American Income Life Insurance review: job opportunity scam - beware 203

can somebody tell me how you were scammed? i know some people that have policies with them and they only told me good things but now i'm worried. i noticed that everybody here keeps talking about scams but nobody has said anything about how much money they lost ?!?!?!?! i'm confused?

They are blatant liars. When I received my phone call I asked the woman if this was a commissioned sales position and if it required site visits. She said they were recruiting me to be a benefits specialist and there were sales incentives but it was more customer service based. I went to their interview and there was a waiting room full of people going through the same process. If you decide to go forward with the hiring process you will need to pay to become licensed and you need to pay for their training. The job also requires you to drive you own vehicle to the homes of potential clients around your area. It is also a pyramid scheme. The goal is to get people working under you so that you get a cut of what they make. The truth is that the responsibilities of this position is to set up visits with potential clients, drive to their home and try and sell them an insurance policy.

Im sorry but how is this a scam? You're not losing money at all, it's a simple position, if u want to stay at home all day and be a loser then don't go to the interview, but if u want to actually work for your money then take a freakin interview! This company is listed on better business borough and glass door, it's not a scam so stop referring to it as a scam because you don't lose money!

Same email i got folks... dont lose your common sense being disparate for work.
We hope this email finds you well. We wanted to consider you for this position with our company. I tried to call but was not able to reach you via phone. Based on your skills, experience and credentials we believe that you would be a good fit for a position within our managerial staff.
Our company is the nation's largest benefit provider for labor unions and credit union members. We are located across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Ireland and soon to be Italy. It is an amazing career opportunity for advancement and income. We just opened up three new metro offices and so we have a number of positions available at the moment; depending upon your qualifications to help us determine the position that will be best suited for you.
We are looking for multiple key people to join our management team. We are seeking those with strong desires for personal growth and business-minded individuals to facilitate the expansion of our three offices. Our Regional Hiring Director has respectfully extended an invitation out to you and would like one of our Senior Managers to meet with you personally to discuss the opportunities. This appointment will be used to explain your daily tasks and responsibilities. This appointment will then be used to determine if you would be a good fit for the position.
INTERVIEWS WILL BE SCHEDULED AS FOLLOWED:

This information just helped me alot, I actually just got called for a part time position as a "Phone Room Caller" I am currently a college student so part time is what I was looking for but the entire thing looks like one big scam. I did go in for an interview and the person told me "It will be outbound calling, you will screen resumes for potential candidate's and call them. The goal is to get 2 people in here per week for interviews" After reading much of this information I am going to look for something better.

I received a call today from a brianna/breanna. She asked me a few basic questions after saying she had saw my resume on monster. I immediately thought it was strange that she didn't tell me the name of the position or the company name. I asked for all that information- the bratin group in camp hill, pa and an entry level management position. Entry-level management? Doesn't make sense.
She asked my salary requirements and immediately agreed. Odd. Wanted to schedule an interview for the following day even after saying I didn't have any experience in the job.
I got her number and as soon as I got off the phone I googled. She also sent me an e-mail. Won't be responding to either. Sounded very sketchy.

Thanks the info. Just spent my entire weekend studying for nothing. Thought it was too good to be true.

This place isn't a scam. They do not take any of your money. However they are sales. It's a cattle call. Resumes are taken off of any website that has them posted. They do not look into your past employment. They teach you what you need to know there. However you do have to work HARD. It's sales so it all depends on you. You do have to pay a 120$ fee if you decided to work there. It is so that you can get your licences for selling life insurance. They are a bunch of fun people and try to make you enjoy your work. However they go about it all the wrong way. They lead people on to think that it's a great thing. Which it can be for most. But their method of keeping the phone call short and not talk much about what the company does and is, isn't helping them. It just leads people to feeling like they are being lied to. They don't want people to prejudge the opportunity. But by doing this they are only hurting themselves. I've been through a few sales job interviews and at least the people told me it was sales when I talked to them before the interview. Then of course this page doesn't help them at all by showing up when you type in the company's name. Maybe they should read some of these and actually learn from it. Instead of just making things shorter and not saying as much.

