SUBMITTED: Tuesday, August 31, 2004
POSTED: Tuesday, August 31, 2004
It said that the "average" sucker thats been "conned" into this scam, is working sixty hours a week, puting in evenings and Saturdays, making an average of $15,000 per year, which equates to $5 per hour.
I'll keep my day job.
I think you're better off doing the same.
If you want to know the truth about this "SCAM" check out this:
SOME STATE INSURANCE REGULATIONS
A fact that is commonly known in the Insurance and Financial Services Industry among the professional, properly educated, well informed, highly ethical and, honest insurance agents who conduct themselves within industry Regulator's rules and codes is the fact that most representatives of the Primerica Sales Force have either been directly or indirectly trained by their supervisors to either knowingly, or unknowingly misrepresent themselves to the public, as well as, misrepresent to the public the detailed mechanics of the insurance and financial services products they sell and/or market on behalf of the Primerica Insurance Company.
Those consumers that have been victimized by an agent from the Primerica Sales Division that either presently or in the past that have experienced the adverse effects of those verbal indecencies orchestrated to entice the public to engage into a business relationship with Primerica through the company's sales division, are now seeking help from State Insurance Departments, the Legal Community, and/or on the Internet where consumers can locate web-sites such as this web-site to seek the answers they are looking in an attempt to become whole again,
Setting aside the outrageous premium charges and the extremely high administration acquisition costs Primerica loads their insurance and financial products with at the expense of the consumer, my concern with the company's agents to begin with is the inducements the agent's orchestrate to either sell, market, recruit new agents for the company, sell Mutual Funds, arrange for refinancing of existing home mortgages, and their convincing of consumers to replace the consumer's in-force existing life insurance in favor of a temporary term life insurance policy the organization sells and markets.
The sales organization's strategy technique is simply to use false, misleading and deceptive spoken words, as well as, the withholding certain pertinent information which would of course afford a consumer the opportunity to arrive at more qualified decision if the consumer did in fact want to consider using the facilities of the Primerica Insurance Company or not.
I am going to walk you through quite a few of their false, misleading and deceptive sales and marketing orchestrations. Then, you as a consumer will then be alerted to be on the lookout for these intentional misrepresentations the company's agents are trained in the use of and be more prepared to deal with them.
I have formatted this section of my web-site to parrot their orchestrated misrepresentations for the purpose of informing a consumer what you can expect to hear from a Primerica Sales Division's agent in the agent's quest to entice a consumer into engaging into some form of business relationship with Primerica through the Primerica Sales Division.
As I alert you as to what you can expect to hear from the agent, I will then enlighten you to certain facts surrounding the false inducement statement you heard spoken to you by the agent.
THEIR TELEPHONE SOLICITATION WANTING TO INTERVIEW YOU FOR A POSITION WITH THE ORGANIZATION.
Most of the recruiters at the Primerica Sales Division who are seeking to put bodies to work for their sales division and in doing so the recruiter will climb the ladder in the Multi-Level Pyramid scheme of the company's Sales Division will use false, misleading and deceptive recruiting techniques as inducements to lure and entice consumers to engage into a working arrangement with the company's sales division.
Recruiting new bodies, which will require a joining fee payment of $199 to the company, is of a prime concern to the company and the recruiters.
If you are seeking a change in your profession or even possibly if you have lost your job and posted your resume to Monster.com on the internet, a fact of life is you can expect to hear the false, misleading and deceptive recruiting techniques used as an inducement to get you to join the company's Sales Division. Even if possibly you have taken out an advertisement in the jobs wanted section of your local newspaper, most likely you can expect to receive a telephone call totally misleading you as to who the caller represents, the position you will be offered at an interview, and the type of work you will be engaged in.
On the message board I also the sponsor, dozens of times and time again it has been reported by those persons who have let it be known that they are seeking a job, the initial solicitation contact by the Primerica Sales Division's recruiter with them was in words and/or a combination of words as to the happenings that transpired very similar to what you are about to read.
