Freedom Equity Group Review – Worth It?

Six figures of annual income. Six figures of annual income without any personal sale.

Isn’t that the most “amazing” opportunity?

The thing is… they always say it’s amazing, but is it even true? And if it’s true, is it achievable? And if it’s achievable, will it take you a lifetime to achieve it?

This and many more. Questions and more questions.

Vague and blur. Those are the kind of responses that you get from people.

Tons and tons of commentaries but not one is an air-tight legit.

If you have been on the internet looking for freedom equity group reviews, there can only be two reasons why. Either you have been asked to join a talk and is considering but doubting as it may turn out to be an FEG scam or you have already “amazingly” invested and wants to double check what people have to say. Regardless of your reason, there is one common thing- uncertainty.

This review will turn any blur line to solid lines that will differentiate freedom equity group of being either an FEG scam or a legit business.

Here we go as we explore the kind of freedom that Freedom Equity Group provides.

Freedom Equity Group- Tell Me What It Is

I will tell you what it is. It is a Multi-Level Marketing company that has life insurance as a product. It offers seven different life insurance products- Fidelity and Guaranty, American National, Life of the Southwest, AIG, Phoenix, American Equity, and National Western Life. In the insurance industry, it is most commonly known as an IMO- Independent Marketing Organization.

An IMO is a non-company affiliated organization that contracts with an insurance company to perform distribution, recruit agents and other marketing functions for one or more of the company’s products or product lines. (Source)

So in layman’s term, Freedom Equity Group is a distributor of life insurance products. They are the middle man.

Based on the company’s website, Freedom Equity Group was founded in 2002 by three people who have had success in marketing both life insurance and annuities in the US. These three people are Ronald Bloomingkemper, Ronald Petrinovich, and Bill St. Clair. Their Executive Team is also composed of Steve Smith as Chief Marketing Officer and John Cook as Administration Officer.

Freedom Equity Group is not accredited with Better Business Bureau. Though it is not a must for companies and businesses to be accredited with BBB, it does have its’ advantages to be accredited. Based on BBB’s record, Freedom Equity Group is not accredited. However, there have been no complaints left unanswered and also no negative reviews.

Bloomingkemper and A.L. Williams and Associates and Primerica Financial Services

What is A.L. Williams and Associates? What is Primerica Financial Services? And how are these two related to Bloomingkemper?

Hold your horses, fellas. We will go ahead and answer those questions one at a time.

What is A.L. Williams and Associates?

A.L. Williams and Associates is an MLM company that offers life insurance products. Yes. It has the same business model with Freedom Equity Group.

What is Primerica Financial Services?

Primerica Financial Services was formerly known as Citi Corp formerly known as A.L. Williams and Associates. You are right again. Primerica is an improved version of A.L. Williams. Their common tag line is “Buy Term. Invest the Difference.” Everyone, if not most, has already heard about Primerica. It has been in the business for quite some time. At the same time, Primerica has been associated to so many complaints and issues. It has also made a lot of buzz in the internet because of its’ shady tactics and issues on integrity. (See: Reasons to be Weary of Primerica)

How are these two related to Bloomingkemper?

Bloomingkemper was an ex- A.L. Williams and Associates agent. It was said in his bio that he has been in the industry for many years. Some of those years were spent with A.L. How is it significant you ask? It is very significant. For a person to have worked in a company with integrity issues there can only be two things that can happen. He can either bring along with him his previous work practices, apply it in his current job or he can be so dismayed by how things were that he will do the opposite in his next job. Either way, previous job experiences always have an effect on how we currently perform in our company. Regardless of what it was, he sure did make a fortune of what he does as he ranks 512 among The Richest People according to Forbes.

Freedom Equity Group and Its’ Products

Earlier in this review, we have already pointed out the services and products that FEG provides. Primarily they market Variable Life Insurance, Mutual Funds, Living Benefits, and a Tax Free Income.

They emphasize on Living Benefits. Living Benefits is a feature of an insurance product where a policy holder can experience growth of his money and health benefits while he is still alive. One of the most popular health benefits is the accelerated feature. This means that if an individual gets sick or gets disabled, he would be able to process a claim.

Another face of living benefits is the investment part. It works like putting your money in the bank where it grows over time. Life Insurance companies, however, gives higher interest rate. The growth comes from investing part of the policy holder’s policy payment in the stock market. If the market does well, then there is gain in the investment. If the market crashes that also means that there is loss in the policy holder’s investment. Is this safe? Depends on when you will need your living benefits.

