a friend is pushing Primerica ... ugh

[BlackArcher101]

Let em him know straight up how much of an idiot he is... if he chooses to keep with it and starts to shun you for your opinion on it... then so be it. I will never hold back what I'm truly thinking about someone, no matter what.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Let em him know straight up how much of an idiot he is... if he chooses to keep with it and starts to shun you for your opinion on it... then so be it. I will never hold back what I'm truly thinking about someone, no matter what.

Originally Posted by V

Your friend isn't 4. It's your responsibility as a friend to let him know what a pile of crap this is. If your warning goes unheeded, you've done your part.

fair comments ...

[BlackArcher101]

Just be a bit stern with him... but not overly demanding. Just lay it out how you see it but make sure he still understands that he has the option to decide for himself. If he is offended by that, then let him soak in it for a bit and revisit it later... if it continues, then sadly there's not much you can do other than ignore the issue and hopefully he doesn't press it on you.

I just look at the possible outcomes and what could be worse. Being there as a friend and convincing him it's not for him, then he leaves it early.... or not trying to talk him out of it and you watch as his life is affected negatively and/or goes into shambles.

[pylon]

I'd like to also add to this thread that I work as a finance manager at a large car dealership, and I bet once every month or two I get a solicitation from one of the numerous companies like this due to the nature of my work, and my exposure to insurance products and general finance. World financial group actually seems to be the most aggresive.

Anyway, every time the solicitation comes as a thinly veiled attempt to do business with me, with the ultimate agenda being on "come work for us and it will change your life". Yeah.... like ruin it is all I think. I put 10 years on the sales floor to get a chance to work in the finance office, and even at that I was competing with about 20other applicants. Everyone knows that a good career calibre job doesn't usually come in the guise as a headhunter or info seminar. They take years of commitment, education, or loyalty to get there.

First off the majority of the people selling these products are in no way qualified to manage their own finances, let alone mine based on the credit reports I've seen. Many "actual" financial services companies maintain minimum credit score ratings for their employees and do heavy background checks to verify the integrity of the individual. I don't think a 30 person rah rah come work for us session really accomplishes that.

And also being the car business I always ask "so what are you driving?" and it half the time it is a blatant lie when the guy says" "oh, a ummm, BMW 32...um 8.... ummm yeah, thats it" when I see him drive away in his 89 Taurus with blown struts and squealing break rotors he parked around the corner.

Again beware of these companies, and go by the mantra if it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

[Cowboy89]

^ Excellent point Pylon.


I work in Corporate finance and was called out of the blue by Primerica when I was looking for a job in University. They got my info from Monster.ca because I had to use that site to apply for a specific job. I already knew about them due to insurance classes etc. As a finance person if I was hiring people and saw 'Primerica' on a resume I would immediately throw it in the trash. That's another reason for the OP to discourage his friend from doing this.

[FurnaceFace]

Primerica like any other Multi Level Marketing company makes "promises" which a finite number of people have attained, but for which the masses will never get anywhere near. I think most people who start up a MLM business end up handing money to the parent company and never make a dime.

"In a previous life" I worked in the insurance industry for one of the major companies. Also as others have said there is no real qualification needed to sell their products and they are taught - or I should say were taught as I don't know if things have changed - one "tactic" which boils down to "the insurance companies are screwing you, that permanent insurance policy they want to sell you is way overpriced, just buy out term policy and invest the difference."

The argument sounds logical however it isn't always a sound move as it depends on the situation and what their needs are. They were (and perhaps still are) the scourge of the industry as they basically poisoned people against permanent policies and have convinced people to nuke very high quality policies.

I'd tell your friend he might want to do some research into the company and also let him no you have no interest in the products and don't want to heard about it. He can then decide what he wants to do.

[Thor]

Its scary how some of these companies are getting an almost cult like fervor to them, to pray on people desperate and ready to believe in anyone/anything.

Very sad.

[Kipper is King]

A friend of mine once got a job with Vector Marketing (a huge scam, they even swarmed my high school graduation ceremony trying to hire unsuspecting students). Anyhow, he is excitedly telling me about how he'll be "making $16 an hour". An hour later, he phones me, asking me if I would be interested in buying a knife set. The shame in his voice was so thick it could have been cut with a knife...but not crappy Cutco knives that Vector hawks. They couldn't cut a thing!

The next day he quit. And I breathed a sigh of relief.

