Ah, life insurance.
It’s the insurance no one wants to think about until it’s too late. But when we do think about it, we all want to work with a reputable business that’s here to stay.
No one wants to turn in a claim while grieving a loved one and discover the insurer went belly up years ago.
Enter Primerica.
Primerica is a network marketing company that offers life insurance plans and other financial services. Like no other company in this industry, they’re also an MLM.
Granted, it’s not your typical MLM category like skincare or home jewelry, and direct selling isn’t a common method for selling life insurance, but Primerica is making it work.
The question is, can it work for you? Let’s take a look.
FAQ
1. What does Primerica sell? Primerica sells insurance products and financial services to “Main Street” families, including Financial Needs Analysis, Term Life, Investments, Auto & Home Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance, Pre-Paid Legal, and Identity Theft protection.
2. What are Primerica’s most popular products? Term Life Insurance is Primerica’s flagship product and what they’re most known for. Their term life insurance plans are reasonably affordable, and they were given an A+ superior rating by A.M. Best, a rating only the top 15% of life insurance companies achieved.
3. How much does it cost to join Primerica? It costs $99 to join Primerica, plus a monthly subscription fee of $25 for the online support system.
4. Is Primerica a scam? No, Primerica is a publicly traded company that sells real insurance and financial products. Scam or not, though, to succeed with this MLM, you’ll need to go through more training than with other MLMs. Insurance is a highly regulated industry, so you’ll need to understand the products you’re selling, what the regulations are, and how to talk about them so you’re compliant. That being the case, you’ll need to pass your insurance licensing and possibly other training as well.
5. What is Primerica’s BBB rating? A+
6. How long has Primerica been in business? Since 1977
7. What is Primerica’s revenue? $1.69 billion
8. How many Primerica distributors are there? 130,000+
9. What lawsuits have been filed? In 2014, Carolyn Arline and Machell Amador filed a lawsuit against Primerica for refusing to pay the full benefits due under the life insurance policy. [1] In 2013, Primerica was faced with 238 retirement plan cases, where they were accused of bad investment advice. [2] In 2014, Primerica set aside $9.3 million to settle with these people. [3] This was a big news story, and led to Primerica being asked to testify in 2015 against a new regulation designed to protect retirement savings from dodgy investment managers. [4] In 2012, Miriam Arellano filed suit against Primerica for breach of contract, consumer fraud, and negligence. Mrs. Arellano was awarded compensatory damages of $82,000 and punitive damages of $1,117,572. [5] In 1998, The Securities and Exchange Commission instituted proceedings against PFS, a subsidiary of Primerica, for failure to reasonably supervise four of their representatives. [6] In addition to these cases, there have been a lot of “interpleader” cases, where there’s a debate over who should receive the life insurance payout. [7]
10. Comparable companies: LegalShield, Damsel in Defense,
There’s big money in the life insurance industry, so should you join up with these guys?
Product-wise, the insurance company seems legit. But as far as the business opportunity goes, there are better ways out there to make a sustainable passive income…
Click here for my #1 recommendation
Either way, here’s the full review on Primerica.
Overview
Primerica was founded in 1977, went public on the NASDAQ in 1983, and split off from their parent company Citigroup in 2010. They’re now headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. [8]
According to Forbes, Primerica founder A.L. Williams began his career in life insurance after his father died and their whole life insurance plan ended up being worthless. He was distraught over the poor options for life insurance and lack of knowledge regarding those options among the mainstream population.
Basically, back in the 70s, companies were pushing expensive whole life insurance policies on Americans who didn’t have a lot of financial knowledge, convincing them that it would not only protect their family in the event that they die, but that it was also a very smart investment. Whole life insurance pays out no matter what, accrues interest over time, and you can even take out loans against it, whereas term life insurance only pays out if you die within the policy’s term (10 years, 20 years), and it has no cash-in value.
So, it sounds like term life insurance is throwing your money away, and whole life insurance is investing it.
