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There seems to be a lot of people wondering if Legal Shield is a pyramid scheme and so I thought I would look into it to see if this is true or not.
Legal Shield is a MLM (multi-level marketing) company that offers affordable legal services to people who need it and are sold through their associates/members that join their business opportunity.
I have found some not so nice things about Legal Shield online but are they all valid or are people just complaining about nothing?
In my Legal Shield review, I will look into all this and give you the load down in the following ways:
- What Is Legal Shield?
- How Legal Shield Works
- Will This Work For You?
- Is Legal Shield A Pyramid Scheme?
- VIDEO: Own Your Own Online Business Instead
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WHAT IS LEGAL SHIELD?
Program Name: Legal Shield
Website: legalshield.com
Price: $149 kit (may vary across states)
Owner: MidOcean Partners
Recommended? No
Are you looking for affordable legal services? There are many reasons why you would need legal help but most times, it is very expensive to hire a lawyer so that’s why Legal Shield is there to offer you the legal help you need but at very affordable prices.
Legal Shield was established back in 1976 and it was bought by MidOcean Partners in 2011 and that’s how it got its name Legal Shield.
Legal Shield offers prepaid plans where you will pay a monthly subscription and certain services will be included with the plan you pick.
The more you pay, the more legal services that will be included.
I’m not here to analyze their legal services as I’m more interested in their business opportunity so I will be talking more on that side of things of Legal Shield.
Legal Shield’s legal services are sold directly through their associates (aka members) and they are considered a MLM because you can earn money from people that you recruit into the business as well.
As an associate you will be able to earn money from the sale of the legal services or through the sales of your recruits and other ways.
People have joined Legal Shield as an associate thinking they can have a life changing opportunity since the way Legal Shield markets themselves make it seem like this is the ticket to people’s financial freedom, but the reality is quite the opposite as I found in my research.
I will go over Legal Shield’s compensation plan next in more detail to see why this is not as great an opportunity as it seems.
HOW LEGAL SHIELD WORKS
As a MLM organization, Legal Shield will have a pyramid structure with the few early members on top and the masses form the base of the triangle.
Just because it looks like a pyramid structure, it doesn’t always mean it’s a pyramid scheme either we will have to look at how they are earning money first.
Let’s take a closer look at their compensation plan now.
You have two main ways to make money here:
- Direct Sales
- Recruiting Others
Direct Sales
You can earn 20% commissions for all legal service plan you sell to the general public. You get the full commission of a year’s plan in advance.
However, when someone cancels their plan, they will take back that commission and more than half of the customers do cancel their 12 month plan mid-way due to horrible services and many complaints about services not being included which leads to upgrades.
You can also earn a renewal bonus though if they make through the first 12 months and continues for another year, you will get a little extra on top of the 20%.
Recruiting Others
Since selling to the general public doesn’t seem that profitable, it would seem you will need the power of a team to increase your sales even more.
You can do this by recruiting others into your team so they can also build their business under you and you’ll be their sponsor.
You will be able earn a percentage of everything they make and you can climb up the ranks as your team grows.
The ranks are the following you can be promoted to:
- Junior Associate
- Associate
- Senior Associate
- Manager
- Director
- Executive Director
The higher you go in rank, the more you can earn and new opportunities open up to you and that would also mean your team grows deeper and wider as you go up the ranks.
You can also earn other extra bonuses like points that can be saved to go towards contests, trips, and other special promotions going on.
In order to move up the ranks, you will need to have a certain number of legs (associates) in your team plus a certain amount of sales which can either come from your personal sales or organizational sales (from your downline).
It would be easier to meet those sales if they were generated by your team vs only yourself, so there are many incentives in recruiting others.
WILL THIS WORK FOR YOU?
I don’t think this will work out for you for four reasons:
#1) Poor Legal Services Provided
As a MLM, the core of the business needs to be focused on the products or services that are offered to general public.
As I have seen many complaints about their services at Pissed Consumers and at Better Business Bureau, it’s very easy to see that the core of their business is at stake here.
