Let me start by saying that I loved working with WFG ( World Financial Group) for the last four and a half years. In this article I am going to give all of the hard working knowledge I gained from being a part of this company as well as the not so good things.
What Is World Financial Group
World Financial Group, previously known as World Marketing Alliance, is a financial services company that provides a broad array of financial products such as Insurance, Annuities, mutual funds and investment advisory services.
WFG is located in all 50 states, Canada and China. They are owned by one of the largest financial firms in the business, Aegon. WFG is also one of the biggest financial recruiting firms in the world, with nearly 10,000 recruits every month.
World Financial Group has been around since the early 1990’s and has grown considerably since its inception. They started out as a group of four founders and multiplied into thousands of representatives.
What World Financial Group Taught Me
When I first got started with WFG I heard a lot of stories about the company. Some were proclaiming it as a total scam and advised me not to get involved. However I decided that even if I could just learn how to manage my money better it would be worth it. In fact, that is the first thing they taught me.
The truth is you shouldn’t be giving financial advice unless you have your house in order first and that is what I did. I got some much needed life insurance and set up a couple of retirement accounts.
Secondly, after getting started with WFG I learned to build great communication skills. This skill taught me how to engage in conversations with people and win them over to my way to thinking.
Third, I learned how to run a business. This was the major reason I got involved with WFG. They taught me how start and run a successful business and the best part about it was they were there with me every step of the way. With weekly and quarterly meetings I was always ahead of the curve with my business.
The Down Side To World Financial Group
During this World Financial Group review my goal was to give you all of the great things I got out of this company but also give you the negatives as well. It doesn’t matter what opportunity you look at whether it be WFG or some other financial company like Primerica they all have some down sides to them.
With every business comes expenses and WFG has a few of them. There will be others but at this point I am just talking about the expenses for the beginners. The first of them being the $100 sign up fee, $125 in Canada. This fee is paid directly to the home office and will get you your code number that you need in order to get paid.
Second, WFG is entirely commissioned based. There are no salaries, or hourly pay scales. You get what you earn. However this is not entirely bad, my first commission with WFG was a check for $500 for a mortgage I wrote. At the same end don’t expect to make money right away. It took me around 5 months to get my first check.
Third, in order to get a commission you must get licensed. This means you will have to dedicate some time and money to get all of this done. Expect to pay around $1000 just to get the basic licensing and around 20 to 40 hours of state required time to get approved for your life insurance license.
Fourth, once you do get licensed you’ll have to start paying what is called E&O insurance. Think kind of like malpractice insurance but just for financial professionals. This will be something around $90 a month before you are able to reap the rewards of your commission check. Needless to say you have to pay to play with WFG.
Finally, everything I have mentioned above is nothing compared to the amount of work you have to put in to see the result you want. Expect to be putting in some long hours at the office and at appointments until you get on your feet.
Who Is The Right Person For World Financial Group
WFG has brought in many people from all different kinds of backgrounds. However if you are thinking you need at least a 4 year financial degree and prior experience think again. In fact, WFG would prefer people that have no experience and degree.
Second, you should be willing to accept the financial cost I mentioned earlier. However, don’t get too worried if this is a concern for you. I once knew a guy who took up a paper route to pay for all of his expenses.
Third, you will have to pass a background check. This means if you have any kind of felony conviction you will probably not be able get involved with World Financial Group.
Finally, if you are able to follow some simple directions this may be an excellent opportunity for you. However, just because something is simple does not mean it’s easy. If you’re someone who is more of a rule breaker and like to do things your way this may not be for you.
How To Get Started
The easiest way to get started is if you know a friend in the business. They would be able to get an interview set up for you and get you started. However, if you don’t have that as an option you can find an office nearby and give them a call.
The easiest way to do that is go to the World Financial Group Website here. Next, in the upper right hand corner you will see the words, ‘Office Locator.’ Next to that click on the state you live in. If you live in Canada or another country you may have to call the home office.
At this point a list of offices around that state will come up. Select an office that is close to you and give them a call. Ask them if you could attend their BPM ( Business Presentation Meeting) This is a meeting usually held a couple times a week that explains more about the company and the opportunity available . If you live in the city, offices will tend be close; however, if you live in the middle of nowhere you may have to do a little traveling to get there. In fact, I had to drive an hour and a half to get to my office.
