Month: July 2024
An Honest And Critical Primerica Review (Don’t Join Before Reading!)
An Insider’s Perspective From A Former Primerica Regional Vice President & $200K/Year Ring-Earner
Primerica (formerly known as PFS/ALW) is a financial services company that uses a Multilevel Marketing model. Over the last 33 years, the company has produced a multitude of 6-figure and 7-figure a year earners. In early 2010, Primerica went public after breaking ties with Citigroup, it’s long time parent company. Currently, the sales force is made up of 100,000 licensed reps. Primerica is a legitimate business opportunity and has maintained a good rating with the Better Business Bureau.
However, there are some very significant pros and cons to Primerica’s Opportunity. In this review, I’ll give you a brutally honest Primerica Review, list the pros and cons of the business and address the question of whether or not it is a viable opportunity for the average person to make a significant income.
First, let’s start with the Pros:
1. Primerica gives someone with NO experience at all in financial services to join the company and get licensed and certified to market financial product.
2. Primerica offers a part-time opportunity for it’s reps. This is a huge feature since agents can learn the business at their own pace while making income from their jobs.
3. Unlike most Multilevel Marketing opportunities, someone can make a decent income by personally marketing products like insurance, securities and mortgages.
4. Primerica provides a lot of support, mainly due to the training available vie RVP-run local offices.
5. As mentioned earlier, Primerica has one of the most documented track records in the industry and has produced many 7-figure a year earners. Currently, there are almost 70 leaders in Primerica that make $1,000,000 or more in yearly income.
Now, let me give you the Cons…
1. The product training is basic, which is sad for some clients that are being serviced by new reps. As for me personally, I would not want my families finances handled by a financial rep that has little to no experience.
2. Primerica pays a much LOWER commission to reps when compared to what they can make if they were an independent financial services rep.
3. At Primerica, you’re a “captive” agent. In other words, you can’t offer other company’s products and your clients are NOT your own. Without the ability to shop around for the best possible products for your clients, you may be selling them products that aren’t suited for them. While shopping around is a regular practice by independent reps, it is strictly forbidden at Primerica.
4. You lose approximately 80% of your team’s recruits because of licensing. The company stats indicate that ONLY about 20% of incoming reps pass their life insurance exams. What about the eighty percent that don’t pass their exams? Basically, they fall through the cracks and become a statistic. Imagine building a group that is recruiting 100 new people on a monthly basis. Think about this, out of those 100, 80 were people you couldn’t build with because they coudn’t pass their state tests for whatver reason.
5. This is a important part of the comp plan that isn’t shown in the presentation – When you get promoted to RVP, you give your best one or two legs to your upline RVP. This is known as “ownership exchange”. Imagine, working your tail off to earn your Regional Vice President promotion, only to pass up your best leader(s) to your upline and starting the building process all over again… Only this time around, as an RVP, you have office expenses to worry about and you are full-time with no other sources of income. By the way, Primerica requires it’s RVPs to be full-time and forbids them from making money elsewhere. This is extremely important to know if you are seriously considering the Primerica Business Opportunity.In other words, if you are interested in building multiple streams of income, you can forget about it once you hit the RVP position.
In closing, Primerica is a legitamite opportunity where someone can learn how to sell financial services and build their own MLM team. Just be sure to do your due diligence on the compensation model so you know exactly what’s in store for you.
So… Should You Join?
If you’re looking for a business that doesn’t require HOURS of financial product training, the probability that you’ll lose a ton of people during the licensing exams and the fact that you have to give your upline your best leaders, then Primerica is definately not for you.
However, if you’re interested in the idea of recruiting financial reps and potentially opening up your own financial services office, then Primerica may be what you’re looking for.
Seniors have it more difficult than other groups. While young people may suffer financially, they can at least get a job. For a senior, jobs are often out of the question. You basically have to live on what you have and that it.
Every health facility wants to hire nurses with a certified degree no matter for which nursing jobs they are applying for. Nursing assistant jobs are not very difficult to find in the US because their demand has increased considerably in the past decade. All you have to do is decide what exactly you want to do and you can apply for a course which at the most takes one or two years.
Studies have shown that seniors those are helped or get senior citizens assistance are happier and live longer than others who live alone or with estranged families. It is a simple truth that when you have attentive care and pleasant company you tend to overcome the pitfalls of aging more successfully.
For those who have been independent most of their lives the idea of assisted living and senior citizens assistance may take some getting used to but there is a far greater alternative that can give the senior more of an outlet to enjoy their lives while still maintaining their independence with a little help.
As we age, the tasks associated with daily living become more onerous. This has resulted in the creation of a variety of living options for seniors that reduce some of that burden. Assisted living is one such option, one that is becoming very popular these days.
These senior citizens assistance communities typically offer meal service, housekeeping, social activities, medication assistance, and transportation for medical appointments and other pleasure trips for seniors.
Many senior citizens or people with disabilities or injuries make use of assisted technology-tools, products, or kinds of equipment that help people perform tasks and activities.
An assisted living facility needs to be considered when an elder loved one is unable to take care of themselves in their activities of daily living (ADLs). A nursing home is a practical option when other attempts to safely maintain your elder loved one at home have been exhausted.
One of the benefits of AL is that it takes care of many of the needs of seniors, while still giving them a sense of freedom. They help prepare meals, assist with medication dispensing, do periodic housekeeping, and even help manage the finances of the elderly.
