Comments on: The Primerica Paradox: The Conclusion Part 2 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/ This is where your finance takes place Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:23:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: finance guru http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20856 finance guru Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:02:31 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20856 Josh--Thanks for shedding light on these issues--I feel that I must address some of these issues you raised in a polite conversational manner. First--I doubt you can deny that the main emphasis is on recruiting. I seriously doubt most people in your heirarchy (unless your group is very unusual for Primerica) are trained on being competent financial professionals as much as on being recruiters. Ask yourself-why do other reputable companies not do the same thing if this was the best way to run a business that had excellent products? Could it be primerica has to compensate for having poor products? Just a thought. Most people that are primerica clients are a good friend or family member of someone that once joined the company. Less than 1% of people with the company make any money, yet people join because they are sold a vision of becoming wealthy with the company. its simple--John Doe joins and his friends or family may buy something just to help him out but if John Doe is like 99.9% of people that join Primerica, he will quit after he makes no more money and the upline must get a new person brainwashed on the idea to get into the new person's warm market. You should also ask yourself where all that money goes that you pay the company--what is it-$99 to join and then $25/month?--with all the primerica reps, that sure is a lot of money going to the company-don't you think? I fone rep stays with the company for one year, that is $300 for a year and for the 100,000 reps with primerica, this comes to be 30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. Not to mention the conventions--I don't know if you have been to a convention yet but when you stay in your overpriced hotel room--you should ask yourself if the company is getting their cut. Also Josh--I challenge you to do this if you do nothing else--ask your upline when you actually have ownership of your business--It is not when you become RVP--and what happens when you leave? can you take the book of business with you? Nope I have had my series 7 license and my CRPS (certified retirement planning specialist) and CFP (certified financial planner) designations before. I wonder Josh, what are the qualifications of the people in your baseshop? Concerning the life insurance issue--I am against whole life for 99% of the circumstances and agree that Primerica helps people save by getting them out of whole life insurance but other companies offer much better term life insurance rates. Check out http://term4sale.com/ and see if Primerica is even competitive. here is a question--you are told to teach people to "buy term and invest the difference" if someone could compare different insurance rates and get a better priced offer, wouldn't there be more "difference" for the person to invest? If your goal is truely to free up money for clients then you should work with an indpendent agent that can shop around for the best rates. You are a "captive" agent for primerica and cannot do this. On the investment side--do you sell any "no load" funds? off course not. Now I know that most people are not going to take the initiative to go to a discount broker like Vanguard and there have to be costs for offering investments but say I have $10,000 to invest-would I be better off investing into primerica mutual funds where I pay upfront load of 5% which is $500 right off the bat PLUS annual charges for the rest of my life OR going to a financial planner where I pay one flat fee and follow the financial planner's advice and invest in a discount broker where I save thousands over the long run. I wonder how much of your client's investment dollars are being eaten away by the ouragous fees with primerica mutual funds? Josh–Thanks for shedding light on these issues–I feel that I must address some of these issues you raised in a polite conversational manner.

First–I doubt you can deny that the main emphasis is on recruiting. I seriously doubt most people in your heirarchy (unless your group is very unusual for Primerica) are trained on being competent financial professionals as much as on being recruiters. Ask yourself-why do other reputable companies not do the same thing if this was the best way to run a business that had excellent products? Could it be primerica has to compensate for having poor products? Just a thought.
Most people that are primerica clients are a good friend or family member of someone that once joined the company. Less than 1% of people with the company make any money, yet people join because they are sold a vision of becoming wealthy with the company. its simple–John Doe joins and his friends or family may buy something just to help him out but if John Doe is like 99.9% of people that join Primerica, he will quit after he makes no more money and the upline must get a new person brainwashed on the idea to get into the new person’s warm market.

You should also ask yourself where all that money goes that you pay the company–what is it-$99 to join and then $25/month?–with all the primerica reps, that sure is a lot of money going to the company-don’t you think? I fone rep stays with the company for one year, that is $300 for a year and for the 100,000 reps with primerica, this comes to be 30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. Not to mention the conventions–I don’t know if you have been to a convention yet but when you stay in your overpriced hotel room–you should ask yourself if the company is getting their cut.

Also Josh–I challenge you to do this if you do nothing else–ask your upline when you actually have ownership of your business–It is not when you become RVP–and what happens when you leave? can you take the book of business with you? Nope

I have had my series 7 license and my CRPS (certified retirement planning specialist) and CFP (certified financial planner) designations before. I wonder Josh, what are the qualifications of the people in your baseshop?

