Federal Financial Group LLC?

[SamLawton]

I recently attended an "interview" with them (Federal Fiinancial Group), which turned out to be a group recruiting meeting. Jeffry Bird, the recruiter who flew in from Utah, was the recruiter. The (sales presentation) meeting/interview? lasted about 3 hours.

You would work with them as an independent agent. You start out part-time and/or work into full-time. You start at 40% commission and work up to 53% (if you perform correctly). They pay you a whopping 2% residual commission. And they charge you 1-2% of your commission to process your paperwork! They start you out with "B leads" until you prove yourself. They set the appointments for you. I don't know if they set both the "A" and "B" appointments. They also expect you to get your own referrals for your own appointments, but, they don't pay you any more for any appointments/contacts/referrals, etc. that you make on your own. So, if you talk to your friends, family, etc. and make a sale with them all on your own, you get paid nothing more! FFG pays you less because they give you lead appointments. They should pay you more for those you acquire on your own, I think.

Your first meeting after coming on board is an orientation meeting lasting about 3 hours.

You will be required to MEMORIZE, verbatim, 8+ pages of script, and video-tape yourself doing it (flawlessly?) BEFORE you will be permitted to sell. You will not be allowed to sell until you pass this memorization captured on video, for them to scrutinize. (You'll also be required to memorize a whole new script (I don't know the length or extent of this script) for coming back to do your closing sale, which takes about 2 hrs.) Yes, this is a 2-step sales call. Your first one is where you spew out 8 pages of memorized jargon, and gather important information from the person. Then if they are interested, you'll follow up with your closing/sell appointment.

You will need to participate in 16 "ride-alongs" with one of their existing agents, before you start working. 8 of these are for presentation observation and 8 are for watching YOU do 8 presentations. You'll be required to attend weekly meetings, which blows a work-day!, especially when you have to travel to one of their main "manager locations", which could be hours from your home.

At the end of the initial group interview, you are given an application to fill out (just the numerous items which the recruiter tells you to circle). Just prior to being given this application, he asks you to raise your hand according to a 1 -10 scale of how serious or interested you are in doing this business. My impression is that you would have to be illiterate or really off-the-map not to pass the recruiter's approval. I think it's part of the sales presentation gimmick to make it look like they may not want you, when they really want as many agents as they can get.

After all this fluff and having shown us all previously the huge amounts of money we can make and how easy it is to do this ("just show up" nonsense), they drop of a bit of a "bombshell" at the last minute with your application paperwork. Please pull out your ATM or credit card or whatever, and pay us $287. to give you the priviledge of allowing you to work for us. What? Yes, only they call it a "New Agent Processing Fee"! My guess is that it goes into the recruiter's pocket like with so many MLM fees. And it's basically non-refundable. (They say you'll get this money back AFTER you write $30,000. in Target Premium.) So you better be serious about doing this. I strongly suggest that you take a breath, go home, and think this over BEFORE you commit on the spot AND give them your voided check, License and E & O coverage, AND $287!

I hope this helps you in deciding whether to work with this company.

My personal experience with every business that has required me to PAY for some "process", up-front, has been a bad experience.

Thanks, just got a call from them yesterday. I will not be wasting my time with FFG.

 

[ismiskin]

This company shut down and re-opened under a new name of AUTOSAVER, LLC. They are located at 9375 E Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260. The new phone number is (480) 214-9810 and the owner's name is Glen Nielsen. The owner's cell phone # is (602) 369-1520. If you dispute the transaction with your credit card company they will refund you your money! This company took a bunch of customer's money and never paid their employees. Stand up and take action!

 

[davo]

Does anyone have a copy of the 2 sales pitches that are to be memorized? I am interested but will not give the $287 until I determine that I can actually memorize their pitch,
Thanks
Davo
my email is [email protected]

 

[agentinsure]

I can understand charging some 200 some bucks up front, the constant rotation of new agents filling out appointment forms grinds any one down. And constant recruitment does not stir me in one bit, that's the nature of the business because of the fallout. On the other had any outfit that suggests you can earn a 6 figure income within days because of their incredibly unique selling proposition definitely concerns me, after all folks this is insurance. Im on here like everyone else, many with the hope there is that once company out there that has something I have not found, kind of like the guys in the old days must of felt during the gold rush. They said to themselves; "well not here, maybe over there, just one more time". Anyway, got a product, make the calls, book the appointments, meet the client, close the deal. FFG, ACME, IMO, FMO, Me Myself and I, its all the same.

 

[Guest]

I just completed a goto meeting with this organization. It is a bit costly to get started as one must pay $287 to cover the administration costs regarding contracting and a background check. In addition, they require new agents to set a minimum of two of their own appointments but preferably eight in which a manager will ride along. Commissions (40-50%) will be split once a life insurance or annuity sale is made.

Things appear to get better once one is established as they provide agents with 10 pre-screened and pre-set appointments per week in which one can expect to close 2-3 sales per week. There is obviously a lot of windshield time and associated costs involved and they company provides agents with 10 more appointments for each sale. One problem I can foresee is that if one goes a week without selling, then he is pretty much cut off from receiving new appointments which could cause an agent to be down and out.