Now, there is a down side to doing it this way and that is that not all offices are created. So when you do go to an office find out how successful they are. Tell them you heard that World Financial Group has been a very successful company and you would like to know what kind of success they have had.
If they can’t give a straight answer move on. Also look for plaques and trophies and other awards that office has won. The evidence should be clear. If they don’t have these things keep looking until you do find a good office. If an office has a lot of success then there is a good chance you will too.
Chris
Reviewing
This post was recently featured in The Money Hacks Carnival by The Canadian Finance Blog.
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Cool post, just subscribed.
Great article! thanks for the unbiased review
Thanks for the comment. WFG has treated me well and I hope it does for you.
I got a call from someone asking me to come for an interview.(I’m currently looking for a job.) I went but it wasn’t really an interview, they kind of give a powerpoint presentation on WFG and what they do. Then at the end they ask you if you want to set up a meeting. Basically WFG is an investment type of company. You can either be a customer(they’ll help you with financial services like mutual funds, mortgages, insurance), or you can be an associate(starting your own business with their help). The company seems to be very large and what there doing seems legal, but yet something seems strange about it.
World Financial Group is not like most companies. After working with them for almost 5 years I learned a lot of stuff. However they aren’t for everyone. The tough part with WFG is getting started but once you become established it gets easier. If you decide to check it out more and do the interview let me know how it goes.
Not a scam but terrible people and bad information. Just out of college my wife and I thought we’d plan for the future. My father knew someone at his work who was a WFG agent and invited us to a meeting where a senior sales agent (Andrew Wellner, Orem UT) and his recruit told us of the wonders of the variable life insurance product. We sat there for 2 hours asking questions and they assured us that we could withdraw principal contributions after a year at no cost and made other promises about the product(we later found were untrue or misconstrued).
After about a year and us better understanding what we had got ourselves into and actually getting hold of a prospectus (not given to us at the time we invested) I complained to Western Reserve Life about the misinformation the senior sales agent had given us. WRL contacted the sales agent who claimed he had never met us and sent us a letter disregarding our complaints and concerns. Needless to say we stopped making payments and have let the policy lapse.
We lost about $3,500 which I consider a small amount to pay for a hard lesson learned. I would never recommend WFG or WRL as they are uneducated about what they sell and give poor customer service. I would recommend getting a subscription to Kiplinger’s magazine, you will get more out of reading that than anyone at WFG could ever offer you.
I’m sorry to hear about your situation with WFG. That office should defiantly be investigated for fraudulent activities. I think it all depends on the office too. When I would go to conventions held by WFG you could tell some people had no clue to what was going on. Most of them just wanted to recuit sell and dump, which I think is a terrible attitude. However, the office that I worked out of might have recuited around two or three people a year.
The thing is that each office is up to it’s own discretion on how it is to be run but they still have to abide by the laws of the SEC and Finra. I’m glad you brought this to my attention however I must say just because one office is bad doesn’t mean they all are.
I don’t know how American WFG agents do it in the states, but us Canadian folks follow both company compliance and provincial regulations by the letter. The stuff that WFG Sucker mentioned in his comment shouldn’t even happen, and it’s just unfortunate how a couple black sheeps can discredit an entire company. For the example of the prospectus like WFG Sucker mentioned, it should have been given to the client right away or at least asap.
Sorry you had to go through that. :S
I agree Jamie, the office I worked out of had some very rigorous measures we had to pass. Compliance was tough but necessary. WFG recruits nearly 10,000 a month theirs bound to be a few black sheep in bunch. However it’s the branch managers job to police the office and stop situations like the one with WFG Sucker.
Thanks for the Comment Jamie ; )
To “WFG Sucker” — if what you’ve posted here is accurate, the agent’s name should be on your application for the life policy attached to the contract. No way to disavow knowledge of that. And it’s not too late to file a complaint with the Utah Department of Insurance (www.insurance.utah.gov). Stick to your guns about “misrepresentation” (not “misinformation”).