Please first understand that their “pitch” is to entice you to attend what they commonly refer to as their “Opportunity Meeting”. They are trained not to inform you as to what exactly the job description entails.
“Hello Mr./Ms John Q. Public. My name is (they state their name). I am a recruiting specialist for Citicorp. We are opening up branch offices in your area and we are looking for qualified managers to run them”.
“I am conducting interviews at (location of the “Opportunity Meeting”) for office managerial positions and I would like to interview you”.
Please note the following. You will not be interviewed for a “manager position, to the contrary they are looking for bodies to start to work as an insurance agent at the bottom of the Primerica Sales Division's pyramid.
Next thing to note is, unlike hundreds of insurance companies, at Primerica there is no such thing as a salary while you will be in training. It is a commissioned only insurance agent position being made available to you and to boot, you must pay out of your own pocket all of the costs incurred in doing business.
Most of the State's Insurance Departments require an insurance agent soliciting insurance related items must identify themselves as just that, an insurance agent.
Please also note that the recruiter falsely led you to believe he or she is soliciting on behalf of Citicorp when in fact the recruiter is soliciting on behalf of the Primerica Sales Division.
If you happen to attempt to zero in on what type of service the office you will allegedly be the manager of will be performing, you can expect to discover the recruiter will be very evasive in their answer to you steering you back to the alleged “Opportunity Meeting” attempting to induce you to attend it at which time they will go into more detail with you. The purpose of their solicitation is simply to keep you guessing until you agree that you will be attending their “flopportunity meeting”.
You need a job, the offers have been scarce and out of curiosity you don't want to pass up something that you hardly know anything about to begin with.
THE OPPORTUNITY MEETING ITSELF
At the "Opportunity Meeting" you can expect to find a group of people in the same posture that you are in. These attendees to the meeting are seeking income to support themselves and/or their families.
You most likely will be witness to one or more speakers addressing the attendees with all kinds of "fairy tales" as to:
Income, purpose of the Sales Organization including dialog stating that insurance companies and agents who market cash value life insurance is are "ripping the public off", you will shown a bevy of articles appearing in newspapers, magazines an other media written by authors who have absolutely no credentials of advanced studies of insurance either, just as the speakers do not have credits under their belt of attending and passing insurance industry sponsored classroom advanced study courses in the subject matter.
THE HARD CORE FACT PERTAINS TO THE AVERAGE INCOME POTENTIAL AVAILABLE TO YOU AT PRIMERICA.
Only 1.5% of the entire 90,000 strong field force in the Primerica sales division earns that exaggerated six-figure income you will hear them carrot dangle at you as an inducement to join the company's sales organization.
"The average" (average being the worst of the best, and the best of the worst) income is less than $15,000 a year. An average work week at the Primerica Sales Division week includes Saturdays and evenings. This would equate to an approximate sixty-hour workweek for an approximate $300 per week which further equates to a paltry $5.00 per hour if you are an average Primerica agent. I tend to believe that you will agree with me that quite naturally an average paycheck of $5.00 an hour with you having to pay for all of your own expenses that go along with being an insurance agent is a far cry from the false, misleading and deceptive carrot dangling inducement the speaker orchestrated to you as an inducement to pay a fee of $199 and join the organization.
Contrary to the rhetoric you may be witness to as to the "purpose" of the organization, the basic purpose of the organization is to market and sell to consumers temporary term life insurance together with recruiting other consumers to join their Multi Level Marketing and Pyramid sales organization. It has been said that the Primerica Sales Organization is the "Amway of the insurance industry".
Although you may have be inundated with material exhibits and rhetoric of how agents and insurance companies have been "ripping the public off" for years through the sale of Whole Life Insurance which is commonly known as "cash value life insurance" and subsequently you are being falsely led to believe through their spoken rhetoric that the Cash Value Life Insurance product is not in the best interest of consumer, therefore Primerica will not even carry the product in the company's life insurance portfolio, such a statement is false, misleading and deceptive and used to encourage the agents of the company to sell temporary term life insurance only. You can find an exhibit copy of an issued Primerica Whole Life Cash Value Life Insurance policy on this web-site included as a special link.
