Afortus Financial Ancora Financial, Federal Financial Group Mud Wrestling With Pigs- Part 1 Draper, Utah Nationwide

I'm Curious how many of these people still work there?

Erol Parker

Lee Miles

Matt Rose

Tom Pugmire

Dave Dell

Heath Thompson

Buck Buckingham

Mike Lysenko

Mike McCracken

Randy Palas

Kevin Goodwin

Sue Furber

Bill Butler

Brett Olson

Kerstin Cain

Kelly Goodwin

Roger Reynolds

Devina Lawyler

Frank Higgins

Jamie Cockburn

Paul Wake

Jessie Williams 

Brent Tycksen

Carrie Farnes

Chet Thong

Chris Whiting

Terry Keyser

Dan McKenzie

I'm curious how many of these people split in the last year or so?

I'm so sorry all those problems happened to you. My hope in starting these series of posts is to open the door for others to fill in the blanks of the many problems faced. It's starting to happen and when it begins to s****.>

Everything in the previous posts are100% correct! But the Lies, deceit, misrepresentations, unethical behavior and company cover up go even deeper.

I worked for FFG for 7+ years and as the previous report states "If I only knew then what I know now" I never would have wasted a single day working for then. Of those 7+ years I had 1 very good year, 1 good year and 5+ years of barely making ends meet. Why didn't I leave? The trap!

"The Trap" is the relentless promise of the approaching sale. We were told that all production starting Jan 1 2010 would count toward your percentage of the sale of the company. I choose to be a career agent And since agents were 9% bucket of the sale and since the company has a 98% agent turnover I figured that once the sale happened I would have gotten a nice payout.

Then in Nov 2015 in Des Moines it was revealed that the only offer was for $15m. $5m immediately for Rick Dixon, $5m for managers over several years if they met certain criteria and another $5m for agents over several years if they meet certain criteria. With some creative accounting that last $10m would have never been paid out. Thats when the profit sharing scam came about which was covered in another post.

But now for the real fraud!

Let me take you back to 2013 when all of a sudden the tone of our sales meetings started to change. As new agents came into the office they would ask to do ride alongs with the RM (Regional Manager) and the RM would make one excuse after another as to why they couldn't. Kids were sick, Car was broke down, was going out of town, etc... So he would encourage those to ride with other agents. For years prior this has never happened. The RM would suck up new agents like an air tank under water and DM's were only needed if there was a double booking.

After several weeks of this I received a phone call from the RM requesting my Aviva password because Aviva needed to do "something" (Sorry can't remember ther excuse). A week later I log into my "Clients and cases" and notice 12 new cases that I hadn't done. So I wrote down those names and after the next sales meeting I asked the regional Assistant (privately) if any of those names match up to any new business submitted recentely. Her responds, YES! I said whats going on? She reveals that our RM had his Aviva contract terminated do to a $50,000 chargeback. Yes $50k.

So in order for the RM to run illustrations he needed to do so under someone else's code. (I changed the password that day) This infuriated me not only was he using my code but I had known for years he was running the "illustration scam" on clients. I'll get into that on another thread. So FFG was faced with a difficult choose, one of the largest regions in the company had an RM who could write business. So what did they do? They made the regional assistants code the "New" regional manager and that way he could write business under her code. Completely illegal! She would pay him from her account.

This went on for 8ish months all awhile this RM would speak at convension, combines, leadership meetings talking about how to write "good business". Hypocrites! Then one day at a sales meeting the RM came in and told us "our office" will now be writting with Allianz. When asked why, he responds with "FFG asked us to pilot a new carrier so FFG could get a better contract with the carrier". This created a whole new set of problems. New agents that come in are appointed with Aviva, the RM is appointed with Allianz and it takes a little time to get appointed with Allianz. So if new agents wanted to get started right a way The RM would write the business under his code and would pay them.

But the RM would never disclose what the target points were to the new agent because he was running the illustration scam, therefore he would pay them a random amount. So the new agents never knew what they were actually suppose to be paid. The DM's were pressured every meeting to get appointed with Allianz but none of us did because we knew what was going on. His only real motivation for us changing over was because he didn't have any over ride on those who wrote with Aviva.

