Company: Freedom Equity Group
Website: http://www.freedomequitygroup.com
Founders: Ronald Bloomingkemper, Ronald Petrinovich, and Bill St. Clair
Welcome to my 3rd party review of FEG!
I am happy that you found my review of Freedom Equity Group (FEG)!
This review is going to point out a lot about the research that needs to be done before making a really important decision. Not only do you need to research the company you are considering, you need to do some research on the leadership that is running the company.
It seems like you are willing to take part in the process since you are here. I cannot tell you how often people will simply hear a sales pitch and then jump in head first. This is not the way to get involved in an MLM especially if it is your first.
Since I am a 3rd party reviewer, I have no affiliation with the companies I review.
This is a good thing because you will never have to hear a sales pitch.
I will not make any recommendations to you but I will provide tons of information so you can make the best decision possible. I will be doing some background checks into FEG and what the leadership did before founding this company.
A few names to remember throughout the review is A.L. Williams and Primerica (Prime America). This will be clearer by the end of the review but they do play an important role.
I will also be showing you the compensation plan. These all play a role in your decision, or at least they should. Make sure to read the entire review because you will realize how difficult it is to succeed with MLMs.
You can also check out the step-by-step training that helps me earn over $10,000+ per month working from home.
Contents
FEG Overview – What is the Company?
Here is what the company wants you to see.
FEG was founded in 2002 by Ronald Bloomingkemper, Ronald Petrinovich, and Bill St. Clair. All of the these men have had success with the marketing of Life Insurance and Annuities in the U.S.
They have worked with some of the “best” companies like American national, Fidelity & Guaranty, AIG, Life of the Southwest, National Western Life and American Equity.
That is a name that is hard to forget because you don’t see it every day. Here is a link to take a look at the rest of the leadership and all of their past successes. During my research I came across a forum that you should read for sure.
The entire forum has some very interesting things to say about the founders of FEG.
At first, I did not understand why this was a bad thing so I dug a little deeper into the claims.
Later on in the forum the connection between Primerica and FEG was confirmed several times.
This comment has some specifics of some of the shady procedures that are going on. I personally don’t know if they are true but these accusations are not a good look. They are in fact serious crimes. This could be considered fraud. Make sure you pay close attention to the original post and then the reply.
What made matters worse is that I found another forum that stated the same practices between Primerica and FEG. This means that when the leadership dropped Primerica and founded FEG, some of the shady tactics carried over. This is something that needs to be addressed.
It is a must read in my opinion because it provides a lot of information in one well organized place.
Below you will see the image of the FEG section of the forum that shows you the connection between the insurance MLMs.
Some of this may seem irrelevant to you at this point, but, hold on just a second because if you know anything about MLMs, founders have a pattern of starting an MLM, hyping the hell out of it, getting out before the bubble bursts and then starting a new MLM with the same exact business model.
This allows them to keep their version of a business going. This is one of the practices that give MLMs a notorious reputation.
I am going to leave this comment here for you to read and ponder on. It is pretty clear at this point that the entire theory that MLM and insurance goes together is filled with holes.
Out of all the MLMs I have reviewed, the combination of MLM and insurance seems to be counterproductive. This leads to hype, hyperbole, aggressive sales tactics and poor training.
FEG Compensation Plan (2015)
Unfortunately, I could not find the actual PDF of the most recent comp plan but here is a link to follow for the FEG 2015 plan.
I will keep this section of the review short and provide you with the nuts and bolts. You should take a glance at the entire document so you can familiarize yourself with the plan.
This will help you in the future.
WAYS TO GET PAID
Personal Sales
ELT & Fast Track Bonus
Base Spread
Generation Overrides
Field Training
CEO Bonus Pool
Renewals
Override Renewals
Trips & Incentives
Equity Share
This is a pretty decent list and the one thing that stuck in my mind was the 30-45% commissions.
At first, that sounded like a lot to me.
But then I came across a comment that said that this was really low considering non-3rd party insurance companies have massive payouts and could even go as high as 100%.
This is something you need to consider because there are 10 ways to get paid and most of them are only accomplished by the top 5% of sales reps.
This I Don’t Like About FEG
1. The fact that you have to pay for your own licensing is ridiculous. I understand that this is not your typical 9-5 job but all training should be paid for by the company providing the job.
This seems like a cheap trick and I would not be surprised if this company is pocketing a share of the costs.
2. FEG is not newbie friendly. Sales reps are aggressive and you need to have some sort of experience in sales to even stand a chance of success.
3. FEG claims to provide top notch training to help you recruit others and to sell insurance policies.
The problem with the training is the fact that it focuses on selling to your friends and family.
