The other company is World Financial Group, this company like Primerica offered financial products too. With this company my cousin and his wife actually got involved and they contacted me to setup a meeting with their friend who is an agent who he spoke highly off. They made him sound like the super man of financial advice. I decided to setup a meeting with them and his friend to see what they had coming. I then ask my friend, what the name of the company was and he told me “World Financial Group”, but if I had any questions I can ask them on that day because he was busy at the moment. I told him I understood and would write them down.
I decided again, to do my research and Google “World Financial Group”, the first link was their business link and click on it to investigate the company to make sure it was legit. The website look legit, so I decided to do a “whois” search on the domain just to make sure it was not recently register and someone just pop up a website quickly. For those that don’t know, you can checked when a domain name was register, who is register too, and the expiration date by going to whois.net and typing the domain name. This is one way to find out if their website was recently setup or if it has been on for a long time. After confirming that the website was legit, I went and scroll down on the Google search results and the first couple of links had the company names with the word scam in them. I decided to click on them to read what people we accusing the company of scamming them. It basically turns out to be complaints of uneducated agents that were sold them a product that got them in a financial mess. Most of them apparently had lost their life savings to the advice that was given to them and from the product they sign up too. I decided to write down some questions for when I meet my cousin’s friend.
Well, for the day of the meeting I decided not to plan anything else and just be ready to see what my cousin’s friend had to offered and really listened to him. I was getting my questions ready and some paper to write down some notes. As soon as they walk in the house, my cousin introduced me to his friend and told me that his friend was in a hurry and I was just going to get an over view of the investment plan. To me, it just trigger a red flag as to why would you make an appointment with someone, them come to the meeting and tell the person you had to leave right away. Normally scammers used this tactics to pressure you into signing up without thinking about it until it’s too late. The reason you setup an appointment with someone is to make sure you are both free to explain everything and answer the person’s question. Well he started talking about the financial products they offered and how much money I would be saving for myself to become debit free. That I could get a life insurance to secure my family and at the same time invest money in a 10% to 14% compound interest portfolio to save for my retirement. He then started talking about how the company is making lots of money and how agents are becoming new millionaires in their business daily. He then continues talking on how I could be part of the company and what I needed to do. He then asked me to compile a list of 10 friends that would benefit from their products and service. That I should give it to my cousin so they could be contact them on my behalf. When it came time for me to start asking questions, it was already time for him to leave.
If I wanted to, we could setup another meeting where we would go over my current financial situation and then proceed from there as it was also going to help my cousin with his training. I later learned that my cousin had to sign up 10 people under one of the products they offer if he was actually to move forward with the company. Basically for my cousin it was no signups no future with the company. I decided to setup my other appointment for the following week so I could get my questions answer. I also decided not to create my list of 10 friends since this guy had already turned on too many red flags for me. For one, he rushes through the presentation and two he didn’t have time to answer my questions. Even if it was to help my cousin I was not going to risk my friendship with my friends.
The next meeting came up and my cousin show up with another agent. This agent was actually pretty good and he was able to answer my questions. We then talk about the specifics of the insurance and investment portfolios the company offered. My cousin got tired of me asking questions and told me that I should just trust him and sign up to the insurance as they were there to help me. I ignored him and continue asking questions and told them I currently had a small investment in a “No load” mutual fund. He went ahead and started talking about the insurance they offer and that I could also set money aside for my retirement. That I would not lose any money if the market went down because I would be guaranteed a 1% as apposed to my mutual fund where there was no guarantee. He pulled his computer and shows me his financial software to compare how much money I would be making in 10 years with my investment if I sign up with their company vs. how much money I would make with my current mutual fund. I turns out that I was going to make more money on the mutual fund then I would of with their investment. So I told him I was not interested in their product since I was going to make more money on my owned. I would be risking it more, but at the end if everything work out I would be on top.
After our meeting was over, I decided to call an out-of-state agent with World Financial Group, a friend of mine who is in the investment market, and a financial advisor who I paid for his response. I asked them all the same questions as I did with the 2nd agent just to make sure he wasn’t BSing me with his answers. After talking to all of them I came to the conclusion that the 2nd agent I met knew what he was actually talking about. This agent was actually looking out for my best interest since he actually show me the good and bad sides of the investment and didn’t just try to offer me death trap like Mr. busy who just wanted me to give up my friend’s list, sign me up to the insurance plan, and company to sell their services.
