Primerica Question

[Guest]

Morning!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give some insight on Primerica. I'm getting ready to jump into the insurance fray and have been getting calls from them and recently went to an insurance class that consisted of 3/4 of the room full of Primerica. I did a search but couldn't pull any results.

Now I have no desire to join them due to my rudimentary knowledge of the company (too cultish MLM-ish for my taste) however I realized I really have no foundation for my gut feeling on them. I found out my best friend has his med & life insurance thru them which surprised the heck out of me due to the fact my friend is a very smart business owner (which really has nothing to do with anything except the "funny" feeling I have in my gut about the company.)

Is my gut wrong about them? Should I be a bit more open minded and less judgemental?

A follow-up question - if I'm right and the company is that unreputable - should I be concerned about my friend having his insurance thru them? Is their coverage dependable?

 

[Third Joker]

Morning!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give some insight on Primerica. I'm getting ready to jump into the insurance fray and have been getting calls from them and recently went to an insurance class that consisted of 3/4 of the room full of Primerica. I did a search but couldn't pull any results.

Now I have no desire to join them due to my rudimentary knowledge of the company (too cultish MLM-ish for my taste) however I realized I really have no foundation for my gut feeling on them. I found out my best friend has his med & life insurance thru them which surprised the heck out of me due to the fact my friend is a very smart business owner (which really has nothing to do with anything except the "funny" feeling I have in my gut about the company.)

Is my gut wrong about them? Should I be a bit more open minded and less judgemental?

A follow-up question - if I'm right and the company is that unreputable - should I be concerned about my friend having his insurance thru them? Is their coverage dependable?

If you want to be a professional in the financial services business, Primerica is a bad place to work. Your take on their "cultish MLM" nature is right on.

* They are the "Buy Term, Invest the Difference" continuation of A.L. Williams. I don't care what anybody says, BTID isn't right for everybody (hmmmm...is it best for anybody?) and if you work for Primerica, you will learn to sling "blue sky", often to the detriment of your clients.

* Their contracts are terrible. I think the starting contract there is 25%! In order to get bigger contracts, you are forced to recruit people into the business as well as produce.

* They practice a method of "recruiting to sell", claiming that this is somehow a wonderful prospecting method, letting you AVOID the "painful and difficult" process of actually prospecting for new business. In truth, this "bring me a list of your "top 25" contacts is nothing more than a method of burning through your wark market, recruiting and possibly building your upline's book of business in the event that you burn out of the business.

Bottom line: Be a professional. Go independent or go somewhere that you will learn how to serve your clients real needs, without the "blue sky" nonsense and "MLM cult" mentality.

Oh, and yes, the coverage is dependable, just like any other highly rated insurance company. Of course it's also overpriced, but that's a whole new post...

 

[thespur1]

run dont walk

 

[gzpxyj]

Morning!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give some insight on Primerica. I'm getting ready to jump into the insurance fray and have been getting calls from them and recently went to an insurance class that consisted of 3/4 of the room full of Primerica. I did a search but couldn't pull any results.

Now I have no desire to join them due to my rudimentary knowledge of the company (too cultish MLM-ish for my taste) however I realized I really have no foundation for my gut feeling on them. I found out my best friend has his med & life insurance thru them which surprised the heck out of me due to the fact my friend is a very smart business owner (which really has nothing to do with anything except the "funny" feeling I have in my gut about the company.)

Is my gut wrong about them? Should I be a bit more open minded and less judgemental?

A follow-up question - if I'm right and the company is that unreputable - should I be concerned about my friend having his insurance thru them? Is their coverage dependable?

Primerica recruited a lot people per year but their number of agents was down last year. Many Primerica agents quit or joined the independent side. It had the good concept of "buy the term and invest the difference". But in my opinion, it went too far to sell term only, an one shoe fits all. Their term life insurance is over priced. I believe the company is for sale at this point but no taker. Citi group is brought down in part by Primerica who made a lot of sub-prime mortgage loans with those who could not afford. That is why Citi group is trying to sell the Primerica.
There are a lot of opportunities out there. Primerica is one of them. To some, it is a gold field. But to me, it is not very good one.

 

[thespur1]

run away fast

 

[LGilmore]

the buy term and invest the difference concept sells much better in an up market, not a down market.. buy term and lose your investment some how just doesn't get the juices flowing quite the same way.