And even better than that . . . send a **written complaint** to the agent, in care of the Supervising Principal at his WFG office, and also send a copy of the written complaint to FINRA (www.finra.org). Even if later found to be an invalid complaint, written complaints ARE NEVER REMOVED from a securities representative record. The good new there is that more and more firms are refusing to hire a representative with just one complaint in their file. You can still be pissed, but he’ll be scarred forever!!
I’m a California-licensed agent, who teaches insurance law. Remember to use the term “misrepresentation” — because if it’s eventually found to be true, you will get back every penny you lost. Maybe even more.
I agree Max this is a total case of misrepresentation. I might also add that the home office of the broker dealer needs to have all the information of the Rep on the client account form if this was a securities transaction and by law the Reps are required to give a copy of that form to the client. Also the Rep should have given him his card as well.
Thanks for all of the great information Max.
I am thinking about joining WFG I have a frent of a friend who is a QMD at a local office near by. Would this be a good thing to get into part time? How do you go about getting clients??
Mike I’m glad to hear that you are thinking about joining WFG. I worked part time in WFG for 4 and a half years before leaving to take over the family business. Part time is the best way to start the business, don’t go full time until you are earning the income to prove it. As far a finding clients goes if you are someone who is open to talking to people all the time you won’t have any problem finding clients. Spread the word talk to friends and family and let them know you are getting started part time and that you just want to show them a few ideas you’ve been working with and that it will only take a minute of their time. It’s that easy.
The thing you have to realize it that their is a learning curve that you have to go through and once you get signed up with WFG. It took me 6 months till I finally got licensed but it was well worth it. I figured if it didn’t work out for me I would at least learn a lot about how money works and how to run a business. Beyond that I made friends with a lot of people in the company some which I still talk to today.
I hope this helps, let me know how it goes.
Hey Chris, thanks for taking the time to repond back to me, what you said makes alot of sense and I think that after a couple of meetings with WFG I am going to give it a whirl. What is the earning potential working there? My Friend that has been working there for a couple of years said he makes over a 100k, what about part time? Thanks again!
As far a earning potential goes you could expect to make somewhere in the ballpark of $30k to $40k part time. However till you get licensed you can’t get paid so don’t think about the money some much at first. Think of it kind of like an airplane at take off, when you first start out you’ll have to put a lot of work in at first to get off the ground. This will take some time but remember in any business you always start at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up. Once you gain some altitude though you won’t have to work as hard.
The best advice I can give you is to listen to those that are successful and follow in their footsteps and do what they did.
Good Luck!
I was with World marketing Alliance 11 years ago, they changed there name to World Financial Group, it turned out to be a ponzi scheme, they wanted me to recruit people so they can take there money and make my friends mad at me, I went with it but luckily I didn’t get them into something that I wasn’t making any money in, I put in a few thousand dollars in there Western Reserve Life policy, eventually lost all that money and they kept asking me to put more money in it, they asked me to quit my job but I didn’t because I wasn’t making anything from them, they prey on happy people and try to take all there money and leave you broke if they can, they should close down this World Financial group soon, they brainwash people and they know there is a fool born everyday.
Ed,
I’m sorry to hear about your situation with WFG. I will have to agree with you their recruiting tactics can be a bit crude and over the top. I went to several conventions with them and it seems as if some don’t know anything about financial services. They were just told to recruit, recruit, recruit, which I feel is a bad way to run a business picking up new recruits and dumping them once they buy a product.
The office I worked in brought one or two qualified people a year. The problem is some of the company is so hung up on recruiting that they don’t know anything else. I don’t think the entire company is bad but their are few bad apples that should definatly be eliminated.
We live and we learn, they tell you about all those false dreams, the same thing that Madoff did to his people, World Financial Group and Western Reserve Life are a ripoff, if your in it please get out, it’s like flushing your money down the toilet, or giving it to someone that didn’t work for it.
Ed, maybe that was the way things were back in the WMA days, but alot has changed since then.
As an advisor, you should know that investment gains are never guaranteed, (unless it’s part of a built-in feature like the new IA Clarington Target Click Funds). If you lost money in WRL, I’m sorry but it’s all part of the risk that’s associated with investing. But you as the advisor (in this case, for yourself) have the responsibility to diagnose and prescribe the right solution for the right clients. In your WRL case, if you were not emotionally ready to accept the losses that may occur in investing, then you may have set yourself up with a product that is not appropriate for your specific needs/risk tolerance… so on so forth.
