Is World Financial Group a Pyramid Scheme? Discover the Truth!

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Is World Financial Group a pyramid scheme? Some people have labelled this MLM company that operates in the financial sector a pyramid scheme, but is that really true? Also, what are the products like and can you make money from their business opportunity?

First of all, just before we get right into it, I want to say congrats on being here and reading this review. It means you’re one of the smart ones. You don’t just join things without researching them first, and that’s a good move.

Because you do your homework, you’re far less likely to ever get scammed or waste your time on something.

Now read on to discover the truth about the World Financial Group MLM scheme…

 

 

Is World Financial Group a Pyramid SchemeCompany Name: World Financial Group

Owner: TransAmerica

Price To Join: $100 To Get Started

My Rating: 3.5/10

 

 

~ World Financial Group Reviews ~

 

Intro…

There is a real glut of MLM companies in the world today. Network marketing seems to be more popular than ever, with both companies and distributors alike.

I write a lot of reviews on MLM schemes here on my site, and when I kept hearing about the World Financial Group scheme recently, it sounded like a good one to do some research on and write a review about.

Why reviews can be so valuable is they help us make good decisions on what to get involved with and what to avoid like the plague. Laptop Freedom Living is a website I established to help people find opportunities to make money, online and offline, but mostly online. Therefore I research training schemes and make money schemes to see what they’re like, then write reviews on them.

I’m still amazed these days that I can make a fulltime income from home on the internet. Compared to how life used to be, this is totally awesome. I don’t even have to work fulltime hours to do it.

Millions of people go online looking for opportunities in the modern world, and that’s also attracted a lot of scammers, who are looking to fleece people of their cash. We always have to remain careful, and reading reviews helps us avoid these scammers.

Anyway, let’s now see if World Financial Group is legit and worth your time or not.

 

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What Is World Financial Group About?

Is World Financial Group a Pyramid SchemeThis MLM company was founded in 1991 by Hubert Humphrey. The man has also been involved in another popular network marketing company called Primerica. World Financial Group is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

WFG sells products in the financial sector using the multi level marketing distribution method. As with all MLMs, there is also a business opportunity attached where members can join the company, promote its products and earn an income.

It’s not a worldwide opportunity, despite the company having the word “world” in its title. The products and business opportunity are only available to residents in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Another key point to note is that at the time of writing this review, World Financial Group is listed on the Better Business Bureau website and boasts an A+ rating, which is the highest you can achieve with the BBB.

I’ve always found MLM a really tough way to make an income. I much prefer the simple process of affiliate marketing instead. It’s easy to learn and get started when you follow some awesome training. You can even join for FREE!

 

The World Financial Group Products

My MLM reviews are generally more focused on the business side of things and whether you can actually earn a decent income. For that reason I won’t dwell on the products here too much, but you can always visit the WFG website for more details.

This is important to make a note of: World Financial Group DOES NOT actually have any of its own financial products. Instead, they act as a third party representative for other financial providers.

This is one of the reasons why so many people have been quick to call this network marketing company a pyramid scheme, because they make much of their money on recruiting and don’t sell their own products.

Anyway, I’ll get more into that side of things in a section further down.

Here’s a snap shot of some of the companies WFG represents and sells products on behalf of:

  • TransAmerica Life Insurance
  • Nationwide
  • Voya Financial
  • Prudential
  • Pacific Life
  • Everest Funeral Concierge
  • And others…

Okay, so we know what types of companies WFG represents, but what are some of the finance products they promote and sell on behalf of these companies?

Let’s look at a few very quickly:

  • Life insurance
  • College Savings Plans
  • Debt Relief
  • Mutual Funds
  • Investment Trusts
  • Business Solutions
  • Planning for Retirement
  • Mortgages
  • And many more…

 

World Financial Group Products

 

The World Financial Group Compensation Plan

MLM opportunities usually have a number of ways you can earn commissions and bonuses, but essentially there are just 2 main ways to do it:

  1. Selling the products directly and earning commissions
  2. Building a team through recruiting and earning commissions and bonuses on group sales volume, as well as advancing up the company’s ranks

Selling financial products directly will earn you a 30% commission. That’s not bad, but you’ll only get so far in MLM by being a seller only. The real secret to success in this game is through mass recruiting. It’s the only way to get ahead in MLM.

When you recruit you end up with a team of sellers that are working under you, boosting your overall sales volume, earning you residual commissions, helping you reach bonuses sooner, and most importantly, helping to elevate you up the ranks so you’re in a position to make bigger money.

There are only 6 levels you can achieve with WFG, and they are:

  1. Training Associate
  2. Associate
  3. Senior Associate
  4. Marketing Director
  5. Senior Marketing Director
  6. Executive Marketing Director

You start out as a Training Associate, where the person who recruited you helps train you, and then work your way up from there. You really need to reach the 5th level to start getting into liveable income territory, so your goal should be to reach the rank of “Senior Marketing Director” as fast as possible.

