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Is Primerica a Scam? My Personal Experience with Primerica
Is Primerica a scam? My experience wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either. Even if it doesn’t work out you can learn a lot about your own finances and how to get them in order.
If you thinking of getting a side gig, a side hustle to make some extra money for retirement? Maybe you’re looking for a new job or looking for something to keep you busy in retirement. If you are considering joining Primerica read this before you make your decision.
In short, Primerica can be an opportunity for some. Like anything, it depends on how much you put into it. This review is based solely on my experience; others may have different experiences.
Primerica is a financial company Based out of Duluth, GA, Primerica is the trade name for Primerica Financial Services, Inc.
They provide financial services in the form of Mutual funds and Life Insurance to their prospective clients.
How Does Primerica Work?
Working with Primerica means signing up under a mentor who in turn trains you as a Primerica salesperson. They set you up with training in preparation of the certification exams that are necessary to pass in order to be a seller of insurance and securities products.
The certification exams are industry standard exams, once you pass (you have to get over 70%) you are a licensed seller under the USA or Canada depending on where you reside.
As a certified representative, you are able to promote the Primerica products to prospective buyers. If you sell a particular product you will, in turn, receive a commission which over time could reap huge benefits as your client base grows.
Is Primerica a Scam? Primerica Positives
The Training
The training Primerica provides is good, it requires time and effort. The classes were done on weekends and it was a lot of information to take in over a very short period of time. It is absolutely imperative that you pre-read the information in the textbooks and make notes before, during the course and after.
The tests are difficult (I managed to pass the first time for each but it was a ton of work and study) I believe if you do not pass on the third time you can not try again for several years. Many had a hard time passing but again I can’t speak to the amount of time they actually studied.
The Opportunity
Listen, there are a lot of people who have been very successful with Primerica. Primerica gives anyone who is willing to put in the time a chance at success. When you consider how many people start and how many stay on you’ll see that the drop out rate is very high, but I’m convinced that if you are driven and you apply the principles it will work for you.
Support
Primerica has built itself on targeting middle-class Americans and Canadians for over 40 years. They have over time developed systems to support their employees the tools they need to manage their client base, learning tools, conferences and certification management that everything the employee needs to manage their business is at their fingertips.
This is a huge advantage as everything is available for you to manage you, your team and your clients. There is a monthly cost of $25 to maintain your access to the online software they provide.
The management structure is also set up to provide support to you as a seller to be successful. I saw lots of great examples of teamwork, motivational exercises, learning classes and one on one mentoring for everyone to be successful.
The Structure
When you get licensed you are on a team, the team structure based on a commission basis, meaning the higher you rise in Primerica the larger the commissions. You start out at the bottom as you would in any company and over time as you build your business you move up. As you move up the commissions get bigger. This is normal of most corporations. If you are a sale person for HP, for example, you sell a product, you get a commission, your boss gets a commission as well. Primerica is no different.
Some call it a pyramid scheme, I don’t, its business. This isn’t some multilevel racket. They sell quality products that I would be proud to sell even though I’m no longer with Primerica (more on that later)
Primerica Products
The Products that Primerica sells are great. For securities, Primerica is partnered with all the major mutual fund companies you would find with the big banks.
The insurance products they sell are their own and it is very competitive price wise. On top of that, they only sell term insurance.
The other insurance products that other insurance companies sell Whole Life and Universal Life are not. The reason for this is that no one should own these products as the only beneficiary are the insurance companies selling them. Only buy Term insurance.
They Come to You
If you want any of these products that they sell normally you would go to the bank or some financial company. You would have to book an appointment, potentially take time off work, bring in your documents for review, go back after the review etc. It’s a pain.
Primerica goes to the client when they are free. They go to the client’s home when they are available (after the kids go to bed, after dinner etc.) there’s a huge benefit to the clients to have a company that comes to you instead of the other way around.
Wow, That Sounds Pretty good so what’s the Negative here.
