a license to sell life insurance and securities for yourself or for any firm. To limit to AL Williams is tantamount to threats, lies, deception, unfair restraint of trade and extortion. AL Williams violated the Sherman anti-trust Act without even telling us!!! Has Primerica turned from such reprobate shenanagans? Citigroup-Primerica must agree to pay for the remaining 21 months of lost revenue as a result of the illegal seizure of the license to sell life insurance. That’s generous: AL Williams does not have to pay punitive damages and AL Williams doesn’t have to pay compensatory damages for a minimum of 7 years.
What?! Ripoff Report states this? To the editors of Ripoff Report: Primerica is willing to make amends? They bought AL Williams, stock symbol ALW. When you buy an outfit, you buy the debts. Let’s see proof. A.L. Williams “headhunters” know I worked there, even if Bonnie Dorman were to attempt to deny it. “Not everyone is a sales person {they recruited you, hence you are} – not every one is made for every business and your success depends entirely on the effort you put into it, but, the investment involved is very minimal in light of the training and licensing that it pays for – all this talk about $199
being a rip-off. I guess people are wondering ‘why do I have to pay to start a job? ‘ But Primerica isn’t a JOB, You’re starting a business; {you’re starting a business when you go to work for all the others and the company pays -consult the Rock} how many other businesses can you start for less than $200 {unlimited, esp now. It’s called the internet}? Life insurance pre-licensing education is provided at no additional cost to you.” {ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Primerica lied to you!!! Documented by other threads, also. We are NOT bearing false witness. That leads one to question the whole scope of the investigation put out by the staff of Ripoff Report. How deep was the investigation? I’ve spoken with thousands of life insurance agents, including former AL Williams agents, and they all know that AL Williams charged $80 for the pre-licensing seminar. No additional costs? Even then, it was more than $200 as I have documented.
A.L.Williams recruiters wanted me to buy a policy! What!! When I go to work for a company, I get their product for free or at employee discount rates. When I go to work for an insurance company, I get the policy for free. Buy an overpriced policy to help National Sales Directors and Senior National Sales Directors. What deception! What dishonesty!
Ripoff Report said “recruit” in their ” Rip-off Report Investigation: Primerica`. “It should be noted that as an independent contractor, the compensation of a Primerica agent consists of commissions and bonuses earned upon the sale of a product, either directly or by an override commission GENERATED BY OTHER AGENTS {emphasis mine} recruited into his or her ‘hierarchy’. ”
Not my words, his. Some have not seen through multi-level marketing. “But you should know, that your results are going to equal to your efforts.”
That is NOT so in multi-level marketing, even in a local economy on the upswing. Here is the best explanation I have seen to date. There are probably less wordy ones, but this is worthy of very careful, thorough study. Primerica IS IS IS a mutli-level marketing company.
http://www.frauddiscovery.net/Herbalife/WallStreetFooled.pdf
It’s the same A.L. Williams hash refrigerated and microwaved up: “Primerica was been and is under investigation by the SEC, FTC and numerous other governmental bodies.
Listing of investigations and litigations can be found SEC’s and other sites –>
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/txt-srch-sec?text=Primerica&mode=&start=&count=§ion=Litigation&sort=rank
If you just do a goggle or Yahoo search on ‘Primerica fraud’ you will get hundreds of hits explaining lawsuits, Primerica’s deceptive tactics and
testimonials of people defrauded. Most concerning of all though is that members of Primerica during company’s presentations and speeches yell out ‘Amen’ and ‘Hallelujah’ (my husband admitted hearing this too) and insist upon Primerica being a ‘Christian’ organization.” {an agent with AL Williams told me that many reps are pastors. It’s easy to believe you need “supplemental income” when you were not called and are not trusting the LORD for your support – consult the Rock}.
Think Primerica is sincere? Before publishing “Rip-off Report Investigation: Primerica pledges to resolve complaints & address any inquiries from the past, present and in the future. Commitment to Rip-off Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program. Primerica commitment to customer & agent satisfaction. After interviewing executives from Primerica, it is clear that they are dedicated to helping their agents and clients achieve complete satisfaction and will not allow a legitimate complaint to go unresolved”, Ripoff Report has to acknowledge that You can’t get around base pay and that the average commissions for a Primerica agent is 2000 and it goes in to a DEFICIT if only 1.5% of the RVPs, RVPs and SRVPs make 7 figure commissions and overrides { and possible kickbacks from chargebacks on their reps!!}. If it’s not multi-level marketing, why no base? Any company that pays only sales commissions without binding promises of preferred stock, stock, warrants – some future reward for work performed – is a slave master. An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Be up front. Bill Gates was. He asked the workers to accept shares of stock. Those who did not want his promises could walk away. Primerica pressures you to stay with threats of no refund of your 199 and the usury regarding the loans. Bill Gates backed up his promises. He did not vomit empty, lying promises of riches. He backed
his promises up. That’s what A L Williams needed to do and did not. That’s what Primerica needs to do and has not, to date.
9. Confession by Primerica if they did the same that Art Williams did to those who spent money, time and energy to obtain their brokers license. Does Primerica refund your $199? May be sometimes, but then again, Primerica will at times say that you have a “chargeback”. Primerica “loans” you money, whether you want a loan or not! Chargebacks is really deceitful. AL Williams only allowed their agent to receive a commission for one year, and the client pays a year in advance. In what circumstance could there be a chargeback??
In other words, if the SRVP and RVP do not get their slice off of the agent – even after he is gone {!!!!!!} – they want to still make you pay!!! And to make sure you DO pay, they “loan” you “insurance money” in the event of a chargeback!! Nifty, isn’t it? Total evil. Tell it like it really is. Be sure your sin will find you out.
It’ll find you out. It’s found a lot of multi-level marketers of swampland out. And their sin will find the rest of those boiler room shysters out. In fairness to ripoffreport, even stock, mutual fund analysts and institutionals do not know the inevitable law of rapidly diminishing returns involved in multi-level
marketing. We will just ask Ripoff Report to read and pore over this daily for a month, then at least once a week for the next year. It is extremely important. Revealing information, even great revealing information, becomes dated. More, better explained exposes will come. Keep your eyes open. Ever alert, never hurt:
To pay for a background report made me laugh myself sick. They want suckers, even hardened criminals, so long as they don’t do their mischief selling for Primerica! Anybody can get on as an “independent con”! What’s the background investigation for?! What if I had bought the policy? Would I have gotten my money back?? I once heard that that A.L. Williams went to jail on fraud charges. Why is it that you can obtain no info on this on the internet? Supposedly AL Williams is an open book. Fine. Tell us precisely what you were doing beginning around 1963 and what you’ve been doing all along. A Primerica MLM becomes so brainwashed, he never questions anything. Art L. Williams never came to see any rep and he never called for meetings. He can afford to pay the expenses.
http://www.frauddiscovery.net/Herbalife/WallStreetFooled.pdf
http://nextaxpro.spaces.live.com/
i recently joined primerica but wondering if what they say is true and also yeah is true i been in six family homes and not sold nothing and all that time in training and gas that is coming from my pocket someone write back
A bargain…
Part of what they say is true. Yes, if your “customers” are disciplined enough over 30 years they can invest money in a mediocre account managed by Citigroup paid employees and be covered with term insurance. You initially will make a few hundred dollars which is like the bone thrown at a dog salivating.