You are getting refunds left and right with half of your efforts going to waste when they cancel their plans and your commission is returned.
How will you gain more business this way if all people find online are bad reports about their main service?
Having a good business starts with a good product or service that people will want, without it, you have nothing to build on.
#2) Recruiting People Sucks
Sorry but that’s the reality of any MLMs and why most people fail at this game.
Most people only know the few friends and family, even if you go network, your reach is very limited.
These days, yes, you can go on the internet and get more recruits but unless you’re into internet marketing, you won’t get much there either from just posting some stuff on social media or on forums.
You will soon run out of leads and that’s why most people quit because they just can’t meet the necessary sales volume to move up the ranks from just their own personal sales.
#3) Your Whole Team Can Be Pulled From You
You really don’t own your own business here if they are able to do this and really unheard of in other MLMs that I’ve reviewed like LuLaRoe or Life Force International.
What happens if you don’t meet their sales criteria for any 3 month period, they can remove your entire team underneath you and you can lose all that you’ve worked for overnight!
The owners and executives on top can adjust and manipulate the commissions structure when they want without much input from the people at the base of the triangular structure.
That’s scary to hear this because you don’t ever want to have your whole business in the hands of someone else’s and have that much control on all that you’ve worked for.
#4) History Tells All
Their 2015 Income Disclosure (the most recent I can find as of this writing) shows that not only the associates who have been doing this for 2 years and less make an annual average of $878 in 2015 but approx. 83% of all associates across different experience levels made less than $1,000 in 2015 which is pretty scary.
If history doesn’t tell all, I don’t know what will and, with stats like this, you might as well work at the mall!
IS LEGAL SHIELD A PYRAMID SCHEME?
Because their services are so bad, many call Legal Shield a pyramid scheme or a scam but there’s a distinction between the two that people usually overlook.
A pyramid scheme is where the business is heavily reliant on recruiting members without a product or service to provide to the general public.
Seeing as Legal Shield is providing legal services, though bad quality, there is still a service provided to consumers who are willing to use it.
Therefore, I don’t believe Legal Shield is a pyramid scheme and if they were, they would be shut down by the government already so for now, I would consider Legal Shield as a legitimate MLM.
They are not a scam either for that matter as you are not being taken for your money or being tricked into anything. They do present a legitimate business opportunity.
However, because their legal services are so horrible, I wouldn’t recommend you using this as a way to make money because you will be set up to fail if you don’t have a high quality product to build on.
VIDEO: OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS INSTEAD
If you take a look at this video and see my explanation regarding using affiliate marketing instead of the MLM business model, you will see a clear winner.
You may be able to see other options and opportunities that will open up to you if you choose affiliate marketing instead:
These days, you’re better off using a modern business model and let the MLM business model die already.
The MLM business model has always worked well for the small percentage of people on top and never a great opportunity for the average person.
The modern business model I use since Sep ’16 is much suited for the internet and our modern times which doesn’t make you buy any products or bug/recruit anyone.
You can learn all about this awesome business model in my free guide here and see what I do:
You will see in my guide how this business model works, what you’ll be doing, why it works, and where you can get started for FREE today!
You will have full control over your own online business in a topic you’ll really love because you’ll be choosing and not be stuck to legal services which is quite boring for someone like me who’s not a lawyer. Lol
You will get the blueprint on how to make this online business a success plus you will get business tools to use to make things easier and all the help you’ll need.
I’m there to help you get started as well as answer your questions, and it won’t be only me, there will be a whole community of people willing to help you.
Stop fooling around with old business models like MLMs and start building your future!
If you have any questions or thoughts regarding whether Legal Shield is a scam or anything else, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment below. I always reply to my readers! 🙂
Let’s make money online!
I really appreciate that you reviewed Legalshield, and having used your site to check out a few different companies over the last year, I’m glad you can identify the scams and pyramids. I’ve been looking for a good company.
Hi Jason, I appreciate you coming by. I see you wrote one too. 🙂 Glad you did, people could always use more info about Legal Shield.
But really the best way to make money is all explained in my guide here, check it out.
Thanks for coming by,
Grace