Is Primerica a Scam? – Primerica Negatives
The Primerica Way
There is a bit of a cult-like atmosphere. Again just my experience, but I found myself often times not totally in line with their procedures or tactics.
My experience was very negative in that I always felt like I was being made to drink the Kool-Aid when attending team meetings. There was no flexibility with selling style or who you approached. Primerica has a defined process to be successful and if you deviate from that you deemed not “on-board” with the program.
There were some team meetings that were very strange. Strange in the sense that we were actually critiqued at one larger event for being too passive. That is to say, we weren’t dancing and clapping for every freaking award or yelling some strange chant. It was very odd and not for me, I attended two of these strange rah rah sessions and that was enough for me.
Family and Friends
They call it your warm market, so everyone you know friends, family co-workers. This was a turning point for me. Call it what you want I don’t want to perceived by my friends and family as one who is pushing products on them. While I personally believed at the time and continue to believe the products they sold are great. I did not want to personally sell to my family or friends out of respect for their privacy.
This what something where I drew a line in the sand.
On top of that, I had a very bad experience with a mentor (Primerica calls them an up line) which involved my family members. We met my cousin and her family. My up line as adamant that she would only speak to both parents at the table at the same time, she would not speak to just one member of the couple while the other watched their 3 children in the same room. This was not possible so we (she) left saying we would reschedule.
It was embarrassing and an unfortunate waste of my time and my relatives time. She was very short (rude) as if they put her out or wasted her time.
It left a very sour taste in my mouth not to mention embarrassed. It was incredibly unprofessional in front of potential clients to be treated in such a way was very disappointing.
The point is there doesn’t seem to be much flexibility when it comes to the “pitch”
It’s a Very Hard Sell
It’s a hard sell because of your deep dive into peoples financial closet. Now I will say you are helping them and I still believe what they are doing is a good thing but I didn’t like the hard sell. It may have been my uplines approach but I thought that their approach was too aggressive and instead of a partnership.
You Need to Recruit
One of the secrets of being successful in Primerica is the more people you recruit. This means you need to actively get people to join your team. If you believe in the products and the approach you will do fine, but due to my bad experience, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to join and be a part of that team.
Who your Upline is Matters.
Your Upline is the person who recruits you. Again in my particular case, it was not an enjoyable one. The couple who recruited is really we’re not the ideal match for me or my colleagues who joined at the same time. In the end, we all left Primerica due to the direct actions of our uplines. In our particular case, our uplines were a married couple who ended up separating. Without getting into details it was a real mess for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, you cannot transfer to another team so you are either in or out and that’s too bad if you don’t have proper guidance.
If You Decide to Leave Primerica
Should you decide to leave Primerica you cannot take your customers with you so you cannot take your business with you. They stay with Primerica and remain your uplines clients.
My Final Opinion on if Primerica is a Scam
Like anything, you get what you put into it. I believe Primerica provides good products, good advice to people and good training. They give you the tools you need to manage your business as well. You will always have to deal with the “Primerica is a Pyramid Scheme”, this notion is often promoted by their competitors in an effort to discredit Primerica.
I don’t believe its a Pyramid Scheme but maybe I did drink the Kool-Aid. LOL!
Would I have stayed with Primerica if their tactics were different, yes? Would I have stayed with Primerica if my Uplines were different, probably?
My experience wasn’t totally bad, I learned a ton, but it was a personal decision for me to sell to friends and family because they are too important to me and their financial privacy is something I respect.
While I’m sure I could have helped some of them, I did not feel that as a new Primerica agent, that I had enough experience to provide that type of advice to them.
I think you have to get lucky to find the right upline and quite frankly maybe that doesn’t exist as you have to follow the Primerica process, so that may be wishful thinking.
If you like to sell this may be for you, it wasn’t for me.
I hope this helps you in your decision making and remember this was just my experience. Your’s may be different.
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