However, you will have paid through the nose for licensing, gas, meals, and trips to various “trainings” which will eventually leave you with more questions than answers. Once your sphere of influence has been tapped you will be forced to cold calling with a host of slights, techniques and hours of hang ups. Very rarely does a RVP or upline give out sources. Even when they do it is a few here and there to earn your trust to get to your sphere of influence. I made $100 in the heat of the moment coming up with 100 names of people I knew that was faxed to a Senior person in Florida (former baseball player.) Don’t put any personal contact information in the FNA computer. They also scam by taking that list. Really look at the people and where they live. There was a soon to be RVP in Mark Williams office that lived in a run down apartment. Clearly she wasn’t making the money claimed (or in the way.) Be aware of people calling back and being stolen out from under you as a guise to help out your upline. That was a real experience as well.
My husband worked with a sweet gal that introduced us to the RVP of the upline she submitted… er, sucombed to. She knew a lot of information about our family life which she told to this guy so he could better field our questions and make comments that fit our personality profiling. In fact, we once went to a seminar training called STAR which totally was about profiling customers to make sales. (Do you still believe in the idealism of helping others?)
Well, we eventually changed over the term life to a cheaper institution when we dumped out of Primerica. We sold our home to pay off the second mortgage financed through them. We ate about $8,000 in expenses, fees and trying to prove we were worth the attention of the RVP or whomever willing to help us make sales and “build” our “business.” I paid for daycare so I would go to the office to learn from these people… all I ever learned was that they BS a lot and hand you an alumni book to create sales. Don’t be surprised if they guilt you into using your contacts as a test of trusting them.
I think what people don’t talk about is the level of depression and humiliation left after these people have raped your dignity. Everyone eventually learns this is too good to be true somewhere down the line. It can happen right away or take 6 months or even a year depending on how emotionally attached you get to the “personal improvement” program.
Your reputation is tainted with family and friends depending on how aggressive and unprofessional the upline is with “training.”
Our friend lost her home and even her relationship over Primerica. The house of cards is often stacked on building a business and as it doesn’t pan out people find themselves in a jam with all the refinancing. I experienced serious problems with lacking care in budgeting and helping people live within their means. I experienced people being told you have to come work with us there is no way out … only later to realize how horribly worse off they were going to be.
You need to look clearly. We went to a picnic of a Senior position in the Cleveland area. I couldn’t understand why the inside of the house had 1970′s decor including a wall radio. It’s because they inflate the numbers on how they exaggerate “income.” It’s usually over a period of time, based on gross sales without chargebacks or business expenses. Even the RVP’s home, car and family circumstances caused me to realize… I was being scammed by him.
It’s a strange little world where a guy with 3 daughters who “loves god” and goes to church does such horrible things. But that is the false sense of security that just because someone says prayers, quotes the bible and attends a church means… what? They are not corrupt?
Citigroup is corrupt as many in corporate America. IT’s a fact of life. IF you don’t have personal integrity or a conscience and are desperate to rape people without knowledge of what you are doing or don’t care then you can make it with a lot of intense hard work. But you better have a great reputation and be able to sell out those around you and their “circle of influence.” Remember, you are not in it to make friends but to make money. And the only way to become affluent is to screw a whole lot of people fast before they know it and move on.
Thick as thieves many of them are. You don’t have to feel bad for being gullible in a weakened or hopeful state. You can learn and be stronger in the end for all the manipulation they put you through and cost you. After all, you will learn about yourself, your character and if winning is more important than doing the right thing.
Trisha
Just a quick note: These are all very sad stories. I attended one of the Primerica recruitment classes in 2004 hosted by Luke Lorenz in State College, PA. He tried to be convincing, but it was clear within minutes that it was a “multi-level marketing” pyramid (legal, but still a non-sustaining plan for business that hurts a great many participants–investors and the poor new employees who work on commission and don’t enjoy a living wage). I mentioned to Luke that that’s what was going on, and he pretended to be oblivious to that fact. Or was he really that stupid? I don’t know. Best to steer clear of Primerica altogether (investors and potential “employees.”)
It’s a pyramid scheme. It cannot be any different. It’s etched in stone and cannot be changed. It is rock-ribbed, incontrovertible fact. Name one person who hasn’t heard of Amway. Very soon, it will be the same way for Primerica, herbalife, Malaleuca, For U, Market America, EVEN IF THEY CHANGE THEIR NAMES. If you start at one as the first step, after ONLY THIRTEEN (13) STEPS you will have more than the entire populaiton of the planet if one recruits six, those six recruit, six, those 36 recruit six, on to the thirteenth plateau, BELIEVE IT OR NOT. That’s why AL Williams – Primerica employees cannot recruit anyone, nor make any sales. Their family and friends avoid them. Multi-level marketing { actually pyramids, face it} nefarious boiler room operations need to be forced to make monetary restituiton as well as mental stress, emotional isolation and humiliation restitution. The bill AL Williams- Primerca owes would stagger you. The human mind cannot take such an enormous figure in.
The proof is in the puddin’, as the wise old saying goes. “Deborah” typed a “rebuttal” FIRST, BEFORE any one posted on the pyramid, cheating, fraudstar, illegal Primerica. What are you frightened of, Deborah? Hmmm? Put your money where you mouth is and make restitution for those whom have never restituted their victims. Restitute first, post later.
Try starting a Primerica in China. It won’t be allowed, and you know it’s so. Amway cannot do any recruiting, i.e pyramiding. If they do, China will run that sicko scamster outfit out. It’s time those responsible are tried and hanged. I say that because pyramiding is allowed in the United States. Those taking bribes; those responsible for government regulators not taking down Primerica, Market America, etc, are to tried, convicted and forced to make restitution to the victims. I, as well as over TWO BILLION victims all over the world, await our fair and just restitution.
http://360.yahoo.com/mgtenter95
http://nextaxpro.spaces.live.com
How lucky am I to come across this websit! And to think, I have an interview with them tomorrow. So blessed to be able to look up the potential companies
that want to employ me. I thank you, you all have been a great help.
So I, like many recent grads, am on the job search- have been for 4 months now. Out of the blue, James Panos, a higher up w/ primerica, contacts me about a potential job offer.
I went there two days later and listened to him talk and talk about making tons of money, about having an effortless future, etc. I thought it was all a bunch of shit from the very beginning.
I knew this was so the second he said “Ted, you would be perfect for this job. I’m not trying to MANUFACTURE THIS CONVERSATION or anything, but you have the ability to talk to people….” He must have said manufacturing the conversation 15 times within an hour.
How dumb do you think I am? You are indeed manufacturing a conversation, lying to my face and wanting to rape me. Why should I pay 100$ so you can do a background check? What kind of company finds people out of the blue- without applying, etc….??
Stay away!
It’s great to know this information before my meeting next week…..I can’t wait to bust these crooks in front of everyone else there. YIPPEEEE
Can you say paranoia?
I Like Them. All you non-believers can continue working in the corporate world and we see how great thats doing.
i myself like the company i have learned alot about money and can say i will be debat free in 5 months any other company with charged you an arm and a leg for them to teach you about money. you all that hate the company, you just did not work at it as you have to at any other dum job you all have.
WOW!,and I had an interview set up for tomorrow; I guess I have to call and “cancel”. I’m glad I did my homework!!! Thnx.
Wow.. its very funny to hear what people say about Primerica.
1. Why do companies have job fairs? to recruit, right.
2. Why are there so many ARM loans that are about to get forclosed? mmmmmm someone mislead someone and it wasnt Primerica.
3. Lets see. Every Corporation has a CEO, who makes all the money. and people under them, who dont make as much. Am I right or wrong?
4. PRIMERICA IS NOT A JOB. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT. IT IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT. NOT A JOB.
