Dirty little stepchild of the industry. They serve low net worth investors, and from what i have heard from people who had dealings with them, the advisors don't have a clue about investing. Let alone Planning

Sort of on the same level as H&R Block Advisors

Primerica has been a joke for years, therefore you'll hear little from anyone here as they're not taken very seriously. Are there successful reps there? Yes and No.  The very very few who succeed soon leave for a real firm to gain some credibility in the biz.

Oh gosh. Sickening. I overheard a rep once in Starbucks say they had over 100 million reps, he then corrected himself to say over 100,000. How do you screw that up? A few that I've met are incredibly pushy and a lot of their products are garbage. Sportsfreak hit the nail on the head, the vast majority of them are ignorant about investing. They care more about setting up their "downline". It's multi-level marketing with a financial twist. RUN

It's a MLM firm.  Seriously.  Their moto is buy term and invest the rest.  Garbage.

Exactly - think Avon Lady, or Amway

When it comes to investing people's nest egg, why on Earth would anyone want to go with a MLM busienss.  That seems HIGHLY contrary to investments.  Sounds like there are a lot of suckers out there!

When you are kinda low on the totum pole you don't get many cold calls from MSSB and ML. BondGuy spends a lot of his own personal time calling on Primerica clients that are taken advantage of by an obviously republican owned company (because only repubs screw over the poor). He has built an amazing book by taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

Put it this way, EJ is to Walmart as Primerica is to Dollar General.

I can understand the concerns of some of the veterans on this site when it comes to primerica. The problem i have is that everyone here assumes that everyone in primerica is uneducated/ backward. The truth is that most big leaders in primerica have more life insurance in force than a lot of entire companies.

Another truth is that some times and maybe a lot of times they hire the WRONG people, but let me ask you this. If the people they hire are bad at what they do, do you think that those people would last long? Obviously not. Then the client is inherited by someone who does know what he is doing and is taken care of.

On the investing side of the business there are only 24000 licensed people. The entire concept is get your leader into the door of someone who would otherwise not have an adviser (since no one at ML or DW will work with someone w/out $100,000 to move) and teach them the truth about money i.e. the rule of 72 and the 4 funny banking rules.

Think about if your mom only had 100 dollars to invest per month and started when she was 25. Would you rather her put in in the bank and 40 years later have $ 60 000, or have her primerica rep refer her to an expert from American funds or Invesco and have her make roughly $640 000 at 10%. How many of you are going to take your time to set up a $100 per month PAC.
Get a life and quit doggin on people who help people you won’t.

BTW burtonfinancial most successful people in PFS stay and make 6 or 7 figures the rest of their life. Do your research next time

[quote=Mateo]I can understand the concerns of some of the veterans on this site when it comes to primerica. The problem i have is that everyone here assumes that everyone in primerica is uneducated/ backward. The truth is that most big leaders in primerica have more life insurance in force than a lot of entire companies. Another truth is that some times and maybe a lot of times they hire the WRONG people, but let me ask you this. If the people they hire are bad at what they do, do you think that those people would last long? Obviously not. Then the client is inherited by someone who does know what he is doing and is taken care of. On the investing side of the business there are only 24000 licensed people. The entire concept is get your leader into the door of someone who would otherwise not have an adviser (since no one at ML or DW will work with someone w/out $100,000 to move) and teach them the truth about money i.e. the rule of 72 and the 4 funny banking rules. Think about if your mom only had 100 dollars to invest per month and started when she was 25. Would you rather her put in in the bank and 40 years later have $ 60 000, or have her primerica rep refer her to an expert from American funds or Invesco and have her make roughly $640 000 at 10%. How many of you are going to take your time to set up a $100 per month PAC. Get a life and quit doggin on people who help people you won’t. BTW burtonfinancial most successful people in PFS stay and make 6 or 7 figures the rest of their life. Do your research next time[/quote]

Uh oh everybody, looks like we uncovered a MLM rep here in Mateo.  Primerica is a permanent black eye on the financial services industry.  Clients of Primerica don't get taken care of period.  There might be 2 worthwhile reps in the country - And those are the only two with an education that went beyond their HS diploma. 

I can't tell you how many people from PFS tell me that they are going to make 6 or 7 figures for the rest of their life.  That must be the one-liner from the video they show you with Donald Trump in the background saying "I endorse this firm."  Sorry Mateo, watching a 15 minute video at a friends house does not make you qualified to even mention finances around anyone.

What are the 4 funny banking rules?

