Whats Up with Licoln Heritage

[MarkForte]

Each time I see LH name come up there seems to be a flurry of negative talk. This forum attracts a lot of new agents looking for good information. I would like to hear from the group. The good, the ba, and the ugly about LH. This could help agents looking for a home.

There was a somewhat threatening statement from a LH member to an independant member. Thats not nice.

 

[jdeasy]

The only good you hear about LH here comes from marketers for LH. Even if they had correct information to share it certainly is not unbiased info for an agent to count on.

Every now and then there will be a wet behind the ears agent that pops up here praising LH because they are still drinking the kool aid. A few months later they either come back saying how wrong they were or they just disappear.

 

[John Galt]

Each time I see LH name come up there seems to be a flurry of negative talk. This forum attracts a lot of new agents looking for good information. I would like to hear from the group. The good, the ba, and the ugly about LH. This could help agents looking for a home.

There was a somewhat threatening statement from a LH member to an independant member. Thats not nice.

Yea, I agree with JD, however I like them cause I replace them. Extremely overpriced.

 

[gordon112]

The good....only one thing, training, and that is if you are with the right manager.


The Bad...

TOO MANY THINGS TO LIST!

 

[Norwayguy]

First if you have found this forum then you have choices. LH claims to be able to place 98% of the people you meet which is a definatly plus. What is left out of that is that a large percentage of the 98% will go on the modified plan when they could get immediate coverage from another carrier...That is bad for the client and for you, its bad for you because LH drops your comp on the modified plan.

Second the LH guys talk about subsidized leads and being able to get fresh leads every week. This is true it is important to continue to get fresh leads. The problem is how fresh are they. I took a contract with LH (I know) and my manager was always talking about how if you run through all your leads you can buy more.....You have to stop and think for a moment direct mail leads take time to create so were are these leads coming from....Well my answer came as soon as I was assigned my first leads. I recieved an email that my manager had assigned x number of leads to me....So the question is if the manager is assigning the lead do they get first five the LH managers say no and I have no idea but what the LH system shows you is the return date of the leads my leads had been returned over a month before....So here is the answer the managers have to buy all the leads created by LH in there area and before you can get the leads returned this week the manager has to sell and have worked all the previously returned leads. Also they talk about the leads being subsidized and costing $50 and you only paying $25....There are IMOs on here that teach you who to buy leads from no claims of subsidizing but you can buy leads at a set price for $29 or less so how subsidized are these leads really.

A LH manager has mentioned LH generates leads from existing customers wanting to buy more coverage...This is good as you should be able to convert more but left out us something these leads will be part of you 20 you buy per week and you pay for them and you may not get a lead for an increase on someone you sold because they are not considered your customer. As an independent you also can recieve requests to increase coverage.

Lastly is the comp levels. Agents on here talk about 100% and 120% levels these are known as street level what a carrier allows an IMO to put out without requiring a production history or requirement....Now the LH managers will tell you 120% of 0 is still $0 as a way to distract you from being started at 60% or 80% and you have to remember those levels they mention get reduced if you sell a modified policy or take a debit card my contract paid as earned 40% if the client used a debit card so on a $50 per month sale I would make $20 per month as an independent you could have gotten 120% and advanced $600 x 120% = $660 x 75% advance = $495 if I have done the math right in my head for cash flow right now.

 

[Newby]

Peter summed it up pretty well. I'll add a couple of points:

LH says they can place 98% of the applicants.
Americo can place 100% of the applicants. Settlers can place 98%, Gerber can place 100% but an independent working with several good companies can plance 100% AND put them in a better value than any one company could.

LH says their leads cost $50 to generate: Wrong!
90% of the agents around the country can generate their own direct mail leads simply by calling a lead vendor and paying for the order and get leads for around $25 each AND screen for the ages they want, incomes they want and any other fine tuning they want to do. And where does the money to buy these leads come from? From the extra commission you get by not selling LH.

Lincoln Heritage claims their free membership to Funeral Consumer Guardian Society is a huge plus. There is no debate that even if it has any benefit at all, those people who like it can buy it cheaper than Lincoln "gives" it to them as a free enticement to buy their over priced policy. On top of that the consumer could buy a membership into any one of several real Funeral Consumer organizations that wasn't a sales gimmick for an insurance company a whole lot cheaper and be placing their trust with a real unbiased organization.