Thank heavens I read this. I received a call from a man by the name of Menno (yeah, I know) from a number of [protected]. He asked if I was still looking to do payroll. I said yes. He said he did not have any payroll positions available and that this was more of an HR/customer service role. Being that payroll IS in the HR field I asked for more info and he simply asked me to come in for an interview. I was to be in today at 1030 but my gut told me something was fishy. He told me he found my resume from career builder. I never applied for this position and I'm very glad I checked as I am unsure if I have gas to get to this place along with the job I'm CERTAIN I got on Thursday so THANK YOU everyone for saving my time and gas. I have had 2 interviews with a company and they called me yesterday to come in AGAIN to go over details. So I think that means I got it. Being out of work for 10 months, I'm running on fumes and never would of made it to both so clearly I'm saving my gas for the more reliable position.

Glad my friend found this for me today! Heres my story...

I;m looking for work. I got a phone call from an Ashley [protected]) saying that she received my resume.( this is possible because i did apply for lots of positions). She said she noticed i was great in sales and customer service and that there was a customer service position as well as management. She flew through all the information, which was little to none about the ACTUAL business. Never mentioning the business name. She asked me a few pre-interview questions. I was kind of caught off guard, and answered them quickly. Next thing you know she said everything sounded great and that she'd like to set up an interview with me tomorrow morning at 10:15AM at this address 2233 Ebco Drive Erie, PA suite 320 .And that i would be meeting with Mr. Kunash. I agreed to it, and we hung up. THe more i thought about it... I decided to google that address. SEVERAL different company names popped up...anything from Arias & Associates to Different Insurance Companies etc, all in the same suite? But no Legit info on any of those companies. I called Ashely back (which went to an automated voice mail), left a message for her to return my call. After about an hour she called me back. I had a list of questions for her. She now seemed to be the one who was caught off guard. She stammered around and couldn't tell me the actual "job functions" i would be doing if hired. When i asked for a website to find more information...she "couldn't remember the URL". Hmm...Also she messed up twice in the "job titles". Once calling me a sales rep, and next calling me a management service provider. I kind of want to show up just to see what happens. If i do i shall report it on here... good or bad. But this is my story. Thanks to everyone else for sharing theirs! *TS*

--Thanx guys, thatll save me an hour drive and some gas! Email as follows:

Good morning (NAME), our address is 702 lisburn road camp hill, pa 17011. Please remember this is business professional attire so dress accordingly . Also, we will need you to bring a hard copy of your resume with you. Again my name is Breeanna and my number is [protected] if you have any further questions. Looking forward to meeting you Tuesday at 10:30 am. 

The Bratin Agencies 

--
Breeanna Yoshimura
The Bratin Agencies

--its the same address and phone numbers when i googled it! Im a chef so why would they contact me?!

Looks like they're in NY now. This is what I received in response to me answering a listing on Craigslist for a Benefits Specialist Rep position:

Hope this email finds you well. I received your response to my
advertisement and would like to invite you into our office for an
interview.
Our company is the nation's largest benefit provider for labor unions
and credit union members. It is an amazing career opportunity for
advancement and tremendous income potential.
We are looking for two key people to join our team to facilitate the
expansion of corporate Flushing, Queens office. I'd like to meet with
you personally so I'm inviting you for an interview Friday, January 23rd at 10:30AM.
We will use this appointment to determine if you would be a good fit for the position.
Please confirm if this date and time would work for you through email including phone number and I'll send you the addressdirections to our office. I would appreciate it if you could please respond promptly because I expect to be filling these two positions immediately. Please include include full name and best contact number. Thank you for your time.

Human Resources,
Duane Walters

It's Feb 4, 2015
Received a phone call this morning, some guy said he saw my resume and wanted to interview me for a job interviewing people about union jobs, so as it stands it is a Scam. How can they still be in business, someone needs to close them down

I just wanted to say thank you. After I looked up Braitin and Associates, this immediately came up and I also noticed to address was he same for the AIL place. I was supposed to have an interview with them tomorrow. Thank you again for not wasting my time.

I am posting this after reading the comments made by most people here. The company is real. You can work here, get paid more than you would ever make in most places. You do get benefits after 90 days including medical, life, employee stock options and renewals. I have been working there for almost 4 years now. All I see here is people saying they were called for the interview but never gave it a chance. I would suggest going to the interview and see what it's all about, .

