Complaint Review: Syncis

NOTE: If you don't want to read the whole thing, TL;DR bottom line version is included at the bottom.

I was introduced to Syncis almost randomly by a friend who gave my name to one of the 'associates' in the company, who in turn called me. I was looking for work at the time, so it sounded like a good opportunity. This is unfortunately the mindset of everyone who goes into Syncis, and this company takes advantage of that.

I was told to dress nice and arrive in their small (at the time; they relocated since) office. I sat in a room with the associate who called me who did not even interview me, but simply told me about the company. I was told that I would have to pay $100 dollars in order to start working, which surprised me because I had never heard of a business where one is required to pay in order to start working. I had always thought it was supposed to be the other way around! Syncis will say that this fee is needed to 'check the person out', but I do not know what kind of 'checking out' had to be done on me.

I paid the $100 (unfortunately), and after many weeks of attempting to succeed in 'the business', I realized that I did not have the resources needed to make money. However, I was also able at the time to see what a corrupt organization Syncis truly is.

Syncis describes itself as a 'financial planning' firm, one that is set out to help families and individuals. They claim that too many people today are unprepared for the financial difficulties of the future; families don't save enough money, don't plan financially and are 'not aware' of the best ways to save for the years to come.

Now, unfortunately, this statement is true, and any individual who agrees with it becomes susceptible to Syncis' sneaky manipulation. 

Syncis will say that their goal is to 'educate' people on how to handle their money better, but their idea of 'educating' families and indviduals is setting them up with a permanent life insurance plan or an annuity (depending on which one fits better for the person). 

But that's not what their associates will tell you. Why? Because Syncis works like a cult. Anyone who is recruited as an 'associate' (which is really just a fancy word for 'distributor' or 'salesperson') has endless amounts of heavily biased and carefully cherry-picked information that attempts to paint the organization as a legitimate 'company' that has real 'knowledge' of finance. Syncis also tries to convince its associates that it 'cares' about them, unlike mean-old big name companies. They'll make Syncis seem like more than a business; like a family and support network of individuals who are really motivated to succeed and help other people.

All of this brainwashing happens in weekly 'Business Presentation Meetings', where associates present the amount of sales they or their downlines have made, and training sessions that teach the same financial/business dogma over and over (and barely any of it is stuff that you would ever learn as a Finance student in a university).

And still, none of it is true. In reality, the best terminology to describe Syncis is an "Independent Multi-Level Marketing Organization". Their job is to act as middlemen between companies that offer life insurance plans, and help distribute and market these same life insurance plans.

One plan that they particularly seem to love is called an IUL - Indexed Universal Life insurance plan. They'll market it to make it sound like any person who has it will be swimming in showers of gold in only a matter of a few decades. It acts as a savings vehicle and an insurance plan concurrently, and is based on performance of a stock index. 

While I haven't been able to find any concrete flaws with the IUL product, I have been able to find flaws with the way Syncis operates.

As mentioned previously, most people who come into Syncis are looking to make money, as invitations and recruitment is done by word of mouth and usually describes the monetary opportunities that working in Syncis can bring. In my personal experience, most of the people who I have seen recruited into Syncis are young -- many college kids, few older than 30. These people are put into commission based positions where they are paid to sell life insurance to people that trust them. Not only that, but they are encouraged to recruit more people into their 'team' in order to increase the residual income they make.

This is where it is truly apparent that Syncis is not worth anyone's time.

Syncis, like any other marketing organization, has an agenda, and that agenda is to sell financial products. They are among a sea of financial marketing organizations that all serve the same purpose - to market some sort of 'amazing' product through direct selling. They'll claim that they're the best, but don't let them fool you, they're like a grain in the sand.

Syncis will say that big companies take advantage of the ignorance of its employees to 'keep them stupid', but the irony is that Syncis itself says that there is 'no financial background' required to begin 'working' for them. Actually, financial background is probably not preferred -- because anyone who understands anything about business or finance will be able to see that Syncis, like most MLMs, is not built to last, and like most direct-selling businesses, is based on abuse of relationship capital.

In its defense, Syncis says the same things as any other MLM:

"You have to follow the 'System' if you want to succeed"

"The system works"

"You'll only get as much of this as the work you put in"

That type of stuff, which sounds good, but in reality, the only people who make money are the Field Directors (who have a certain number of recruits and sales done), while every associate is a mere pawn who makes nothing in comparison. It's sad, because some of these people try to rely on Syncis for full-time income, some going as far as quitting their day jobs.

BOTTOM LINE:

Syncis is a multilevel marketing business that recruits young people who know nothing about finance and brainwashes them into thinking they understand 'business' and 'finance', two very intricate subjects that one can not simply learn all about in a matter of mere few weeks, in addition to also believing that they are helping people out by selling them products (sounds counterproductive to a company that says that people don't know how to manage their money). Once they are brainwashed, they are put in a system meant to keep them working and recruiting in order to earn more money for their uplines.

While their uplines are getting rich, associates are scrambling about, attending pointless 'meetings' and attempting to sell life insurance (which mind you, none of them cared about before they became associates) to friends and family, who most likely don't care about life insurance either. All of this, and Syncis still has the AUDACITY to call itself a "financial planning" firm, when in fact all they plan is how to recruit and distribute more life insurance plans.

Do yourself a favor, don't waste your time.