Primerica’s life insurance underwriter Primerica Life Insurance Company and its New York subsidiary National Benefit Life are rated A+ as “Superior” by A. M. Best as of May 2008.[20] Standard & Poor’s has the company rated AA as “Very Strong.”[21] The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association, a non-profit organization based out of Bethesda, MD with the intent to create ethical standards for the insurance industry, has renewed qualification for Primerica Life and National Benefit Life for high standards and quality business, “continuing dedication to ethical business practices.”[22]
In 2007, Primerica received its fourth Dalbar Service Award from Dalbar, Inc., a client service rating organization focused on raising the standards of customer satisfaction and quality in the financial services industry, for Primerica’s excellent customer service in mutual funds.[23]
Bruce Sankin, an investment counselor, consumer advocate, and columnist,[24] wrote in his 2005 book What All Stock & Mutual Fund Investors Should Know! of the Financial Needs Analysis that Primerica provides to its customers:
A good financial analysis will give you a “Game Plan” on how to attain your financial goal. Many companies offer financial analysis. A financial analysis will cost between a few hundred dollars to as high as a few thousand dollars. One company, Primerica Financial Services, which is a division of Citigroup, offers the best value for a professional financial analysis. Primerica, which creates a custom design financial report, does not charge a monetary fee for this service. Their marketing approach is, if you are satisfied with the service provided in the creation of their financial analysis, they ask for referrals as their fee.[25]
George Boelcke, a financial consultant,[26] wrote in an article in the American Chronicle:[27]
Yet there is a huge company, Primerica Financial Services, a division of Citigroup, that has made vast numbers of refinance mortgage loans through a product they call SMART. NONE of these are adjustable rate mortgages. Read that again: Primerica has never originated any ARMs with their refinance products (done through Citicorp Trust Bank). Their clients are watching the mortgage crisis from the sidelines and the safely of a fixed-rate term and consolidation, thinking: “that could have been me in a foreclosure…” Because they refuse to do false, misleading, or gimmick advertising, they need to work harder to make themselves known, in spite of doing the right thing, in the right way, all the time? How sad that credibility can so often be bought by simple advertising. But if you´re looking for a second opinion, some options, or perhaps a way out, it might be worth your time to get in touch with them.
I just sat through a 2 hour presentation that was supposed to be a training sesssion for my friends ” new job”. I knew something wasn’t right when the trainer was offering us a job and term life insurance.
Primarica is what you make it. It is a wonderful part time job, for extra income. I started, so I could do something good for people. I educate them about their choices in finance. If primarica isn’t the best for their situation, I let them know. But often it is. Big banks and insurance companies have been making millions off the public thrue the years. And yes, Primerica also makes alos of money too. It is after all a business. The difference is ethical agents of Primaerica want to make a difference in families lives, by educating them of their options.
Offering an opportunity to work for the company, is part of it, but not pushed. It’s not for everyone. Nor should it be.
Thou shalt not bear false witness, Kenny. You lied!! Primerica IS a pyramid scheme. Primerica, with their interest only loans, must bear partial responsibility for the current meltdown of the real estate and banking industry{not international bankers}.
At Primerica pyramid, it is recruit, recruit, recruit to the point that every one knows about the Primerica fraud abomination, just as everyone knows about Market America, Herbalife, Quixtar nee Amway and Mary Kay – all illegal scam pyramid schemes.
Who is A. M. Best? May be you mean sardonically “I M Best”. Prove that the Primerica abomination [not even a company] is rated A+ ! Does it mean anything? How so? prove it.
SOLVE THIS LIGHT PROBLEM: those who want to bear false witness by complimenting fraud, scam, skim, lottery rip off, flim-flam, fleecing, fakir, lying, deceitful, elixir merchandising pyramid nefarious scheme unscrupulous con America will pay 15000 for every lie that they post. Charge the tramps and bums admission – they won’t come. THIS THREAD is for customer complaints, exposes and consumer essays to shed light on the con men; the shysters and the sharks to watch out for: such as spurious, flattering you with impossible to make money pyramid schemes. PROVIDED you can read, read the title of this website. You KNOW what this website is for! The proceeds would be used to aid the millions of victims and their families that you have sucked the life savings out of. Believe me, some victims have poured as much as 100K, 200K, 300K, 400K, 500K or even more in to something that is DOOMED TO FAIL. A pyramid Ponzi scheme WILL inevitably collapse of its own weight.
“And I will also say that I’d love for Primerica to publish a book listing all the people who make poverty level earnings.” And I won’t hold my breath awaiting publication. This website wasn’t designed to promote fraud! It was designed to expose and help eliminate fraud! YOU read and AGREED to the “Pissed Consumer Terms of Service”!!!! Your excuse that you went to public school and cannot read will never fly. IGNORANCE IS NEVER AN EXCUSE TO BREAK THE LAW!! READ THE OLD TESTAMENT; in particular the Penteteuch. You dig? Comprendes? Thank you very much!
“This is a deadly business model in which you are doomed to fail,” says Robert Fitzpatrick, president of Pyramid Scheme Alert, an Internet-based watchdog group located in Charlotte, North Carolina. “There’s a ninety-nine percent loss rate” —meaning the vast majority of people who start MLM businesses end up losing money. “You’d have a better chance betting your life savings on a game of blackjack in Vegas than you would putting it all into a multi-level marketing home business.” {Ooouch!!!! That hurts!!!!!}
I suspect Rocky Drake is a whole life agent that has had allot of his policies converted/replaced by term.
Guess what? I was a Primerica agent and left. Why? Not for the reasons you may believe. I am not a whole life agent and do not push products that are not right for my clients. I left because Primerica does not have the best products for my clients. There is no way you can argue that their life product (singulur because the only have one product for all clients) is not over-prices. It is! You can find dozens of carriers to provide coverage for much less. AIG, American General, ING, Genworth, Banner Life, etc. all are much less expensive and have better clauses within the policies.
Did you know Primerica has permanent products? They do. Your RVP will not admit this but they do have them. I have a copy of a permanent policy by PFS. It came as a result of a conversion from an old client. Read a policy and you will see the limited conversion clause they have for permanent insurance. In my case I replaced their garbage permanent insurance for one that was 48% less.
Does one product fit everyone? Nope. There are different products because there are different needs. Sure there are the likes of WFG, WMA and other organizations that steer folks to high commission products, but that is not always the case Primerica folks. There are cases where Universal and other permanent policies are proper. Say for estate preservation or for older folks. Wake up and see that Primerica is not doing “What is right 100% of the time.” How can you make a statement when there are better products for less monety?
Also, PFS is about recruiting. You start at 25% commission which is pitifull compared to any regular insurance company. The only way to succeed is to recruit and get promoted. Without recruiting you stay at the same level regardless if you sell hundreds of policies. Does this seem fair to those who want extra income without building a team? I left Primerica for a non-captive brokerage and started at 80%. That was in 2001 and now I am at 110% commission and have a large national team. Nearly everyone I knew at Primerica when I joined quit because they were frustrated. The few still there are still striving to make RVP and 100k. I made over 100k between my wife and I before I joined Primerica. Why would I want to take a step backwards. Now I recruit licensed agents and have the ability to match their commission structures and still make over-rides. At Primerica they would never allow someone to make a lateral transfer because the top-feeders like Hector LaMarque, Rick Susie, Mark Younger, Mark Rolls, would not get freebies.
Further, why must you work so hard to build a team only to have your BEST LEG taken by your RVP when you go RVP? This is like building a business and then giving away your best products? Who does that? That systems is set up for you to fail so your up-line can steal your down-line when you quit. This system was originally in place when AL Williams first started because they did not have the over-ride structure and this was a way to compensate your up-line. It was kept after those at the top of the food chain realized they would not have t continue recuriting if they just took you best leg.
