Is Primerica A Pyramid Scheme? Does It Still Work In 2018?

There are a lot of opinions about Primerica lately and, although an established company, people are still wondering if Primerica is a pyramid scheme so I’ve put together this review to analyze this.

I will also go over whether the business opportunity that Primerica offers is a good one to try or if it’s a waste of your time.

As such, I will only mention their products as it pertains to the business opportunity side of Primerica and will not dive into the details of their products.

I will breakdown my Primerica review in the following way:

• What Is Primerica?
• How Primerica Works
• The Difference Between A Pyramid Scheme & A MLM
• Is Primerica A Pyramid Scheme?
• Is Primerica A Scam?
• VIDEO: Better Alternative To A MLM Business

 

 

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WHAT IS PRIMERICA?

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Program Name: Primerica

Website: primerica.com

Price: $103.95 one-time + $28/monthly

Recommended? No

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Established in 1977, Primerica has been around for forty years now providing financial services to middle class Americans all over the country.

 

 

The services they provide you is sure a long variety which includes:

• Term Life Insurance
• Financial Investments
• Auto & Home Insurance
• Long Term Care Insurance
• Debt Solutions
• Legal Solutions
• ID Theft Defense

On top of this list, they also provide a complimentary service to analyze your financial needs to help families understand their financial situation better and to help plan for their future.

Primerica also provides a business opportunity to people who are interested in selling their products and making either some extra income with it or make a full new career out of it.

You are given the opportunity to be independent contractors, not employees, and you’ll be able to make money two ways: selling their products and services for direct commissions and overrides from recruiting others into the program.

You certainly don’t have to do the recruiting if you don’t want to in this program or others, but usually people do because they end up finding that they can make more from recruiting than selling the products or services.

In Primerica’s case, there is a big push to recruit others into the system from the research I’ve done, but it seems that’s only because they want a lot more reps to be selling their products.

Let’s take a closer look at how the program works.

 

 

HOW PRIMERICA WORKS

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If you want to take join their business opportunity, you have to pay a one time Independent Business Application (IBA) fee of $103.95, which has gone up over the years from $95.

You will also have a $28/month fee to use their business tools and online features.

In the MLM industry, I would consider this opportunity to be a low cost one to enter.  I had just written a review on LuLaRoe where people start that program with a $4,925 – $9,000 investment.

There are defined levels to achieve in this Primerica MLM structure and the higher you go, the more you will make as you can see here:

• Representative – 25% commission
• Senior Representative – 35% commission + bonus
• District Leader – 50% commission + bonus
• Division Leader – 60% commission
• Regional Leader – 70% commission
• Regional Vice President – 95% commission + bonuses
• Senior Vice President – 95% commission + bonuses

For each level, there are several criteria that needs to be met before you can level up.  As you can imagine, you will have a pretty big team by the time you reach Senior Vice President.

I believe these are commissions on the products you sell, but I’m unclear on how much you can earn from your downline.

You can earn what is called overrides from the people you recruit in, but not sure what the exact percentages are.

This sort of information should be readily available on their website as it’s part of the analysis you should be doing to determine to join this program or not.

None the less, the Primerica program is typical for a MLM company but is it a pyramid scheme?

 

 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PYRAMID SCHEME AND A MLM

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According to Wikipedia, a pyramid scheme is a company that offers incentives such as payment when their members go out to recruit others to join the scheme and the company does not provide the sale of goods and services.

Often, to join a pyramid scheme, you need to pay a joining fee, and as you recruit, you will earn, usually a large portion, of the fees paid by the people you recruit in.

The owner and the few people near the top of such pyramid schemes usually make make the most because they’ll have the most people under them.

Pyramid schemes are considered illegal and could be shut down by the government if found.  Just because you’ve been around for years, doesn’t protect you from being shut down if the government determines you have a pyramid scheme.

A MLM company works very similar to a pyramid scheme and have a few things in common which can make it hard to distinguish which is which.

The main difference is that MLM’s usually provide a retail sales component that are products or services you can sell to the general public as well as a recruiting component.

You can earn commissions from people you recruit into the program – what you get paid depends on the program itself of course but usually you can earn from people you directly recruit yourself and earn from the people your recruits bring in as well.

