Complaint Review: Primerica & "Thomas T" - Greenville South Carolina

I have been approached by Primerica. Apparently, a friend gave them my business card. It just so happens that I have been educating myself on the very services they offer. I have not agreed to sign on with them. I'm considering it, but only because I enjoy helping others. I am a Sales Manager and I have experience training people how to sell. The Rich Dad series has been very educational as well as the IBD I receive and The Motley Fool newsletter. Primerica and Citigroup, and their services, are both rated very highly in the financial and insurance world and the only problem with them is the same problem all businesses have. If your sales force is not trained properly, they will not be effective and they will misrepresent your company. However, the services they offer are not at fault from what I can tell. If Primerica were a liability, Sandy Weill would not have it under his umbrella. Although many people have a problem with MLMs, it is because they are uneducated when it comes to running a business. These people should not be in a MLM. They should be employees for those that do know how to run a business unless they take the time to educate themselves on how money works and how to effectively run a business. I don't need to give the stats on how many businesses fail in their first 3 years and then 5 years. MLMs have the same stats as any traditional business. There are millions of opportunities to make money, but you must take advantage of them and work hard to make them successful.

Just FYI, If you have been following CitiGroup, and Primerica, you'd be interested to know that Primerica is expanding into Spain, and other countries in Europe later this year and next. However, Primerica is not the name it is rolling out with. It is actually CitiSoluciones (CitiSolutions). I would be very surprised that once Citigroup opened enough offices of Primerica, if they did not change the name and the structure of the organization. It is far too expensive (and pointless) to pull out a whole new set of copyrights.

I am writing this as a client of Primerica Financial Services (PFS) though I am also an Independent Contractor with the company. I have worked with/been a client with PFS for about seven years. This is the PFS I know: 1) Primerica is not a job so one would not find full-time work (in the traditional 9-5, 40 hours a week sense of the word) with PFS. "Management Opportunity" or "Management Position" more accurately describes the position. PFS rebukes those who misleads others on this. 2) Yes, PFS is always looking for leaders. Not employees. Not people already licensed in the areas they do business. PFS recruits people who want a chance to do something special with their lives. When licensed, a new recruit is dubbed a personal financial analyst. Not a financial planner. Not a stock broker. Not an investment advisor or investment analyst. These other designations require different certification and/or licenses. PFS also doesn't call its associates accountants or tax advisors. The associates don't offer advice at all (on investments or insurance or taxes, etc.). They analyze data taken from clients and the analysis makes recommendations based on that information. 3) PFS has some of the same aspects of a MLM or network marketing business, which seems to leave a bad taste in the mouths of some. However, one can earn a substantial living by oneself (no recruiting) if one so chooses. The MLM aspect enables associates to earn money faster (with a team). But compare the compensation system at PFS with any other MLM company to see for yourself what the real difference is. 4)Yes, one can get cheaper life insurance elsewhere. Yes, there are other companies that do some of the things PFS does. Yes, there are "more professional" compamies. PFS is made up of people with no or little financial background who are trained in the areas of marketing, communication, and yeah, leadership. We like to say people are our product, not the services we market. 5)Congratulations! My brother knew the Rule of 72, too. Most people, though, do not. We educate people on how money works and how to get theirs to work harder for them. Good luck!

About two weeks after I turned down the "opportunity of a life time", I was contacted by another guy who wanted to recruit me. I turned him down as well... The problem with Primerica is not Primerica. An honest, ethical, hardworking individual will succeed no matter what company they work for. The people are the problem. I don't think that people are bad, but they do look out for their own interest and consequently sell products or provide services that may not be the best alternative (they also recruit people to do the dirty work). They (Primerica people) have been "sold" that they can provide the best alternatives. They have been trained in a specific skill set. They beleive in good faith that what they have heard is true. Sadly, they are sold that they are closely "attached" to Citigroup. Primerica is basically a huge "Independent Agent" of Citigroup that is coincidentally owned by them as well. Otherwise, Citigroup might as well fully intergrate them into Citigroup and call them Citifinancial or something... I wonder why they haven't??? The truth is that you can contact several companies to provide loans, insurance, investments, etc.. and compare quotes. Anytime that there is a commisioned salesman attached to the transaction, the commission is built in at the front end, back end, or spread across the middle. Shop around!

I also wanted to add that www.mlmreview.com ("MLM" as in Multi-Level Marketing) had reviewed Primerica and had a little blurb about them. Primerica people don't know that they are an MLM, but MLM "Experts" recognize them as an MLM. Another term you should be aware of is "Network Marketing", which is the same as MLM.