You may even hear references to the Primerica organization being a "Christian" organization; you will be building your own business; you will be an Independent Insurance Agent; you will own your own business; and you will own your own customers (clientele) who you introduced to the company who purchased one of the company's insurance and/or financial products.
You will hear dialog to impress you about Citicorp a company who although affiliated with Primerica is not the company a recruiter has had you attend the meeting for an attendee will be associating with.
You will be listening to a recruiting carnival type of pitch how just in a short period of time you most likely will be earning a "six-figure" income.
You will be hearing words or combinations of words falsely leading you to believe that you will be on a crusade to "do what is right for Middle America".
You will be hearing rhetoric surrounding "how their company is allegedly attempting to help Americans get out of debt".
Along with the alleged debt rhetoric you will be shown charts and hear testimonials from their own people who will be part of the alleged "opportunity" program in the form of a speaker who will pass on to you some kind of a "bleeding heart story" how he or she has helped so many consumers get out of debt.
You may even be witness to an attack directed at insurance companies and banks. These attacks are intended to lead you to believe that Primerica and Primerica's affiliate companies are the only good guys in town.
You will most likely hear exaggerated rhetoric as to how fast the company is allegedly growing and now is the time to join the organization before the company puts a restrainer on how many people they can use as an associate to the company.
Before this chapter of my web-site turns into a novel which by the way since there is so much material available to expose their additional similar false, misleading and deceptive statements, I will stop right here until sometime in the near future when I plan to add additional information as to their same type of highly questionable business practices used by the organization to hoodwink the public.
Wouldn't you agree with my following observation? If the Primerica Sales Division is such a great place for you to find your niche, then why do their recruiters have to go to so much extreme to get you to the alleged "opportunity" meeting in the first place? Seems to me the public would be standing in line, holding tickets with numbers on the ticket to get into the door if the alleged "opportunity" was truly there for consumers as the Primerica hucksters orchestrate and contend that it is.
AS TO ALLEGEDLY BEING A "CHRISTIAN" ORGANIZATION
That claim is as bogus as a three-dollar bill. Obviously the statement is orchestrated to reach God Loving attendees at the meeting who believe if the organization is comprised of God Loving Christians only, then the organization is walking behind a cross on a mission from God.
The truth of the matter is, the organization is comprised of not only whose religious preference is Christianity, but also those people whose religious preference is non-Christian. Sanford Weill founded the Primerica Insurance company. Sanford Weill was not only the owner of Primerica but also the CEO of Primerica. Sanford while is just one of the non Christian religious preference higher ups in the organization whose Rabbis would be much surprised to learn that Sanford Weill and those many other higher ups have converted to Christianity if you understand and recognize what I am saying.
AS TO OWNING AND BUILDING YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND HE CLIENTELE WHO YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO SOLICIT ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY AND BEING AN INDEPENDENT INSURANCE AGENT
If a consumer is considering building, owning their own business, and owning their clientele they will be soliciting on behalf of Primerica, if that is the inducement that enticed the consumer to associate with the organization, I would strongly suggest to the consumer they READ THEIR APPOINTMENT CONTRACT TO REPRESENT THE COMPANY. IF THE CONSUMER IS UNCLEAR AS TO THE TERMS AND CONSIDERATION OUTLINED IN THE APPOINTMENT, THEN TAKE A COPY OF THE APPOINTMENT AGREEMENT TO AN ATTORNEY TO INTERPRET IN COMMON PLACE LANGUAGE WHAT THE CONSUMER WILL BE GETTING THEMSELVES INTO.
In words or combinations of words the consumer will discover that Primerica owns the clientele and the business the consumer has been misled into believing that the consumer will own. The consumer will also discover that either party to the appointment agreement can cancel the appointment agreement at any time without cause.
The appointment agreement specifically outlines that if either party cancel the appointment agreement the business the agent has built to date and the clientele the agent has solicited on behalf of the company reverts back to the company and not the agent. Furthermore, the appointment agreement further stipulates that the agent may not return to the clients the agent had developed for the company for a specified period of years to either sell life additional life insurance or replace existing in-force life insurance.