Zero percent of 120=0, zero percent of 80=0 too. Independent agents selling on higher contracts with better priced companies with PROPER TRAINING have the best chance to succeed and prosper. Taking a low contract doesn't help you, it hurts you.

 

[jacobtn]

Each time I see LH name come up there seems to be a flurry of negative talk. This forum attracts a lot of new agents looking for good information. I would like to hear from the group. The good, the ba, and the ugly about LH. This could help agents looking for a home.

There was a somewhat threatening statement from a LH member to an independant member. Thats not nice.

go with LH, and sell in TN and GA. We need more inventory down this way, it's slim pickins these days.

 

[KenoKat88]

Each time I see LH name come up there seems to be a flurry of negative talk. This forum attracts a lot of new agents looking for good information. I would like to hear from the group. The good, the ba, and the ugly about LH. This could help agents looking for a home.

There was a somewhat threatening statement from a LH member to an independant member. Thats not nice.

After recently coming from Lincoln Heritage I will give you my experience.

The Good
Simple application & paperwork
Home office customer service & support
Quick deposit into agents’ bank account

The Bad

Overpriced product – Easily replaceable which leads to chargebacks. Also not affordable to a lot of clients, a lot of lapses. Terrible outrages prices on children's whole life products.

Low Contracts – A new agents struggles, even they got a generous 70% contract, if you consistently have leads & chargebacks you are really only making 35%.And that is off your best cases (Final Expense & checking account) they reduce 20% on modified. The reason is; Lincoln is such a great company for agents they don’t want you to inherit a ton of chargebacks so they reduce your commission because they don’t expect the modified client to live long. Also lead drops are in poorer neighborhoods,you don’t get advanced on direct express. I wrote 4k in one day and made $453.

Renewals –Some of the lowest I’ve seen in the industry. The agency I was at led you to believe these are "lifetime'. Renewals are only paid for 10 years.

Training –When I first started there was no training. Now the agency has a specified trainer, but you have to pay for your own training. It’s mandatory

FCGS – This is misleading to the consumer, most agents don’t explain it well enough and a lot of clients think they are purchasing a pre-need.

The Ugly

Changing rules constantly – I had a friend that was honest when he was hired. He said he mainly writes other lines of insurance and wanted a FE company to add to his portfolio. He was never a big producer or expected to be. After a few months they fired him, not due to “no” production just “low” production. He was bringing down the agencies average.

No control over down line – You had to maintain 8K to keep your agents. I could see if these were agents that were recruited at a manager sponsored event. But they also took personal recruits. Some people would quit because they were no longer under their friend who hired them in.

Training –Some of it was borderline unethical.

Fellow Agents- If you were not talking Lincoln Insurance, they didn’t want to hear anything else. They are taught and believed that almost every company out there cannot compare to Lincoln. Therefore with their lack of knowledge & unwillingness to learn they end up hurting consumers more than helping.

There are many other reasons why I left Lincoln, but in my honest opinion I would never recommend this company to anybody. If you choose to work for Lincoln, you will work harder to get to the same place you could get to as an independent. This career is hard enough without all the extra challenges Lincoln throws at you. The ones at the top make a lot of money, but then there is a huge gap from that person to an agent. The people at my office all think they are going to be rich and make a million dollars like the state agency manager. Let’s see, there are 200 of you, and only 50 states and most of them are locked up. You’ll have a better chance of hitting the lottery and making a million than being a Lincoln agent chasing the carrot.

 

[Life4me]

If their product is over priced and they pay lower commissions to their agents, how do they stay in business and claim to be the most successful FE company?

 

[jdeasy]

If their product is over priced and they pay lower commissions to their agents, how do they stay in business and claim to be the most successful FE company?

Maybe someone is not telling the truth?

But, they don't claim to be the most successful. They claim to be the largest producer of FE. That's been shot down many times but they claim it anyway. But just say it's true?

Just means people are buying it without knowing their options. Once they are informed of their options things change.

I think AARP is number 1 in selling term for FE. Does that mean they are good?

I've never understood the number 1 claim anyway. It sure seems important to the LH managers.