This place is a scam, shady people that take your money after your final interview. DO NOT GO TO INTERVIEW IF SET UP YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY THEM FOR A JOB!

This is all very discerning to read considering I am a person who works within the company. Within Canada specifically, the way AIL runs is 10x different than how it does in calgary as well as the US. YES there are companies hiding behind the AIL mask and using that as a way to obtain people to work for them, only to tell them they have to pay a start up fee of such costs and a fee to sit at a desk etc. HOWEVER, I do work within AIL in Canada and it is absolutely wonderful. They are just as eager for you to make money as you are yourself! Just because one AGENCY is trying to rip people off, doesn't mean the entire company is a scam. We deal with a lot of different people and we look to cater and serve every single one of them. I myself, work within HR and I know what its like to be on the phone and "say our name quickly" because people go onto the internet and read bs like this and all of a sudden pass up an amazing opportunity. You can all as much as you'd like say its a scam and that only the top 2% make money, but that is absolute BS because if you work hard, you are guaranteed payouts. My manager is 25 and making 60, 000 dollars worth in residuals! How does that work, he doesn't work as regional district manager, nor have an agency of his own! And ontop of his comission he makes off of his team, he also is rewarded for his hard work! So please people, be informed before you talk about how its a scam.

Ya, all of our phone calls are going to sound the same. But what do you expect, when you call a company customer service line do they not all sound the same? We need to get as much information out to get people to have an idea why they are coming here and to show them that all of the stuff you read online is not always 100% true. Be informed people, you work hard - you get rewarded for it. You don't, well than you'll be on this website talking about how bad of a company we are.

FYI, we do NOT deal with cold calling OR door knocking so please do not provide false information to these people.
Thank you,

Proud AIL employee.

This blog is to merely tell you about my experience, and to provide hope to all who believes that this is a scam. I will scan my paycheck to prove all this, but first I will tell you the whole story:

I received a call from a manager and told me that he got my application off of Career Builder. I went in for the interview and after the interview he advised me that out of the 70 people he saw that week, he hired 4. He advised me that I was the 5th and I was to drive 2 hours to my second interview.

Right now I felt skeptical, but in the interview he said that the average agent makes 60, 000 per year. So I went up there to check it out. There was a group of 30 people in the room and there were 3 people who spoke about the company and who they were looking for. They gave us an overview of what we'd be doing, and the way that you would be paid IF they picked you for the job. We were then required to tell them in front of all the people why we thought we could do the job. I gave them why, and then I went home. I did not hear anything until Tuesday (I went on Friday the previous week), and he told me that he wanted to see me for the third interview. When I got there, he told me that he wanted me to put in my two week notice at work and then start training in two weeks. During that time he wanted me to get my insurance license, which requires 20 hours of online study, taking a practice exam and taking a state exam. This process costed roughly $200.

Before I go further, I want to explain someone here. If I were a company, and I told someone I would pay them to take a state exam, I would have to worry about them going to another company after completing the exam. That would be 200 dollars for every person that does this. I am saying this because a lot of blogs are saying that is ridiculous to pay for the exam, when in some states it's against the law for a company to pay for a state exam. Okay, moving along...

Although he wanted me to do this in two weeks, it took me four weeks due needing to get my insurance license and also working 40 hours a week. My current job let me work an additional two weeks, so I was fine with money. The manager at AIL advised me that I also had to remember an eight page script by orientation. This script was CRAZY! It took me a long time to memorize it, but I am grateful he made me do that because I wouldn't be where I am today. After getting my license, I went to training. Training was in the same location as my second interview, so I had to drive 2 hours to get there. There I discovered that the reason I had to drive so far is because they only do the training in one location in the state. American Income has one Home Office per state so it is common to drive many miles to get there if you’re in another location. I went through the training (which was 4 days long) and they paid for my hotel room, but not for my food. Even though they didn't pay for my food, one of the managers did buy food for us because we were in training from 9am-7:30pm. Up to this point ALL the managers were very motivating and nice people. They stressed the importance of honesty, integrity, and respect. They were all very helpful.

I went out to the field to see how other people did the job next. I went out two days with another agent and watched him meet with the union members. It was surprising because you would have some people very mad because you came and others very thankful. I will talk about that next.