In addition to the above, the appointment agreement restricts the associate to only offering insurance products and financial services made available by the Primerica Company or an affiliate of the company.
Drop into any Independent Agents office and ask the agent how many insurance companies the agent represents. You will discover that the agent being a true "Independent Contractor" by appointment agreement can represent as many companies as the agent wants to.
You next step is to ask the truly Independent Agent if for some reason he severs his appointment agreement with one of his companies is the agent free to replace his client's insurance and move it to a different company.
You will discover a true Independent Contractor Agent is free to do so, and in addition if the agent can find a better priced insurance policy for his client even when the appointment is in force with the insuring company, the true Independent Agent is free to change his client to a different insurer he may also have acquired an appointment with.
AS TO THE EARNING OF A SIX-FIGURE INCOME FALSE INDUCEMENT PITCH
Although there is an extremely chance of earning a six-figure income after many years with the Pnmerica Sales Division, there is a next to zero change of earning six-figures within your first few years.
In addition to that, the six figure income they carrot dangle a prospective recruit about is a "Gross" figure, not a "Net" earnings figure after expenses attributed to the cost of doing business is subtracted from that figure. A more accurate figure would be in the vicinity of sixty thousand dollars a year after your routine expenses are deducted of being a "six-figure" income earner at the Primerica Sales Division.
Here are the facts as to your percentage chances of earning a "Gross" six-figure income as an agent of the Primerica Sales Division. Rick Williams the new CEO of Primerica announced from the stage in Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of May 2001, that the sales organization had 1,210 six-figure "Gross" income earners the previous year. In the same speech to the attendees and the Primerica Sales Division he stated the Primerica Sales Division had grown to a field-force of 90,000 agents.
Therefore, it doesn't take an Albert Einstein to figure our by dividing 1,200 by the remaining 88,800 agents what percentage of the Primerica Sales Division had earned the "Gross" six-figure income. My calculator came up with only a 1.35% of the total Primerica Sales Division earns the six-figure income they so readily talk about in their quest to induce consumers to join the Primerica Sales Division.
A sports minded child just graduating high school facing college for the next four years has a better chance of making a pro football team then a consumer's chance in earning that six-figure "Gross" income through the Primerica Sales Division.
AS TO A CONSUMER EVEN EARNING A LIVING AT THE PRIMERICA SALES DIVISION
At that same Atlanta, Georgia convention, the same Rick Williams CEO Primerica announced that between the year of 1999 and 2000, there had been 90,000 new recruits join Primerica. During the same speech Rick Williams mentioned that the sales division was presently 85,000 strong. Knowing that the year prior to that Primerica boasted of having a 90,000 strong field force, those figures should have equated to a total of 180,000 present and new associates, but Rick Williams admitting to 85,000. Well, put a pencil and paper to those figures and one may find in the truth that 95,0000 walked out of the Primerica Sales Division between 1999 and the year 2000 consisting of a figure of the total previous year's recruits plus 5,000 of the Sales Division's Verterans serving one-year or longer with the organization.
Now let's apply some common sense to Primerica's own admitted figures. Since 95.000 agents walked out of the Primerica Sales Division between 1999 and the year 2000 it must be that these agents were neither earning the money that they were led to believe they would and to boot, were not even earning a livable income at the Primerica Sales Division. People just don't walk away from six-figure incomes or even forty to ninety thousand dollar a years incomes unless they found a job they could earn more income hence the $15,000 a year average income then what they were presently earning.
The fact of the matter is, the average "Gross" income (average being defined as the best of the worst and the worst of the best) for agents at the Primerica Sales Division is $15,000 a year or less about.
AS TO THE PRIMERICA SALES DIVISION HELPING PEOPLE TO ALLEGEDLY GET OUT OF DEBT AND THE MORTGAGE REFINANCING PITCH.
You have heard about firms specializing in helping consumers to get out of debt by first suggesting to their clients the first thing they want to do is tear up your credit cards. Such a recommendation is rarely heard from an agent of the Primerica Sales Division.