When I think of MLM in the financial services industry, I not only think of Primerica, but World Financial Group (WFG). When I did my insurance training years ago, there were several WFG reps in the class and their only focus was VUL policies. The instructor had to come down on them.

That seems HIGHLY contrary to investments.  Sounds like there are a lot of suckers out there!

Dug up an old post. =)

I interviewed with MassMutual/Northwestern Mutual/ING/EDJ while I was looking for an FA job. I ended up choosing ING Financial Partners, was with them for one month. $500/month E&O at the ING indy I was at, no personal office or cubicle, paper applications for everything from insurance to mutual funds, although decent commission rips 44.44% on insurance/mutual funds but no room to grow into management. Then ended up with Primerica. Why you asked? I liked the idea of MLM. I knew early on, that I would someday want to be a trainer/coach/owner.

How does Primerica work?
Entry level commission rips are not great by any means.
25% of annual premium on life insurance and 30% of the 5% Class A share fee. But, for $99 and $25/month you can access life insurance and series 6/63 test preparation materials. And if you pass the life insurance exam, they will pay for your series 6/63.

What products do they offer?
2 Term life products; custom advantage and termnow. custom advantage provides coverage of $150k to $1mm. Termnow provides coverage of $1k to $250k. The custom advantage product is pretty comparable to many other products in industry. While termnow is slightly a bit more expensive.

At first, I decided on ING Financial Partners. Then I realized that the indy I was at was not for me. They suggested that I push whole life cash value policies. I have the illustrator tool. I made comparisions of buying term and investing the difference and it was startling. Not to mention investing the difference provides liquidity as compared to cash value insurance.

My first year, I focused solely on insurance sales from monday - thursday from 9-5. I mostly go door to door handing out my cards and brochures. I got this business model from this forum and EDJ experiences. So I gave it a shot. My first year, I managed to make $36/k. Not a lot of money and I don’t have any residuals but this was my first sales job.

Now onto mutual funds.
We have funds offered by JP Morgan, Legg Mason, Franklin Temptleton, Lincoln Financial Partners, and Invesco. I haven’t dabbled much in mutual funds because there are no aum trails unless you are promoted to a certain level.

True, there are a lot of horror stories about Primerica. Many souls at Primerica are very liberal in their recruiting but not so attentive to training/coaching their recruits. Hence, why there are so many bad experiences about Primerica.

I on the other hand have developed 2 weeks worth of training which covers how to open accounts, use illustrators, present financial concepts, and our financial needs analysis.

I only have one year experience selling life insurance but again it was my first sales job.

Btw: Primerica’s life insurance business is rated A+ by A.M. Best.

Recruiting
It is MLM. So you won’t survive as a sales rep at Primerica. You must build a team to move up in the commission structure. But you do get paid on the sales of your downlines. I’ve heard about so many stories about selling to friends and family. Those are probably true. But I on the other hand have developed many scripts for cold calling, door knocking, and other methods of marketing and advertising such as networking, and building a referral base.

There are good Primerica reps out there. Just not as many as I would hope there could be. For a company as liberal as it is in its recruiting, there’s no doubt why there are bad experiences posted.

My own experience
My upline or the person who recruited me was a flatout liar. He never trained me. He pretty much left me to my own devices. I had to learn this business all on my own. Thanks to many forums, I got a lot of questions answered. And I always thought to myself that when I recruit people, I would be much different. I’ll provide training and tools to succeed. I’ll manage my teams and develop prospecting teams. So they can go door to door or business to business together and make contacts. I would print presentation materials for them. I would help them in essence.

Will I succeed?
Recruiting people into the world of FA is tough as it is. No guaranteed income, straight commission, have to get licensed, steep learning curve. But I do believe one thing, that anyone can succeed in this business with the right tools and most of all drive. I think so many of you would agree that to succeed in the business world, you need drive. Gotta be willing to put in the hours. So honestly, I can’t say I will survive but apart of my plan is to invest $10-15k into recruiting. I’m renting an office, I have a recruiting marketing plan(See 85 people a week, hopefully, I get 7-9 recruits), I have presentation materials, compensation examples, and will conduct 20 minute Q&A sessions with everyone so I can address their needs. There’s no point in me recruiting everyone that walks into the door. I need salespersons and management professionals. Either you’re willing to commit to a career of sales or a career as a recruiter/trainer/coach. That’s my motto, it is actually a waste of time for me to take $99 from someone who won’t get licensed, won’t prospect, and won’t produce results. I don’t get paid on the initial $99 so why would I want to fill out an application for someone who’s not going to produce.