That was my hiring experience. Now I'm going to talk about what we do...

We give benefits to Union members to fill in the gaps in their current policies. Most people get 100k life insurance policies to pay for everything when they die, but most people don't know the cost of dying. That 100k went to the house, car notes, credit card debt, and other things. So the 100k is probably all used up at that point. Not to mention in my state most insurance is paid out 6 months after the person dies, and AIL pays within 1-2 weeks. Then you have funeral costs, which are usually [protected] bucks. Most funeral homes require 50% of this upfront, and the other 50% after 30 days. That is just ONE benefit that AIL provides. I will list the rest below:

Hospital Benefit
$100 per emergency room visit (to pay for co-pays and deductibles)
$200 per overnight stay in the emergency room (for up to a year)
$400 per night in intensive care (for 14 days, then $200 for a year)

Cancer benefit
$50, 000 per member of family to cover non-medical costs (things insurance doesn't pay for - like experimental drugs, co-pays, deductibles, income loss due to battling cancer, etc)

Paycheck Protection
(based on income, the following illustration is if the person made 17/hr)
2500/mo for 12 months to help the spouse breathe and find another way to find the needed income (do get job training, etc)

Child Life Insurance
$10, 000 per child, with an upgrade option to $50, 000 at the age of 21

Deposit Account Fund
Similar to a bank, only you receive 4% interest instead of 1/2-1%
(inflation is 3%, so normal savings accounts currently don't account for inflation)

These are the bulk of the benefits, and guess how much it costs... An hours pay per week! If the member is making 17 dollars and hour, he pays 17 dollars per week.

That being said, the program is pretty good. Plus you are helping union members with the peace of mind that if someone dies, they will be covered.

Now for the pay:

When you start, you receive 40% commission. So if someone buys the program at 17wk, that's 73.661 per month (17*4.333), and 883.932 per year. The yearly figure is called ALP (Annualized Life Premium)

The company pays you 75% of that 40% up front, and the rest after one year. So 40% of 883.932 is 353.5728 and 75% of that is 265.1796. That is what you will see on your paycheck, for ONE sale. Now, this may be confusing but I will explain it anyways...

If you make $1000 ALP in the week, you will receive a $175 kicker. As you can see above ALP was $883 for one sale, and most agents make 4-6 sales during the week.

So take $883 times 4 and you get $3532. Well over the bonus requirement. Say this is what you did for the week. That's $1059.6 after taking out the commission. So add the kicker and its $1234.6 per week. Which equals $61, 730 per year?

So, there's a brief overview of American Income. Later on I will attach a paycheck proving the pay structure, and additional comments as time goes on. Feel free to post any questions and I'll try to help the best I can. The important thing to do though is to ASK the manager QUESTIONS! Most scams are verbal; make sure you look at the paperwork! A scammer can't be sued unless they WRITE that they guaranteed $100, 000 per year. Always ask them to put everything in writing and have them sign it saying that is the normal yearly earnings. I know people that said after starting their job they looked at the paperwork and it said that the company promised only 12k in the first YEAR (this wasn't AIL). I received a document that stated that average agents make 50, 000 per year. Good luck everyone and have a great weekend!

Check the following websites to find out truths about American Income:

www.ambest.com/ - AM Best rated AIL an A+
Better Business Bureau - American's case file on the Better Business Bureau, which has a Satisfactory rating.

Hope this helps!

AIL Employee claims that his Manager makes $60, 000 in residuals. It is interesting that multiple craigslist spam posts from AIL each day all promise the same figure as a salary (or $68, 000), despite the fact that AIL provides no base salary whatsoever (not even minimum wage). If AIL was such a great company to work for, why do they have to create multiple posts on every job board in every city across the continent every day. This doesn't even include the cold-calls AIL Managers perform on resumes posted online (ones that are completely incompatible with insurance sales). Incidentally, any credible company only has to make one or two job postings or two to fill a position. Perhaps AIL Employee's office is actually a reputable one. If this is indeed the case, it is certainly an anomaly and a freak occurrence.
The bottom line; is AIL a scam? The answer doesn't really matter. With hundreds of AIL horror stories spread all over the internet, why would anyone in their right mind take the risk?