As for people encouraging you to keep investing despite experiencing losses? Perhaps it was for dollar-cost averaging?
Somehow, I doubt large (Canadian) financial institutions would knowingly associate with a fraudulent company that aims to “rip people off”. That wouldn’t do well for its own credibility would it?
I couldn’t have said it better myself Canadian Guy. I don’t know how things were run back when WMA was in the picture because I got in around early 2004. Not once did I feel we ripped anybody off. We worked very hard to give are clients exactly what they wanted. Thanks for commenting the Canadians have always had a strong presence with WFG.
Read about WMA and all the people that went to jail for this illegal scam, they changed there name to WFG, when I was at WFG and I still had my job, they told me to tell people that everything I have was all because of WFG, I went to there meetings and all the cheering, it was fake, they wanted me to get my friends and family involved in this pyramid scheme, do you know the definition of a pyramid scheme, if you don’t, I will tell you, it’s to take from other people and the top one percent gets all the profits, while the person that did the work gets points and a pat on the back, remember one thing if it sounds to good to be true, it is, I still have there phony life insurance policy, they don’t tell you the truth and when you lose all your money, they tell you to get lost. I’m warning people to stay away, if there is anyone that is collecting there money now from there life insurance policy, please leave a comment.
Checkout the blogs for WMA, they went out of business and alot of there associates went to jail because of the company being a ponzi scheme, about 1,000 of them gave there clients fake insurance policys and Humbert Humphrey was the ring leader, when they went out of business they changed there name to World Financial group. This is a pyramid scheme, they want you to get people in it to take there money and they try to scam people into giving all there money to this to collect commission on hard working people, I went to there conventions for a few years and it’s always packed with people that are looking for the easy way out. I know some people that are brainwashed and there going to lose all there money soon from this Western Reserve Life insurance policy. I got taken for about 10K and it went down to nothing and you are left without a penny when it’s over. They asked me to quit my job and tell everyone how much I made from this pyramid scheme and I didn’t make a penny from this fake company, they tell you stay away from the banks and give them all your money, they took money out of my account without my permission, If there is one client that is retired and collecting from this place, please leave a comment, I’m happy that I got out of this and learned my lesson, if it sounds to good to be true, it is, and don’t get your family into it unless your sure it’s the real deal.
To avoid having to retype what I’ve already mentioned before (because clearly, some people like to read what they believe and ignore everything else), I’ll just direct you to my last comment about credibility…”I doubt large (Canadian) financial institutions would knowingly associate with a fraudulent company that aims to “rip people off”. That wouldn’t do well for its own credibility would it?”
I like to think that IA Clarington, Transamerica, AGF, Bank of Montreal, and TD are not ripping me off. I have a feeling the investment and insurance policies I have with these large financial institutions are not phony. Oh wait, what do you know… I got these from WFG.
You’re forgetting that WFG is a brokerage. WFG doesn’t have a WFG insurance product, or a WFG mutual fund. Investers are not investing in products WFG created, they are investing in products that belong to WFG’s partners. Partners who are widely recognized, credible, and far from phony. The money is managed by portfolio managers within these institutions, not WFG associates.
If you’re going to discredit a company, I would advise you to update what you think you know first. Just like my university professors always say, Internet blogs is not exactly a trustworthy source. I have a feeling Ed is lacking that kind of common sense…
Good Luck in the future, I’m happy and have alot of common sense, do what you want, and find out later.
Nice comeback. As expected, truth prevails.
From Canada with love… and higher academics.
Wow, what a dog fight! I feel we just have to do what we think is right and if Ed is happy where he is great, I wish him luck. Jamie, I’m glad you like the company and admire that you stand up for what you believe in, I know you will do well. If you get a chance every now and then update us and let us know how things are going, I feel this will be the true testament to showing your success.
Till Then.
While it’s not my intent to perpetuate an argument, but when if somebody is going to discredit what we do and call us phony, I’ve got to defend what we do. Like Christopher said, “not once did I feel we ripped anyone off.” What we do with our industry partners is legit, why would they work with WFG if WFG is ripping investors off?