This is a real testimony of a Primerica rep with some honest truth.

Recruiting
It is MLM. So you won’t survive as a sales rep at Primerica. You must build a team to move up in the commission structure.

So what you are saying is NO person working there is acutally a long term planner. Everyone is a recruiter.

How can that possibly work?

[quote=Amber_M]Recruiting
It is MLM. So you won’t survive as a sales rep at Primerica. You must build a team to move up in the commission structure.

So what you are saying is NO person working there is acutally a long term planner. Everyone is a recruiter.

How can that possibly work?[/quote]

You have a little bit of an idea of how it works but not necessarily. It isn’t truly a pyramid scheme. Why? Because you aren’t paid to recruit but paid on the sales of your recruits. Recruiting is senseless if the recruits do not produce some sales. It really is a two-part process; you generally make sales and then recruit the client. The idea is that if the client is happy with the product, he/she may enjoy selling it. That’s how i’ve recruited for the past year. However, i’m transitioning into a full-time recruiter/trainer role to build a team of sales agents.

To get to a comparable commission standard of say, 50% on life insurance sales and mutual funds. You must do the following;

To get to the district leader level you must:
A. Recruit 3 people
B. Of those 3 people, 1 of them must recruit 3 people.
C. You must have life insurance sales of $2500 in one month(this can include team sales, or the sales of your recruits).

Now if you’re comfortable with a commission standard of 50% on life insurance sales, then that’s all the recruiting you must do to get a comparable industry standard commission rate; recruit 3 people.

There are individuals comfortable at the 50% commission level because it is pretty comparable to the industry standard. There are actually quite a few district leaders, many of whom focus solely on sales.

It is another story to get to the RVP level which is highly desired. Life insurance commission is 110%, mutual sales commission is 62.5% of B/D charge, and AUM trails of 0.766%. The life insurance sales commission is nearly double that of most firms; metlife, ny life, massmutual, ing etc.

In order to get to the RVP level, you must have a team which produces $25,000 in life insurance premium for two months straight. You can only be accountable for $10,000 of that life premium, $15,000 must come from your recruits. In addition, you must produce 4 district leaders(4 people who have recruited 3 people etc, as shown above). So it is impossible to focus solely on sales if you want a good commission standard. Once promoted, you are never downgraded, you won’t have to recruit anymore.

So to sum things up; those who focus “SOLELY” on sales at Primerica usually don’t survive. The main thing to note about Primerica is that 90% of individuals with the company work part-time and usually hold other jobs. Why you ask, because the company encourages recruitment of those who already have a job, partly because it is showcased as a part-time income opportunity. You only pay $25/month for financial needs analysis tools, pdf marketing materials, e&o insurance(The lowest price for E&O on the internet is $495/year from eoforless.com), and online applications for life insurance and mutual funds.

The main reason people don’t survive is that they find it difficult to get to that district leader level. Once at that level, it is pretty difficult to find a comparable insurance/mutual fund company that offers the same benefits; no sales quota, $25/month charge. In addition, I’ve found that many individuals who get licensed often leave to a rival firm such as MetLife, MassMutual, Northwestern Mutual or some other insurance/mutual fund company. Primerica is partly a licensing mule for the financial services industry; you get life/health insurance and series 6/63 for about $200 if you acquire the licenses within 3 months of joining. There is no contract to sign nor do you have to repay the licensing fees should you leave the company immediately after passing the exam. All other insurance/mutual fund companies such as MassMutual/ING Direct/Northwestern Mutual/MetLife/NY Life/Prudential/AXA Advisors make their employees pay for licensing and E&O insurance. Two things that Primerica does not require you to pay.

Most independent financial advisory firms charge fees for E&O insurance, office space, technology/fna tools etc. I’m not comparing it to a wirehouse which pays for all of that. But it is not easy to get a foot in the door of a wirehouse with no sales experience.

I’ve contemplated a move into MSSB/ML/WF to target high networth individuals. However, I still don’t meet that 3 year sales requirement that most big firms have. ML PMD has asked for 3+ years of sales experience and MSSB gave me an interview only to say more sales experience is necessary. I guess that’s just how it works in southern california. I’ve read so many stories of individuals getting into ML PMD/MSSB/WF straight out of college on this forum and it baffles me because the only interview I’ve ever gotten for an FA role during college was for Private Wealth Management and that’s not even sales if you don’t complete the two year analyst stint.