The World Financial Group Compensation Plan PDF doesn’t offer much detail, but you can access it here.

I’ve also embedded the official explainer video from 2015 below. I couldn’t locate a more recent version.

 

 

Is There An Income Disclosure Statement?

There’s no official income disclosure statement on the WFG website, despite the fact that they’re supposed to provide one by law. I like to include details of these so people know what they might be able to earn if they get involved.

The company does offer some information of their website though, when it comes to earnings, but I don’t know how “official” these figures are, or whether they’ve just been fabricated to make it look good.

Anyway, based on these figures, I said up above that you really need to hit the 5th level in the ranks to get into the worthwhile money, and that’s the rank of Senior Marketing Director, with average earnings of around $35,000 per year (before expenses). This also depends on what products you are selling, as some Senior Marketing Directors average a lot more than that.

See the screenshot below.

 

World Financial Group Earnings

 

The Reason Why I’m Not a Fan of MLM

Okay, so let’s break all this down so I can explain all the things I really don’t like about the MLM way of doing business, and the unfair treatment – in my eyes – of the members and distributors.

MLM companies hook people in with hype, and this often blinds a lot of people to the reality of how these schemes work.

Network marketing has exploded because so many companies realise just how many benefits they get out of doing business this way. Unfortunately, all the benefits are slanted in favour of the company itself and are taken away from its massive workforce – the distributors.

Apart from some necessary company employees on the payroll, network marketing companies don’t pay their workers. There are no wages or salaries, not even a retainer. In fact, generally all distributors have to PAY the company for the right to work for them for free.

What the hell kind of deal is that?

As a distributor you are really operating in the role of sales rep. Yes, you can earn commissions and bonuses somewhere down the track, but no retainers are paid, and also you are responsible for all of your own operating expenses. The company doesn’t pay any of this either.

The distributors are the ones running madly around selling the company’s products, doing the advertising and promotion and the planning, and all for free, technically.

So basically you don’t get paid, you do most of the work, pay all your own work expenses, and also have to pay the company for the privilege of doing all this for them.

WTF??

These schemes are a rort when you break them right down, so try and see past all the sales hype.

 

TransAmerica Logo

 

But I’m not done yet. There’s more.

The way MLM schemes are structured, it’s really necessary to go full on into recruitment mode if you hope to get ahead and be able to make some decent cash. What this means is that it’s the distributors who are expanding and growing the company too. Once more, this is done for free and at your own expense.

Here’s how the company majorly benefits from this. They achieve a much bigger workforce of people selling products, promoting the company and growing the company. They also make more money on new membership fees, because they charge everyone who wants to work for them.

Truly this is an amazing deal for a company like World Financial Group, but the deal for the workforce totally sucks.

You may be wondering why MLM is so popular with so many people then.

I can sum it up in one word, and that’s “HYPE”.

One thing just about all network marketing companies are expert at is selling the dream. The dream lifestyle, big money, flashy houses and fast cars.

It’s sold like a get rich quick scheme and it really gets people excited and hooks them in.

There’s nothing wrong with aiming for a better life and these material things, but the sad fact is, MLM is one of the hardest ways in the world to achieve this kind of dream life, and only those at the very top live a life like this. That percentage is generally less than one half of a percent of the total membership base.

Another way they lure people in is with the statement that you’ll own you very own business when you join. Sorry, but you won’t own a thing. Everything operates under the company’s control and the company’s brand. You don’t control anything and you certainly don’t own your own business.

You’re not building up any brand of your own, or creating a business asset that you could later sell. If you want to leave the MLM company, you simply walk away empty handed after all your hard work and expense.

You get nothing. You’re just an unpaid sales rep, remember? A sales rep who pays for everything and occasionally gets a few commissions and perhaps a bonus or two.

It’s not so much the case with WFG because they don’t technically have their own products, but most other MLM company practically force their distributors to become their main customers as well, as they have minimum monthly product purchases and auto shipments, or else the distributors forfeit their right to commissions and bonuses.

Anyway, maybe now you can understand why I’m not a fan of how MLM operates.

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Is World Financial Group A Pyramid Scheme?

Pyramid SchemeNormally I’m quite quick to defend MLM schemes when it comes to the pyramid tag, but World Financial Group is teetering on the edge a little more than your typical MLM, and that’s because they don’t have any of their own products.

Let me first define an illegal pyramid operation.

A “naked” pyramid scheme is the illegal variety. Yes, most MLM companies use a pyramid style for compensation, but they’re not naked pyramid schemes because they have products.

A truly naked scheme has no products and relies solely on recruiting to stay alive. All the money flows in from new members, and it’s this money that pays the commissions of prior members and pays the company’s profits.