Aging is not fun for anyone, but you can make the process better and help senior citizens by planning for providing senior citizens assistance and donate to senior citizens.
It seems that the investment banking industry has narrowly escaped Armaggedon and the survivors are waiving the bonus flags again. Intern classes are getting bigger and Business Week reported that Goldman Sachs has reclaimed the top spot as the most popular employer among elite MBA students again. If you are a career switcher and one among many MBA applicants dreaming of joining Goldman Sachs or another bulge bracket investment bank for the summer internship, this article is for you. Below we provide an overview of an investment banking interview and explain why its important to prepare in advance. This is especially true if you are a career switcher.
There are several types of questions which you are likely to be asked in your interview. They include career questions, educational questions, competency questions, fit questions, technical questions and industry questions.
While its difficult to predict which questions exactly you will be asked, there are four questions which will appear in any investment banking interview:
– The WMTYR (Walk me through your resume)
– The 3 Why’s (Why investment banking? Why our bank? Why (should we hire) you?
The answer to the first and the second questions may be quite similar to those you provided in your MBA admission interviews. Answer to the third question is a little bit more complicated and will require specific preparation.
The usual reason for interest in any specific investment bank include: (a) a strong platform, which means strong coverage teams, diverse offering of advisory and financial products, many interesting deals and opportunities to learn (b) a strong presence in specific markets or industries (c) and the most important, tons of wonderful and smart people with whom you talked with during your recruiting process and whom you really made a connection with. Networking is a critical component for your interview preparation but we will discuss this area in one of our
future postings.
Why (should we hire) you? To answer this question you need to reiterate your main strengths, interest in a specific bank and a great fit you feel for the bank you are interviewing with.
You should prepare for this question especially well as a banks approach to this question will usually be that a person who cannot sell himself cannot sell the banks products and banking is definitely a sales job.
Good to know Other challenging fit questions examining your understanding of the
investment banking can be:
– What does an investment banker actually do?
– What is the role of an associate in the investment banking?
The answer to the first question will usually go in the following way:
An investment bank serves as intermediaries between their clients
who need capital in the form of debt and equity
It provides strategic advisory services by structuring transactions
that meet clients needs and objectives
Overall, Investment bank works with companies on the transactions
that will enhance their value. This may include accessing capital
markets to find growth or expand operations, as well as investing in another
company through merger or acquisition. Banks are not only the
matchmaker between parties involved in a transaction, but also the primary
architects of the deal.
A typical answer to the question about the role of an associate will
go like this :
Analyzing industry and company data related to the transaction
Building excel models to valuate companies
Joining strategic meetings
Performing due diligence meetings with the clients
Creating, editing client presentations
Monitoring, paying close attention to documentation associated with
the deal (prospectus, internal memos)
Managing relationship with an analyst
The most important attributes that an associate should have are:
quantitative skills, the ability to learn quickly, discipline, a strong work ethic, the ability to
work in teams, detail orientation and dependability.
While answering competency and behavioral questions you should be structured and succinct. Banks like well organized and structured thinking and will quickly dismiss candidates who ramble or cannot distinguish important points from the less important ones. We recommend creating 3 bullet points for each of your answers and putting them on the paper in advance. Practice your answers with friends and be sure that your story is consistent and flows well before the interview.
The technical part
The technical part of the interview will test your familiarity with the accounting and financial terms. This will definitely require thorough preparation even if you study at one of the top MBA programs . First of all you will need to be familiar with the financial statements and their analysis. The profit and loss statement, the balance sheet and cash flow statements are all fair game in the interview.
Secondly, you will need to have a basic understanding of the company’s valuation methods. You should be very familiar with terms such as cost of capital, cash flow discounting, multiples, accretion and dilution, LBO, CAPM, WACC and Beta.
You also may be asked how M&A and IPOs work and even be given a case study on a business situation. It is strongly recommended that you start b-school having at least a basic understanding of accounting and finance.
Here are some books that can help you.
VAULT Guide to Finance Interviews by D. Bhatawedekhar, Dan Jacobson,
and the Vault Staff
Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking by Tom Lott, Derek Loosvelt
and the Staff of Vault
Heard on the Street by Timothy Falcon Crack.
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies by Tom
Copeland, et al, John Wiley & Sons Inc
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
by McKinsey and Company
Financial Modeling, 3rd Edition (Hardcover), Simon Benninga
In the industry part of the interview the interviewers will test your understanding of the industry and your professional interests.
You will be asked about financial news and trends, current articles related to investment banking, discussions of the economic environment and economic trends, trends in M&A and definitely about specific deals.
To be prepared for this part of the interview its advisable to start reading financial and economic newspapers and journals. The Wall Street Journal, FT and Economist are good sources to gain relevant knowledge.
A couple of additional hints:
– Know recent interesting deals executed by banks with which you are interviewing.
– Talk about deals with passion the interviewers will test not only your level of knowledge but also your passion for IB
– And finally, always read the news in the morning before your interview
Some additional books to better understand investment banking before your interview include:
The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview , by K.
Thomas Liaw
Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley , by
Patricia Beard
The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frres & Co. , by
William Cohan
The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed
Wall Street , By Jonathan Knee
More entertaining books include:
Barbarians at the Gate , By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.
Bombardiers , By Po Bronson
Monkey Business: Swinging through the Wall Street Jungle, By John
Rolfe and Peter Troob.
Liars Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street , By Michael
Lewis, Norton Books.
Good luck with your interview!