It's funny that these AIL Success stories from the employees happen on the same day, clearly they're working together to cover up how they rip people off to sell life insurance for "60, 000" a year. PEOPLE, HOW CAN A WHOLE COMMUNITY BE WRONG ABOUT THIS COMPNY WHEN MANY HAVE EXPERIENCED THE SAME THING?! Don't let them fool you, no matter what agency it is, they all do the same thing and in the end you have to pay up. They call a million people a day with the same message, "we found your resume on monster and chose you", they called my family with the same message on the same day, when I went in for an interview they were happy to see me and the manager who interviewed me clearly never saw my resume before and wanted to hire me, I said yes then was asked to pay out of my pocket, clearly a scam for your money. Do yourself a favor and find a job with a reputable company.

The only agencies that charge you a desk fee, are the SAATI agencies and the ALTIG agencies and that is because they function out of a seperate company that allows them to legally charge you desk fees. The CHALOM agency does none of that! Nobody should have to pay to work somewhere, that is absolutely ridiculous. If they would've hit me with that when I was hired I would've never accepted the job.

Sometimes companies use scripts and the person using the script doesn't have all of the knowledge to be able to give a bunch of answers. Perhaps those of you who assumed that AIL is a scam should do a little more research on the company through reputable sites. I.E. www.torchmark.com. or www.ailife.com
That way you would perhaps realize what opportunity you've thrown away. It is not a scam. However with disgruntled employees there is rarely a praiseworthy word spoken. Of course you have to work to make money. Yes it is a 100% commission job if you are a licensed agent. However there are other positions available from time to time. Usually the ones hired are not those as the sales positions offer the highest turn over rate (as it is at every insurance company). Please do your research, but stay off sites like this one for example as the misinformation affects your wallet in a negative manner.
Have a nice day.

After posting my Resume on Monster, I received a call, set up the interview and decided to research... Courtney, the recruiter, told me Customer Service was Certainly below my skill set and I would be interviewed for Management... When I called the interviewer, Stella, all I got was a voicemail which was returned moments later by Courtney again.. I inquired about the management position they were hiring for and explained I was not interested in a commission based sales position and Courtney replied she would just take me off the schedule for the interview...

I work for AIL in WI and feel that the position is not for everyone. I love it here. Unfortunately judging things before an experience is a common thing as a human being. But I took the plunge and went to find out for myself. I have been here almost two years. It has been a hard working road with long hours but I have learned so much (just as I did in college paying tuition for classes and my degree). I love it here and look forward to my future. If it was easy everyone would be doing it and it might not be worth it. It is for me. Good luck to you all.

When you are reading these complaints about Ail being a scam I would like everyone to know that it is not a scam, they are in the business of life insurance and that is not easy. I have worked for them for 7 months now and at first I was out there going to people's home and talking about life insurance. I made about $1000 a week. It was long weeks and even longer days. I am a mother and could not spend that much time away from my kids so now I work in the office 4 days a week. In order for something to be a scam they have to take money from you with no promise of you getting any of it back. If you would have given Ail a chance and took the job you would have realized that. I am still getting a pay check every week from them. You should never write anything bad about something because you simply do not understand it. Yes this business is hard, yes you have to put in long days, yes sometimes you do a lot of work and get nothing but the rest of the time you're getting paid if you are a strong enough person to handle it.

After reading the top fifteen comments I noticed that most of them have three things in common, you did not finish the interview process, you were not hired, and 90% of the statements your are making are false. Not blaming you, just how could you be accurate when you did not actually finish the interview process. Apparently you are an expert on a company based on your assumptions and hearsay. I have been working for American Income for seven years and hold the position of Master General Agent. I have 22 good hard working people that currently report to me. After my first year with AIL I have never made less that six figures. AIL supplies all our union leads at no cost to us. Office space and extensive training are provided, again at no cost to us. Our clients request appointments with us after receiving a letter from their own union explaining their benefits. I started receiving renewal checks in addition to pay and bonuses after my first year and have received them monthly ever since.

Is my job hard? I would say it is simple, but not easy, hey its the sale of life insurance. I am with AIL for the simple reason that all my union leads are provided to me at no cost. Each rep in our office has a minimum of 30 appointments each week.