Finally, why doesn’t Primerica allow you to be non-captive. For those of you who are not familiar with this term it means you can only sell the products for one company. There are many companies that allow you to sell multiple products to suit your client needs. Primerica touts to be the best opportunity in America? Well, it is not. Otherwise they would allow you to be non-captive. Because they know they do not have the best products they force you to use the one life product they have to serve your clients.
I think Primerica had a great system when AL Williams conceived it. But think about it, how can it continue to be a great building opportunity when it is owned by a corporate giant of the type Primerica teaches you to despise?
Use your common sense and don’t believe the hype. Have them show you their Tax Returns with their income. If they refuse to do so then they have no credibility and are making “Primerica” statements and not statement of fact.
I started as a client of Primerica. Since then my husband and I have joined and absolutely love it! We’ve been in it about a year and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Thank you A.L. Williams!!!
I have no personal experience with Primerica, but since my friend was interested in buying some insurance from Primerica I made a small “research” on the web, because I heard some traditional talks like “Primerica is scam”. I found this large Primerica discussion about their products (don’t worry, it’s definitely not a promoting link for Primerica
and this one on Fraud files, and it’s definitely bad for P. in my eyes… There are many people defending P. there and here, but common – if there was no problem with P., there would be no need to defend it. I don’t believe it at all – dealing with part time agents? Most of their products more expensive than the competitors’? No, thank you…
Best wishes
Jill
SESAME STREET ECONOMICS – 1 – If you are only licensed as a life insurance agent and a mutual funds representative and you believe you can take a wholestic financial planning approach you are wrong. Let me ask you how you’d hedge a portfolio against systematic risk. Sorry diversification is a text book wrong answer. You are in denial if you think you will get rich off these products alone that have a small trail and a trail only if you are even licensed with your 6 or 63. That isn’t half of you on this page. Your “business” which is a Multi-Level-Marketing, hence largest finanical services MARKETING org; notice the legal lingo that requires them to use marketing because you are definately not the largest financial services organization, is based very much so on recruiting. I’ve done corporate recruiting and guess what, not everyone wants to change thier life to a MLM anyone with a pulse can be a client life style, and believe me a salary PLUS commission is for the talented and truly competent; Anyone can go grab a commission only job at any financial services competitor. Sorry to say but the reason you are new to the industry and not receiving salary plus commission is because you have a history of slacking off in either your academic studies or other employment; hence your last desparation to grab this opportunity that you’ll soon find has a very poor pay out. If you are really interested in the financial industry obtain a series 7 license and 66 license your CFP and learn all the capabilities out there so you can really help people without being limited by primerica’s philosophy of that you only need these few products. You have fewer fund families than a 401k which is sad, and a “common sense” annuity; give me a break. It’s funny how you’ll criticize MetL life insurance and then go and use thier annuity product. Where is the falacy there?? Anyone?
What you sell is sesame street economics to people that really have had no exposure to the industry. You exploit their lack of knowledge and use primerica slogans for every aspect of the business. When you are a parrot repeating the same lingo it is apparent you’ve given little though to do actual research yourself on the markets or how different asset classes are even correlated. A freshman with one econ 101 course could do circles around your fabricated knowledge of what you think is this whole financial realm. Well wake up and see that your not only doing an injustice by blindly leading these client sheep of yours to the slaughter house, but to say it’s in the name of doing what’s best for clients; seriously; go study, pass exams that qualify you to actually financially advise, which is not the 6 or 63 or life, health, ltc, and do us all a favor and use some self due diligence and educate yourself first before you just try and sell stories and common sense catch phrases that sound so ammature and weak. Now you can’t call yourself a financial advisor or planner because you legally are not aloud because you are completely not even close to being qualified so like i said do us a favor, go to citi.com and search for primerica and see that your parent company is so shameful of you the company is nowhere to be found on any of its main web pages. Our competitor Smith Barney of course, a wirehouse, is reputable and where they send clients for investment advise and financial planning. Guess how much pfs pays to use the citi name… how bad does pfs have to milk that too… it’s so funny… well whatever helps your denial keep feeding to each other. It’s like a bunch of fat kids thinking that cake is actually healthy for them if they wish it to be true. Well keep doing a great job pulling in that first paycheck that’s your life and health reembersement and make sure you keep outfitting yourselves as unprofessional as possible when you show up in t-shirt and jeans to your little pep talks. and secretly i know each and every one of you has a pfs life policy… u know u do too… who did u compare it with…uhh that’s right.. no one.. u bought in to it all ;p
RECRUITING JUSTIFICATION: well lets see.. get the blind teaching the blind and say “who am i to judge who will make it or not” and yes then you can put your head on the pillow at night.. well, that’s if you have no real judgement and are more motivated by what, oh ya, the dream of money and success; ah so hypicritical. So i get a stupid 18yr old and sell him/her the world. They feel all excited b/c they are this business owner or soon to be business owner lol. They “spread the word” and the “regional rep” takes him/her on appointments and closes all the business making more on the business than the junior rep.. which u all think is justifiable but in reality the person with the actual relationship makes the most. Well then the 18yr old just gives everyone he knows away the senior guys are happy and the junior guy thinks that’s great, but then the will runs dry.. uh oh.. now its time for real business and talking to people we don’t know.. ummm how about we just get another idiot to be convienced to join and we’ll exploit his “warm market”.. and round and round this vicious cycle we profit… the 18yr old tries to coach, but can’t… why.. he’s not licensed or at that level.. hey they never told me that… so yep.. that regional or rvp gets all that business… and u thought u owned a business… uh no… but ur are a 1099 employee.. wait.. don’t u criticise them too.. umm ya u do.. wow.. so many flaws in this model.. so there lies the reason to recruit.. it continually opens up that persons warm market and u move on.. u sleep at night because you say, who am i do judge someones potential… well wake up people.. you are judged every single day by your potential and rightly so.. are you going to tell me your fund managers don’t judge funds potential based off history and past performance… or do you want there money invested in a company where they say.. hmmm hey lets give them a chance… no.. just doesn’t work that way. Oh and all this talk about how everyone else out there is Soo unhappy in corp america… let me ask you your positions you had before.. mcdonalds and wallmart don’t count as corp america. ya you have a few people with reputable backgrounds but there is a reason they didn’t make it in thier industry either.. and to say all those people that make it are “evil” well is just irresponsible and makes you look so amature. Who are you to assume everyone is dissatified. Many people that are real entrepreneurs not fake MLM ones, are happy and many people in other fields are just the same. But you negative people have to just talk crap about everyone else to make yourself feel better… or atleast you exploit the 18yr idiot… i think i’ve seen as high as 40yr idiot at a volnerable time in their life… so rest easy
I was sucked into this scheme the summer after my freshman year of college. I will be getting my MBA in finance next year and am here to tell you this whole thing is a bunch of crap. Primerica’s fundamental principal, buy term, invest the difference is lax. It focuses on intelligent investors who understand the volatility of financial markets. I asked my recruiter who at the time was a senior RVP and soon to be NSD what his investment style was. Any prudent financial planner would tell you with ease his investment style. He simply said I earn 12% a year on my mutual fund. Being a student of finance I was shocked. He proved to me at that moment that a soon to be National Sales Director knew nothing about value investing or anything else of the nature. A person prudent in finance would not rely on a mutual fund to diversify their portfolio for them because mutual funds RORs are not all that great because of costs within the fund and an average investor can construct a portfolio that exceeds their ROR. Because I paid the $99 and the testing fees I went on and took my insurance exam, passed, and quit after they refunded me my testing fees. This was the biggest waste of $99 I have ever encountered. Primerica’s agents are not financially sound themselves and seek to benefit from other’s stupidity. My SRVP aslo told me that it was simply a distribution business, not a financial services business. WOW! Now we know why Citi is being bailed out right now, because the 100,000 Primerica agents are DISTRIBUTING financial instruments to people who cannot afford them in the first place. Do you honestly think that someone with a $30,000 income needs a mutual fund, life insurance, and legal protection? Hell no, thats why they make 30k/yr, they missed out on an education! EVERY Primerica representitive who believes in their company should be lynched along with some of the CEOs of various financial instituitions, FRE, FNM, AIG, and LEH! They are the same kind of scum and deserve the same treatment!