I can understand why individuals push others to join wirehouses. I’d honestly say go for ML/MSSB/WF over Primerica. But some people need some sales experience before the big names will even look at them. And Primerica is a place for that. I can simply print out my sales reports, aum/life insurance in force reports from morningstar, etc and walk into a wirehouse showing that I have made sales. I did that but they have asked for more sales experience. Go figure.

To sum things up, if you don’t recruit those 3 people, of which 1 recruits 3 people, there’s no reason to stay at Primerica because you could go to MetLife/MassMutual/ING Direct/NY Life/AXA/Prudential and get a 50% life insurance sales commission. But that commission rate is fixed at 50%. Whereas at Primerica, you can earn 110% commission but you can only get there by recruiting for some period, it could be a month, it could be a year, or it could take you years to get there. Some opt for the fast track, and that is to recruit heavily which I intend on doing. From the advice of one of my colleagues who has made it to the RVP level. It took him 1 year of recruiting heavily, averaging a total of 8-10 recruits a month to get those four district leaders and $25,000 of team premium per month. The thing that most people don’t understand is that a shop which produces $25,000 in team premium results in the owner or head recruiter receiving about $10,000/month in income. Now, my buddy, focuses more on mutual fund sales, last month he brought in just over $1mm in mutual fund sales which netted him a commission of just over 6k. He states an average month is about 20k in income of which about 10k comes from his own personal production and 10k from his team of approximately 70 individuals, most of whom, he says, works part-time. That doesn’t include his AUM trails, if you are an RVP and have about $15mm AUM, your yearly commission trails is about $115k. So if you do the math, at other firms, you get what 50% of a 1.5% annual fee, for $15mm, that’s $112k. Pretty comparable, right? Many RVPs don’t recruit so heavily and are more focused on mutual fund sales now as Primerica has become more accommodating to securities sales.

Some people think this is all Kool-aid that I’m feeding. But i’m being honest, you have to recruit for a specified time period before you can really succeed with Primerica. Recruiting is harder than life insurance/mutual fund sales. You have to convince people to either A. Change careers or B. Take on a part-time career. On top of that, the position is straight commission, you must be licensed, and it is sales oriented. Not everyone is naturally good at sales or a good test taker or willing to try a commission based job.

Dirty little stepchild of the industry. They serve low net worth investors, and from what i have heard from people who had dealings with them, the advisors don’t have a clue about investing. Let alone Planning

Sort of on the same level as H&R Block Advisors

Perhaps you’re too obtuse and arrogant to see, but did you ever consider that the low/mid income people you deride wouldn’t otherwise invest if Primerica agents weren’t out there working their system? Don’t ya think that that just might be a good thing? Your smug attitude is a big reason why this segment of the population stays away from financial services. You sound like a total scumbag. A dirty little stepchild of humanity if you like.

“sportsfreakbob”. lol. #douchebag

Primerica has been a joke for years, therefore you’ll hear little from anyone here as they’re not taken very seriously. Are there successful reps there? Yes and No.  The very very few who succeed soon leave for a real firm to gain some credibility in the biz.

SO… you see them not being seen as “credible” or “serious” as more important than how many people they help? I’m looking at their 2010 numbers and they have over 50 sales people who make 7 figures - more than any other financial firm. They have 2,000 sales people who make 6 figures - more than any other financial firm. When they did their IPO in 2010, their share price was $19.15. Today, it’s $39.64.

If you strip away your obsessive need to be seen as posh and glamorous, you might just see that the facts demonstrate that they are a force of good in the world. Facts. You know what I’m talking about?

When it comes to investing people’s nest egg, why on Earth would anyone want to go with a MLM busienss.  That seems HIGHLY contrary to investments.  Sounds like there are a lot of suckers out there!

You have failed to mention why their marketing model is inherently bad? I swear, you guys aren’t half as smart as you think you are. You make statements w/o any explanation or facts backing them up. Fops! None of what any of you have written, save NumbersGeek, is helpful or thoughtful or fair-minded.

I am happy to be associated with Primerica. It is unfortunate that there are so many misconceptions concerning such a strong company. Rather than share my opinion or comment on the opinions of others, I suggest any person looking for an opportunity to understand that Primerica is a publicly traded company on the NYSE, represents many large investment companies, and is very profitable for those who work.

I encourage to you go to www.primericabusinessopportunity.com for a better understanding of the company. I would be happy to visit with anyone that has an interest or has questions. My name is Cinder Puckett and my phone number is 318-682-4878.