Concerning the life insurance issue–I am against whole life for 99% of the circumstances and agree that Primerica helps people save by getting them out of whole life insurance but other companies offer much better term life insurance rates. Check out http://term4sale.com/ and see if Primerica is even competitive.

here is a question–you are told to teach people to “buy term and invest the difference” if someone could compare different insurance rates and get a better priced offer, wouldn’t there be more “difference” for the person to invest? If your goal is truely to free up money for clients then you should work with an indpendent agent that can shop around for the best rates. You are a “captive” agent for primerica and cannot do this.

On the investment side–do you sell any “no load” funds? off course not. Now I know that most people are not going to take the initiative to go to a discount broker like Vanguard and there have to be costs for offering investments but say I have $10,000 to invest-would I be better off investing into primerica mutual funds where I pay upfront load of 5% which is $500 right off the bat PLUS annual charges for the rest of my life OR going to a financial planner where I pay one flat fee and follow the financial planner’s advice and invest in a discount broker where I save thousands over the long run. I wonder how much of your client’s investment dollars are being eaten away by the ouragous fees with primerica mutual funds?

]]> By: Josh http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20797 Josh Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:41:52 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20797 Hi there, As a Primerica Rep i would like to speak on our behalf, first of all may i just say that id like to apologize for some of the reps who get their back bent out of shape and make snide remarks at the authur. In my humble opinion it makes us seem like we have something to hide or its an overely sensative topic. To be completely frank and honest, the thought that our company survives on false hopes is really very outrageuos, now as i do understand that the companies opportunity is not made for everyone, I would very much so appreciate if you would take a non biast approach when speaking of our company, as for some people, like myself, it is their business and only bread and butter. Now to address some issues, I would like to say that yes, we have adopted several different business types however the "bag" as u put it does not always fall to our new agent, and the big money does not only come to those who have the biggest team. you constantly refere to this company as pryamid type, to be honest i find this very funny, in pryamids or multi-level organizations the person who recruits is forever compensated by the efforts of the recruited there is no way out. Where as primerica allows the new recruit to pass the recruiter in both contract level and income, which is not something that is permitted with multilevel companies. I myself have passed 3 generations of individuals who lead to my recruitment, and now the only individual who is compinsated from my efforts is the broker (RVP) which is NOT any different than any other brokerage, whether it be financial or realestate. Aswell I can honestly say that out of the past 4 years of i have been with this company i have not recruited anyone until this past year, and i have still made enough money full time to feed 2 kids and my wife without assistance of any kind. Thus the only way for me to maintain my contract and stay ontrack for my own office is to personally produce, so no the new person does not need to sell for me to make money, however i can see where that misconception can derive from. As well as far as our agents only selling primerica life products, this is true however when was the last time you spoke to a london life agent or sunlife agent selling a manulife policy?? it is an industry consistant with a few exceptions. When it comes to mutual funds however we are an independant broker for AGF,TRIMARK, and MACKENZIE just to name a few. We are actually AFG Investments largest broker. I hope all of this makes sense, i have strived to understand your opinions and concerns however i hope this does shed light on someof them. one last thing, it was mentioned how primericas policies are so overely expensive compared to other companies. This is true when comparing term to term, however 101 out of 102 life insurance companies in canada make their bread and butter from the sale of whole life and perminant insurance(which is an issue all on its own) we do not have whole life in our line up, so 8 out of 10 times we sit with a family or a potential client they are massively overspending on whole life while still being heavely underprotected. So in comparison for the consumer we are much much cheaper for better value than what they currently spend money on, as it is very rare that we find a client who already spends money on term with the proper length and protection. plus we still have to keep the lights on as a business, and if the other 101 companies only sold term at their rates, they would be out of business within 24 months, i hope that makes sense. and please dont hesitate to respond with further questions. thanks Josh Hi there, As a Primerica Rep i would like to speak on our behalf, first of all may i just say that id like to apologize for some of the reps who get their back bent out of shape and make snide remarks at the authur. In my humble opinion it makes us seem like we have something to hide or its an overely sensative topic. To be completely frank and honest, the thought that our company survives on false hopes is really very outrageuos, now as i do understand that the companies opportunity is not made for everyone, I would very much so appreciate if you would take a non biast approach when speaking of our company, as for some people, like myself, it is their business and only bread and butter. Now to address some issues, I would like to say that yes, we have adopted several different business types however the “bag” as u put it does not always fall to our new agent, and the big money does not only come to those who have the biggest team. you constantly refere to this company as pryamid type, to be honest i find this very funny, in pryamids or multi-level organizations the person who recruits is forever compensated by the efforts of the recruited there is no way out. Where as primerica allows the new recruit to pass the recruiter in both contract level and income, which is not something that is permitted with multilevel companies. I myself have passed 3 generations of individuals who lead to my recruitment, and now the only individual who is compinsated from my efforts is the broker (RVP) which is NOT any different than any other brokerage, whether it be financial or realestate. Aswell I can honestly say that out of the past 4 years of i have been with this company i have not recruited anyone until this past year, and i have still made enough money full time to feed 2 kids and my wife without assistance of any kind. Thus the only way for me to maintain my contract and stay ontrack for my own office is to personally produce, so no the new person does not need to sell for me to make money, however i can see where that misconception can derive from. As well as far as our agents only selling primerica life products, this is true however when was the last time you spoke to a london life agent or sunlife agent selling a manulife policy?? it is an industry consistant with a few exceptions. When it comes to mutual funds however we are an independant broker for AGF,TRIMARK, and MACKENZIE just to name a few. We are actually AFG Investments largest broker. I hope all of this makes sense, i have strived to understand your opinions and concerns however i hope this does shed light on someof them. one last thing, it was mentioned how primericas policies are so overely expensive compared to other companies. This is true when comparing term to term, however 101 out of 102 life insurance companies in canada make their bread and butter from the sale of whole life and perminant insurance(which is an issue all on its own) we do not have whole life in our line up, so 8 out of 10 times we sit with a family or a potential client they are massively overspending on whole life while still being heavely underprotected. So in comparison for the consumer we are much much cheaper for better value than what they currently spend money on, as it is very rare that we find a client who already spends money on term with the proper length and protection. plus we still have to keep the lights on as a business, and if the other 101 companies only sold term at their rates, they would be out of business within 24 months, i hope that makes sense. and please dont hesitate to respond with further questions.
thanks