I only hopes primerica goes out of bussiness,they take advantage of ignorant people .I currently have a mortgage with a 5.62 fixed interest rate for 20 years and i send extra towards the principal every month.A primarica agent was ‘HELPING “to refinance .My new interest rate would be 7.65,fixed, 20 years.Was this primerica agent really helping me or was he just triing to make a commission?I do not think i have to answer this question.I was told not to worry about the higher interst rate and only look at my “MONTLY SAVINGS”.What montly savings?If interest rates do not matter,why not give me a mortgage at 0%?
I left Primerica, NOT because I wasn’t making good money,
but because I couldn’t handle GIVING IT BACK via chargebacks!!
I will NEVER again watch my children go without what they deserve,
simply because I’m unable to keep what I’ve earned.
i actually enjoyed the people in the Base Shop but quit after my RVP closed 2 of my referrals with out telling me and paid me with a personal check on one and kept the commission on the second because he knew i was strapped for cash and needed the money. He got All the Credit, All the Commission and im sure His bonus!
Thank god,it was the best thing that happened because it broke the spell. i was Mr. Primerica and believed in the hype at a terrible financial cost to me and my family. there was almost no product training and 99% hype and speeches about hope.
now my family and i are 100% better, but i am upset with myself for putting my through such financial turmoil for 7 months because i was hypnotize.
DONT DO IT!!!
DON’T JOIN!!!
i
I’m glad I read this before I gave Primerica my final answer to join today. Thanks
I am the same Deborah that posted back in May and I am still happily involved with Primerica. Though relatively new, I feel the need to respond to some of the comments that are ignorant of the company or not based in fact.
I WILL investigate what was said about permanent products and commission levels of comparable agencies. *however you CAN check the earnings of others on the company site*
I’ve read the “primerica discussion” above. It is unfair to insinuate that a person that works part time is not as credible/ knowledgeable because of that. We have to comply with all the same licensing and regulatory agencies.
In response to MSUGRadstud10, the average person is not pursuing their MBA in finance and though they may *only* make 30k that does not negate the need to plan for retirement. Pensions are a thing of the past. Social Security is not a viable option. Plenty of working adults don’t set up a 401k let alone construct a portfolio! A simplified conservative investment is better than what the majority of middle class currently have. You don’t have to hold series 66, 7… 52,55,62,72,82,86,87 AND be a CFP to set that up (though we do provide the six steps to the financial planning process outlined on the CFP’s Board of Standards site) *just like every accountant is not a CPA but I digress…
To the poster that said “stay away from primerica” on 11/28… Without knowing how much DEBT you rolled into your mortgage, I can’t comment specifically – however
If a Primerica rep refinanced your home, kept you at the same amount of years you had left on your mortgage, resulting in monthly savings AND you put some of that $ back on the principal – you will pay off the principal sooner and save a considerable amount of money (in interest) over the life of the loan. Hopefully some of that monthly savings was put in an investment vehicle. If possible compare your amortization schedules (the one you had with the 5.62 fixed to the one you have now). Call your Primerica rep with your concerns. File a complaint if you feel you were wronged. I would hate to have the reputation of Primerica damaged due to a representative not fully explaining his/her recommendations to a client.
Again Primerica is not a job! You can become an independent representative and invest as much or as little time as you want. And your earnings will reflect that. There are no quotas. You DO NOT have to recruit anyone. You DO have to have a background check conducted. You DO have to comply with the licensing requirements of your state. Most if not all licensing fees are reimbursed by Primera upon completion of those requirements.
Of course you should do your research before you become a rep or a client. Just like when shopping for a car e.g., I think Ford Explorers are lemons – my colleague loves his – who should you listen to? Neither Go to edmunds.com or some consumer report site, ask mechanics, test drive the car etc… Some posters have never been a Primerica rep OR client – would you take advice from someone that’s never owned the car you’re considering? This is a loose analogy but you get the gist.
Ok. Somone above said that the RVP’s dont care for you. I find that funny cause my RVP actually does all the work for me and i get paid. He personally goes on the appointments with me and now that i have a license he helps the people and if they decide to get life insurance i get paid for it. It has been pretty nice. I’m not sure if other RVP’s are corrupt or something but mine is not i know that for sure.
On 15 Nov 08 FA’s comments probably would describe this multi-level-marketing scheme the best. I’m a portfolio manager for a very reputable company and just went to a introductory meeting with my nephew that was convinced this was a great business. He is 19, on winter break, and his old friend got suckered in. I took them down on campus at Cambridge and we spoke with one of the professors their, and then to my firm where a colleague of mine that is a Financial Advisor spoke with him about how it’s just an MLM Scheme, like Amway, Mary Kay, and many other berry juice and other MLM Schemes. The gist is to have a product where you inflate the price and thus it allows you to pay everyone in the “Downline”. Give it a try and learn the hard way or listen to words of wisdom and go visit a reputable firm and ask them about Primerica. If you are trying too hard to defend your position, there is almost always a reason. Remember that kids.
This Saturday I had a Primerica “headhunter” call me during my shift at my current sales job, asking if I wanted to meet for coffee etc etc, as he had heard I was very good with people. I already knew all about this company, and since he decided to take me away from my sales and possible commissions for ten minutes to offer me the chance to throw away my career, I thought I’d return the favor. At 2:30pm this Monday (20 minutes after our scheduled meeting over coffee) I received an “I’m here, where are you?” message. This was soon followed by two more hoping I was still coming and “I guess something came up, call me to reschedule.” oh! And did I mention I asked for our meeting to be in my end of town, which was really just the farthest place i could think of from the office address he’d told me? Sucker.
To those out there who think Primerica is a scam,it probably is. But I bet you will never ever have a real opportunity in life to make $100,000 a year or more.If you have the thoughts that every good opportuinity in life is a scam,you deserve what you get.Hard work,bettering yourself,and being around positive people is not a scam.If you read Art Williams book “Coach” you will understand why he started this company 32 years ago.Primericas last quarter earnings showed a profit,did you?I have met some truly inspiring people who do help the MIDDLE CLASS.How much do I need to have to talk with portfolio manager?Can I invest $50.00 a onth with your firm?And what is the average salary of a college grad.?Can you ever work your way to owner?More importantly can you ever become financially independant?
I was offered a job with Primerica, while I was working at my current. I kept in contact with the man who approached me, and set up an “interview”. I went and bought a cute dress looked amazing. I forced my boyfriend to go with me, because a meeting at 7:30 at night was sketchy. I thought I’d try it though, well when we pulled up to the building, there were ALL these people. I called this man, and he came to meet us outside. It was a seminar, it was CRAZY. They never said how they were making the money. The first gentleman to get in front of the group to speak, said no one else was a “public speaker” LIES, no one said “um” once. This was rehearsed. It was acting. They weren’t recruiting, they were lying. They had a small space for all these people to sit, it was long and uncomfortable. They had people in another room who were “training” and who were “now with the company”, from across the hall we could hear them laughing and making jokes.. probably about all the people I was sitting with who were buying into everything Primerica Reps were saying. When it was over, the man who “recruited” me asked my boyfriend and I what we thought, I told him it felt like a CULT, that they were vague, and that though he was very convincing, I felt like people were acting, I told him I had many concerns but that I felt like I should be open to new opportunites. My boyfriend was explaining the same, and we said we would research the company. Well, the moment we said we were going to research and look into the company before we gave any information, he said that we weren’t the kind of people he was looking for, and that he wished us the best of luck. I shook his hand and we left. Not looking behind us. Just pissed we wasted so much time. An interview??? An interview my butt! liars, cheaters. crazy cults.
