Pros and Cons of being a Primerica Agent
Found this post late last night and looked at it today. Read through it and most of the comments, and for the most part, it is being a fair comparison. I will reprint some of the article and comments (paraphrased and bolded) below then add in my additions, corrections, and explanations.
Pros
1) Primerica is a division of Citi which uses Primerica to market and sale it’s vast array of products.
True. Although we are not just marketing Citi’s products. Our VA comes from MetLife, our mutual funds are the same that other firms offer, our life insurance is our own company. The products we offer from Citi are pretty much the G.O.O.D. Loan, H.O.M.E. Loan and the $.M.A.R.T. Loan. Everything else is from other companies.
2) Primerica’s goal is to help families free up money to shore up their retirement and savings accounts.
A better way might be to say we help get families debt free and retire early. Both are true. The ultimate goal is to get as many people and families financially independent.
3) They can hire anyone is because they have a computer program that does the advising for them.
Not quite. We give everyone the opportunity to do this business. We must still be trained to get the proper advice. The program just helps organize it for us. And we don’t hire anyone, we recruit and it’s a volunteer business. Must be licensed and approved for all lines of business we offer to our clients.
4) Encourage clients to may twice monthly on mortgages to pay it down.
True, but to be more accurate, we encourage our clients to pay ALL their debts as quickly as possible. Not just making 2 monthly payments, but also adding money to the principal to accelerate it even more.
5) Only sells term life insurance.
Even better, our term policies even automatically renew for another term (based on obtained age ONLY) without proving insurability. What this means to most people, you get our term, you get cancer at anytime and beat it (even if you don’t), the renewal comes up, your approved based on how healthy you were when you FIRST got the policy and the age you are now. That fact you got cancer does not enter the picture. We do not offer a cash surrender value policy. This is because it is better for our clients.
6) I make my own schedule.
This is actually a pro and a con. It’s great and all, but without the discipline to stick with it, it hurst more than it helps. This is part of why most people fail in the business.
Cons
1) They are still a high pressure multi-level marketing firm.
Depends on the office you are in. In ours, we make are own decissions and it reflects in our numbers. You are encouraged to do sales because it helps the clients and you. The best way to help yourself, is to help others.
2) From what other Primerica reps have said, most money is made from recruiting people rather than selling products, and it is difficult to make much money if you don’t recruit a bunch of people.
You can still make a very decent living without recruiting people, it is just more difficult. You make the money from your own efforts and that of those you and your downlines recruit. Think Broker/Agent concept of real estate. No money is made from just recruiting people. They still have to work.
3) The commission payouts are a lot lower than other salespeople in the industry.
Based on what I have seen, starting out that is true. Then again, if you just hired someone in a job with no experience, would you pay them top dollar? It does not take much to move up the difference sales designations to earn more money. The true money in doing this business does not happen until you become an RVP.
4) Non-compete clause for 2 years within a 50 mile radius of your address. If you leave, you must leave behind the clients that you worked so hard to get in the first place.
That is more of a protection for the client than anything else. It years past (and possibly still going on), agents would work for one company till the commissions from the policies dried up. Would switch companies and move the entire client base over to get those commissions back. They would do this for several companies until they retired. We strive to be different from the other companies and we receive a tremendous amount of flack for it.
5) We are captive agents.
We are only allowed to offer products from what our home office tells us. Nothing more. Anything outside of that can be grounds for tremination of contract. That being said, it also has the benefits that we can know our products inside and out and how they compare with the compitition.
6) Primerica’s mutual funds do poorly.
Not the case. If the money was poorly placed it will do poorly. That is the same for any company that handles investments. They are not our mutual funds, we market and sale the exact same funds as every other brokage firm. Also to note is that when you put money in a mutual fund, are you putting in there for long term or short term?
7) No Warm Market.
This is a killer for anyone trying to do network marketing, multi-level marketing, any kind of face to face marketing. This does not however have to remain a con. All it takes in any of these businesses to get back into a warm market is to either get out and talk with people or recruit a few and use their warm market. I’m not saying steal their warm market, use it. If they quit, it becomes yours. If they stay, you are helping them keep and build their team and business.
If anyone else wishes to add some, post it in the comments and I’ll add them. I do want to make a fair comparison.
See you at the top!
May 9th, 2008 11:34
Dear Richard,
I read some of your site. I wish you the best. I was at PFS for 7.5 years and went with an independent firm in 2003. I enjoyed my PFS years and people I met but I was a poor recruiter and did not sell the loans and insurance becuase I knew they could do better elsewhere. With that formula I made it to Division and became a stagnant securities only rep. Basically the lack of product diversity, low commissions, and lack of advancement without massive recruiting made me look elsewhere.
I was making 3000 per year gross doing that part time and taking a loss on my Schedule C every year. Something had to change. I moved on and have recently made over 100,000 part time in the last 12 months be using indepenedent contracts. My referrals went up, my business increased dramatically, I had more to offer and less to walk away from for clients. I am debt free now and have recently purchased two investment properties with my increased income.
I am writing this because I want to encourage you to follow your dreams. If you love financial services, keep your mind open to other ideas. For me the change was pretty dramatic. I don’t really put any more hours in than before and I still have a full time job for now. My wife retired in 2004 and has not worked since.
I have no regrets with my PFS experience. I learned a lot and developed a client base from which to grow my independent practice. I have agents in 14 states that are direct to me now. I can serve more people now than before and help more new agents learn what I have learned.
I also hope you will also look at real estate. It seems to be a common thread in all wealthy folks’ portfolio. The financial services industry does not teach on it because there is no profit in it for them. It works for Kiyosaki, Trump, and Shemin and many others.
Good luck with your business.
Jonathan
May 9th, 2008 16:08
Thanks for the comment Jonathan. I have looked at other opportunities, both for me personally and in replace of PFS. I still feel that being with PFS is the best choice.
I do know that are products are not best suited for everyone, and that sometimes they may be able to get a better deal elsewhere. The one thing they can’t get elsewhere though is me. As stated on this blog, we have gone through some rough times and know what it is like and how to prevent it. I use that to help families.
I do agree that the commissions are low compared to the rest of the industry and product variety is a bit lacking, however, in our base, you don’t need massive recruiting to be promoted. We use discretion to do it.
I am glad you are doing well now as an independent. I would like to point out something though, and this applies to everything everybody does. Because you did not believe in the products and services of Primerica, you failed at it. You believed in what you were doing as an independent and have thus succeeded at it. Belief in what you do is always a key factor in your success. Would you not agree?
I have already looked at real estate for personal investments and have started looking for rent houses. And it is not so much that the FS industry does not believe in the profit for it, since most of the assets are real estate, it is because competition can be a bitch. That, and doing real estate requires long term fore thought and willingness to wait out the good and bad storms.
I wish you luck with your endeavors.