Family Heritage Want to work for Family Heritage ?? Cleveland, Ohio
I am currently employed by Family Heritage Life. Currently I am selling their Cancer Policy. I just received a call from the head of our group informing me that I OWE them $1500. Let me explain the process. First you will go and meet with the interviewer and have an "interview" - which is more of a sales pitch than anything. Then, you are allowed to ride with another salesman - who happens to be their best salesman in the company so it seems very easy to do.If you decide that you are going to jump on board with them you have to get licensed first( at least a week of training @ $200 for the class, then take the state and national test for $80-if you pass your first time)
Once you pass your test they will immediately (no price shopping here) book you on a flight for the following week to Dallas or Nashville for "sales training". The cost of this flight doesn't matter to them because YOU are eventually responsible for this cost. Then you are put into a hotel room and the "sales training" begins on Monday. "Sales training" is 12-14 hours a day of useless information and h*o-ra b.s. that will bore you to death and helps to prepare you for the cult that is Family Heritage, not to train you how to sell. The only thing out of this training that is valuable in the field is the "approaches" that could be taught in a few hours. The rest is utterly useless and horrible as far as training is concerned. Their training is nothing but an ADDITIONAL INCOME STREAM for the company that you get to pay for .
It is REQUIRED for you to go through their training which they ultimately charge TO YOU WITH INTEREST.
Now it is time to get out in the field. Keep in mind that you haven't made a penny in the previous 2-3 (bare minumum) weeks-worse yet is that you have gone INTO DEBT to the company. Sounds GREAT so far huh?? Well now you get to go out and try your newly learned craft !!!
A few things to keep in mind - you are an independent contractor in name only. The micromanagement is unbelievable - company wide phone meetings 3 times a week, daily phone calls to your superiors ( I had 3 superiors ), well they are "technically" your equal to keep things legal since you are an independent contractor, filling out your daily schedule forms, nightly phone calls to see how many doors you have knocked on, etc., etc. It is a CULT LIKE atmosphere.
It is funny how they spin things to look like they are the so great. I will give you an example of how you get paid. Lets say you make a $100 a month sale and you are at a 30% commission rate. Well they are such a gracious company that they will "front" you 7 months of commission (with a 10% interest rate) so 30% of $100 is $30- so they advance you 7 months of commission for a total of $210. That's what they pay you on your commission check. BUT the other 5 months of commission is ate up by the interest that they charge (ohh family heritage is so good to meeeee). Now if a client were to cancel - guess who gets to pay the balance owed ??? Yep, you.
So how do I owe them $1500? Sales training = $1000 and I sold 6 policies= $500 LOL- you will actually owe them money for selling policies. Pretty awesome huh. So today I was called by the head honcho for my group and he informed me of my debt to the company (after I worked approximately 120 hours and sold 6 policies) He informed me that the company will come after me and it will get ugly so I need to get back to work with this place and selllllll.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Grow Up
Austin,Texas,
USA
Grow Up
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, September 04, 2015
I usually do not comment on these type of forums, but feel obligated to comment to reports about a company that this person has felt obligated to write 2 negative reviews about. I am only do this because in today's age their are some individuals who will make decisions about their future based on these type of reviews and not based on their own learned opinions after they have received all the facts about the companies they are lookin at.
First off, I believe if someone is being honest with themselves and looking for employment they should do their research and understand what type of job they are about to be asked to perform. With a lot of these type of reviews it is very obvious that the people involved are very naive about the real world and about what type of work responsibilities they are being required to perform. Not to get personal with these individuals but they apparently spent more time working on how they could not be successful at such jobs than they did on learning their craft and becoming proficient. Honestly, what job can you step into and master in 3 or 4 weeks? not many. Most jobs take at least 6-9 months before the learning curve is achieved and consistent success is made. Most people that complain about a company and how they were not successful ususally had many issues before they got their, and expected quick fixes for all of their problems. That is one of the problems in today's society, they believe there is such a thing as a "free lunch".
Look, the word is tough and work is hard, life is not fair. If you're not working at becoming better at your craft, then you will be beaten out by someone that is. My only hope is that individuals that are coming to these type of sites to try and find something wrong with the opportunity they are being presented with, will do enough research to understand that in today's world anybody can write a post or blog and try and smear a great companies reputation.
P.S.
Don't follow those that have failed, misery loves company
Robert Scott
brentwood,Tennessee,
I hope it gets better for you
#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, November 21, 2014
It appears you were able to start your own business as an independent contractor for less than $500 and get trained for another $1000 or so? I am laughing a little because to most business owners, that is a joke. Ask any business owner and they will tell you they spent more that on their website and stationery. I worked with FHLICA for 5 years and can tell you first hand it is hard work and long hours. But you are in total control of your destiny as proven by me and hundreds of others. It is hard to believe you sold 6 policies and only made $500 . I was able to earn almost $100,000 my first year as a 26 year old. There are a lot of great teachers working there. Maybe it is time to ask for some help and follow the system. It truly works. I wish you the best and hope you make it through the tough times so you can enjoy a fruitful long term career.
brikhouse71
Iowa,United States of America
Update
#4Author of original report
Sat, December 08, 2012
Just thought that I would update my post. They say that hindsight is 20/20 but here is the real scam that is downright evil and disgusting. You as an employee are an additional income stream for this company. Here's how it worked for me. I was going broke trying to sell these policies (which are comparable to Aflac but 3 times as expensive-try selling that) so I needed to go to work where I could make some real money and not pipe-dream money. So I informed one of my superiors of my intentions and he acted disappointed but realized that I was in a bad spot (6 weeks without a substantial paycheck will do that ) So I had been working my other job for about 2 weeks when I get a call from my superiors superior. He informed me that I needed to pay down my debt to the company (????) Well I informed him that I was still going to sell policies but that I just couldn't afford to do that right now.
I should probably explain what it was that I couldn't afford to do. Once a month they have a company wide week that is called a Trainmore. The trainmore is where you travel to a distant town (the one they wanted me to go to was 3 hours away), stay in a hotel , and raid the surrounding towns and sell policies. This starts on Sunday night and runs through to the following Saturday afternoon. You are responsible for your hotel, gas, food,etc. and any solicitors permits ( I was made to feel like an idiot for paying for these - all towns have a peddler/solicitor law in place to protect their citizens from companies that go door to door selling insurance-I had to buy these secretly because I couldn't convince my superior that the policeman that informed me of my need for a permit was serious when he said that he would throw me in jail if I didn't get one)
Anyway, back to paying down my debt to Family Heritage (has a nice ring to it doesn't it ?). I was informed that in order for me to do other work that all I had to do was call in and inform my superior of my schedule-every day (huh?) Yep, total control freaks. But the true intention of this is to be able to terminate your employment. Why would they want to do that you ask? So they can make you pay back any money that they have advanced you on your commissions !!!! Awesome huh? So if you quit or are terminated you owe them what advanced commission you made whether or not the customers keeps paying.
These people are total pukes and have a legal way to rob you. DO NOT walk away from this, RUN as fast as you can. I feel like a total fool for working for these thieves and you will too. Have a great day and I hope this helped!!!!