My only response to all this back-and-forth chatter is this:
If you are approached by a Primerica representative for product or recruitment – you are still able to decide on the bottom line.
Term insurance has been around for a long time (before Art Williams), yet was not sold aggresively until he went after the insurance industry, who sold his family a $10,000 whole life insurance policy instead of a term policy that was worth roughly 10 times more money. Primerica,in spite of all credits and allegations, has continued this. Case-and-point: of the 30 largest mortgage lenders that existed in 2007, Primerica only dealt with Citi, who only offered fixed-rate mortgages as a rule for anyone applying through Primerica. As of 1/1/09, 60% of those companies are now gone. Citi’s lender that Primerica still remains, only with a SUBSTANTIALLY smaller rate of foreclosure than the industry. Regardless of your position surrounding Primrica, that is a strong indication of its intention to serve its clients with the best possible value. (lowest cost is not always equated to best value). Further, as for term insurance – yes, Primerica does have higher cost than others. The upside is at least three-fold:
1) Among the benefits that Primerica offers is one policy written
for one family (lower admin. costs), increaseing benefits rider,
and a terminal illness rider (pays 40% of the policy immediately
upon notice). These are part of the policy without aditional
cost.
2) Renewals on these policies are usually and significantly lower
other companies
3) As potential clients will see, Primerica looks for a time that
life insurance will not be needed, and will make it known that
the purpose of insurance is to provide a death benefit for
protection – not a means to promote savings. Both of these
normally appearing in any “cash value” policy does not allow you
to have both – meaning that either you die and lose the savings
or you cash the savings while losing your protection against
dying.
People like Art Williams start companies from the ground, find reasonable ways to solve other problems, and ask others to join in, paying them for their efforts. If you agree that the pay and promotion is fair and reasonable, then the “scheme” would not be valid. I know many people who have seen Primerica and signed on. Some left feeling disillusioned, while some stayed and enjoy it. The ONLY DIFFERENCE between them is that those who stayed maintained the fact that Primerica makes it possible for those who stay to succeed. Anyone who feels ripped off probably had something happen that was not necessarily Primerica’s doing, as opposed to someone within Primerica not doing/stating something correct – much like any legit company issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The last time I checked, EVERY JOB that gives you a paycheck is on the same page.
If you are aware of how compensation is forwarded to you, and you like what you see – then only you sell yourself out of the opportunity you originally saw!!!!!
For the record, the average person is hard-pressed to find ways to pay their bills – probably due to factors including higher obligations than they thought at the outset. Anyone that can help you find a way that saves you money IS doing their job for you.
While I am not endorsing anything specific about Primerica, I am stating that Primerica’s intentions appear to be honorable. Competitors will make claims to devalue, and individuals will have complaints. There are VERY FEW companies that can’t stay the same!!!!!!! The bottom line is still at your door to act on.
I was called earlier this morning by a gentleman representing Primerica Financial. He found my resume on a very well known job-seeking website. This gentleman made this company sound like something fantastic. I informed him early on that I recently lost my job and he sounded even more eager to schedule my “interview”. I accepted, as the economy has given me no other bites for employment. He stated that if I liked what I heard at the “interview” slash orientation, I would be invited back for a second inerview. I’ve never done anything like this before, was started getting a little skeptical, but decided whta the heck…I looked up Primerica Financial online and read more negative things and personal experiences and am ever so grateful that I did not get “fooled”. Thank you for the comments and helpful information about the pyramids and recruiting. I am not looking to fool anyone as part of my job, nor am I looking to be a part of something where I am not genuinely helping people. Thank you again for those of you who have taken the time to educate other potential victims of this company and their true intentions.
Melissa: Sorry you decided to listen to the opinion of a few competitors or disgrunteled reps who search these sites out to voice their OWN opions.I trust you check for these sites for all companies you associate or do business with. My guess is, if you did, you would find very few who not have had some nut coplaining about them. I believe that the majority of the things you read on these blogs are lies and any intelligent open minded person would look for legitamate sources of information or attend the interview to make their own mind. If you can’t be open minded why would anyone want you on their team? By the way I have 20 years expierance in PFS & have never been layed off.I have paid many death claims, closed many loans and have millions of dollors in assets under managment with some of the best mutual fund companies in the world.Please get the facts befor you blog nonsense, you could be effecting someones life. Remember it more honorable to encourage than to discourage!
I don’t give much credence to an analysis that is written by someone who has such poor writing skills. I’m a former Primerica recruit and am not only making money, like any business person should, but also my recruits are making money. Call it what you want, but the name of any business is to make money, except we have helping people at the top of the list. Can you say that about the average merchant or…the gas companies? I don’t think so!
I have work for this company for 3 yrs now I made a fair bit of money with them. I understand most people approach about earning the entire bit like other agents from different insurance companies. example if you sold a term insurance for 100k costing the client $85 per month the pay is calculation would be $85×12<– 12 months in a year =$1000.00 So that agent would be advanced buy the company outside of primerica the $1000.00 on the first day on the job adding they sold a policy as the above. at Primerica you begin at a 25% contract level yes you have to recurit to gain other levels example a 75% contract level you will get paid $750.00 for the same transaction. Yes I do agree that the pay system is different from other companies. However let take a closer look at building a business would you rather make $100 per hr on your own efforts or would you rather earn $10 hr on 10 other peoples efforts. You choose because if you worked a job before in your past or even work one now your present employer mastered the system. Earn money on other people’s efforts and time. It’s called the FREE ENTERPRISE. Now Grow Up!!! it’s either you work for a Great company or you Own a Great company. At Primeria I own a Great Company.
My experience:
Mike, a long-time friend of my husbands, told us that he had just started working for a “financial planning company” and asked if he could come over and give us his spiel. He made it sound like this meeting would actually just be him fulfilling some sort of training or quota requirement. It would be doing him a favor. Mike didn’t give us any indication what kind of services he would be presenting to us, but we assumed that it would ultimately have something to do with investments. Because my husband and I are relatively satisfied with our current financial situation, we weren’t terribly curious about what Mike had to offer us – however, we’re open minded and after all, we were doing our friend a favor.
My husband and Mike scheduled the meeting to take place in our home at 6:30 PM on a week night. This wasn’t a particularly good time for me since I get home from work at 6:00 and have a routine of things that I need to get done: preparing dinner and making our lunches for the next day, etc… Since it was an informal meeting between friends, my husband and I figured that he could be the one to entertain Mike’s presentation while I listened from the kitchen.
Shortly before the meeting, we learned that Mike’s supervisor (or trainer or something) would be coming along and that this supervisor would ultimately be the person presenting the company’s services to us. This was a bit unnerving because the meeting was originally presented as an informal favor for a friend. Now it seemed to be turning into a full fledged business meeting with our friend’s boss. Had the actual circumstances of the meeting been explained to us in the beginning, my husband and I probably wouldn’t have agreed to it.
