Starting with American Income Life

[A78983]

Sorry to post this question that has probably been asked a hundred times. I'm not seeing a search feature on the mobile version.

I'd like to here thoughts on starting with AIL.

I was independent several years ago and busted out. I wish I had joined a group where I can get the hand holding I need early on, then build a team as I mature in the business.

I'm asking about AIL because I have an opportunity to join them despite having been vectored. I'll have to pay back that debt of course through payments.

Regardless. It's hard because I know somebody who started there a couple months ago. I just don't trust what anyone says in the business anymore. I trust this one individual, to a degree.

We'll be talking more at length soon about the opportunity. I'm still anticipating a pile of BS. Mostly because he's new with them and I'm sure he's still fixated on the lipstick, not realizing its on a pig yet.

I suspect leads are a pike of names from unions who essentially be cold calling. I'd have to try and represent myself as being from the union, or associated with the union to get the opportunity to talk to them. I don't have the highest morals honestly. Anything to make a buck.

I'm curious how much cash I'd have to put in before making money.

Do I have to buy my leads?

What kind of commission % can I expect? Residuals?

Will commission tiers increase?

What can I expect to take home year 1 as an "average" sales person. 25-40k, 40-55k? Ill work 100hrs a week. IDK.

Those are the most pressing questions. But I am open to any and all feedback.

Thank you in advance.

 

[xrac]

Here is what I remember.

1. Our office did the calling and appointment seeking for us. We would have 3-5 appoints set usually from 4-10 p.m. in the evenings and daytime hours on Saturday. Monday was for training. We paid $70 a week for the call gals.
2. Better have a good car. We ran the wheels off our cars. Appointments were set up to 100 miles away.
3. Between driving, appointments, and office time we worked between 50-60 hours each week.
4. Commission was fairly low. I do not remember what it was now but it varied between products. I am thinking the most was about 45% if I remember correctly. We sold mostly small dollar products.

 

[misc1099]

Your commission will be different based on following:
1. Your ranking/class
Agent, Supervising Agent, General Agent, Master General Agent, Regional General Agent, State General Agent(agency owner)

2. Type of product
Term, Whole(WL, PR, EX, SL), ADB, etc

Your typical Schedule:
Mon/Thurs - are mandatory office days from 9am~9pm
Tues/Weds/Fri - several work shops that are mandatory, typical field hrs from 1pm~9/10pm.
Sat - phone meeting at 7am, then field hr starts right after until 9~10pm.
Sun - they call it optional but will constantly harass you to work/phone set.

You are going to be slave to this company and will ruin your personal life and any relationship in your life as well as your physical & mental health.

They constantly stress Mind, Body & Spirit to the point that you'll feel like you are at some sort of cult if you don't eventually become one of their disciple/followers/believers. If you don't follow or standup for yourself and your life, you'll be singled out and get canned saying you aren't mentally tough.

They'll constantly feed you BS with things like "cost of your dreams" = first 2 yrs of work working 77+hrs/wk, 42hrs of sleep, 14hrs w/ wife & kid, 35hrs for food/eat/travel saying 'everything in life cost less time and money when you pay everything up front'

You will constantly be bothered to make 'preset' of appointments to run, collect minimum required referrals as well as hire potential new sucker to leech off of, and your current activity regardless of hour of day/day of week.

Lastly, you are classified as 1099 independent contractor, but are required to be at office for certain hours, attend meetings and workshop that's mandatory. If you don't follow, you will get fired immediately which you can't if you are truly independent contractor.

If you leave/fired, you will be charged several thousand for back charges and your book of business will be coded to your upline. They will claim all your business are bad or cancelled. Any back account money you had from your business will not be paid to you or cover your back charge because you never got paid on it so it was never your money. Also you are prohibited from contacting your clients to find out if they actually cancelled policy or not so you will be screwed regardless.

If you can't last more than 1 yr with this company, don't bother to start. You will ruin your personal life as well as be in financial hole that you will have extremely difficult time getting out unless you are willing to abandon everything else in your life for this so called 'Opportunity Unlimited'

----------

also, your union/referral leads are mixture of old/beaten to death leads from old as 2012/2013.
They have been called million times and have repeatedly been asked to be on DNC list which is ignored.

