| Subject: Primerica: Legal, but unethical |
Author:
Paul
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Date Posted: 14:17:46 11/09/05 Wed
Author Host/IP: 64.118.129.130
In reply to:
Scam
's message, "Primerica SCAM!" on 09:24:23 05/25/04 Tue
Allow me to share my own experience with Primerica. A few years ago, I was approached by a fellow who made his pitch about joining his "business" with CitiGroup. Of course, he wouldn't give me any specifics, but I listened to him anyway. He invited me to an "opportunity meeting". Since I was curious and it didn't cost anything except a bit of time, I gladly accepted.
I ended up joining Primerica, because it looked like a really great deal. In the end, it was not, and it was my own fault for not investigating them more before I signed up. But those guys are very slick. They've got a very well-rehearsed and groomed presentation. They are all very well dressed, they were all very friendly, and they also have answers to every conceivable question you could have. I didn't consider it much of a risk, so I dove right into it.
I got my Life Insurance license in Michigan, and started going to their training sessions, seminars, and other classes. I soon found myself under considerable pressure to generate a list of 100 people I knew, and I was told I had to give up this list. Then we started with the "KT" (Kitchen-Table) presentations. It's a very nice package, nicely done, basically lets you see all your assets/liabilities in a good, slick format. Primerica has a strategy which looks sound; that is, take out a home equity loan (from Primerica of course, with a high interest rate) to pay off your credit card debt, replace any existing whole-life insurance with Primerica term life, then use the rest to open a Roth IRA, set up monthly withdrawals, etc. If there is no equity in the house, then they come up with this scheme of paying off the high-interest credit cards first, then knocking down the rest. So instead of getting out of debt by the year 2045, you can get out of debt by the year 2016 (for example).
Sounds doable. But I found some major flaws with the concept, after I looked at it closer:
1) Primerica uses this "cookie-cutter" format for all their KTs..........for everyone, regardless of where they are in their lives. They want to use the same strategy for young single people, older married couples with kids, etc. Different people at different life stages require different strategies. Primerica will try to convince you that all anyone needs is their plan and you're on your way to Millionaire Acres.
2) All these people are doing is transferring their debt from one creditor to another creditor..........with the new creditor being Primerica. The problem is that people get into trouble with credit card debt because they overspend. Just how the hell are they going to discipline themselves to stay focused on Primerica's pay-off plan for years and years? They can't! And Primerica knows this. It won't be long before the same family is calling Primerica again for more "debt relief", as they're going to find themselves farther down in the hole.
3) Then there's the idea that Term is better than Whole Life. Pushing Term is a HUGE scam for Primerica to make TONS of money. And they DO. For a 20-year Term policy, your premiums increase every year, and after 20 years, POOF it's gone! You've just paid a lot of money into something that's gone forever. I can't imagine anything more horrid than that. And what are the odds that you're going to die? The odds are very low. In contrast, Whole Life premiums stay level. And the cash value grows tax-free. AND you borrow money from the cash value at any time, all while the cash value grows as if the total balance is there. That's using your money in two different places at once, boys and girls...........just like banks do. But Primerica convinces people to give up their Whole Life policies for Term. Sure, you can get 3x the coverage at 1/3 the cost, but you can do so much with a Whole Life policy while you're alive. And it will pay out to your beneficiary, when you turn 100, or you die, whichever comes first!
4) That whole theory of decreasing responsibility is a total load of BULL. Sure, as you get older and the kids leave, you don't have to pay for them anymore, but if you like to travel and keep your health insurance up, that costs a lot of money. So there really IS no "decreasing responsibility".
Well, when I started pointing these things out and asking questions, I was essentially shunned. It was like I was attacking their religion.
Don't fall for the Primerica scam. It's could qualify as a religious cult, and they have destroyed the lives of so many good people. I'm still waiting for a class-action lawsuit to be brought against Primerica. And it can't happen soon enough!
I believe that the typical person off the street who joins Primerica believes the spiel that they're helping people. And they really do want to help people. But they have no idea what's really going on. The ones running the horror show are the ones higher up making the really big bucks. The common person who joins Primerica is what Vladimir Lenin called "Useful Idiots"............those are folks who work to help you achieve your goals, but are really clueless as to what they're really doing.
Primerica is a very bad thing, being sold as a basket of goodies. Don't fall for it. Just barely legal, definitely unethical.
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