Bombshell #2:

After writting with Allianz for roughly 9 months every agent in our office that was appointed with Allianz showed up at the sales meeting stating that they hadn't been getting paid. When the RM was confronted about that He said he would "look into it" At the following weeks meeting the RM was once again confronted as why they (roughly 12 agents) hadn't been getting paid he states "its an issue with Allianz and they are trying to sort it out.

Well this answer didn't sit well with another agent and she decided to do some investigating of her own. Turns out the real reason was because the RM had such a sizeable chargeback that everyone in his lowerarchy wasn't being paid in order to recoup that cost. He knew that for weeks and didn't have the stones to let his agents know. For a lot of them they counted on that money to pay their Mortgage, car payment, etc and he didn't care.

The only way Allianz would correct this issue was to terminate his contract. So once again we had an RM who couldn't write business. Came to find out he was writting fruadulent business.  Needless to say nearly every agent walked out the door the second they were paid. The only ones that stuck around were the 4 DM's only because that issue didn't affect them since they were writting with Aviva/Accordia 

So FFG was again faced with how they could save face. So Rick Dixon flexed his industry muscle and got Him Appointed with Fidelity and Guarantee. And this was disguised as a "backup plan" because Accordia was working through some growing pains. Again the same set of problems occured. Unfortunately the new agents had no idea about these past unethical bahaviors and were used and spit out like trash.

After 6 moths some contracting issues started to pop up again but this time FFG decided to take him out of the field completely so he "accepted" a position at the Home office (utah) and left the area and an unqualified agent who haden't met any of the requirements to become RM was essentially asigned to the position because no one else wanted it.   

What I don't know is who paid off these chargebacks although I suspect FFG did.  

So I left FFG/ANCORA/AFORTUS in the summer of 2016 but in January 2017 I decided to check on my book of business with Accordia and to my utter shock I found 90% of my clients had this RM now as the active agent on their account. When I called to find out when this happened and who authorized it, I was told it happed several weeks earlier and was done by someone in the Home office. I wonder who that could be? 

I told them to immediately correct this and I was told that I would need to go to all of my clients and have them sign a change of agent form back to me. I said HELL NO! I told them to pull up every application and they can see no other agent was on that app. After some back and forth and 2 hours on the phone Accordia agreed and everything was put back in my name. 

So for anyone who has left be sure to check on your book of business. They are desperate for money and the illusion of success. 

You do not have to say you are still with the comapny.....it is obvious you are. My guess, is Tom or Kelley, but that does not matter. Simply interviewing people (which you most likely would NEVER have acess too unless you work there) would not glean the information you post. That , being said... DO I agree with much of what you state? YES I do.... We were all pretty much duped. .... I think we should focus on the obvious... The "company" is imploding. It's primary carrier, Accordia, is also such a disaster, that it too may not survive. I never said I did or did not agree with your posts... as you can see, I aggree with much of it. Many of the "managers" are writing business elsewhere (like you) to get a better contract. IF the sale actually happened like ot could have, it would have been awesome. BUT, we missed that boat, a day late and millions of dollars short. At this point, I think evberyone except the KoolAid drinkers are in survival mode....it's only a matter of time. My lights are aslways on, and i am home, stop by and see me! You may find we have more in common than you think. HOWEVER...I most likely will not bash the company in depth as you have... were we sold a dream, yes? It was our choice to come on board....just make a better situation for yourself.. I am. =) 

I'll not join a fishing expedition in an attempt to narrow down who you think I am, nor entertain what is or isn't obvious. For example, would it surprise you to find that a series of agents and their families created these posts? In any case it's not about the author's identity or their employment. However your comment about motive and agenda is very applicable.

Virtually every past and current FFG/Afortus agent had 2 things in common. Without exception each and every agent stated; "if I knew then what I know now, I'd never have worked with FFG/Afortus." Had FFG gone away after the "non-sale" announcement, there'd be no need to "expose" (not bash) the company. But even on the verge of "implosion", their only change was the company name. They're still in the business to lure unsuspecting agents to a faulty lead program, faulty management opportunity, and faulty ownership and profit-sharing scam. Each of those unsuspecting agents will be systematically separated from their money and their warm market, and each a few years down the road will say; "if I knew then what I know now..."

