Complaint Review: WFG - World Financial Group - Sunnyvale California

This is not a rebuttal to the above report by   verysmartme , but a follow up. I have just joined this WFG company 2 weeks ago and I have already regretted stepping into the door. First of all I had some experiences with a couple of MLM 6 to 7 years ago: a few months in Quixta r and like wise in HerbaLife . I can tell everyone here that I didn't make any money and instead I lost some. These companies all ask for your money up front as part of the sign-up process, under the disguise of "registration" fee and in the case of WFG, "background check fee" (which was $100.00) I just had to slap myself in the head today for making the same mistakes again and asked myself: First of all what kind of business practice is this for a hiring company to ask for new employees' money upfront? They might as well ask you for a "membership" fee to be "part of the dream" team. I do not understand...  Second , the people: it's always the push for more people. This is the part that gets me the most. After I quit Quixtar and Herbalife, I started to study the MLM cases one after another. WFG, like what I observed with Quixtar and Herbalife, focuses primarily on training you "how to build a team/system", i.e. how to get more people into the company the same way you did, and do the same thing you do (which is for them to get more people to join the same way, instead of how to actually sell the product). They seldom talked about their products, let along teaching you about them. With Quixtar and Herbalife, at least the products are tangible and the customer/consumer can throw them away and not be stuck with them, if the products (soaps, detergent, herbal pill, beauty products... etc) don't work out for them. But with WFG... they are selling Life Insurance.... and investment.... with the clients' money... things not exactly to be trifled with. After a lengthy talk with a God-sent friend tonight, who is much keener in the finance and how money works than I do, I came to realize the potential danger associated with the kind of products WFG sells.... one of them being the GIUL, or Global Index Universal Life insurance.... Universal Life insurance, as my friend explained to me, is not exactly a scam or a bad thing.... if you are a financial expert who is crazy enough to get this product in the first place as a mean of playing with tax... another words, this is a potentially very risky policy where you can borrow against it with your own money  (the loan) , on your own money (saving account).... not something to be handled by someone who has just gotten hired off the street (or at a local Starbucks). Thereby this brings me to the third point.... training the new trainees to bring the cases to their upline to close it... So who's making the commission here? Our new recruits? Most people I have seen so far are from average, middle class bracket, therefore it is not a hard guess away from any educated fellow citizen to realize that they Do Not have the same kinds of experience and expertise of a professional financial advisor/broker. What kind of customer would seek a financial service/products from newly hired agents (who themselves at their first day in the company was not explained the products in specific details, btw)? I've seen a lot of young people (age 30 and under ) during one of their BPM's (Bring People to Meeting) I've attended recently, and most of them were absolutely hooked to the large amount of money they could potentially earn in the near future. I am shaking my head right now for not seeing this more straight through the first time around. I should have seen this coming, really. Lord, this greed and money-blinded sight is no good. So, I am taking some time to make this follow-up report long, to provide as much information as I can to all who may be in contact with this company. I just hope all who read this report may have this mentality as well. I also want to echo verysmartme (who posted the original report), that there some poor, innocent people who deserve some sympathy from the ones lucky enough to not be drawn into this. But there is a lesson that needs to be learned: know all the facts before you commit into something nowadays, especially the ones that touch not only your money, but also the ones around you... (your loved ones, friends, relatives, co-workers, etc). WFG is Not a scam, as well as they advertised. They are indeed regulated by the federal and state government with their business dealing... but don't be fooled into joining them without doing a goooood research. Take a close look at their products and ask them how they can actually bring you the money. INSIST ON: Asking them the specifics regarding the company structure (the company is MLM, but they will say 'no, it's independent contractor'), the commission they bring you (work out the math, and compare with the rest of the industry), how much will it cost you to join... and WHY do they want to train you to recruit other people (they will be asking for your cellphone!!! For all of your contact numbers deemed approachable!!) when they should have taught you about the products.  Finally, before the criticism regarding my quitting of the previous 2 MLM before I make any money (I might quit WFG soon as well) come in, I want to refer the readers back to my third point. I was young back then and was absolutely naive about economics, let along on how to run my own business. I had no proper mind set, skills, experiences, or proper drive to do that... and the only thing that kept me going was the promise of making big bucks and the early retirement and the life of a dream - empty, vain promises that is absolutely useless in running a business. My own fault for not being careful indeed.... But many, many people in this kind of MLM right now are young people, who are in exactly my situation half a decade ago... after they joined the company and spent the background check fee (provided they believed in the vague and basic economic information presented to them as a surprisingly uninformed crowd), they were not taught on how to run a business like the rest of the world.... like risk planning and management, market research and so forth..... but rather, they were trained on how to grab more people, who in turn will grab more people... to join a company that sells..... something they don't even know what is.  Once again, please gather all the facts you can before you sign anything! Know your risk! http://www.city-data.com/forum/business/121020-wfg-pyramid-scheme-cult-legit-business.html