I treat the opportunity with AIL as though I am running my own company. I work hard, but then I always have. My wife and I have been married for 32 years, we have 8 children and 8 grand children. I find a way to provide very well for them and still have time for them.

I am just an average guy with no college degee and AIL has given me an opportunity that I have never found anywhere else.

My advice to anyone reading these revues would be to go through the interview process and decide if this is a good opportunity for yourself. Everything else just sounds like sour grapes. Its is shame some of these folks couldnt get out of their own way.

I, too, received a call from AIL just this morning. I was at the gym, but I took the call anyway since I've been doing quite a bit of job hunting. I spoke with Marisa from the Blue Bell, PA office. She said she found my resume on Monster, and wanted me to come in tomorrow at 10:30am for an interview. She asked what I was looking for with the company, and I told her stability, job stability, and growth, since I was stuck in my old job. She then asked if I was interested in a manager position and I said yes. She then said "that's great, we'd love for you to come in". I immediately thought that was strange since usually you need some sort of managerial experience to apply for manager positions. When I finished at the gym, I Googled the company since I've never heard of it. Lo and behold, I came across this complaint board almost immediately! It was like the third link listed. There are also plenty of customer complaints as well. Who wants to work for a company that not on has bad customer reviews, but also bad employee reviews? I'm so glad I came across this site, because there is no way they will be seeing me in Blue Bell tomorrow! Here is the contact info I got from Marisa:
[protected]
794 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike
Blue Bell, PA 19422

Got a call from an unidentified lady at ail at [protected] acting like I had applied there and she had some questions about my resume. I'm grateful sites like this one saved me from wasting any more time on it.

I too have received a similar call. However, this is in Wilkes Barre, PA. I have found other forums that state Florence had called them to set up an interview. My interview is today 10/20/16 at 10:30am. Half hour from now, since finding all this, I am still debating...going in, & recording this so called interview with ALI. If they are a scam, which they probably are... I want to blow the whistle on these creeps. People are looking for jobs, and these nit wits are messing with people. So glad I found this site. Will post later, and will post results.
Thanks everyone.

I see all of these complaints submitted in 2009, and today - 10/31/2016 - I received the same call, just a different phone number [protected]) with the same fast talkers trying to push things through. They first said it was a job I applied for, when asked again, they said their manager had found my resume on CareerBuilder (which I inactivated over a year ago), and when questioned again as to where my resume was found, they said it was a job bank. I told them I already had a job, and they questioned if this was a long-term position. I told them it was permanent, they thanked me and was quick at hanging up (probably had to get to the next scam.) I found it weird because when I was looking for a job 7 months ago, I never made my resume public, I was searching and only applied for positions I was interested in pursuing and I keep a spreadsheet with all jobs I apply for with a PDF file of the job description.
When being called for a job, if it is a legitimate job, they will allow you to ask as many questions as you'd like with regards to the position and how they came to find you. I worked as a consultant for a long time and I would get calls from recruiters consistently (5-6 calls/week) and I would always ask that they email me the job description first so I could review it before I would move forward with an interview. So people...Don't be afraid to ask questions!

If anyone makes it to my message I just find it unbelievable that people come on here and talk like they know what they are talking about. Just a pool of losers commenting about something that they haven't even seen. What part of it is a scam I ask? I seen this company change peoples lives around in the short time I been with them and a team focused on helping people and giving them an oppertunity. Its a shame someone who could have actually been successful is gonna not even gonna come in to sit down for the oppertunity because they googled this [censor]. Mind you no one even came in to see what the job was about or the company's long standing history of fighting for blue collar working class Americans. They don't even take money from you they literally only have you pay for half of a training class to get your license the training and resources are paid straight out of the directors pocket and The company's experienced over 600% growth within the last 7 years. Ail contracts with union presidents and the union president sends out a card to all the members that they fill out and send back to receive the supplemental benefits package along side no cost benefits. There is no scam involved at all. I give thanks for the opportunity every day I mean hey its not for everybody but I sit down with all different types of people from all different walks of life and connect with them and I get paid really well to do it. These complaints make me sick if anyone reads this and you were offered an oppertunity check it out and see if its for you don't listen to these close minded backwards crybabys.