The 2nd thing most agents had in common; "they wish someone had warned them years earlier." I want all to know the truth today, not after wasting years of their lives! Some learn the truth and walk away to take care of themselves, "survival mode" you called it. If you ever saw me in a burning building, I'd be the one carrying as many as I could and showing them the way out. So many want to believe, want to trust, and simply look for hope. Afortus is not that hope, and my agenda is simple; expose the truth! I want to turn on the lights and watch the cockroaches scramble for cover. My hope is to make a situation for more than just myself.

We probably do have a lot in common and I'm sure it'd be a pleasure to make your aquaintence! 

Respectfully,

The Truth

If you read again you'll find: at no point did I claim to work for any of the entities reported on let alone employed currently. Never the less one only has to interview the many assocoiates both there and on their way out to find the facts. Besides, employment past or present doesn't dispute facts or the truth. It appears you're sidestepping the Afortus scam to distract the real issue with incosequential ballons! The amount of information is derived by the many various scams Federal Finnancial, Ancora, and Afortus has and is continuing to pull on both those inside and outside it's many lists of company names. 

I have a much better question, why are you still there? It appears you reside in a place where the lights are on, but no one's home!

SO much information. I find it somewhat interesting that you would go to great lenghts to have so much informatio0n about a company that still employs you. You may be on the independant agent side of the Afortus, but you still ARE an Afortus agent. One has to wonder what your agenda is. My question is why are you atill working for them? 

How does a scam company respond to negative social media? Rather than become legit, they simply put lipstick on the pig and then try to convince you it's not a pig! Hopefully I can attach the email sent by Afotus cheif executive officer who recently sent corespondance to all they managers pleading with them to make positive posts on at least 4 internet social media reporting sites in an attempt to over come negative reports with counterfeit positive reports by their own people. If you're going to wrestle with pigs you're going to have to roll in the mud with them. Shame on any agent or manager who attempts to manipulate the system like this. 

If you've got to part 5, you've no doubt read parts1-4, about 5 pages total. Lets highlight parts1-4:

Part 1-Afotus uses unlicensed recruiters to charge new recruits $295 to get Afortus client leads. Rather than get leads, recruits must give Afortus their 50-100 warm market names, memorize a ridiculous 10-12 page script, then split their sales 50/50 with their assigned manager, on a 40% contract, yielding them a 20% commission, while Afortus retains 80%, and then ultimatly given re-cycled B and C leads because there is no enough A leads to go around, and even then A leads aren't much better than random names from the phone book. Industry norms use licensed recruiters, your warm market is yours, give your own presentation, retain 100% of your sale, on a 70-100% contract level, and are taught how to prospect your own client leads or purchase far better leads for much cheaper that what Afortus retains.

Part 2- Managers are promoted based on limited production capabilities, sent out without regard to training/talent/ability, given a 65% contract, relocated at their own expense, maintain a regional office at their own expense, pay for an assitent at their own expense, required to attend regional and national meetings at their own expense, required to train Afortus field force, and to pay 100% of the charge back that flows up to them when a young inexpirienced agent under sells and then walks away. Industry norms train their managers based upon talent and ability, issue 100% and above contract levels, reimbuse or fund their relocation/office/staff, and pay the cost to attend company sponsered regional and national events, and pay their share of the chargebacks from their filed force you train for them.

Part 3- Afortus promised a ridiculous pay out on its supposed future sale at a hyped up level they knew to be false from the beginning, while procrastinating a sale they never intended to follow through with, duping every manager into building Rick Dixon's fortune, ignoring 85% majority votes taken to sell on 2 separate occasions, unilaterally cutting everyone out but himself from the Afortus profits earned over those 10 plus years.

Part 4- In an effort to earn money for upper management Brett Olsen and Brent Tcyksen, Rick sold the company to the other 2, repackaged as a "restructure", to avoid paying all the managers who worked so hard for so many years, and instead offered a hyped up profitsharing plan that paid virtually nothing over 2016.