Heh, I have a feeling if I told my clients that Franklin Templeton is stealing their money, it’d raise a few eyebrows
If it sounds to good to be true, guess what, it is. Live by that rule and you will be richer and happier.
You’re entitled to your opinion. But would you rather listen to something that’s too bad to be true?
I’m sure people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffett didn’t get rich by strictly following the rules. If you want common results, stick with your common routine. But if you want uncommon results, you have to be more than just average.
Those are the exception to the rule, they are the fraction of a percent that did it right the first time, what you said is what they tell you in the beginning of getting into either WMA or WFG, don’t you want to help your family or friends with there money, of course we all do want to but in an honest and fair way. Have a good weekend
Ed,
I am also a WFG agent. Let me first clarify what happened with WMA. During the days of WMA, industry regulation and ovesight weren’t very good. A number of bad apples got into the organization. Does it mean that ALL of us are bad? No. As a matter of fact, in the past 5 months I’ve been in the company in San Diego, I haven’t really met anyone that raises eyebrows. We have 8 filters in the company to weed out the bad ones. With that in mind, WMA had to clean house years ago. So, how do you clean out bad agents in an entirely independent contractor organization? You restructure and deny renewals of the bad agents. That is why WMA changed to WFG so that we could boot out the bad guys and keep our reputation clean.
Next, I’m sorry to say, man, but it sounds like you’re kind of jaded with life. I read stuff on other sites about “scam this” and “Ponzi that”, when in reality it’s just a bunch of regular employee-minded folks that are intimidated by the idea of running their own business. “I have to put money into my business? SCAM!” “You mean you won’t just pay me for showing up? SCAM!” “I have to keep learning stuff throughout my career? SCAM!” See what I mean? This is prevalent in the minds of folks that are just uncomfortable or not used to how running a business works, and the easiest, safest, most convenient response is to run away calling it a scam. Is it necessarily true? No, but at least the person backing away feels safe and vindicated knowing that he “exposed a bad organization”.
Just search on FinRA and the SEC. WFG has the *fewest* complaints in the industry. I want you to know that we’re not mad at you, but instead rooting for you to win out in life. Ed, if you ever have any questions about insurance, savings, retirement, or anything else in the finance world, I want you to know that a true WFG agent will sit down with you 100 times and never charge you a dime for that advice. Go to http://www.wfg-online.com and look up the nearest office to you. Best of luck.
Vasil
Hi Ed,
I know a company who would like to give you’all Life Insurance License work contract.
Thanks,
Alex
Just a thought!
That’s ok, I learned my lesson.
I got an interview this morning, and paid 125 CAD for the background check. But I also found it is very suspicious that WFG does not have a clear criteria on your education background or employment history. It seems that it just wants to recruit, recruit, recruit and recruit no matter how well you are educated. Another problem i have is about the Multi Level Marketing. Is the way how WFG is operated a MLM? Is it legitimate?
Another positive thing is that the people there appear to be very very nice. I am totally confused right now. I have signed up by now, and will have training this Monday morning, the first training. I was told that if I feel ready, I will pay 235 CAD to pass two exams to get the license.
I am wondering Is it real business? How long would it take for me to get my first pay typically. I really don’t want to waste my time, and money if it eventually turns out to be a scam!!
Thank you very much!!
Jeff
Jeff,
First off WFG is not a scam. I worked with them for four and a half years and in that time I can defiantly tell you it is not a scam. The few they collect in the beginning is for the home office to get you set up in their system and do a backround check. I’ve toured the home office and they have over a hundred employees that have to get paid as well. In fact I if you get a chance the home office runs what’s a called red carpet day. This is were they let agents and new recruits come down and tour the home office for the day.
The other fees for the insurance are normal. Originally, when I signed up I had to put my money in up front to start studying for my insurance and securities licenses. They didn’t do this get money from me they did it to get a commitment out of me. They want to know if I was serious or not.
Finally, as far as the check goes it all depends on your work ethic. If you don’t put much into it your not going to get much but if you work hard and put the time in your results will be much better. I remember having nights were I wouldn’t get home till 11 pm but it was well worth the work. Just remember WFG is not a get rich quick business or MLM deal no matter what others say. Wfg is a reap what you sow business, if you work hard you will defiantly see some great things happen over time.