To the contrary, a Primerica agent is trained to suggest to consumers that they obtain a new credit card from City Bank at allegedly a lower rate of interest then what the consumer is paying in interest to their credit card company.
The agent trained to orchestrate existing interest rates between 18%-21% as the going rate of interest tells a consumer that with a Citibank credit card the consumer ill be provided with a interest rate of approximately one-half of their existing credit card interest rate which by the way is usually 2% higher than the new interest rates with most credit cards companies.
Of course, to obtain one of those Citibank credit cards, there is a provision that accompanies owning one, so they say.
While legitimate companies in the business of helping consumers "get out of debt" for a very reasonable small fee will negotiate on behalf of their consumer with their client's debtors for a reduction in the minimum monthly payment on the credit card thus reducing their client's monthly out of pocket outlay, the Primerica Sales Division's agents are trained in a classroom setting to entice a consumer to RE-FINANCE their existing mortgages so the consumer can remove equity the consumer owns in their property using their equity to pay off the consumers outstanding debt. Then the consumer will be given that alleged low interest rate special Citibank credit card I made mention to above.
As part of the "come on", in that same classroom setting the Primerica agents are trained to anger consumers by orchestrating that for many years the Banks have been allegedly "ripping the public off" in getting consumers to get into debt with high interest rates when in fact, it is the presentation the agent has been trained to orchestrate in itself is the prelude for the agent at the Primerica Sales Division to "rip-off" the consumer with a high rate of interest charge to re-finance a consumers existing mortgage.
Someone once said, "All that glitters is not gold". Nothing can better describe that statement when applied to the re-financing of an existing mortgage through an agent of the Primerica Sales Division and the following is the reason.
In the Primerica Sales Divisions agent's classroom setting trained "canned sales presentation", in conjunction to support the agent's rhetoric pertaining to allegedly banks "ripping off the public", the agent is trained to stray away from routine monthly mortgage payments in favor of paying one-have of a routine monthly mortgage payment EVERY TWO WEEKS.
A "every two week payment of one-half of a routine monthly mortgage payment equates to over funding the mortgage yearly payment accumulation by an extra monthly routine monthly payment each year.
Example… Assuming a $1,000 per month Principle and Interest only mortgage payment times twelve months, the figure equates to $12,000 each year. Using one-half of that payment every two weeks equates to 26 payments at $500 that equates to $13,000 each year.
Then we must ask ourselves, "what happens with the extra $30,000 (30 years times $1,000) that the homeowner has over funded his mortgage payments?"
In that same classroom setting, the Primerica Sales Division agent is trained to orchestrate the following two alternatives. Some of the agents suggest to their intended victim to use that over funded mortgage payment money to purchase a Mutual Fund from a subsidiary Stock Brokerage House of Citicorp known as Solomon Barney. If the agent suggest this route, the agent will orchestrate to his intended victim a gossamer hypotheses of allegedly earning 12% on that money in a Mutual Fund which in turn will pay a new refinanced mortgage off allegedly ten-years sooner in not thirty, but twenty years thus reducing the intended victim's obligatory remaining years of mortgage payments which in turn is saving the intended victim ten years of interest payments on the mortgage.
The other alternative recommendation "canned sales pitch" the agent is trained in the use of in that same classroom setting to orchestrate is, the suggestion that the intended victim use part of the over funding of the mortgage payments to purchase a temporary term life insurance policy in the amount of the new refinanced mortgage thus affording the intended victim's beneficiary insurance company money to pay the mortgage off in the event of the intended victim's death prior to the whole mortgage being paid off and then taking the balance of the over funding money accumulated and investing that smaller portion into a Mutual Fund.
Most mortgages today do not have what is known as a "Prepayment Penalty Clause". A prepayment penalty clause is a clause in a mortgage contract (usually inserted in small print) that stipulates that if a mortgage contract is paid off early, there will be a monitory penalty paid in the form of a fine assessed to the owner of the home for paying the mortgage note off early. The mortgage refinancing arrangement notes made available to the public by the agents of the Primerica Sales Division has contained within the mortgage note such a penalty clause.