The bottom line is that Federal Financial Group was and Afortus is built on hyped BS that are from the foundation built on one scam after the other that in the end pay only those at the top. Afortus plain and simple lures unsuspecting and trusting agents in search of leads into the trap. What they get is stalled long enough for the manager who's trained to separate you from your warm market. Those agents that are successful, are then lured into management, and from there used to finance Afortus growth at your expense. Sooner or later every agent and manager figure it out and would leave if not for the hyped up sale of profitsharing plan promised them. 

Here's the truth- don't join Afortus if you're a new agent. Don't agree to relocate as a manager. Instead each of you can get your own 70-100% contract, work your own warm market and buy your own leads far better and far chaeper than what Afortus gouges you for. If you need agent or management training, simply call one of the top insurance companies in the country and ask to be referred to their top local saleman or manager. If you happen to know a top producer, call them on the phone, theyll be flattered and honored to be a mentor to someone who really wants to learn to do it right.

Afortus is not that place. They don't care about you. To them everyone is repalceable, even there very very best agents and managers. When a company can't keep it's top producers, there's a reason for it! But in the event you like morking for minimum wage on one of the lowest copntracts in the industry, if you prefer to give all the profit to the 3 stooges at the top, if you have a bunch of warm market names you're dying to give away for free, if you like being disappointed by unkept ridiculous promises and hype from the top; well if you like all those things, then Afortus is the perfect place for you! 

The entire FFG managenment agent force had been duped into relocating accross the country, hire an assistent, maintained an FFG regional office, and trained FFG's enitre field force; all at their own expense and without any financial aid by FFG ownership or management. And each manager worked with a contract half the industry norm for the promise of ownership and a pay day when FFG was sold. Despite the 85% majority manager vote to sell FFG on 2 separate occasions, the owner Rick Dixon procrastinated the sale while putting 18 million of comany profits into his own pockets. The one supposed 30 million offer was unilaterally declinned by owner Rick Dixon and announced at a leadership conferance in November 2015. Remember that date!

The enitre management force was disappointed and angry, like anyone duped by hyped unkept promises would be. About a third of the FFG managers walked away right then. FFG announced a company restructure and detailed how this non-sale had only recently been determined as they described the painstaking process with marketing studies and reaseach to choose the new Ancora company name. Strange just 2-3 months earlier on the company cruise in September 2015, Rick Dixon was still hyping the company sale, suggesting if they all knew what Rick knew they'd work night and day to get a bigger piece of the sales payday. But if the remaining 2/3 managers knew the whole truth, they might have even more reason to be angry. 

I 've talked to several eye witnesses who'd testify that they saw printed Ancora polo shirts sitting in the FFG office in August 2015, 1-2 months before the cruise and almost 4 months prior to the non-sale announcement. These were the same Ancora shirts handed out at the company convention in March of 2016. These sources will also testify they saw FFG owner Rick Dixon sitting in the conferance room in August 2015, going over future Ancora contracts and the company re-structured buy out with Brent Tycksen and his wife Marvel. So tell me why Rick is still promoting the hyped company sale on the cruise in September 2015, knowing full well FFG was not beinbg sold?! And if all this so-called marketing research was done to pick the Ancora name, why just months later was Ancora served with legal notification that the Ancora name was already in use?!

The answer is that owners at the top of Afortus (the latest company name), feel no obligation to be truthful with the field. Clearly Rick Dixon, Brent Tycksen, and Brett Olsen all knew the sale wasn't happening back in August 2015 before all 3 hyped the sale to all the managers on the September 2015 cruise. The question is how much prior to August 2015 did the 3 know there'd be no sale? And why did the 3 new owners feel no need to share that ruth with the managers who supposedly also own FFG?The truth is it appears the owners at Afortus feel no compensatory or even ethical need to be truthful with its regional and area managers. Why would any manager believe anything Afortus ownership has to say? 

Afortus ownership had already lost about a third of their managers becuase they lost trust in ownership. But apparently the remaining 2/3 need more proof. Ownership in an effort to hang onto the remaining managers promised profitsharing. At the summer combines they hyped how a 65% regional manager can boost that effective contract level to over 110 and even 120%! The truth is that hype is not mathematically possible. Ownership counts on it's remaining managers to bury their heads in the sand just like they did when hyping the 300 million sale that never happened. I even question whether the supposed 30 million offer was ever on the table, else why did only Rick Dixon know about it, and why was it not brought before the company for a vote?