What you need to know about Prime.. An average carrier with and average product. What that means is they are neither the price leader for term products, nor the industry standard of companies. Their sales are based on "everybody's bad guys but us". Since they are exactly the same with exactly the same products... how are they really different? Their product is replaced without alot of effort by better priced term products from other companies with as strong or stronger ratings.

So as long as a person doesn't compare to anything else, well then, they've got a bargin....

As far as getting into the battle of permanent vs. term.. who cares? It a waste of effort. Buy what you want, If down the road you figure you screwed up, figure out how bad you did and if you can fix it.

Me? I figure down the road if I lost money on my permanent choice... I only lost a small amount (the return difference between my policy and a bond fund), but I have insurance for the rest of my life. AND GET THIS... IF THIS IS THE ONLY MONEY I HAVE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TERM PREMIUM AND A PERMANENT PREMIUM FOR RETIREMENT INVESTMENT, WELL, AREN'T THERE OTHER PROBLEMS THAT ARE MORE PRESSING?

 

[wfs]

They have the right idea, but BTID is not 100% for everyone. If you believe in btid, then you can do MUCH better by going independent with better products and higher comp. Forget their system. Seriously. Starting a new agent out at 30% (or whatever it is now) is crazy. As a newby, you should get AT LEAST 70% or more. Anything less is most likely greedy.

I love to sell term, and sell it most of the time. But to say that term is the best product for everyone is irresponsible. Not to mention the MLM thing. Not that it is a wrong marketing concept, because I don't think that it is. But MLM can cloud your judgement. The client MUST always come first!!! MLM and it's one-size-fits-all approach is bad. It was for AL Williams/Primerica. It was with Hubert Humphrey and WMA (now World Financial Group). It just is. If you are serious about insurance, lurk these boards, learn, and ask questions.

 

[SalemInsuranceGuy]

Morning!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give some insight on Primerica. I'm getting ready to jump into the insurance fray and have been getting calls from them and recently went to an insurance class that consisted of 3/4 of the room full of Primerica. I did a search but couldn't pull any results.

Now I have no desire to join them due to my rudimentary knowledge of the company (too cultish MLM-ish for my taste) however I realized I really have no foundation for my gut feeling on them. I found out my best friend has his med & life insurance thru them which surprised the heck out of me due to the fact my friend is a very smart business owner (which really has nothing to do with anything except the "funny" feeling I have in my gut about the company.)

Is my gut wrong about them? Should I be a bit more open minded and less judgemental?

A follow-up question - if I'm right and the company is that unreputable - should I be concerned about my friend having his insurance thru them? Is their coverage dependable?

To Primerica's credit they do sell a lot of term and cover a lot of people. Your friends coverage in place with them is fine. The important thing is he has coverage in place. Now that being said, he is probably over paying for the coverage he has through Primerica. If you go independent it will open the door for you to replace his coverage at a better price.

Your gut instinct is dead on. They are very cultish. Many of the agents lack training and believe all cash value life is evil and must be replaced and all insurance agents who sell cash value are evil. While I'm a big fan of buy term and invest the difference for most people, it's not for all of them. I actually replaced a small face amount Primerica term policy with a whole life policy cheaper.

Even on the business side the starting commission is very low. Your top 25 list is your uplines lead system. He'll sell your friends and family and make his money. Then it's up to you to recruit people to sell their friends and family. Also let's say you make it to the covetted RVP position. Your upline will now take your best leg, which is all the people producing about 90% of your income. You have to quit your job, work full time for Primerica, rent an office, hire an assistant and have no producing reps. Just a contract and a good luck handshake. I've known many RVPs who lost everything at this point.

One other point is Primerica believes so strongly in buy term and invest the difference. Well that is until they run into a cash value policy from Travelors Insurance, which they are not allowed to replace. Funny how it's in the clients best interest until it's taking money away from their company.

 

[somarco]

Primerica has its' roots in A. L. Williams. A concept that allowed Art to retire a multi-millionaire.

Can't say it did the same for most of their reps.

Wonder how many of their clients actually invested the difference and were able to retire in style? My guess is, not many.

 

[SalemInsuranceGuy]

Primerica has its' roots in A. L. Williams. A concept that allowed Art to retire a multi-millionaire.

Can't say it did the same for most of their reps.

Wonder how many of their clients actually invested the difference and were able to retire in style? My guess is, not many.

Very few of their reps were or are securities licensed. So instead of doing the right thing and referring them to a licensed securities rep they just made their commission off the life insurance sale and left the client hanging.