Agents can average $100,000 / yr (assuming no chargebacks I presume) if they sell 2-3 policies per week at an average of around $300 / mo. per their numbers. Considering the upfront costs and risks involved with money spent driving around, would you guys consider this to be a good opportunity?

 

[tins]

Agents can average $100,000 / yr (assuming no chargebacks I presume) if they sell 2-3 policies per week at an average of around $300 / mo. per their numbers. ?

Not sure if you meant to write $30/ per month. If you did mean 2-3 policies per week @ $300/month premium...those numbers are not sustainable.

 

[GreenSky]

Not sure if you meant to write $30/ per month. If you did mean 2-3 policies per week @ $300/month premium...those numbers are not sustainable.

They are sustainable for one, maybe two weeks.

How about the glass is half full?

Rick

 

[JeffM]

I just completed a goto meeting with this organization. It is a bit costly to get started as one must pay $287 to cover the administration costs regarding contracting and a background check. In addition, they require new agents to set a minimum of two of their own appointments but preferably eight in which a manager will ride along. Commissions (40-50%) will be split once a life insurance or annuity sale is made.

Things appear to get better once one is established as they provide agents with 10 pre-screened and pre-set appointments per week in which one can expect to close 2-3 sales per week. There is obviously a lot of windshield time and associated costs involved and they company provides agents with 10 more appointments for each sale. One problem I can foresee is that if one goes a week without selling, then he is pretty much cut off from receiving new appointments which could cause an agent to be down and out.

Agents can average $100,000 / yr (assuming no chargebacks I presume) if they sell 2-3 policies per week at an average of around $300 / mo. per their numbers. Considering the upfront costs and risks involved with money spent driving around, would you guys consider this to be a good opportunity?

New to this forum. Let me respond to your question by first giving you a brief overview of my insurance practice: I have been selling insurance for approximately 15 years, as a second career, specializing in life, DI, LTC, EIAs, and health. For the past several years I have worked strictly on referrals, and a little prospecting because I love to talk to people and limited prospecting allows me to keep my edge. I am passionate about this business.

They called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to participate in their conference call today. Today was a light day as my car is in the shop so I said fine.

I listened to their conference call for about 10 minutes, then realized that they shut off two-way conversation and I didn't want to listen to 50 minutes of canned presentation (I am already contracted with all of their carriers, either directly or through other GAs.) My impression is that they're legit, but intend to milk recruits as profit centers. There is no free lunch in this business. All insurance companies constantly recruit and require pay-back as the price of admission. The statistics of the insurance industry can be bleak: for every 100 people going into insurance sales, four years later only 11 are still doing it.

A big problem FF is going to have is their dependence on Aviva as a carrier. If you do a Google search you'll see that there is a good chance Aviva will pull out of the US market after selling their domestic book of business. In fact, the Times ran an article on this issue about 3-4 weeks ago (as an independent agent, I rep about 50 life companies and Aviva isn't that important to me to worry about it).

If you're really interested in an insurance career, contact the big hitters like NY Life, MassMutual, and Northwestern. They all have good career programs and when I cut my teeth with MassMutual as a career agent, they had a 3-year financing program to offer. Companies like this pay a lot more commission and offer befefits. If your successful, stay with them, or go independent and make more money, like I did.

But go into this knowing it isn't easy. The first couple of years were fiancially rough for me, but after that my worst year in insurance was better than my best year in my previous industry, and I did pretty well back then, for the industry. Do I like insurance sales? I don't know anywhere else I could be doing being my own boss, knowing I'm helping people, taking as much time off as I do (once I was established), making the money I'm making, etc. I wish I got into this business long before I did.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[sissymary]

From what I have heard, the real truth on the $287. is that it go's directly into the pocket of the A-Hole that does the recruiting? Not admin fee's and such. The recruiter that I had spoken with told me about all the policies he had sold. Then I found out he had never sold one policy with them, and may not even have been a lic agent? And that he was not an employee, but independent sales rep selling you on the company. True or not? Who knows? But that canned speel where you throw down the pen on the desk to make a point, made me want to barf. I could not use their pitch. Just go in, speak the truth about S Security not being there when he-she retires, tax free through policy loans, life ins there when you need it unlike term, etc. Why the games? No wonder the close ratio is so low.

 

[poflaherty]

I ran into an agent using Federated. He said the leads were ok comps aren't so good. I was calling him to solicite him to write though our company as we offered considerably larger contracts. FWIW he was interested. I had never heard of Federated before. I do know they are not the largest volume Aviva agency.

I have been a licensed insurance in the State of Texas for 25 years. I am affilliated with Federal Financial Group. In your comments you refer to "Federated" which is not us. Apparently there are several agencies out there who have names very similar to ours. Unfortunately, we get lumped in with them when they receive complaints. As an independent agent, I have worked with many different agencies for different specializations. None of them have been nicer or easier to work with than Federal Financial Group.