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How Much Does World Finanical Group Pay

December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In a recent article I talked about why their was no such thing as a World Financial Group scam and validated it with several solid reasons.  However some people complained of issues that World Financial Group does not pay very well, so in this article I’m going to cover how WFG pays their business owners and how it can benefit you.

How They Pay You

First off, if you’re looking to get a salary pay, or an hourly wage this opportunity is not for you.  WFG does not hire employees they are in the business of hiring business owners who want to run their own financial business, and as any business owner they are paid on a commission only basis for products that are sold.

With WFG I’ve sold everything from annuities, mutual funds, to life insurance, and each of these of these products pay differently depending on the company you are dealing with.  Annuities and mutual funds pay a percentage of the money invested.  For example, if you invest $10,000 into a mutual fund and the company selling the funds pays a 5% commission you’ll earn around $500.  However you won’t earn all of this money, what you earn depends on the pay scale you are earning.

The Pay Scale

When starting out with World Financial Group you’re not going to be getting paid big commissions up front.  Instead your only going to be getting a 25% commission of every product you sell.  For example in the last example I showed how one product could pay a $500 commission but if you’re at a 25% pay scale your only going to get $125.

Now before you start complaining that isn’t fair I want to mention that starting at a 25% pay scale is not meant to be long lasting.  In fact once you get rolling and become a Marketing Director, better known as a manager, you will be getting around 65% of the commissions.  The 35% left will go towards the few people in your up line, and WFG itself to pay the people that run the home office.

How To Benefit From This

However, as good as this opportunity may sound it gets even better.  Selling financial products with WFG can make some good money but if you hire the help of a team you can compound those efforts by 10 fold.

For example, if your at a 65% pay scale as the manager and you hire someone who is just getting started and they are at a 25% pay scale and they have a client that moves $10,000 into a mutual fund from an old 401k and the total commission pays 5% or $500, the new associate will make $125 because he will only get 25% at his current pay scale and the manager will get $200 because he will get the spread between 65% and 25% which is 40% of the $500.  The would equate to a $200 commission.

The benefit of all of this is that you don’t have to do all the work to earn the money.  Once you have a team built up selling product you will begin getting paid more regularly.  However in the beginning it will take some time to get up and rolling but that’s the way any business is.

In the end WFG pays you what you want it to.  Their are people who earn over a million dollars a year down to a $100,000 or less.  The point is you have to be willing to go after it and put the time in because like any other business you have to do the work to see the success.

Filed Under: Financial Independence Tagged With: , ,

Why The World Financial Group Scams Are Wrong

February 2, 2010 By 36 Comments

Recently, if you’ve read my review on World Financial Group, you would have seen a lot of people making comments there.  Some good, some not so good.  In fact some claimed the company is a scam altogether. In this article I want to prove to you that it’s not a scam but also address why it might seem like a scam to some.  The reason I’m doing this is because I’ve personally worked with the company for four and a half years and not one time did feel like it was some sort of scam.

Why People Believe WFG Is A Scam

WFG does not pay you to recruit. First off, World Financial Group is a recruiting company.  Everything is based off of this idea.  In fact, they recruit nearly 10,000 people a month.  That’s a lot to keep track of.  Of those 10,000 recruits, 10% of them will only get licensed, and of those that get licensed only 10% of those will make it to the 5 year mark. Why is this? Generally speaking there is a high turnover rate in this business, especially if your only working on commission, which they are.  This means you only get paid when you deliver.  This means you have to sell to clients and if you can’t do that you won’t make any money. By recruiting people it allows someone to break into other warm markets.  I did this all the time and I can tell you this, it is much easier than cold calling or sending mailers.  Don’t get me wrong the other two option work but they don’t deliver nearly as good results.

WFG is not a pyramid scheme.

Secondly, a lot of people are under the belief that the large amount of recruiting they do is considered a pyramid scheme.  So in order to prove that it isn’t I will define a pyramid scheme.  Here is what Wikipedia says:

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered. Pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.

One, WFG does charge a fee to get started, but it is not in any way ever paid to any person in the company, much less the people who recruited them.  The fee actually goes to the corporate headquarters to get them set up in the system, do background checks and start up materials. World Financial Group is also a business opportunity, which requires an investment to get involved.  Think about it this way if you were to start your own McDonald’s Franchise you would have to pay them just too even carries the McDonald’s name. Two, under the definition of a pyramid scheme it also says that you don’t actually deliver any product or service.  World Financial Group has been selling life insurance and securities products for years.  They also give consolations and investment advice.  Need I say more.

WFG reps have licenses.

Third, in order to get paid by WFG you must have a license.  While I worked with the company I had a life and health license and a series 6, and 63 licenses to deal with securities like mutual funds. These licenses were the only way I could get a paycheck, not through recruiting or some other bull crap lie.

WFG works with large financial institutions.

Finally, World Financial Group is in business with financial companies like Transamerica, Western Reserve Life, Prudential, American Funds, and the list could go on and on but I think you get my point. These companies would not be in business with WFG if it were some pyramid scheme trying to rip people off.

One Last Thing To Think About

One last thing I want you to think about before I end this article and that is no one can know everything that is going on inside WFG at one time or another.  This also goes with all the other financial institutions. Even with all the government regulators, quarterly interviews, regulatory compliance meetings, and even up line over sight of all trades it’s always possible to miss something.  

 There is always a bad apple somewhere, and it’s these people who make the company look bad. Think of all the bad things you’ve heard about Wal-Mart or McDonald’s.  Great things happen every day within these companies but when just one bad thing happens everyone remembers it like the plague.

WFG is no different, they have helped family after family from falling it financial ruins, but then there’s that one agent who messes up and that’s what everyone remembers, when in reality that has nothing do with the company and is just a onetime indecent.

I know I will catch a lot of flak for saying this but unless you’ve been there and helped families from falling into the financial abyss I don’t think you have any room to talk.  I’ve been there and done it and now there are a hand full of families that I’ve helped that will be better off now all because I took the time to give them a call and ask if they needed help. I can’t think of better way to help people. 

So before you say World Financial Group is a scam take a step back and think before you speak.  You are talking about real American families who are working to support their families and help others.

Filed Under: Scams Tagged With: , , ,

World Financial Group Review

June 25, 2009 By 111 Comments

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_logo

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.

wfg_21At 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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