Josh

]]> By: iINSGUY97 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20765 iINSGUY97 Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:04:50 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20765 My record show my IQ was 71 on one test and 68 on the other. is this good? I didn't know if you meant celsius or farenhite temperature. My record show my IQ was 71 on one test and 68 on the other. is this good? I didn’t know if you meant celsius or farenhite temperature.

]]> By: The Primerica Paradox: The Approach http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20756 The Primerica Paradox: The Approach Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:33:13 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20756 [...] I have been approached by this company and I really reflected upon their financial model before having formulated an opinion on it. I have decided to present a series of three articles on Primerica: The Approach, The Discussion and The Final Conclusion on Primerica. [...] [...] I have been approached by this company and I really reflected upon their financial model before having formulated an opinion on it. I have decided to present a series of three articles on Primerica: The Approach, The Discussion and The Final Conclusion on Primerica. [...]

]]> By: INSGUY96 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20681 INSGUY96 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:17:58 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20681 Son of window man, your comment was stupid, but I guess it takes a stupid person to make a stupid comment. If your comment were true, I would point out the fact that in Primerica if you are an RVP or above then you cannot have income other than Primerica. You must also be full time with Primerica and have an office. I hope the next person to comment has an IQ above freezing. Son of window man, your comment was stupid, but I guess it takes a stupid person to make a stupid comment. If your comment were true, I would point out the fact that in Primerica if you are an RVP or above then you cannot have income other than Primerica. You must also be full time with Primerica and have an office. I hope the next person to comment has an IQ above freezing.

]]> By: iINSGUY97 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20642 iINSGUY97 Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:42:10 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20642 my father made over $200,000 a year in Primerica and then he decided to start a window washing business in downtown Dallas and he did OK but his income took a big hit in the window cleaning business. my father made over $200,000 a year in Primerica and then he decided to start a window washing business in downtown Dallas and he did OK but his income took a big hit in the window cleaning business.