Some intended victims of the agents mortgage refinancing "sales pitch" have a lot on the ball and will pick up on the one to two percent higher rate of interest the agent will quote and ask, "Why is the interest rate you are charging for your company's refinancing program higher than most other lending institutions. Reportedly when caught in their ploy, the agent has been trained in his classroom setting to respond to the client's question in the following manner. "Why should you care, our company is going to arrange for your mortgage payment obligation to retire your mortgage earlier then what it will keeping you existing mortgage".
The intended victim should definitely care about the rate of interest, because the lower the interest rate more of the payment will be applied to the principle and less money will be applied to the interest of each payment sent to the lending institution.
In addition to the above, the interest rate assessed to an intended victim by an agent of the Primerica Sales Division is usually 1% to 2% higher then the going rate at other lending institutions. Therefore I must ask, who do you think is "ripping off consumers", the Banks as orchestrated by the agent, or the agent of the Primerica Sales Division? Who do you tend to believe is "doing what is right for consumer's", the Banks and mortgage lending institutions or the Primerica Sales Division in those instances in the refinancing of existing mortgages?
The motive of the agent to sell mortgage refinancing is "GREED", as well as, "GREED" in the sale of the other products that go along with the refinancing an existing mortgage. Not only will the agent earn commissions generated from the re-financing sale of an existing mortgage; the agent will earn a commission generated by the sale of a temporary term life insurance policy, and the sale of Mutual Funds. In addition, all of the up-line supervisors of the agent will receive an over ride commission also.
On the other side of the coin, now let's look at different alternative solutions in refinancing an existing mortgage for the purpose of consolidating debt through an alternative mortgage lending institution.
Most mortgage lending institutions have also adopted the twenty-six-payment plan per year at one-half of a monthly mortgage payment. One of these mortgage-lending institutions is the Homeside Mortgage Company of Jackson, Florida. If you plan to simply pay your home off earlier than originally planned there is a one-time $300 assessment for processing the paperwork.
If you plan to refinance an existing mortgage through an agent from the Primerica Sales Division's mortgage lending outlet, you are going to discover that you are going to have to entertain a closing costs in excess of $3,000.
One of the basics I want to bring to our viewers attention is, when you deal directly with a mortgage lending institution, the surplus funds you are paying into the mortgage company each year are applied to the Principle balance owed directly by the mortgage company with no whistles or bells, and no chance of loosing your extra over funding as you have when you purchase a Mutual Fund through the Primerica Agent.
As to the temporary term life insurance the Primerica agent will offer you, you are going to pay approximately 50% more in the cost of premium for Primerica's mortgage cancellation life insurance then if you had shopped for the life insurance protection elsewhere.
Another aspect you definitely need to consider is, because of the higher interest rate assessed to the mortgage obtained through the Primerica Sales Division agent, quite naturally you will be required to pay that premium longer until the day the mortgage is cancelled because the funding amount of overage will be eaten up faster than if you had not purchased the life insurance from the agent.
In general, (a), you most can likely secure a lower refinancing rate through your existing mortgage lender without high closing costs assessed to you without a prepayment penalty clause assessed to the refinancing note. (b), if your mortgage lender does not have the 26-payment plan equal to one-half of your scheduled mortgage payment, then there are other mortgage lenders who will provide you with a 26-payment arrangement for lower closing costs than Primerica's agent will offer you at a reduced interest rate in the vicinity of one to two percent less than the interest rate the Primerica agent will offer you.
If you elect to re-finance your existing mortgage attaching a mortgage cancellation life insurance policy paid out of the over funding of your mortgage payments, (a), you will find a insurance company whose premium rate for the same policy is approximately 50% less than what the Primerica agent will have to charge you, and (b), in doing so, this would pay the mortgage off at an earlier date than the anticipated date of the payoff date that the Primerica agent can estimate to you, that is, provided the Primerica agent is not once again lying to you.