Here's the real truth about profit sharing- One only has to look at the formula outlinned in the profitsharing contracts to see the truth. The 3 owners at the top retain almost 60% of the profitsharing. Area managers get another 10%. That leaves just 30% or less of Afortus profits to distribute to producers and regional managers. Now consider Afortus has 145% or more contract at Accordia. (I know MGA's with 145% who do far less production than Afortus at Accordia. It's ridiculous to think Afortus gets less than they) Regional managers get a 65% contract, which means Afortus keeps the 80% to the top 145% to pay the area managers and it's expenses. To make this ridiculously obvious lets pretend Afortus has ZERO expenses. 30% of that 80% (without expenses) means that 24% is the most a producer and or regional manager can add to their 65% contract . This means that even if Afortus had zero expenses, 89% is the max to be earned through profit-sharing.

The fact is they do have expenses and lots of them. This is why after all the hyped up promises there was ZERO profit-sharing paid out to any producer or manager for 3 of the 4 quarters in 2016. The one quater paid, was so low it might be considered zero as well. The reality is the hyped-up prefit-sharing might add about 10% to a regioanl managers 65% contract. if and when Afortus ever makes a profit. With 2/3 of Afortus regional managers having already walked out the door and half the remaining managers not producing and looking for work elsewhere, profit looks less and less likely. And even then you'd have to believe that ownership tells the truth and is honest about their earnings. Why would any manager continue to build their Afortus empire? Why would anyone believe what they say when they appear to have no obligation to be honest or tell the whole truth. And that will continue as long as they can intimidate managers to stay quiet and not ask the hard questions. 

So what now? What can you do about it? The answer is in part 5-mudwrestling with pigs- how do I fight back? 

Afortus owner Rick Dixon claimed WMA burned him on promised WMA sales payouts. This was supposedly the reason he started FFG which became Afortus. He claimed this couldn't happen with FFG since their ownership was in "writing," writing that gave managers no rights and even less control. Each year since inception Rick promised to sell "soon" and showed projections of each manager recieving their part of a future $300 million sale based upon their inception to date premium written. Finally managers got tired of promises and demanded a sale to recieve their proceeds.

In 2010 at an FFG leadership conference, Rick told the managers; "it's your company so lets vote on a sales date." This pacified the managers who by an 85% margin, voted to sell FFG within 2 years. Two years later, in 2012, on a company cruise, instead of recieving sales proceeds, Rick offered another manager vote. It was clear little if any real effort was made to sell the company over the previous 2 years. It was no surprise 85% again voted to sell immediatly. So more hype ensued for the promised 300 million sale.

Managers relocated, worked hard, morgaged homes in order to hang on until the sale. Two years later in 2014, at a company convention, instead of sales news, Rick announced that the sale was now based on profit instead of production and that 300 million was more likley just 100 million. But the good news was tha the sale was "close." Year after year the promised sale was "almost here." Managers made purchases and decisions based upon the promised sale that they had in writing.

Then the bombshell was dropped at a leadership conferance in 2015; the only offer of 30 million was unilaterally turned down by Rick Dixon without any FFG manager discussion. It was also learned that owner Rick Dixon of Draper Utah had pocketed 18 million dollars over the 5 years he procrastinated the sale he had hyped up for over 10 years. FFG had ignored the 85% manager vote taken on 2 separate occassions in order to take 18 million in company profits over that 5 year delay.

Now for the killing blow- Rick has sold the company to 2 other managers and camoflaged the sale as "company restructure" in order not to pay the sales proceeds promised to it's managers who supposedly own the company. In the end Rick Dixon has burned his managers the same way he was supposedly burned by WMA. It turns out the contracts each manager had in writing  are worth nothing, except to help it's founder Rick Dixon become rich.

Sooner or later this should result in a class action lawsuit over fraud and misrepresentations by FFG ownership over the sales proceeds owed on a hyped sale that didn't take place. It should also result in a 2nd class action suit for the sales proceeds that should have been paid when Brett Olsen and Brent Tycksen purchased FFG from Rick Dixon, but represented it as a company restructure rather than a sale.