[simmer2]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Oh that's exactly what gives this an air of legitimacy. Before the credit crisis there was nothing wrong with Citi Life insurance, nor was there anything wrong with the investment vehicles sold either. The reason why it's a scam and the same reason why Citibank uses the Premerica scheme to do sales; the pressure sales on family and friends thing probably sells more products (the guilt factor); preying on laypeople to sell their product by word or mouth and paying them smaller commissions than an insurance broker means lower operating costs.

So add it up from a macro perspective: If Citibank spends less money to sell each product, but has a massive sales force who exactly makes the 6 figures? Also for some people to be making 6 figures, what do the new people make and furthermore how do new people become 'old' salespeople who make the 6 figures? Basically the answer is, it's just as tough or possibly even tougher to make good money out of Premerica than it is through traditional employment means altogether.

I agree with you whole-heartedly, it ends up being a bit of a guilt trip. Insurance agents have troubles accessing certain families, so why not have a friend or family-member do it?

[macker]

Quick....Dream up a brother/sister/uncle/etc. that is in the business and tell him that you are looked after in this area. Remind him that it is not a good idea to mix business with friendship anyways. Let him know that you don't want to waste his time and that it is better spent on other people who may actually use his services. Finances before Friends in this case at least....you owe it to yourself to avoid this kind of biased advice that is the Amway of the financial services industry. If he stays in the business for more than 5 years I would be shocked, and I really hope he doesn't have any dependents!

[ernie]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

A friend of mine once got a job with Vector Marketing (a huge scam, they even swarmed my high school graduation ceremony trying to hire unsuspecting students). Anyhow, he is excitedly telling me about how he'll be "making $16 an hour". An hour later, he phones me, asking me if I would be interested in buying a knife set. The shame in his voice was so thick it could have been cut with a knife...but not crappy Cutco knives that Vector hawks. They couldn't cut a thing!

The next day he quit. And I breathed a sigh of relief.

Vector is indeed slimy and essentially fund there operation on the backs of students desperate for money (they only pay per hour for actual appointments, you could phone for hours to book an appointment). However, the knives aren't actually that bad. They are considered about on par with Henckels. The thing is why sit through some hard sell presentation when you can go down to any department store and get an equal or better quality set of knives?

Thank god I never worked for them. I laughed when they tried to recruit me.

[oilfan69]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

i hear you, but damn how could he have not googled it already?

maybe he knows what it is and wants to see if you're a real friend...

[worth]

I'm pretty sure I had someone from Mount Royal pushing this. I never even met the guy, but he left a couple of messages with my parents after I had moved out for me to call him. He must have got a class list of phone numbers or something. I never called him. It was weird.

[blood_hound2005]

Just a question does anybody here really know something about primerica or do you guys just base your opinion on what you read in the internet, if so dont you think its unfair to trashed a company base on what people read in the internet or with an experience with a bad agent? Because i am a client of them for seven years and im pretty happy with it.Well I'll be the first one to admit that there's always gonna be a bad one in a group. For me the only people who really give them bad reps are competition and people who where thinking primerica is get rich quick shceme...

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by blood_hound2005

Just a question does anybody here really know something about primerica or do you guys just base your opinion on what you read in the internet, if so dont you think its unfair to trashed a company base on what people read in the internet or with an experience with a bad agent? Because i am a client of them for seven years and im pretty happy with it.Well I'll be the first one to admit that there's always gonna be a bad one in a group. For me the only people who really give them bad reps are competition and people who where thinking primerica is get rich quick shceme...

Owner of Empire Vehicle Solutions? Is that you?

[HPLovecraft]

I was approached by people from Primerica awhile ago on the street while working. They gave me their card, etc, and tried to recruit me on the spot - while I was fundraising for a bloody charity. These guys are scammers, straight up. Asked me if I enjoyed fundraising because it's a good cause or because I like getting money from people... Yeesh. Not to mention their name sounds too similar to Kramerica from Seinfeld.

Do a simple search on Google to see what these morons are all about. Go on Craigslist and apply to the infinite number of requests for 'marketers,' and you will be working just about the same job.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Multi-level marketing is not for everyone, first of all. The pitch is manufactured to sound great and get people excited, but doing the actual leg work and continuing to believe in what you are doing as well as the product is often very difficult.

I think everybody tries this sort of thing at least once in their lifetime, or know someone that has. How many people do you know that sticks with it? Few and far between. One friend stuck with Vector for a long time and ended up as a manger of east coast operations in Nova Scotia, getting his start in Calgary. He was really dedicated to it, and at least the product quality was there.