My main concern in the mortgage refinancing program offered to the public by the Primerica Sales Division is, because a home is considered an "investment" and because a home will most likely be the largest single investment a consumer will make in their lifetime, agents at the Primerica Sales Division are knowingly and intentionally trained in a classroom setting my their up-line managers to use false, misleading and deceptive "canned sales tracks" as inducements for consumers to engage in a business relationship through Primerica agents in the Division's quest to bilk the public out of their hard earned money that is directed towards the largest single investment the consumer will most likely ever make in the consumer's lifetime.
AS TO THE MUTUAL FUND SALES OF THE PRIMERICA AGENTS
The outlet for the sales of Mutual Funds by agents of the Primerica Sales Division is usually through the brokerage of Solomon Barney. Solomon Barney is also part of the Primerica/Citicorp conglomerate. Because of the structure of the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid makeup of the sales organization, there are many fingers in the pot sharing in the commission structure if a consumer purchases a Solomon Barney sponsored Mutual Fund.
Therefore, in order to "wet the beak" so to say of all of the persons who share in the commission pot, there are high assessments attached to purchasing a Solomon Barney sponsored Mutual Fund from a Primerica agent. These assessments are sometimes referred to as "acquisition costs" and/or administration charges.
A consumer considering purchasing one of the Solomon Barney Mutual Funds would be better served dealing directly with a stock broker because there are not so many fingers in the pot to share commissions which follows then that the administrative and acquisition costs passed on to the consumer will be less thus affording the consumer more of the purchasing payments going directly into the fund itself.
My concern in the selling and marketing of Mutual Funds by the majority of agents of the Primerica Sales Division is, (a) reportedly the majority of non-security licensed Primerica agents are orchestrating exaggerated interest rate investment earnings returns on these various Funds. The greater majority of the Primerica Sales Division's agents are not licensed and/or registered with the National Association of Security Dealers to sell and market Mutual Funds, but never the less in violation of NASD rules they talk up buying a Mutual Fund through them, and (b), these same non-licensed/non-registered agents are not complying with Mutual Fund Prospectus guidelines and regulations.
Reportedly in these same classroom settings, the managers who usually are properly licensed and registered are encouraging the agents to talk up Mutual Funds when these agents are out in the field soliciting business.
AS TO THE PRIMERICA AGENT'S ACTIVITIES IN THE REPLACEMENT OF CONSUMER'S EXISTING LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES
As I have previously outlined to the viewers of this investigative report you are presently involved in reading, the core of the whole Primerica Insurance Company's Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid operation is the company sells and markets only one form of life insurance. That one form of life insurance is "Temporary Term Life Insurance".
As I have illustrated in this investigative report you are presently reading, unlike most all of the other approximate 1,799 life insurance companies who make ALL FORMS of life insurance available to the public so those company's agents can fit the right type of policy to fit each consumer's personal and individual needs for life insurance to begin with, as part of the Primerica marketing strategy the company's sales division had to devise a scheme to make their overpriced term life insurance not only attractive to the public due to the overpricing of the company's one type of life insurance they market, but it was imperative also to devise a scheme to make that one and only type of life insurance desirable to the public.
Knowing that most of the American public presently owned permanent life insurance to fund permanent insurance needs and temporary term life insurance to fit temporary needs such as when children were growing up and/or say to cancel temporary debts such as a mortgage, a scheme was devised to convince consumers using almost any means even if it meant using false, misleading and deceptive statements and inducements to cancel the consumer's existing in-force permanent life insurance in favor of purchase the temporary term life insurance policy the company was making available to the public.
Quite naturally, because temporary term life insurance expired when the incidents of death were the largest and the company would have to satisfy a claim with company funds, and because temporary term life insurance did not build up any reserves in the form of cash values such as a automobile or a homeowners insurance policy where a consumer is paying for insurance protection only, the premium charges would be less.
Since the premium charges would be less, the agent could then contend that a consumer should purchase temporary term life insurance even if the policy did not cover permanent insurance needs and because of the difference in premium charges the consumer could invest that money and allegedly have accumulated more money then the consumer would have available to the consumer in cash then a permanent cash value policy would have accumulated.
