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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...
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I've been there, done that, ran like hel1.
I'm not saying that Primerica is no good for everyone, BTW. They'll take on small clients the rest of us don't really want and get them started in a general right direction, but eventually is blows up, or the client gets smart and realizes why they should be somewhere else.
I'm a certified financial planner with a large (legit) financial planning, investment company. About 15 years ago I wanted to get into financial services. The only "advisor" I knew was with Primerica and he was very successful. I joined Primerica. I lasted about 3-4 months, and left not for the reason 99% of those folks leave (because they make so little money) but because their corporate culture and philosophies frankly disgusted me.
They're a cult. There is no doubt about that. They will deny it, just as they deny all of the other claims against them. I think that Primerical advisors (to use that term very loosely) are armed and dangerous. However, ever more dangerous is World Financial Group, because of their desire to get everyone into leveraged programs.
Here are some of my favourite objections to Primerica.
"We have the best training in the business." Sure you do. If you call getting 20 similar-minded flakes in a room and pumping them up to get everyone they know into the cult and sell their products, with a rah-rah style, well that's their training. Think Billy Graham crusade, and that's what Primerica's mass meetings are like.
"Buy tern and invest the difference." Generally, correct, but they absolutely refuse to consider that in some cases permanent insurance is the right product for certain applications. It's like a hockey coach saying that a running play is always the best option in a football game. Well, sometimes the game situation calls for a passing play.
"Everyone can do this business and easily make six-figure incomes." One of my clients told me that he was approached by a Primerica person who tried to recruit him with that line. My client said, I don't think anyone can handle complex financial issues and don't want to associate with a company that feels that way. As for the high incomes, very, very few of them reach those income targets, and many of those who do, do so in my opinion at the expenses of morals. I'd rather work at 7-11 for the rest of my life than do some of the things I know those people do to make money, doing what I consider is wrong.
"Designations? Why?" Those folks have absolutely no meaningful training. Once I was in the business for a few years, I knew how much I didn't know about this very complex field I wanted to work in. I wanted to get my CFP designation. I know lots of Primerica flakes and am not aware of any of them who has a designation, wants to get a designation or feels it's important. "It would just cut into my recuiting time for me to put in the time," one per son told me once.
"I sell mutual funds and term insurance. What else do I need to know about?" This may be my favourite piece of drivel they spew. When one of my clients gets a severance package, my staff and I know exactly how to handle it and how to steer them through the process. We can save them taxes. Most of these Primerica flakes have no idea about these things and I can almost guarantee they make errors.
I could go on and on and on on this, because it's one of my favourite topics. I detest firms that screw people around through bad business practices all the while preaching the wonderful business opportunity so that they can lure others into the cult so there are more of them out there to do the same thing.
I write a financial column in some newspapers and years ago got a call from a Primerica person in an office near mine. He said he liked my articles and wanted to meet with me to talk about how I could joining Primerica. I know his office. There were about five Primerica reps working there. I was pretty sure I was already outearning his entire office and told him I wasn't interested. I was doing well enough, thanks but no thanks.
I can guarantee that there are Primerica reps in this forum and I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I eagerly await someone's rebuttal. I'd love nothing more than to get one of them in a face-to-face debate so I can debunk their feeble claims. I know their lies because I saw them spewing their nonsense from the inside and I ran like hel1.
If you're a Primerica client and are happy, good for you. You'll find out one day, or worse yet you won't find out what I'm takking about and the'll do something that will damage you financially.