If recruitment stops, so does the pyramid scheme, because there’s no money coming in from anywhere else to sustain it.

Despite the fact that WFG doesn’t have their own products, they do still sell products for other companies, so there is income that isn’t directly derived from recruitment and recruitment alone.

I guess we’d have to draw the conclusion that it’s not an illegal scheme, but it is closer to being a naked pyramid scheme than most other MLM companies.

 

Target Market

Some people want to start some sort of business, but don’t want the hassle of setting one up from scratch. They don’t want to create products or services, hire people and so on.

The attraction of multi level marketing for these people is that everything is already established. All they have to do is join, pay a fee, learn what to do, then get out there selling and recruiting.

MLM, as mentioned earlier, also sells the dream that people will own their very own profitable business, even though this is actually a lie. But it hooks people in. It sounds easy. It also comes across like people will make good money in quick time, but nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s true that there are people who do really well in MLM, but they also usually got in very early before a particular company and its products became saturated.

Generally the masses do all the work and make very little, while a select few at the very top enjoy the spoils. That’s just how it’s structured.

Not everyone can make it to the top and they’re not meant to. A MLM scheme can’t support everyone being on a higher level. They only work because of the pyramid shape, and therefore require the masses to be kept down or near the bottom.

And always keep in mind that you never actually own or control anything, despite the hype they’ll spin you at the official seminars and recruitment meetings.

With way less stress and way less expense, you could make more money consistently by working a regulation part-time job in most cases.

 

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What I Do Like

  • The company has been going strong since 1991, so it’s been around for quite a while
  • They offer different products to most other MLM companies, where so many operate in the mega saturated health and wellness niche
  • WFG has an A+ rating on the BBB site

 

What I Don’t Like and Red Flags

  • There is no recent income disclosure statement available
  • All the benefits go to the company and not the workers
  • WFG doesn’t have any of its own products
  • Less than 1% of MLM members make a liveable income
  • 95% of people who get involved in MLM make no profit
  • There are quite a few complaints out there about World Financial Group
  • The company has been the target of fines because of having untrained people selling financial products
  • You actually need to pay money, study and get a licence to legally be able to sell the products this company represents
  • If you can’t recruit and recruit really well, you’ll fail at any MLM venture

 

How Much Does It Cost To Join World Financial Group?

In order to get involved in the business side of things with World Financial Group, you must pay a $100 joining fee before you can get started.

There will also be money spent to get your licence in order to legally be able to sell financial products of this nature. This involves study materials, training, and the cost of the licence fee. There are also different licences required depending on which financial products you wish to sell, so even more business expenses.

 

Is World Financial Group a Scam or Legit?

I don’t see any scam here, but I think this MLM would be hard to recruit for. A lot of people don’t get excited about insurance and so on for starters, plus all the different licences you’re required to get before you can even get going.

I’ve mentioned a few times that recruitment is really the key, so unless you feel you can really do this well in a company that promotes the financial services of other companies, and maybe you have a passion for this niche yourself, I’d give this one a miss.

 

Here’s Something WAY Easier Than MLM!

Lifestyle FreedomMLM requires a lot of time, energy and your own money to both get started and try and earn with it. It’s tough going and really hard to sell products that are generally way over-priced, as well as difficult to recruit for these schemes unless they are brand new.

I make a fulltime living with affiliate marketing, which is far easier to do than multi level marketing. For starters there is no selling of products required, no joining fees to pay and no need to recruit new members in order to have a chance of earning more money.

Technically you are building your very own little business asset too with affiliate marketing, if you create an affiliate website like I’ve done here. This is something you don’t get in MLM. You never actually own anything.

The easiest and quickest way to get started and earning as an affiliate is to do some training that shows you how.

You can do affiliate marketing part-time. It’s perfect for that. But if it becomes your fulltime income earner, there are so many advantages it brings to your life.

Let’s quickly look at just a few:

  • Fire your boss and work your own flexible hours at home
  • Earn multiple streams of passive income
  • Spend more time with loved ones, family and friends
  • Travel whenever you like and still make money
  • Make money while sleeping
  • Enjoy the freedom of having money and time at the same time
  • All you really need is a computer and the internet
  • And many more advantages…

I know some marketers who make really big dollars, so anything is possible with this.

To help my readers learn more about getting started and earning an income online from home, I’ve create a make money online guide. Just click below to have a read of it.

 

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I only mentioned just a few of the many benefits above about working for yourself online. I cover a few more key benefits within my guide. And because not everybody knows exactly how affiliate marketing all works, I explain that too.

I said earlier in this section that good training holds the key and the shortcut to success with this. In my guide I introduce you to the awesome training I did. It worked for me, so it can work for you too.

You don’t even have to pay to join. You can get started and on your way for FREE!

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