In other words, what the Primerica agents are trained to orchestrate is, buy your life insurance protection from us and invest the reduced premium outlay in a pure money accumulation account, then when the temporary term life insurance expires, YOU SHOULD SELF-INSURE WITH YOUR OWN INVESTMENT ACCUMULATIONS THUS LETTING OUR INSURANCE COMPANY OFF THE HOOK FROM HAVING TO PAY YOUR BENEFICIARY INSURANCE COMPANY DOLLARS AND ALL REMAINING DEBTS AND NEED FOR ADDITIONAL INCOME TO YOUR BENEFICIARY WHEN YOU DIE SHOULD BECOME THE BURDEN OF YOUR BENEFICIARY FROM YOUR OWN MONEY THAT YOU HAD ACCUMULATED OVER THE YEARS INVESTING THE DIFFERENCE IN THE PREMIUM CHARGES.
That certainly sounds like a "good deal" for the insurance company and not such a "good deal" for the consumer and the consumer's beneficiary doesn't it?
AND THAT'S WHAT A PRIMERICA AGENT REFERS TO AS "DOING WHAT IS RIGHT FOR THE AMERICAN PUBLIC"?
Now to add insult to injury, if at the time of the replacement of the cash value policy there is a substantial accumulation of cash values, in that same classroom setting the Primerica agents are trained to entice the consumer into buying an investment product such as a Primerica Annuity or a Mutual Fund through Solomon Barney with the cash values the consumer recouped from the surrender of the consumer's former permanent life insurance policy.
Talk about scamming a consumer to line their own personal pockets, not only does the agent generate a new commission for himself and override commissions for his or her up-line manager from the funds that belonged to the consumer which were released from the cash surrender of the existing in-force permanent life insurance policy, the agents earn an additional commission from the sale of an annuity or a mutual fund.
Why didn't the agent simply tell the consumer to either pay off interest charging debts or put that cash in a pure investment product in lieu of skimming commissions off of that money?
In fact, there are many participating cash value permanent life insurance policies (dividend paying) where in the event of the insured owner's death, not only would the insurance company pay with insurance company funds the face amount of the life insurance protection regardless of how long the insured lived, but the company would also return to the beneficiary all of the funds that had accumulated to date in the policy itself. I know of no life insurance policy that Primerica offers to the public that can match that.
In addition there are many cash value dividend paying life insurance policies that after a period of time as an example ten or twelve years of premium payments, the dividend account not including the cash value accumulation account will be so large, that although the premiums are on-going for the policy, the consumer does not have to pay those premiums out of their own pocket, because the dividends are great enough to pay the premiums for the policy until the insured's death.
I know of no Primerica Life Insurance policy that can duplicate that feat, and to boot, when a participating life insurance policy meets that period in say ten or twelve years when the insured can stop paying premiums out of their own pocket, that poor victim of the Primerica Agent's scam still must continue paying out of their own pocket the premium charges for the balance of the temporary term period.
The bottom line is, in those instances that participating cash value life insurance was replaced, in as much as, being that Primerica agents are improperly trained in their classroom setting and uniformed as to the mechanics of life insurance (a "Dork" as I affectionately like to refer to them) a "Dork" with the Primerica Sales Division using false, misleading and deceptive REPLACEMENT OF EXISTING LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES. EITHER KNOWINGLY OR UNKNOWINGLY RUINED A CONSUMER'S FINANCIAL GOAL THE CONSUMER HAD INTENDED TO REACH THROUGH HIS EXISTING IN-FORCE POLICY AND INADVERTENTLY THE AGENT SCAMMED THE CONSUMER SIMPLY TO EARN A COMMISSION FOR HIMSELF AND AN OVERRIDE COMMISSION FOR HIS UP-LINE MANAGEMENT TEAM MEMBERS.
Although there are quite a few other intended false, misleading and deceptive business practices inducements commonly orchestrated by the agents of the Primerica Sales Division, I have covered what I believe to be the most flagrant and damaging of these misrepresentations to consumer's financial welfare.