]]> By: INSGUY96 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20608 INSGUY96 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:23:27 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20608 My father was in Primerica for many years. He did make over $150,000 per year, so it is possible to make that Primerica. However, the market is so different and competitive now I think Primerica might be an okay place to get started in financial services, but not a place to stay. If you do start making good money and build a team at Primerica, watch out since you do not have "ownership" of your business until your upline and the company give you your "ownership" when my dad left Primerica he was an RVP and did not have "ownership", so after all those years at Primerica and making good money all he gets now is a check from the increasing benefit riders on policies he had sold in the past and that is about $32.00 a month, so watch out Primericans, if you make it, you may not make it for long. My advice would be to start in Primerica, and then after you are fully licensed leave and find an independant agency to work with, or start your own. I started in Primerica and I passed my tests (Life, Health, 63, and 6) then I left. I own my own insurance Agency and I am able to help way more clients than I could have in Primerica. My father was in Primerica for many years. He did make over $150,000 per year, so it is possible to make that Primerica. However, the market is so different and competitive now I think Primerica might be an okay place to get started in financial services, but not a place to stay. If you do start making good money and build a team at Primerica, watch out since you do not have “ownership” of your business until your upline and the company give you your “ownership” when my dad left Primerica he was an RVP and did not have “ownership”, so after all those years at Primerica and making good money all he gets now is a check from the increasing benefit riders on policies he had sold in the past and that is about $32.00 a month, so watch out Primericans, if you make it, you may not make it for long. My advice would be to start in Primerica, and then after you are fully licensed leave and find an independant agency to work with, or start your own. I started in Primerica and I passed my tests (Life, Health, 63, and 6) then I left. I own my own insurance Agency and I am able to help way more clients than I could have in Primerica.

]]> By: finance guru http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20586 finance guru Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:53:41 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20586 I am an expert on the financial services industry after my years of experience and study and have close friends that were with Primerica and I reached my above conclusions based on that research. Of course Primerica is a legal company but it's structure is not good for the consumer and it survives based on false hopes. A true pyramid is where people are paid for recruiting—where you pay to join and you have to recruit others to pay. With Primerica, there is obviously no illegal payment for recruiting and it is legit but the bag is still being passed on to the person at the bottom. Most people that become clients are either recruits themselves or a close family member of friend of a new recruit. The products are uncompetitive and they would never buy based on their needs but do so out of wanting to help the new person. Once this runs out, the person must go find others to sell to in their warm market. So, the bag is being passed down not by direct payment but by finding people dumb enough to buy overpriced Primerica products. basically, person A joins and the family and friends of person A may buy just to help out person A. When person A can no longer find clients, he must recruit person B to join to sell to family and friends of person B. Around this time, the clients of person A may cancel and person A is left with the chrgebacks and he must desperately make sells to the market of person B just to break even but most people will quit by this stage. I am an expert on the financial services industry after my years of experience and study and have close friends that were with Primerica and I reached my above conclusions based on that research.

Of course Primerica is a legal company but it’s structure is not good for the consumer and it survives based on false hopes. A true pyramid is where people are paid for recruiting—where you pay to join and you have to recruit others to pay.
With Primerica, there is obviously no illegal payment for recruiting and it is legit but the bag is still being passed on to the person at the bottom. Most people that become clients are either recruits themselves or a close family member of friend of a new recruit. The products are uncompetitive and they would never buy based on their needs but do so out of wanting to help the new person. Once this runs out, the person must go find others to sell to in their warm market. So, the bag is being passed down not by direct payment but by finding people dumb enough to buy overpriced Primerica products.

basically, person A joins and the family and friends of person A may buy just to help out person A. When person A can no longer find clients, he must recruit person B to join to sell to family and friends of person B. Around this time, the clients of person A may cancel and person A is left with the chrgebacks and he must desperately make sells to the market of person B just to break even but most people will quit by this stage.

]]> By: knem http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20563 knem Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:27:29 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20563 bertha... check this out http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_has_the_most_6_figure_earners ..also.. did your sister get licensed?...did she do any training appointments? finance guru... you can make excuses or you can make money, you cant do both! bertha…

check this out
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_has_the_most_6_figure_earners

..also.. did your sister get licensed?…did she do any training appointments?

finance guru…

you can make excuses or you can make money,
you cant do both!

]]> By: bertha http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/comment-page-8/#comment-20558 bertha Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:00:36 +0000 http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/the-primerica-paradox-the-conclusion-part-2/#comment-20558 My sister was in this company for 5 moths and did not make a dime. She reported that many people actually lie about how much money they make and have to have other jobs just to make s decent living. It seems success at primerica is all an illusion and people stay in the company hoping against all reason that they will make it. If one were to look at the numbers, I think you have a better chance of getting wealthy winning the lottery than being with Primerica. My sister was in this company for 5 moths and did not make a dime. She reported that many people actually lie about how much money they make and have to have other jobs just to make s decent living. It seems success at primerica is all an illusion and people stay in the company hoping against all reason that they will make it.

If one were to look at the numbers, I think you have a better chance of getting wealthy winning the lottery than being with Primerica.

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