FFG made 4.5 million profit in 2014. That profit dropped to just 2.8 million in 2015. FFG changed their name to Afortus and made less than $500,000 in 2016. New written contracts were given the managers that are still promised a future sales payday. The problem is about a 3rd of their managers saw through the hype and left. Half the remaining managers have lost faith and are producing little if anything at all. Basically Afortus is starting over and needs new managers to relocate at their own expense and build the empire for those at the top. The new managers are given the same old sales hype based upon their inception to date production. What the new managers haven't been told is that the last 10+ years of inception to date production of past managers means they'll get little if any of the sales proceeds since it's impossible to make up 10 years past production history.

So many sold out and bought into the hype. So many ruined families, divorces, lost homes, depleated savings, and so many left in medical and financial ruin! How does one do this to others they claim to care so much about, while pocketing millions based on hype, fraud, and misrepresentations? Where is the ethics and integrity? How do you live with yourself? I can think of 18 million reasons Rick's OK with it. Why would any managers still work for these people. Why would anyone believe anything they say? The answer is because they now buy into the "profit-sharing" scam, part 3 of the Mud-wrestling with Pigs series.

   An Afortus agent contacted me today to suggest that even though 80% of the report is true, some things should be clarified. OK fair enough, which parts? It turns out that the script is still ridiculous but really only about 10 pages long, even though the presentation supplement pages bring it back close to 20 pages. It turns out that not all managers require the 50-100 warm market even though Afortus executives make that a major part of manager training.

   Im reality even with occasional exceptions, what was reported is true and does in fact happen as reported. A perfect solution is for FFG, Federal Financial Group, Ancora and Afortus Financial to refund $295 to every agent since inception that came and left without ever getting a single "A" lead that was promised. That would surely be the "ethical" thing to do.

   For those unlucky enough to still be with Afortus, the scam doesn't stop there. Agents who Produce are promised management if they hit certain production levels, without regard to their management ability or talents. It's not until after they voice their commitment and hit that target, they're told they must relocate at their own expense, They're also raised from a 50 to 65% contract, just below the threshold to make any significant part of the 4% top down renewal on your business. Keep in mind that Afortus management has made as much or more on that business than you who writes it, and that most organizations reimbuse employees for relocation.

  The manager is required to hold meetings and maintain a regional office at their own expense. Most organizations subsidize or even pay for their regional offices, but not Afortus. These managers are then given recruits found through the $295 lead scam. Each recruit is expecting something they aren't going to get, at least not the level promised. And it's your job to appease them. A significant portion of these recruits have never held an insurance license and must recieve significant training from managers sent out without the support, training, and ability to succeed. Additionally these managers must pay a monthly fee for these recruits regardless of how few they recieve and without regard to their quality.

   Most marketing companies pay for the client application processing even for agents and managers that have 100% contracts. Not Afortus, their managers are required to hire and pay for their own assistent. Again keep in mind that this regional manager is on a 65% contract, relocated in a strange place, away from family and support, with little or no money, after paying for everything to set up this regional office himself. Also keep in mind that Afortus keeps the commission spread from that 65% contract to their 140-150% contract level. Sure Afortus has their office and employees to pay for, and 5-10% to pay it's area managers, but Afortus still had enough spread to keep a 4.5 million profit in 2014!  

And for the grand fianale! Clients under and over sold change their minds and reverse their polices. When a client reverses the policy, the insurance company reverses your commission, and a chargeback occurs. When an agent has no money or refuses to pay their chargeback, it flows up to you the regional manager. Some managers have faced the delema of having as many chargebacks as new business. Get this: now you must pay back the entire 65% chargeback yourself having made just 15% in over ride. Afortus makes about 80% in over rides but offers not 1 dollar to help! So there you are relocated accross the country in a strange place with no support, and no money!  

Solution- Get leads from your own source, so you can maintain quality or move to another source. Don't accept management contracts lower than the 70-100% any good agent in the industry will require to work with you. Don't relocate unless they re-imburse you for it. Don't let any marketing organization lure you into a lower contract with the promise of some financial benefit they'll give you "down the road". Take that benefit today on each case you and your agents write. As for those false promises of benefits to be paid "down the road"? I'll address that in my next complaint. In the meantime Nancy Reagan said it best; "just say no!"