But here’s the thing: term life insurance is super cheap… like, a few dollars a month cheap. Whole life insurance is very pricey, often in the hundreds, and a lot of these predatory companies promised lifetime payout but found loopholes to get out of paying out once the insured person actually died. Exactly what happened to A.L. Williams when his father died.
So, he started Primerica (first called A.L. Williams & Associates) as a life insurance and financial services company that would serve Main Street America. Their slogan, “Buy Term and Invest the Difference,” and their focus on educating mainstream America about their options caused many people to leave their whole life insurance policies and buy into this new term life insurance company. [9]
Pretty quickly, they grew to become the largest seller of life insurance in the U.S., and they really did transform the industry. Now, Primerica is the largest independent financial services marketing organization in North America. [10] Operations extend throughout the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
They’ve also got insane profit margins — in 2017 they hit over 18% net profit. [11] The average net profit margins for the insurance industry? 4-5%, if you’re lucky. [12]
Primerica started out with a great mission that transformed the industry, but a lot of their success has been due to the way they treat their employees and agents (distributors). Right off the bat, A.L. Williams knew that his salespeople would be the lifeblood of his company, and he places a huge emphasis on “pushing up” his employees by holding weekly video conferences with them and speaking to each one of his hundreds of thousands of agents personally.
It shows, too. Their employee reviews on Indeed are extensive, and with 1.3k reviews, they still manage to maintain a 4-star rating. [13]
Products
Primerica’s life insurance and financial services products include:
- Term Life Insurance
- Mutual Funds
- Segregated Funds
- Annuities
- Manages Accounts
- Long Term Care Insurance
- Legal Services
- Auto Insurance
- Homeowners Insurance
- Credit Monitoring
- Debt Management Plans
I won’t bore you with the financial details of each and every product, but I will talk a little about some of their more popular products.
Term Life Insurance
This is the product they’re most known for. Their term life insurance plans are reasonably affordable, and they were given an A+ superior rating by A.M. Best, a rating only the top 15% of life insurance companies achieved. [14]
In 2015, they paid out a total of $1.2 billion in death claims, and 92% of their claims were paid within 14 days. [15]
The biggest complaint most people have about life insurance companies is that they find ways of not paying after your loved one dies, so the fact that they pay their claims on time and with reliability is a huge strength. There have only been a few cases of this not happening, so it’s definitely not the norm (see lawsuits in the FAQ above).
One of the big drawbacks here is the fact that they use network marketing, so their Agents have a high turnover rate. As a customer, instead of working with the same person for years, (someone who has likely built a career in life insurance), you could be working with a life insurance newbie who’s going to quit in 6 months.
Compensation Plan
There’s a $99 cost to join — more and more, it’s looking like this is the standard price for start-up kits at newer MLMs (see: Monat or Paparazzi).
You don’t get any product, obviously (no physical product to be had), but it does pay for state insurance and financial services exams that you may need to take as well as your license to sell life insurance.
They highly encourage you to pay an extra $28/month for access to their online tools.
Commission is 25% on all financial services sales, which is kind of low, but not bad considering that the product is recurring monthly as long as customers don’t cancel their policy.
Your commission can jump all the way up to 70% if you can advance your rank quickly enough, and you also get 10% overrides on your personal recruits.
You’re highly encouraged to start with a “warm market” — a list of friends and family you want to sell to. First red flag. MLM destroys friendships, no joke. You don’t want to be THAT guy who’s trying to make a dollar off your cousin.
What’s even worse, though, is when you run out of “warm market” friends to listen to your sales pitch and you have to hit up your “cold market” — aka walk up to random strangers and ask them to buy your life insurance. Sound like fun?
To most people, it doesn’t. That’s probably why the average Primerica rep only makes barely over $5,000 in annual income. Literally below the poverty line. [16]
Also wayyyyyyy less than what you can make working for a traditional life insurance company (average salary at State Farm, for example, is $32,000). [17]
Recap
So the company is legit, and their life insurance seems to be some of the best on the market.
Primerica’s also got a great corporate culture and a solid mission.
