Update: meeting this week and will find out what it is.
Original Post: A little mystery I’m spending some time thinking about and wanted some help with:
About 2 months ago a distant family member told me they wanted an hour or two of my time to discuss something very important to my financial future. This family member doesn’t even know what I do, where I or my wife work. I don’t think he even knows we own our own home. Def. doesn’t know about my retirement accounts, etc. I asked for more details and he told me he was able to give me a presentation on it during a weeknight but didn’t want to explain it without the full presentation. Sensing this was either 1) a RE pitch, or some kind of shared investment opportunity 2) An annuity or WL policy I just declined. As far as I know this relative is an accountant by nature, I don’t know if he started selling insurance or not.
Anyway since I figured it wasn’t worth my trouble I blew it off. I saw him last week and he said “hey you never talk to me anymore, I still want to tell you about that opportunity.” So I said “ok what’s the opportunity.” They said “I want to make you a lot of money.” (These types of phrases are extreme turn offs for me). No details other than there is a presentation at his house this Sunday.
So my question is: what could this be? The entire family was around when the discussion was going on, but no one gave me any info. I’m assuming he’s approached most/everyone in the family but I’ve never heard a peep about it from anyone. I’m not very close with my famil*y.
[quote=“Northstar2020, post:6, topic:1675”]
Tell him to make a lot of money first and prove it.
[/quote]Good answer.
We prefer not to do business with family and close friends to preserve our relationship. We don’t lend money either; if it’s a small amount that we can spare, we just give it and forget all about it; but if they ask for loans amounting to several thousands, we beg off and refer them to banks/CUs instead.
As far as their products, it’s not terrible. They don’t sell whole life, term life only. If it’s a good rate for your situation, it’s not a bad deal.
I’ve sat through the pitch before. They “make you money” by offering financial advice (even though they’re not really certified to do it). They give you advice to eliminate debt if you have it. I think their biggest source of sales comes from a review of someone’s finances, identifying people that have WL policies and explaining how they’re bad options, convince you to sell WL policy and replace with their term life. They then demonstrate how much you’ll have if you invest the different in like a whole market fund. It’s actually not a terrible pitch. I have a friend who posts on Facebook every time she helps someone. It’s typically along the lines of “I love helping people retire 15 years earlier.” because they advised someone to sell WL, buy their term, and invest the difference.
So they do attempt to gain trust by advising you against really BAD investment vehicles and putting that money in better places. They then use that trust to sell you insurance products which may or may not be the BEST option, but they aren’t HORRIBLE options.
When I was pitched it turned into me demonstrating how much she makes per hour doing what she does, how much I make per hour doing what I do, and demonstrate how much more she could be making and it’s not a terribly efficient use of her time. I didn’t buy the term life policy, but she might be making more money on the side now.
imbatman nearly nailed it, but the product is the reverse: Term sucks, wastes your money and saves nothing for retirement. Lots of talk about how they help people who are in debt get out of debt, save for retirement and protect against a stock market crash.
For me It was not a pitch to buy insurance at all, but a pitch to join selling insurance. Not Amica. Transamerica, or some subsidiary, or maybe not even a sub. but they just use the name because that’s the product they sell. This specific company is focued on a minority group my family is a member of. $85 to join, 1.5 years of 2x a week ‘free’ meetings/training to teach you about financial literacy, train for insurance certification.
Basic product is Index universal life with LTC. Commissions are super fat, from what I could see nearly the first 2 years’ worth of premiums cover the sales commission and MLM upstream payments.
