American Income Life Insurance review: scam revealed.! 9

I feel the exact same way you do. I was told I would be working out of Ventura County (my home county) since they wanted to open an office out here, but instead my leads were in the dangerous parts of the San Fernando Valley. I'm 5'3", size 2, and look like I'm under 18, and I had to go to my leads by myself. I met some nice people on my appointments (the ones that didn't no-show) me, but was in unfamiliar territory and scared to death. Needless to say, I found a better opportunity with State Farm, and am going back to school to follow my passions. But your experience is nearly exactly mine, and I only wish I researched more than what I did before I signed on with them.

I have done a little research, and yes, AIL has a handful of posts slapping them about how they are a scam. Well I put your complaints to the test. I was out of a job, and I love a dare. After reading multiple complaints I dove a little deeper. Yes American Income does demand 120% of your time, and does not spend a dime on you; very odd in today's word where company's spend thousands to train. However in most companies that claim they spend this much via their expense reports... really only regurgitate the same crap from one employee to the next and more times than not... give you a light seminar, hand you your manual and toss you in to see how you fare. American Income is a 100% commission job with a tiered bonus scale. The harder you work, the better you train, the more you sign, the more you make; is not any more complicated than that. The twist is that this is an old fashion format that started in the early 1950s back when this type of job was common place. We are not used to it, and when confronted by half handed interviews and tossed out in the cold to speak with strangers with minimal support it is unnerving, even insulting to most. However there is no scam, or redirect in that event, the goal they are after is to find people who are not scared to jump in feet first, plain and simple.

Out of the Top 10 Insurance Companies out there, American Income is number one with the lowest number of registered complaints to the Better Business Bureau and in the last three years has received less than 100 complaints. Not only that, not one... complaint has been filed for lack of payment, or inability to honor their agreements, not one.
State Farm a company everybody knows and loves right... in the last three years has received more than 1000 complaints.
I am not picking on State farm, simply grabbed one of the big names out there that everybody knows. Do your homework before raging.

I will agree that the kind of job they are offering, is not for most of us, it is not what many of us are used to. However the pay scale is legit, their policy's written are solid and their reputation for pay out is among the strongest in the industry.

Austin Texas

Also, you may be taken more seriously if you take some time to check your spelling, punctuation and grammar.

All I have to say, if you are looking for a real job this is not it. It's scam 100% and I feel bad because a lot of the people like me who show up to the interview looking for a better future, and what you get are some sick people trying to make you fall into their scam. You see all kinds of people show up for the interview so you know they will make some money of some of them.

They are a f****** scam, trust me. They hold an interview, at the end of it they tell you they like you, 5 minutes later they hold group orientation, convince you how they are an international company and all that ### to join them.
That's just the beginning. Then they tell you you need an insurance license to be able to sell insurance policy. The exams (there are two) cost a total of $500. They are exactly the same exams, they say. 4 hour long, ultra-heavy material to study. In the end, they say you might quality for the job.
Now, I didn't do their stupid exam to begin with. I was smart enough to cancel it after I booked it because I realized how ridiculous it is to wait for a month or two just do be able to get in the company. I needed money fast. Even worse, I realized they only pay commission. So in the beginning if I didn't know how exactly to sell insurance, I was out of luck.
So I cancelled the exam only to realize they wouldn't give me a refund. I don't take "No" for an answer. I called a million places immediately. First I called my credit cad company and let them know of a fradullant transaction of $400 (first exam). They cancelled my account first. Then I called PayPal through which they charged me. They opened a dispute. Then I called the police fraud department and let them know what happened.
AIL told me I signed the papers, but nowhere in the receipt they gave me did it mention anything about a no-refund policy. The people I called, basically bombarded AIL with phone calls. They were losing their heads so much that they would YELL AT ME in their email. I had to deal with this lousy, sadistic ### named Sonia who later told me everybody was so afraid of her that they called her "sir". She called and said "Hey, we've got you on audio and video, you bet we're going to win this, bye!" and hung up the phone. 2 hours later, she called me and said "I am so over this, I'm going to pay you out of my pocket, I want you out of here!"
So I set up an agreement between us, with PayPal being the middle man. I showed up at their "office", returned the booklets they gave me and they gave me my refund.
Mind you, they are not shy of dropping the F bomb every time they talk. One of the directors told me they started this business from the ghettos of Los Angeles. So they are anything but professional.
Conclusion: AIL is a scam. Stay away from them.

These scammers got my contact info from Monster. I had to register with Monster for Ohio unemployment. I will be filing a complaint with Ohio Attorney General's office.

so they came to my house got my SSN
and bank account info.. Am I being scammed?