This is commonly referred to as warm marketing because the leads are already generated.
If FEG is claiming that their training is so great, then maybe they should focus on the cold markets because that is where the rubber meets the road.
4. You don’t even have to sell a single policy to make money.
Most of the affiliates don’t even bother selling the substandard policies because recruiting is where the real money is at.
Like all other MLMs, you make money via recruiting and it can add up if you are world class.
5. There is a very high turnover rate among customers and sales reps.
There are many reasons why this is true but I think it has something to do with the fact that the policies are based on hype.
When you see the fine print you start to see the whole picture.
Some complaints are based on the fact that once you turn 65, your policy is worthless.
I would also hate to see what kind of stipulations they have for people that have pre-existing medical complications.
I highly doubt FEG would provide any relief for high risk customers.
The Final Verdict
OK, I have been pretty rough on FEG but there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. All of the founders have been part of a complicated history with insurance policy MLM’s.
Many people are complaining about the policies and the aggressive sales strategies that they conduct.
I told you at the start of the review that you deserve to hear what the company tells you and what FEG is NOT telling you.
Both sides of the story are important.
If you simply want to see what FEG has to say, then visit the website and have fun reading hype. If you want to know what the company is all about then read the links and images I provided you.
Get use to the jargon and really pay attention to the little details. You will start to see the whole picture and hopefully make the right decision.
Besides, MLM are not for everyone and since 95% or more MLMers fail, you would be better off finding a different line of work.
If you are still dead set on working online, maybe you should find a free training program that will help you start your own company.
This way you can avoid the recruitment traps and create something that fits your needs. There are tons of training programs on YouTube, so have fun on your search.
If you are looking for an example of a free and affordable training program, check out this review.
I hope this review helped in some way, shape or form.
If you have any experience with FEG, would like to ask a question or leave a comment, fill out the form below.
Cheers!
Adam
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Complete and utter SCAM. MLM. Watch out all agents! I was there for nine months. In the inner circle. They want you to contract with all their carriers, then sell to your warm market, even one app will then hold you hostage to them with ALL THE CARRIERS for six months. NO RELEASES for all carriers. Beware David Weiner, over 1000 agents have lost thousands with no income or sales. It’s all about recruitment to get you to sell to your warm market. The call center doesn’t work. Even the lady who runs the call center Coletta Hodges, said “I can’t recruit into this team only to lead people to financial devastation” and “I have never been associated with a company where nobody made money” in a mentor meeting. 70% contracts, complete and utter predators on brand new and experienced agents alike. It is one of the most dishonest, predatory IMO’s I have ever been associated with.
They charged me $125 and my “mentor” was to have me up and running within 3 days. All I got were excuses like “my phone is dead” as to why he could not call me to get me going. After that I realized this is nothing more than an MLM that all they want is for you to recruit. Their contract percentages are RIDICULOUS and the $300/month fee for “leads” is LIDACROUS. Lastly, I asked for a refund of my $125 cause I was flat out lied to. Was told id get a 50% contract and my “mentor” put me at a 30% contract, total liars and scammers. They wont refund me even after I have an email stating they will so now I go to the BBB and ripoffreport.com and their state attorney general.
BTW, I got a 95% contract with my current company. STAY AWAY FROM DAVE WEINER AND FEG
June 4, 2019
I was an FEG success story, and still got screwed. I earned my $100,000 ring eight months after joining FEG. Within a year I had produced a $100,000 ring earner on my team. We both did that primarily through personal production. I am not a fan of the churn and burn model of team building. The guy on my team who earned his $100,000 ring was new to the industry. I did a lot of training, hand holding, and many kitchen table meetings with his prospects to make that happen.
The company guidelines to earn the promotion to the Regional Vice President (RVP) commission level include very specific production goals that are supposed to be met, and your up-line RVP must sign off on the promotion. There was one person between me and the future $100,000 ring earner, his son-in-law. His son-in-law as of this date has never owned the product; has never sold the product; knows nothing about the industry. Yet for political purposes, the founders promoted him to the RVP. He did not meet on single qualification for that promotion.
In doing that, the FEG founders pushed my commission level down from an 8 percent override on the person I had trained to 3 percent. When I documented the hypocrisy of this, and what a mockery it made of the business model, and the diminution of the meaning of the RVP level for those who had actually earned it, the founders chose to, and I quote, “terminate me without cause”.
So buyer beware, the business you build at FEG is not your own. The rules do not apply to the founders. It is a good old boys social club, and they will do whatever they feel like doing. I am hopeful that Blackstone does a deep dive on their due diligence process before courting FEG.