Mike and Carl (the supervisor) showed up on time and introduced their company: Primerica which neither of us had ever heard of. My husband and Carl made small talk while I puttered around in the kitchen making dinner. My husband made a few attempts to get the ball rolling by asking what sort of services Primerica provides, but Carl made it clear that he would wait until I was finished in the kitchen. I’m sure that he was just being polite, but I thought that he was missing a social cue – If my husband and I were alright starting a presentation without me then he should be too.
So, with our dinner on hold, both my husband and I gave our friend’s boss our fullest attention. Carl started by saying that he wanted to “get to know us” which consisted of asking us a series of ridiculous questions like: “If you could make any amount of money, how much would you like to make?”, “If you could retire at any age, what age would you like to retire at?” and “If money was no object, what would you do or buy?” You can imagine how pointless our answers were and Carl never did get around to telling us how Primerica could help us earn 100 trillion dollars a year while retired so that we could buy a unicorn.
Carl then went on to assure us that by the end of the meeting we would be convinced that Primerica was a “legitimate business” that “helped people”. Carl really couldn’t have waved a bigger red flag short of calling Primerica a scam. He continued on by showing us a series of statistics regarding consumer debt, insufficient retirement funds and scarce savings accounts. Then he showed us some before and after numbers of a couple, Bob and Susan, that Primerica saved loads of money by giving them a better mortgage and better life insurance and better savings AND putting $500 back in their pockets every month! Then, if that wasn’t good enough, Carl told us that we could make big money helping couples just like Bob and Susan.
At this point, I stopped Carl and asked him what exactly he was trying to sell us. Life insurance? Investments? A career? Carl said that he could help us with all of those things, but he was mostly excited about offering us both career opportunities recruiting more people to work as recruiters. Out of sheer politeness, we inquired about Primerica’s life insurance policies and investment opportunities; both subjects Carl didn’t seem to have any concrete information on. He was able to tell us about a seminar the next night where we could learn more about Primerica, but that sounded like it was geared for recruiting employees as well. We finally asked Carl to leave some literature about Primerica’s products and services so that we could learn more about the company. Unfortunately, the only literature Carl had in his big important briefcase on wheels was a scant brochure about career opportunities as a recruiter.
Now I’m not saying that Primerica’s a scam or a legalized pyramid scheme. I’m not saying that Carl was a representation of all of Primerica’s employees. I’m not saying Primerica doesn’t have tangible products and services. I’m not saying that people can’t make money with Primerica recruiting people to be recruiters. All I can say is that after that meeting I know I never want to do any kind of business with Primerica.
Everyone commenting here about Primerica can be classified into 5 main categories:
1. The Skeptic
2. The Success
3. The Dreamer
4. The Professional
5. The Failure
The “Skeptic” either isn’t comfortable or doesn’t know any other way of progressing through life than what he’s witnessed growing up. This person thinks the proper (and only) way to be a success is by climbing the corporate ladder, landing a secure job that can be worked for 30-40 years to pay for life, or by getting some kind of loan to start a business. The Skeptic is often a person afraid to take risks that may end in failure that often embarrasses him. The Skeptic feels good about the title he’s achieved at his job, and is content with how life is going. This person is most often a non-believer in the possibility that he could ever experience financial independence EVER in life. This person believes that it is his place in society to be responsible by showing up to a “privileged” opportunity (job) all of his healthy young life, and then be satisfied with the potential reality of living out the mature years that are left on a fixed income.
The “Success” has achieved great accomplishments through luck, hard work, affiliation, or a combination of all of the above. This person may or may not be “a believer in people.” Leaders in MLM organizations have to be believers in people, much like the salesmen have to believe that there’s a potential sale behind every door knocked on. Successful MLM leaders are salespeople—any business owner is. Business owners sell whatever product or service their business produces or provides. Most Primerica Successes will tell you that their most valuable product is the opportunity they’re extending to you. The mere mention of having an OPPORTUNITY extended to a person to ascend to a level of financial freedom often sets off alarms in the minds of those who don’t believe they could (or should) ever achieve such a thing. These people may also believe that such opportunities should not be extended to any and everyone. The “Success” has experienced his good fortune through simple effort and belief in many cases. Whether the effort was made first in collegiate work or hard-knocks, it’s often very difficult for the Success to understand why any and everyone else wouldn’t simply do the same given what lies ahead. There is a mindset that believes “hard work creates luck;” and, “successful people typically want to affiliate with those who are willing to work hard.” Therefore, the successful person often believes that one’s future is entirely within one’s control. The MLM Success believes that anyone willing to do what it takes can achieve financial freedom with the proper coaching, support and environment.
The “Dreamer” believes so much that anything’s possible, that he is desperately willing to attempt to follow the direction of the “Success” who sells him the dream with starry eyes and naïve commitment. Hopefully, the Success he’s following has a good heart and intentions—bad people succeed too. Even still, if the dreamer has or is willing to obtain what’s needed to achieve success, mainly education and experience, the OPPORTUNITY exists and can be realized. Financial freedom becomes a reality for only about 2% of our society. It eludes the other 98% because they simply do not have, or is unwilling to do, what it takes. This majority of our society will dream on after attempts at financial freedom. Hopefully, there’s a back-up plan, because living off of dreams alone can wind you up on skid-row, kind of like a gambler. But even a fortunate gambler wins sometimes.
The “Professional” is the one with the Series-7, 66, CFP certificate and often the pretty good job with a reputable company. He often has commonalities with the “Skeptic.” This person became a professional because he believed that the way to do things was the corporate industry-accepted way of doing things: education, training, evaluated trial period, credentials, etc. The Professional is often not a “believer in people.” Unlike the MLM Success, he does not believe that any and everyone should be assumed to have the ability to accomplish what he himself did. Professionals, like everyone else, notices the 98% of everyone in our society and does not make it their business or priority to sift through the masses looking for the 2%.
The “Failure” often starts out as a “Dreamer,” and most often winds up a “Skeptic.” The Failure doesn’t have, and isn’t willing to do, what it takes to win. As mentioned, 98% of us do not get to experience financial freedom. Therefore, those who try and fail often find comfort in expressing distain for the circumstance, people and/or company surrounding the failed effort.
Supervisors, Managers, Directors, VPs, CEOs and ultimately Shareholders (in public companies), are all compensated based on the performance of each level of employee in the corporation concerned. Ultimately, when a product or service is provided to an end user, the income derived from the sale of that product or service is diced up to pay every “level” concerned, just like in MLM.
In regards to the costs involved with a would-be entrepreneur getting licensed, trained, etc., please refer to Webster’s definition of Entrepreneur: “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” In most cases, a new recruit of a MLM organization doesn’t know enough to organize or manage, but because the desired end result is the ownership of an accomplished business effort, the risks of potentially wasting the expense of traveling, lodging, materials, etc., must be assumed by the individual in the same way it would be if he took out a loan to purchase or start any other business.
The problem is, the corporate entities of MLMs cannot control how the inexperienced, half-afraid, sometimes mislead and or deceitful brand new “owners” of the concerned opportunity present the opportunity to others. They try through formatted systems, but because of the mere nature of these organizations, efforts take on a life of their own. Honesty is always the best policy; and honestly, many MLM opportunities such as the Primerica opportunity, do offer and result in financial freedom for many. Why else would large, publicly traded corporations purchase companies like AL Williams and rename it Primerica; or Aegon purchase World Marketing Alliance (WMA) & rename it World Financial Group (WFG)?? Warren Buffet owns a few MLM companies. These are legally and intellectually astute organizations and people right? And why would established corporations partner with them to provide products to the public through such efforts?
People, the opportunities are legitimate in many cases, but folks have to realize that to own the opportunity to be successful and financially free, they have to own the opportunity to fail. Just make the best effort to involve yourself with the best guidance, support and environment you can, and bust your hump believing in you—the opportunity is genuine.