AIL Is NOT one of the top 10 insurance Companies... Actually it sort of is.

Check out Justice.orgs list of the top 10 WORST insurance companies and there you will find Torchmark.

Torchmark=AIL.
Torchmark is an interesting specimin.
1) - They have a history of race based premiums
2)- They have a histore of selling policies with teaser rates that skyrocket in a brief period of time. One man in mississippi bought a life policy with a premium of 83.00$ which more than doubled in less than 2 years.
3) They harvest prospects using bait and switch tactics. Most notoriously back in the mid 90s for sending out panflits about medicare programs to senior citizens. When the seniors replied an agent would book an appointment to "deliver" an information packett, but would arrive to use high pressure sales tactics to sell life policies.

Nowadays, Torchmark is a holding company for 7 or so Smaller life insurance companies. Including Nilico, AIL, United American, etc. All of which use the similar prospecting tactics.

DISHONESTY TO HIREES
They deceive all the way and that is the heart of the scam. I cannot speak for all agencies. But in NS Canada. AIL recruiters advertise the job as 40-60k salaries. During the 'orientation' the man in charge tells you that you earn a salary equivalent to 500$ a week at least. He said that if Your commission for that week exceeded 500$, youd get your commission instead. He also said that each week, you are alloted 200$ to cover fuel expensives. ALL lies...

COMPENSATION:
AIL is all commission, which is legal. However, a large portion of your paycheque relies wholly on bonus.
Their f***** up teired bonus structure makes it so that your bonus ranges between 0.00%-17.5% of your sales.
Your actual commission is about 30% (actually it is 50% of your sales, but you only get to see 60% of that 50% up front)
After some solid weeks, you can see 1, 200.00$ a week. But one slow week bumps you down to the lowest bonus teir.
Which makes your paycheques somewhat lowsey.

AIL also tends to hold up sales on you. As in, they arbitrarily find ways to hold up your commission.
Such as requesting a saliva same for a policy that would not need one... such as an accident policy.
By arbitrarily holding things up, this messes up your commission and bonus entitlement.

As for fuel compensation. There is none, however if you make 1000$ or more in sales youll see a 167.00 bonus... A far cry from the guaranteed 200.00$...

DISHONESTY TO CLIENTS:
AIL goes on the record by stating that it values honesty and integrity first and foremost. But in practice does no such thing.
It was a JOKE!
During my training, I'd witness my manager rebating, lying, bait and switching, and still not get the sale.
Your job as an AIL agent is to first and foremost book appointments. You do this by COLD CALLING leads. Which is fine, having sales experience I am comfortable cold calling. Although, the job description clearly says NO COLD CALLING...lol

Anyways, your job is to essentially say to the lead that their free union benefit package has arrived and that you need to gain their signature. When you deliver the free benefit package, you are then trained to hard sell and make the sale using any means at your disposal.

Some leads are POS or existing clients. The spiel with them is to claim that you are there to review some policy updates, and then sell them more insurance OMG. Although Ive never laid witness to this myself, I have heard of agents going in and telling the client that they need to sign some new ammendments. These "ammendments" were actually just forms to open up a new policy which typcally jacked their premiums up another 20 or so dollars.
I never saw anyone do this, but I had been encouraged to do this by coworkers... I personally thought that this was depravity defined and could not do that myself.

TAX FRAUD :
The higher ups at aIL are SLY! My manager has in the past put his sales in my name. I never got the commission, but the commission cheque would be made out in my name. What would happen is, hed walk me down to the nearby bank. Have me deposit the check and hand him his portion in cash. I caught on rather quick to what was happening. It happened twice. First time, he said it was to get me coded... the second time... well there was no reason so I asked him to stop.
I asked other low level salespersons there, and their managers did the same thing. Sometimes they'd do it every week.

By doing this, your manager gets to fly under the taxman's radar, and in fact YOU get nailed with the taxes by your government...

All in all. I cannot recommend this business. Steer Clear.

There are hundreds of commission based sales careers out there. All of which pay just as well as AIL...some even better.
Decent car salesmen make between [protected]$ a month. Some make more.
Those guys who go door to door for your local cable company, they easily see 500-1500$ a week.

During my time with AIL I saw an average of about 350$ a week after you factor in fuel expenses.
Im still in the insurance game though. I work for a company that doesnt compete with AIL, because it is in a different class altogether. Ive averaged about 900$ a week after fuel and expenses.

There are other GREAT sales careers out there. Dont waste any time with AIL

Thank you so much for the warning. I was called this morning and set up an interview for tomorrow. I started my research and found your warning. I just called and cancelled the appointment. Thank you again.