Let me know how things go Jeff.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for your explanation. I trust WFG for now since I trust the person who interviewed me this morning. And you seems to be a trustable person too. I will keep updated.
Jeff
Like I’ve said, I highly doubt companies like TD, BMO, and RBC would willingly and knowingly tarnish its own reputation by partnering up with WFG. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise right?
If you’re in Eastern Canada, I’ll see you around in January’s Kick Off! Cheers!
Jeff, I would caution you to be careful, they will ask you to get people for them so they can make commission on your friends and family, you might not get your first cent for about a year, they do want you to recruit and tell them to give there money to them in the beginning. Ask them if it’s a job then why should you give your money to them? They have to take about 200 dollars from you so you can get there books and tapes about how to run your business. There is to much to say, I just want to wish you good luck. Ed
Hi. Ed
THanks for your kind reminding. I temporarily believe WFG just because the person who interviewed me is a professor/instructor of my university. I will see how things go. And I was told that I will pay 360 in total to get background check and the two exams I need to pass to become a representative. (125 and 235 separately) So, I will not put more money than 360 into it. If things goes well, I will be glad for that. If not, I will just pay 360 for the training and the license from the government (If I can pass the exams under my effort). So, if WFG turns out to be a not good place for a finance career, I will lose 360, some of my time. And I will gain a lesson, a training about finance from WFG, and a certificate also. That is not too bad.
Anyway, I will give WFG a chance, maybe give myself a chance to believe it for the first. I will also be careful, so thanks your advice, Ed.
I will keep an attention on this review.
Jeff
World Financial Group offers variable life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, and other financial products. World Financial Group has incurred penalties and fines from the National Association of Securities Dealers, or NASD, for misrepresentation and misconduct.
The WFG uses multi level marketing, sometimes referred to as the “pyramid scheme”, which requires participants to recruit new members and pay their superiors a percentage of the sales they make. Critics claim that the business practices of this company amount to a MLM scam.
Some former WFG employees claim that Agents are encouraged to lie to prospective customers about their qualifications and experience. Others allege that the company has illegally and intentionally failed to report up to 900 complaints of misrepresentation from its customers. Additionally, the quality of their goods and services is very much up for debate.
There are lots of red flags concerning the World Financial Group. We recommend avoiding them altogether.
Just let me claify one thing WFG is not a job it is a business opportunity. Hence when getting started with them you should be working a full time job till you do earn enough income to go full time. As far as the complaints YEP was saying I can’t say I don’t know anything about them but I do know that WFG isn’t the only company to get in trouble with the SEC or FINRA before. Just go to http://brokercheck.finra.org/Search/Search.aspx to see yourself.
The nice thing about this tool is you can see if that brokrage has had any violations or not. If WFG were running a scam business FINRA would shut them down, and I just checked their status and they currently have no violations to report of.
Hey Jeff, how is your job going with World Financial Group? Are they teaching you or asking you to recruit more people? The only way that this business could survive is with more people giving there money to the business, or did you say it isn’t for you, I wish you good luck and I hope your training is going good for you.
Thanks Chris for the informative posts (and Jamie as well). I am in the process of joining WFG. Like Jeff said, I want to join to learn something about how to start a business, and how the industry works. Paying some money and spending some time up front just for the knowledge and experience is worth it. Of course I will always keep my eyes open for anything fishy that may come along.
Zack,
I’m glad to hear you’re taking a chance. I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was nervous as hell when I signed up with WFG, but once I got rolling it was great. I learned a lot of things about money, how to run a business, made a whole bunch of friends, and even got to talk to a few millionaires. Thanks for the comment and let us know how things work out.
WFG is a big joke. It ruins your life and alienates you from family and friends. After my mother joined, she completely changed and became a psycho. They brainwash people in thinking they can make millions of dollars when it reality its a big pyramid scheme that losers with no education think they can make money. I hope the government goes after them and closes their doors for misinforming people about their investments. Every single one of their so called recruiters and marketing directors are liars and only want your money.