But the direct selling structure is their fatal flaw: it’s just not possible for over 99% of the people who buy into MLM to make good money and avoid alienating their friends.
It’s just not a strategy that works for anyone but the top .001%.
—
If it really is the products that intrigue you, and you want to give it a shot, going with a company that has been in the game a while isn’t a bad way to go.
But if it’s just the income opportunity you’re after, you might just be wasting your time.
Look, not a hater of Primerica but I’ve been involved with network marketing for over ten years so I know what to look for when you consider a new opportunity.
After reviewing 200+ business opportunities and systems out there, here is the one I would recommend:
Mr. Page,
This was my experience with a few minor additions… When I got a call for the interview, the agent didn’t even mention what company I was interviewing for. During the interview I was NEVER told they make their money (90-95%) from life insurance. The interview was also conducted by the person who called me, and the regional vice president. In addition it also had a 90 minute presentation with a promotional video, and they apparently forgot to mention the financial planning portion of their business was just to get into the clients house to offer them insurance. They do provide services other than insurance; however, none of these products (sales) are mentioned during their motivational meetings, nor do they count toward any bonuses or company competitions. They only stressed making insurance sales, and getting recruits. (They had a running tally of that months premiums, and recruits)
Furthermore, while the products and services they offer aren’t bad (by any definition of the term) the last agent in does more work, and gets paid less than the other agents. (Those higher up on the pyramid) While I agree that seniority should count for something, I don’t understand why these people, whom I have never met, should get a paid for my hard work. (Both the person who recruited me, the person who recruited them, and so on… ) So basically unless you can make a list of about 500 people (this is not a made up number, but what was requested of me by another agent (The agent who recruited, the agent who recruited me)) you will not be successful. Furthermore, the company ranks all of your personal associates on a scale of 1 – 5, where they get one point for being married, one for having kids, one for being under 55, one point for owning a home, and one more point for being employed. This determines any given individuals NEED for insurance. You will be asked to schedule appointment with your friends and family based off these numbers. (With those who score lower being given a job pitch) My experience with this was that many people either can’t get insurance because of preexisting conditions ( just change that score to a 0, they don’t suggest this but don’t waste your time), or think that all insurance is a scam (After studying the insurance regulations, I’m inclined to agree. There is only ever a chance that insurance will pay, even if you end up taking them to court.) Oh and it’s a federally and state sponsored system, so while the insurance commissioner may throw someone under the bus occasionally, it is only in the governments best interest to let the insurance companies make as much profit as is humanly possible. Most (but not all) benefits are tax free, while profits from a business are taxed normally. Furthermore since insurance companies are themselves insured by the government, when they go bankrupt the executives (who have spent years earning outrageous bonuses) can reincorporate the company under a new name and start over, leaving the government to flip the bill for the insurance that was not paid before the company went bankrupt (however the government has limits on the amounts you get in benefits, so the clients get significantly less money from the government then they would from the insurance company) So to conclude, this is not bad insurance for the clients, but utterly dreadful for the employees. You work long hours trying to get that first 1,000$ in premiums, and 3 recruits just to get your first check for 300$ AFTER you invest around 125$ just to get the position and licensing. (25$ covers access to Primerica online, with the rest going to pay for a 4 hour class on insurance to help you get licensed. The class does come with a 45 page black and white photocopied notebook…) Still, every month you can do this same amount of work, you will get paid a little more each time while your boss, and your bosses’ boss can focus on recruiting more people for the base of the pyramid. If you know a lot of people, If you know they need insurance or are underinsured, If you know they have money they can spend on insurance, If they don’t have preexisting medical conditions, AND you can convince them to get their insurance from you, this job COULD be a good fit. For me however, I did not find this to be the case.
This is a well done article to a point. Where it breaks down is in the conclusion. You see, all financial services rookies to some degree or another alienate friends and family. That isn’t just an MLM problem. That is a professional personal services problem. It’s 0.01% of all people’s that want a job where you end up, to some level, anonymous from the client. But we’d be foolish to think we can build a business where we entrust people with our wealth or future and remain detached from them.