Primerica - not a scam but not a get-rich-quick plan by: Vitaly Grinblat
I spent over 10 years with Primerica and was a Regional Vice President.
First of all it's not a scam, it is a real company, and yes they do have lots of people who make 6-figure income. Is it right for you?
There are 2 sides to that business. One is the product side and the other is the opportunity. The concept of teaching people to save money, buy the right kind of life insurance, and get out of debt is right and is very much needed today. Most people who come into Primerica, including myself are completely new to the financial services industry, so the on the surface it seems that everything the company does is great. However, if you stick around and actually produce and start developing clients and enhancing your financial education, you start realizing the Primerica products are limited.
As financial services professional, shouldn't your clients have the best choices for financial vehicles, when it comes to insurance, saving, and loans? Of course, but in Primerica, it is limited to what the company allows you to have, and you cannot go outside of that. Now you can make money with that, but the question becomes, are you doing the best for your clients, by offering them only what you have available?
And in the long run you're shooting yourself in the foot, because when some of your clients discover other choices they will leave and you lose credibility with them.
Now let's talk about the opportunity. The structure of Primerica's compensation is based on a network marketing and multi-level marketing model. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You can recruit agents and if they produce the make money and you make money. It's a very similar concept that is used in every real estate office, a mortgage company, an insurance agency, and any sales business.
When you buy a house from a realtor, the agent you bought from makes a commission, the associate broker, if there's one also get a cut, called an override, and the broker get's his or her override, or share of the commission.
The challenge with the Primerica system is not the compensation but that you have to build an organization (recruit people).
Can you make money without recruiting?
Yes, but you won't get promoted to a higher level of compensation, and more importantly you have to be a salesman, selling the products and services of that company to make any money. There's no marketing or lead generation plan, so you're on your own, as far as finding clients, getting referrals, etc.