WFG is not a scam, but their emphasis is on recruiting. Expect to start at a low 25% contract, and it won’t increase until you have three life apps and three licensed agents in your downline. While training expect to utilize your personal contacts to help you learn. However, you won’t be compensated. You eventually do the same to your recruits and so forth. Also, expect to be in rah, rah meetings at least twice a week. Furthermore, be prepared to be a little shady with inviting people to “see your new place of employment” and you want them to give their opinion. As far as the fees are concerned, 100 dollars is a little steep. I’ve been appointed by several insurance companies and I rarely have to pay a background processing fee. Feel free to join up with them, but just know what to expect. (as far as WRL is concerned, I love the indexed universal life product, but I think Aviva’s trounces it)…
WFG is an Multi Level Company…Everything associated with MLM’s applies to WFG. The recruiting, the low percentage of success, VERY low percentages, motivational speakers, God first, family second, WFG third retoric. Knowing all that, in my opinion it’s the best MLM out there. One does not sell vitamins,tupperware, power juice. They offer financial services, and a basic financial education. If you join be ready to sacrifice all your extra time, one night of training, saturday mornings(in some offices) not including dialy contacts from your trainer.
Have fun with your trainer or financial planner. Test him to see how much he really knows regarding financial products, surrender charges, policy loans, liquility. Note, Cash Value Life Insurance policies are Not the best product in the world as they will claim they are. The current recession prove that.
Well said Jeremy, sounds like you’ve heard a lot of those Ed Mylett Speeches too. I think the company is great but don’t get caught up in all the rah rah. Instead just find what works and do it.
Hey. Ed.
Sorry for late reply. But Happy new year to you, and all the folks here for the discussion.
I was kind of busy with my three tough finals of my master study from late Nov to middle Dec. So, after I “joined” WFG (I have not joined actually) in middle of Nov, I just went for training once. After the finals, I was back to touch with the guy who recruited me. He asked me to recruit as many people as possible while I have the training. But I feel more and more uncomfortable with the way the business is run. The only major way of making money is to recruit new people in your team, which will expand the pool of potential clients because the people you recruit might know some people who are interested in the products WFG provides.
But to be honest, I am thinking of quit WFG for the moment since I feel I am not ready for this and my interest on WFG is gradually fading away.
I am not sure that I can make money in this way. As Christopher said, joining WFG is like flying a plane. It takes your energy and even money (125CAD for double check and 235 for LLQP license). It is quite difficult in the beginning. I need to get 3 people to buy our products, which is too difficult for me, in 30 days and recruit 3 people in the same period to get the first promotion. I can’t get any clients, even in a long time, since I am new to Edmonton. And I am a full time student for now. It is impossible to make money when you are still in the lowest rank unless you find clients for yourself. It might be easy to make money when you are in higher rank, like an MD or a QMD. But it is not the very kind of job I need for now.
Like I have said, I am not quite comfortable with the way the business is done for the moment. Although recruiting can expand the pool of clients, but I really feel somehow weird. Maybe I don’t know or understand what the finance world is like. Maybe a job with a basis salary plus bonus would be more suitable to me for now. If stays in WFG, I will never know when and how often I will be able to make money for doing this business in the beginning. I therefore, think a job with a stable, promised pay would be better for me for now, although it might not bring me much money.
Now I am part-timing in a restaurant near my university. Although the pay is not good, but at least I know my salary would come every two weeks at a promised hourly rate. This is what I need–a job with promised pay; a job from which I can get paid at scheduled dates.
I am thinking of quit WFG, as I said. Actually, I even have not joined WFG. There is a little bit of problem when I firstly signed the contract at the time the interview was conducted. I still believe WFG is a legitimate company. But I am not comfortable with the fact that it recruits at this large scale this frequently, and the fact that it does not place much requirement on its applicants to join it. Sorry for saying this, but this is exactly what I feel about it now.
The only thing I felt sorry about is that I not only kind of wasted my time, but also wasted some time of the person who recruited me. He is a nice guy, a faculty of my university, with goals. I also wish him a good future with WFG. But I am saying goodbye to WFG for now, not because it is bad (but I am not saying it is good either), but because it is not my type of job. Goodbye for now. Maybe I would reconsider joining WFG in the future when I don’t need money urgently. Who knows.
So if you are a person like me, think carefully since you are not going to be paid soon after you join WFG, but until you build up some down-lines below you.
Need some fast money? GO consider other ways like a restaurant, not WFG.
Jeff