Since they are a “distributor” of other life insurance companies, the specifics of their products are all based on the insurance company they are marketing and representing.

THE Compensation Plan

This is where things get interesting. Since it is an MLM, there are always two ways to earn. These two ways are (1) sell and (2) recruit.

This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where Freedom Equity Group reviews cry foul. This is where people usually determine if it’s legit or an FEG scam.

If you check this video, you will be able to understand the company’s compensation plan better.

Here are few highlights on how a person can earn in FEG.

1. You can sell.

If a person is able to sell a policy, then he or she, of course, gets a commission. That is the very common thing in any sales industry.

2. The real BIG money is in RECRUITING.

Yes. That’s right. If you were able to watch the video, you will be able to observe the emphasis placed in recruitment. In 3:30 of the video, he said, “Watch how your income will start to grow without making any personal sale.” That only means one thing, if you are a person who just loves to sell, but is not really comfortable in inviting people, then you may want to rethink this “opportunity”. However, if you are a recruiter and not a seller, then this might be the perfect place for you.

The picture above will show you the percentage of commission that an individual gets and the recruits needed to rise in the ranks. The higher your rank, the higher your percentage, the bigger your income. This is how they operate. This is how you make money.

Does this remind you of anything? It does remind me of something. It reminded me of a principle in where the people who gets to join first gets a higher cut. That is right. That is your typical pyramid scheme. Does that already qualify an FEG scam? Not really. But this is the part where people have been screaming scam.

On the video it says, “If you are not a superstar, can you get a superstar?” What are they trying to say? What they are saying is that you are just one recruit away in gaining wealth. It focuses on the kind of people that you bring in and then your recruits do the selling for you. What do you do? Well. They say that you will need to train and give them support. I guess. It is imperative that as a recruiter who does not make any personal sale, it is just about right that you give support to your recruits. But what if you don’t? Does the company penalize you? No. They don’t.

When a person makes a sale, they spread the commission out to few levels up the rank.

Where to Start?

To start being a sales representative, one needs to have a recruiter. You cannot join and be part of FEG without a team. Of course, you understand why.

And once you have found your dream team, you will need to pay for training and be a member of FEG. Because it operates in the MLM business model, it is common that you start this opportunity by putting in money. If this was purely distribution and selling, a start-up fee will not be necessary. It will even be the company that will spend for their agent’s training.

Once you are done with training, then out you go selling and most importantly, recruiting.

And if you want to make 6 figures, as they say, you need to be able to build a team of superstars.

The Final Word

Insurance and MLM do not really make a good combination. If you come to think about it, the true product of insurance is money. Say a person purchases a policy worth $100 per year. He gets a million in coverage available readily even at the point of purchase. Technically, this person bought $1,000,000.00 for just $100. MLM, on the other hand, grows your money not only from selling products but also from the membership fee that members use. A product that is money and money that the company lives off can create confusion. It’s like you are selling water to make water.

So is it an FEG scam? No. It’s not.

There are red flags that you should consider, though.

So what can you get from here that you can never find in other Freedom Equity Group reviews?

Clarity. FEG may not be a scam but it does not necessarily mean that it is already the perfect fit for you.

First thing is first. As a newbie, once you make a sale, most of the commission goes to your upline. Though, it has a fair commission of 30%-45%.

FEG feeds off from recruitment. Without recruitment, it is difficult to make a career out of this. It also gives much higher commission in recruiting rather than selling. This alone is a red flag in itself. If a company feeds off from recruiting people, what happens when an individual is unable to recruit anymore?

If recruitment is also something that you are good at, then you should also be capable in building and training your team. With that, you are also responsible in shouldering the expenses when you conduct seminars and trainings with your team.

And one of the reasons why MLMs leave a bad impression is the overhyped marketing. “You just need to bring in the 1% and make money.” We all know that thriving in this business needs more than just 100% effort. When people present it that way, it makes the wrong notion that people can get easy money. And once they are already in the business, that’s where all there expectations are crashed.

Conclusion

People fall for the wrong amazing opportunities. Who wouldn’t want an extra income? Who wouldn’t want to earn 6 figures with minimal effort? We all want that. But we also know that it is unrealistic. An amazing opportunity is an opportunity that meets what you can offer.

Freedom Equity Group may not be a scam. But this is also something that one needs to think several times before entering the business.