Sometimes you can earn infinite levels deep or tiers which are considered your downline, and some programs limit how far down you can earn from your downline.

I will close this section with a video that explains the difference between a pyramid scheme and a MLM very well:

 

 

IS PRIMERICA A PYRAMID SCHEME?

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The quick answer is no, Primerica is not a pyramid scheme because it has lots of products and services you can sell to the general public.

As well, Primerica’s compensation plan is focused on your product sales rather than your overrides from your downline.

In some other MLMs, the compensation is clearly focused on recruiting people into the system and those types of companies could be determined as pyramid schemes.

The modern day pyramid schemes are harder to determine and makes the line very blurry and grey as they mask their membership fees into digital products that are clearly and highly overpriced, which is done purposely so you can make high commissions from recruiting people in.

So, clearly Primerica is not like that and I can safely conclude that Primerica is not a pyramid scheme as it has products and services used by many Americans.

 

 

IS PRIMERICA A SCAM?

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I included this question into this post because there are also people calling Primerica a scam and I want to clarify that it is NOT a scam.

A scam is when you’re taken for your money and get nothing in return or you’re being tricked into something else.  Check out my 11 ways to spot a scam if you want to see the signs.

Here at Primerica, you pay the one time IBA fee to get licensed which is required to have if you’re going to sell insurance.

Then the $28/month fee is to use their business online tools to help you with building your business.

Therefore, I can’t conclude that Primerica is a scam because you are getting something of value in return for your money.

 

However, Do I Recommend Primerica’s Business Opportunity?

Even though Primerica is not a scam or a pyramid scheme, I still do NOT recommend this business opportunity because of several reaosns.

A lot of what you learn on how to build this business at Primerica is the old way of doing network marketing where you will be asked to bring people to meetings, showing them flip charts and getting them to presentations.

They will tell you to write all the people you know and compile this list called your “warm market”.

I guess starting with a “warm market” would be easier than a “cold market” which is contacting strangers.

However, in this day and age, without knowing how to leverage the power of the internet, many people who go into such programs will inevitably run out of ways or people to recruit or sell insurance to.

I don’t see any advance training to leverage the internet in Primerica’s program so you will be set up to fail if you don’t know how to get leads from the web.

On their income disclosure, you can find this:

From January 1 through December 31, 2016, Primerica paid cash flow to its North American sales force at an average of $6,088 per life licensed representative.

Sure there are people who can make 6 figures in this program who’s probably been in it for years, but there must be a lot more people who make close to nothing to bring that figure down to an average annual income of only $6,088 per rep.

Such as most MLMs, once people dry up in their recruiting efforts and don’t know who to sell their products to because they are so in-person focused, they inevitably fail.

Most MLMs don’t have a high track record for success stories and majority of the people that join usually don’t do well at all.

 

 

VIDEO: BETTER ALTERNATIVE TO A MLM BUSINESS

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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:

 

 

MLMs are good because they give you a product/service to promote and sets you up easily to start your own business.  But often, the methods taught in these programs are not catered to the world we live in today which is on the internet.

It’s time to learn how to make money online by creating an online business where you don’t have to bother a single person you know or buy inventory for products that are usually hard to sell.

The flexibility and enormous opportunity of the online business model that I love to use far outweighs the limitations of a MLM business.

As well, the business model I use doesn’t limit you to just working with one company, you can work with multiple companies for the products you want to promote.

Many companies like Target, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple and Walmart nowadays support this type of business model so you can work for yourself, be your own boss, and partner up with as many companies as you wish to do business with.

To understand how this business model works, why it works, and the potential it brings, check out my free guide which explains it all here:

 

You will also see in my free guide where you can get started today for FREE that includes proper training, business tools, and support.

This is what everyone should be focusing on building these days, an online business and adapt with the times.

You will learn everything easily as the training I show you is step by step along with training videos that makes it simple to understand how to build this kind of business.

You will be learning a new skill that can be used for the rest of your life!

There’s no time to waste as this online business will also take time to build, just because it’s on the internet, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be any faster.

However, the potential is far more reaching and you can be very successful if you dedicate yourself in it.

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If you have any questions or thoughts regarding whether Primerica is a pyramid scheme or anything else, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment below. I always reply to my readers! 🙂

 

Let’s make money online!