I usually don’t try to plug my post, but since you are referring to them, I think you should also take a look at a question from one of my readers:
http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/a-reader%E2%80%99s-question-about-primerica-multi-level-marketing-business-model
there are about 55 comments that will also help you out understand what is Primerica.
cheers and thx for the mention!
TFB.
I was contacted by a rep this past Tues. When I asked exactly what is the company about and what were they selling. He went round and round the bin, up younder, and over the chicken coup. And I still didn’t know what Primerica was about. So his ambiguous response made me want to do some research on the net before our little interview. I’m so glad I did. I thank all you guys for taking out the time to share your thoughts and comments. Now, I feel like I can make an intelligent decision as to what I need to do now. Thanks again.
Wow you had a lot to say. Did you let it all out or did you leave somethings out?? Hmmm.. You were asked to turn in your license?? That means you probably were doing something illegal or unethical.. I am glad you are no longer with PRIMERICA.. Agents like yourself give us a bad name. You were not doing what was right for the people, I am glad you got punished. How hard is to educate clients on their needs and get paid on that? Well I guess it was really hard for you. Also, honestly do you really think if we were doing doing our clients wrong for 32 years our Government would not have closed us down already??? Did you read that 32 YEARS!!! We are not a Mickey Mouse company that just started last year!! I have sat down with a lot of people and it feels great to be able to help them. You know what else, to be able to work with someone who had no direction in life and you are able to motivate them and help them change for the better if that is not great then i don’t know what is. When I graduated college I did not pick up a book for the life of me. PRIMERICA and their leaders are constantly asking people to read books on how to self improve not only financially but also how to be a better person. Let me give you an idea of the books they recommend (some leaders give them to their team). Tell me if these are harmful books that make us a Cult. Oh by the way the people who wrote these books are not in PRIMERICA:
1. The ABC’s of MAKING MONEY by Dr. Denis L. Cauvier and Alan Lysaght (recommend to read it, especially page 194.
2. The Secret (hmm this book is really bad watch out.. HAHAHA)
3. Success is not an Accident
4. Notes from a Friend by Anthony Robbins
5. How to win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
6. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon hill (Excellent book to read)
7. What to say when you talk to your self by Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D
I can go on and on. What was it this person complaining said.. hmmm.. oh that is right we are a cult!! Come on now!! Stop bad mouthing PRIMERICA!! It did not work out for you, move on. It does not work for everyone. A lot of people think that you can come in and become an RVP over night. This BUSINESS IS FOR REAL!!! If you put in the time and effort you need to it will pay off. When you try to reinvent the wheel you will fall!! It is your own business so you have to put some work into it!! If you did not want to work and wanted to take advantage of people( that is why they probably took your license away!!) I am glad you are no longer working with us.
Oh by the way you said $99.00 is lost right. Ask someone to pay for the life, Health and Annuities license to see how much they have to pay. Then ask them do they prefer to pay $99.00 or $400-500. Don’t know what your situation was, but if you get your license and you don’t want to work with us you can use the license with another company. You don’t have anything to lose. I got my return for the small investment that I made 100% plus more. $99.00 for license first sale $546.00. Hmm no brainer.
For those of you who are here looking to see what people say, I have a piece of advice. Have you ever read any review on something, lets say a movie review. They said it was the worse movie they have ever seen, the actors were horrible, it had no story line and so on. You did not go see the movie but then you saw it on video and you said to yourself what were these people talking about it was a Great movie. Well the same thing goes with PRIMERICA. There are people that have some bad experiences and they quit PRIMERICA, that was their choice. Don’t you think you should give it the benefit of a doubt by you trying it out and deciding yourself. What if it is true what we tell people?? Do you understand that just knowing the rule of 72 you are already ahead of the game if you did not make one cent in PRIMERICA!!! I have taken financial courses in College I never heard of the rule of 72!!! What if you can make $500 to $1000 extra a month on a part-time basis helping your family, friends and yourself?? Or even better what if you do decide to make a career change and you do make it to RVP!! We forget sometimes with all the negativity of reality how to dream. We have to dig in deep in ourselves and find that child to be able to dream again. To many of us are taking life tooooooo serious and remember life is to short. I am not telling you that you will become a millionaire here, but what if… What if you can dream again… What if you have an opportunity.. Just a small opportunity to add to your income.. That alone doesn’t that give you some guts to give it a try… Worse case is that you don’t like the business and our crusade.. But you leave with education about how to manage your money.. I don’t know about you, but I was not taught in my home to managae my money… I have learned that here..
If you want to look at it in a different way. The $99 you pay (which is for the state) think of it as paying for a financial education that would have cost you a lot more in college. Ask anyone, better yet go to college and ask them how much would a course in finances cost you. Do that instead of coming to work with us, not for us. See how that works out for you.
Everyone who reads this really look inside yourself. Decide for yourself. If you don’t want to do this DONT!! If a piece of you says let me give it a try do it!! Just don’t listen to people who don’t know what they are talking about or maybe just had a bad experience. Sometimes those things do happen. Someone really angry because it did not go well for them tries to lie to other people to convince them this does not work. People it WORKS!! I have seen it work!! It works if you work!! It is not easy. But remember the things worth fighting for are never easy!!
I hope this helped some of you.
My my my, you Primerica folks! so proud of yourselves are you? ‘ oh, stop bad mouthing us! ‘ well, where are your Art Williams and John Addisons now? Canceled conventions? Canceled company trips? looks like the big sugar daddy has lived the large life too long and came falling down! been down this road with P and found the RVP is a fair weather fan. one minute you’re the next up-and-coming RVP and then you’re a doormat the next. as long as you bring in the fresh meat, you’re da bomb! but as soon as the #s start to dwindle, so does your fan base! have fun at the next convention. lol
I love the fact that Primerica is being scrutinized. That is as American as sunflower seeds are baseball. We shouldn’t however mistake scrutiny for actual truth and evidence.
If you want to work your behind off and get paid what you are worth, Primerica is the place! If you want to own your own business, Primerica is the place. If you want to be paid for training other people, Primerica is the place.
Corporate America has a conflict of interest. Does your company want to pay you more or less? Do you have an opportunity to make as much as anyone if you work as hard as they do? Does your company have your best interest at heart or theirs? Is your company exclusive or inclusive?
Primerica isn’t easy, but then again neither is practicing medicine! Ask Oprah how easy it was to make her money. Primerica does not promise to make anyone rich tomorrow. They offer an opportunity.
Don’t believe everything you read. Go find out for yourself. Many seem to be good at listening, but how many are good at thinking?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the varied responses. I had a gut feeling at the “overview” that this company was using “Little people” to get to the top. Sorry to say my own cousin lead me there. I am not going to my interview today!
It is amazing, I had a visit from Primerica… put all the practices to work and low and behold, my house will be paid off in 10 years rather than 30. I saved 177,000 in interest using their Knowledge that no other so called bonified company had done. All the other insurance companies ripped me for very little gain. I invested with primerica and though we all have taken losses, I still have well over my original monies invested. I don’t the same from all you na sayers to what this company has done for many many people. Thank God for Art Williams in starting a company that truely cares for people that work hard and earn the income and not sure stand out there with their hand out for freebies. I have never been treated so lovingly and resepectfully as by this Primerica Company. No one has taught me so much about money and how it works. Go Primerica… a true American company of truth.
“Bonified”?!?!?
LMAO
If that was satire…well done. If that was a serious attempt at a glowing endorsement of Primerica…it was still damn funny.
Craig – Thank you for pointing that out so that I didn’t have to.