Complaint Review: World Financial Group - Centerville Ohio

Any company anywhere, no matter how large or small as they grow are bound to recruit people who do not do the right htings for others. The real issue is what happens to them when someone actually blows the whistle. Our company gets rid of people like the one you descibed. Have you blown the whistle on this guy or are you just complaining to a website. There is recourse if any of the claims you make are accurate, which is why it seems they may be exaggerated to say the least. To start with, I will adress the issue of why so many people may be reporting something about their experirnce with WFG, as the rebuttal instructions have asked. WFG aggressively is recruiting people in the market of the average American, and unfortunately most average people are not familiar with what it takes to run a business. Recruitment tactics of any and all companies are going to laud the success of other examples and talk about things that excite the potential recruit about working with them. Our company, just like any other company that is trying to find OR develop entreprenuers, simply attract alot of people who pay a start up cost, and then when they find out that success does not just fall out of they sky and hit them on the head, that it actually required a sustained effort involving hard work and determination. The AVERAGE person gives up way, way too soon. They cannot break free from the employee mentality, they cannot overcome human nature and make themselves work hard, they need a boss to drive them, or to be even more blunt, some are just flat out unambitious. Alot of people who have no real legitimate complaint or issue feel they can hurt a company like ours in spit over losing $100 start up cost, or the cost of licensing (which by the way, if they get their license, it belongs to them, it is their professional designation that they can now take to any firm and use) otherwise if it is legitimate it could, and should be taken up with the proper authorities. Most people realize that with our company, a legitimate complaint WILL be answered to by authorities, so the best vindication they can get with a coplaint that reall is one with no real substance, can be a stab at our companies good name in a venue like this that they feel no sense of accountability over thier venting. Simply put, they are upset they spent money at a business that they did not have what it takes to succed and they want to find blame in anything other than themselves, it is common human nature, and that is why it is so prevelant on a site like this one. Now were this a legitimate complaint, good people in our company would CRINGE over it at try to find a way to resolve it. I myself am upset if anything this person claims is actually true, I would feel we owe them an apology! However after sifting through the site it seems my former argument hold more truth. Here however is my attempt to right some wrongs here! These are some actual facts. World Financial Group or more specific World Group Securities is a member of FINRA, formaly the NASD. They are regulated both by that orginization as well as having to ultimate answer to the SEC, who if you would just educate yourself on the matter, just does not mess around, ask Martha Stewart. If somehow our company accross the board was giving erroneous and malacious service, there would be more credible and verifyable sources that could be contacted other then what amounts to a complaint blog. There is the state regulators as well as FINRA. On FINRA you can do a broker dealer check not just on the company, but individual reps. You can see the FACT that in spite of World Group Securities being in the top five of ALL Broker Dealers in the country in terms of NUMBER OF REGISTERED REPS, meaning we have more people that could potentially be doing wrong and immoral and illegal things, than everyone but a handful, you will see a grand total 6 or 7 actual cases of arbitration or findings of wrongdoing. Have we had some peope do some wrong things, ABSOLUTELY, every company has idiots. However I challenge you to do more research of some other firms, firms more known by advertising that because they cast the spell of media over their image you might think them a pristine ivory tower, until you do the research that counts, and find they have dozens and even hundreds of arbitration cases and findings of wrongdoing, and with a much smaller and supposedly more manageble number or reps. This is information which will not be found on a site like this, until someone busy with better things to do like myself chooses to take valuable precious time out of my day to write this. I will wrap up with this information. I am a Branch Office Supervisor with this company, and everyone here, including myself, is an independant contractor. The company teaches a system, but not everyone chooses to follow it, it is their perogative, we are not employees, we get to run our own show, to a point. If what you say about your experience is true, than that group needs to be audited and disciplined. At my office in South Barrington, IL we DO teach people about great sound principles, such as term insurance, 529 plans, roth IRAs and the other things you mentioned. So that is simply not true at all what you stated about our company. Another major overstatement, actually a fallicy is we do not recomend AEGON companies over non AEGON companies. Yes alot of business goes to WRL, but that is because they have some of the cheapest term insurance around. PacLife, Allianz, American Skandia / Prudential, AIM Funds, all preferred providers that are a big part of what we do are NOT AEGON companies. In our office we use the Bright Directions 529 Plan all the time, we use Jackson, we use First Trust Portfolios UITs. We use Lincoln Benefit Life and Old Mutual, none of which are Aegon companies. I am proud of our track record, our office has hundreds and hundreds of happy clients, and to my knowledge NOT ONE SINGLE customer complaint. We are members of the local Chamber of Commerce and are well respected in our community, we would NEVER treat people the way you claim you were treated there. I work closely with most of the offices in Chicago, and I have never heard of anything at all like what is supposedly happening wherever you were, it has escaped me as I have been writing. In the end, this is a business, and to be successful in any business it requires time and money. If you have a complaint about spending either one, than WFG simply is not a viable option for you. If you have thousands to spend, go buy a McDonalds Franchise. If you are like me and you have started off practically broke and in obscurity, but you have a dream, you are willing to work hard for that dream, and you understand, the privlidge to run your own business like a WFG business will cost you some money to operate, but you, like me can see the investment pay off in the end, you can make a dream income, just like I have started to.

WOW! They even gave you bad directions so they could eat your fair share of the snacks! I've never heard someone complain so much about a business. It's your business, you can do whatever you want as long as it's compliant and ethical. You're the business owner! Your complaint is with yourself, unbelievable! If you want to go to a district meeting and pay for snacks and can't get there on time, it's everybody else's fault, wow! Grow some balls, if anyone in any office I've ever been in yelled at me, I wouldn't just leave. Report that guy to his superior or go work out of a different office . . . you're all self-employed, you can't just be fired! You can use any mutual funds you want, 1 star and 5 star, whatever! You're your own boss, make your own decision. Personally if I was in an office and you were there running around complaining and whining, blaming everything and everyone for not having enough snacks at meetings, etc. I'd probably ask you to go work somewhere else, too.

I've been to a bunch of World Financial Group meetings and you'd have to be pretty stupid not to realize that there will be some selling involved...geez! The problem with guys like this and their posts is that it gives World Financial Group a bad name for being an opportunity that will allow unemployed the chance to build a business and actuall sell insurance and mutual funds. So if I understand this guys complaint, he wants to make money but doesn't want to have to sell. do I have that right? He wants WFG to sell products that don't offer commissions, right? Does he realize that brokers charge commissions every time a security is bought or sold? I'm guessing he doesn't really know a broker and that any investment he's got is through his work related 401K or other products. How can people be so naive and uninformed. I just don't know.

You were essentially FIRED? I'm curious if you actually volunteered or are you one of those who were categorized as an independent contractor (IE)? You may want to consider calling the Ohio Department of Labor and get a clarification of your status--whether as an employee (EE) or IE. From what I've read so far in these posts, you could very well have been an EE which means that your termination may have been in violation of state labor laws. Check all the paperwork and documents you signed. Then call the proper state agencies for information or clarification of the law(s). You may have a case of "wrongful termination."