Liberty National Life Insurance Co  Beware of Liberty National Life Insurance Group Intrviews Birmingham, Alabama

I can identify with the complaints here.

I hold a number of sales records with various companies.  I thought if I could succeed in those companies, I could succeed with Liberty National.  I was very wrong!

They tell you on their website that they have many more leads than their agents can handle.  Apparently this is not true.  In my first three months out on my own, I received exactly one sales lead.  When I approached my unit manager about this, I was told "I'm not getting any so you're not getting any.

The "leads" they give you is a book of existing customers you are expected to sell more life insurance.  You are also expected to supply a laptop computer and of course, an automobile and all the gas and maintenance.  You will also need a GPS as it is necessary.  Your "leads" will encompass an area of about 60 miles radius and you are expected to travel it at your own expense.  Unless you have been a local delivery truck driver, you can't possibly find all these addresses without one.  Figure you're going to have to spend a minimum of $800.00 to equip yourself with the necessary equipment to perform the job.

The job is a straight commission job period.  They will send you out with an experienced agent and will pay both of you commissions on the sales he/she makes for the first few weeks.  My last three paychecks were $7.xx, $14.xx and $12.xx respectively.  Those figures were not enough to pay my gasoline bill and my car gets 32 MPG..  I've been burning an average of $15.00 a day in gas chasing worthless leads "out of the book."  All in all, I've spent far more (several thousands of $$$) than I've made with Liberty National.

The training they claim to give new agents is abysmal.  I've seen companies with less than 10 empoyees with better training programs than Liberty National.  I have constructed better training programs myself as a sales manager with several companies.  No matter what you've sold before, insurance is a different animal.  Don't count on past success to carry you through in the insurance business.  It's simply not the same.  My ex-father-in Law was in the insurance business for a short time.  He told me that the wash-out rate for new insurance agents was 92%!  From my observations, I suspect this is still true.  With my training programs, I never had a sales rep fail.  I suspect Liberty National counts on vast numbers of new/prospective agents coming through the door and a few of them working out.  This seems to be common among insurance companies overall.  I've seen a large number of new agents coming through the door to only disappear a couple of weeks later.

If you've got money to burn, go ahead and join Liberty National.  You just might be the one that succeeds.  You'll need a large number of friends that you can sell and wide ranging contacts.  If you have this, you just might be able to make a living.  It is well known that insurance sales is one of the most lucrative sales positions there is.  A successful insurance agent can literally make $100's of thousands of dollars a year.  It's just that there are very few of them and they get all the glory.

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Background check does not occur until after the person passes their insurance test

Liberty will appoint you with them provided you don't have a debit to another company of more than $500

That debit, or having a "vector" would be the only thing keeping you from getting an appointment with Liberty

Bonuses are paid to upper management dependent upon how many "licensed" agents they appoint.  So they'll bonus if you sign up for class and come onboard, or by recruiting you from another company

Directors are required to have 15 recruiting files per week.  You completing this "background check" is one file.  In actuality, your file will sit there until you pass the state exam, nothing is done until you have your insurance license

Liberty National has been in business since 1900.  The company is sound and stable.  There are a few things that have to be remembered about the insurance business and Liberty National that whoever wrote this complaint did not explain:

1.  The fees that were mentioned do not come to Liberty National.  To sell insurance a person has to be licensed.  That license costs money which is the employees responsibility to pay.  If the employee doesn't work out with Liberty National but is licensed, they take their license with them and can work for another company.  The cost is $75 for a temporary license, $115 for an online class that the state of Georgia requires a person to take before they sit for the actual licensing exam, which is an additional $90.  As of January 1 there is also a $53 fee to be fingerprinted.  None of these fees are required by Liberty National.   They are, however, required by the state of Georgia.

2.  It is stated the the VP glorified Liberty National.  What does this person expect?  Liberty National is a good company.  People who do what is asked of them are paid very well.  Nothing in the VP's presentation is false.  It is all based on company averages and facts.

3.  While the first interview is held in a seminar type setting it is expected that anyone who is interested complete an application for employment.  On any application with any company that you apply for a social security number is requested.  Should a person choose to try a career with Liberty National a background check is completed, but that is not until after management has deteremined that the applicant is an acceptable fit for the company and that the applicant has shown that they are serious about a career by paying one of the above mentioned fees for licensing.  Liberty National only acts as a middleman for these transactions.

4.  It was said that Liberty National "preys on people who are desperatly seeking a paycheck to provide for their families".  This is an outright lie.  Liberty National offers people who want a career an opportunity to make as much money as they can by selling insurance and helping the needs of clients.  If a person has the "insight" to walk out and pass on a great career with fantastic benefits, that's not Liberty National's fault.