About Primerica and World Financial Group... I dislike the insurance business to begin with. It is extremely difficult to find an agent that is experienced, knowledgable about finance and investing, and not aggressive in trying to sell you a policy. I spent some time with a WFG agent not ever hearing about the company before I went in, and it was painful. The first session was spent figuring out how much disposable income that my family generates each month. The second session was held in an office that was under construction, the morning after he went out all night on a stampede fuelled bender (mind you he knew about our appointment for weeks, and actually suggested that time himself). Very strange that the "right product" for me was a multi million dollar, high fee policy that would have eaten up roughly 100% of my disposable income each month. Oh, it was also great to have him fighting back the urge to vomit, and releasing nasty farts every few minutes. Good times!

Good luck buying just term with them, and if you manage that, good luck buying the actual amount you need. I guarantee you'll also be pouring money into a crappy universal policy that you cannot break and will end up topping up multiple times throughout the term of the policy as the markets FREQUENTLY underperform what is promised by the initial salesman. Also, enjoy paying 5%+ management expense ratios... good lord, there are some garbage products available, and sadly those are the ones that get pushed because those are the products that lead to higher profit and higher commission for the sales person.

Seriously, if your friend wants to get into finance and/or insurance, encourage them get onto the "fee for service" track and learn from someone experienced that is a CFA and has taken the securities trading classes available. You'll actually be helping people in that line of work as opposed to learning how to bilk seniors out of their savings so they can have a useless insurance policy and high risk/high expense equity securities...

Joke.

[Nage Waza]

My very close buddy worked for Walton Land Company (or whatever they are called). He pressured me to start calling my parents more affluent friends to invest in their company. After countless conversations, I basically told him to pound sand. I went to school, studied my ass off, why should I become a salesperson all of a sudden? We basically have not hung out since...this has gone on for five plus years.
Some people cannot see what they have become. There is almost no point in telling your buddy what a fool he is, just try to stay out of the deal itself.

[pepper24]

Joining one of these companies = losing a large portion of your friends

For some dishonest dollars, you lose all of your integrity. I wouldn't hang out with a friend that joined one of these companies. Luckily, none of my friends are this stupid.

It's good to hear that the word is spreading about these joke companies and people aren't falling for them anymore. I always thought that ponzi schemes were illegal.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Multi-level marketing is not for everyone, first of all. The pitch is manufactured to sound great and get people excited, but doing the actual leg work and continuing to believe in what you are doing as well as the product is often very difficult.

I think everybody tries this sort of thing at least once in their lifetime, or know someone that has. How many people do you know that sticks with it? Few and far between. One friend stuck with Vector for a long time and ended up as a manger of east coast operations in Nova Scotia, getting his start in Calgary. He was really dedicated to it, and at least the product quality was there.

About Primerica and World Financial Group... I dislike the insurance business to begin with. It is extremely difficult to find an agent that is experienced, knowledgable about finance and investing, and not aggressive in trying to sell you a policy. I spent some time with a WFG agent not ever hearing about the company before I went in, and it was painful. The first session was spent figuring out how much disposable income that my family generates each month. The second session was held in an office that was under construction, the morning after he went out all night on a stampede fuelled bender (mind you he knew about our appointment for weeks, and actually suggested that time himself). Very strange that the "right product" for me was a multi million dollar, high fee policy that would have eaten up roughly 100% of my disposable income each month. Oh, it was also great to have him fighting back the urge to vomit, and releasing nasty farts every few minutes. Good times!

Good luck buying just term with them, and if you manage that, good luck buying the actual amount you need. I guarantee you'll also be pouring money into a crappy universal policy that you cannot break and will end up topping up multiple times throughout the term of the policy as the markets FREQUENTLY underperform what is promised by the initial salesman. Also, enjoy paying 5%+ management expense ratios... good lord, there are some garbage products available, and sadly those are the ones that get pushed because those are the products that lead to higher profit and higher commission for the sales person.

Seriously, if your friend wants to get into finance and/or insurance, encourage them get onto the "fee for service" track and learn from someone experienced that is a CFA and has taken the securities trading classes available. You'll actually be helping people in that line of work as opposed to learning how to bilk seniors out of their savings so they can have a useless insurance policy and high risk/high expense equity securities...

Joke.

Good post except for the fee-for service part. I've done a bunch of this for clients and have seen the light. Its a long story, but this is really doing a dis-service to a lot of people in my opinion. I don't want to de-rail this though. I think that while there might be the odd good person with Primerica they are also doing a disservice to people, just in a different way.