They claim that each lead they provide are $27/lead and you will be dry within days. Most will not pick up your phone calls regardless of how many times you change your numbers, most will refuse you at door because someone else has tried already. Some of these people are no longer with their union, out of jobs or disable to afford/qualify for life insurance.

Good luck

 

[FinalExpenseDojo.com]

Your commission will be different based on following:
1. Your ranking/class
Agent, Supervising Agent, General Agent, Master General Agent, Regional General Agent, State General Agent(agency owner)

2. Type of product
Term, Whole(WL, PR, EX, SL), ADB, etc

Your typical Schedule:
Mon/Thurs - are mandatory office days from 9am~9pm
Tues/Weds/Fri - several work shops that are mandatory, typical field hrs from 1pm~9/10pm.
Sat - phone meeting at 7am, then field hr starts right after until 9~10pm.
Sun - they call it optional but will constantly harass you to work/phone set.

You are going to be slave to this company and will ruin your personal life and any relationship in your life as well as your physical & mental health.

They constantly stress Mind, Body & Spirit to the point that you'll feel like you are at some sort of cult if you don't eventually become one of their disciple/followers/believers. If you don't follow or standup for yourself and your life, you'll be singled out and get canned saying you aren't mentally tough.

They'll constantly feed you BS with things like "cost of your dreams" = first 2 yrs of work working 77+hrs/wk, 42hrs of sleep, 14hrs w/ wife & kid, 35hrs for food/eat/travel saying 'everything in life cost less time and money when you pay everything up front'

You will constantly be bothered to make 'preset' of appointments to run, collect minimum required referrals as well as hire potential new sucker to leech off of, and your current activity regardless of hour of day/day of week.

Lastly, you are classified as 1099 independent contractor, but are required to be at office for certain hours, attend meetings and workshop that's mandatory. If you don't follow, you will get fired immediately which you can't if you are truly independent contractor.

If you leave/fired, you will be charged several thousand for back charges and your book of business will be coded to your upline. They will claim all your business are bad or cancelled. Any back account money you had from your business will not be paid to you or cover your back charge because you never got paid on it so it was never your money. Also you are prohibited from contacting your clients to find out if they actually cancelled policy or not so you will be screwed regardless.

If you can't last more than 1 yr with this company, don't bother to start. You will ruin your personal life as well as be in financial hole that you will have extremely difficult time getting out unless you are willing to abandon everything else in your life for this so called 'Opportunity Unlimited'

----------

also, your union/referral leads are mixture of old/beaten to death leads from old as 2012/2013.
They have been called million times and have repeatedly been asked to be on DNC list which is ignored.

They claim that each lead they provide are $27/lead and you will be dry within days. Most will not pick up your phone calls regardless of how many times you change your numbers, most will refuse you at door because someone else has tried already. Some of these people are no longer with their union, out of jobs or disable to afford/qualify for life insurance.

Good luck

Where do I sign up??

 

[misc1099]

Where do I sign up??

I'm confused.
seems like you been on this board for a while with enough experience.

if you are being sarcastic, i get it.

if you are being serious, search for ail career.
better yet,
ailife.com/Find-an-agent?f=&l=&z=&s=CA

you have no one else to blame but yourself for not doing enough research before working for anyone.

 

[Josh]

I started with them in NY (NILICO) and overall it was a positive experience. When they had leads it was good, the training was excellent, and I can't think of a better way for me to have gotten started. On the other hand, it's super high stress, lots of driving, and leads vary by time/area.

 

[xrac]

I'm confused.
seems like you been on this board for a while with enough experience.

if you are being sarcastic, i get it.

if you are being serious, search for ail career.
better yet,
ailife.com/Find-an-agent?f=&l=&z=&s=CA

you have no one else to blame but yourself for not doing enough research before working for anyone.

I believe it is spoken in gest.

 

[Tearmann]

My experience mostly reflects xrac's. It was good for the training, but you depend on the bonus from the sale, which is pretty good, not so much on the commission which is very low.
Leads were free, but the amount of leads you received were based on the referral sales you made. It was good experience on how to get referrals.
You will work your butt off to try and make a living and you will be chasing after NSF's. Not doing so will cost you as you will lose your bonus if your persistency falls below 50%...which is not hard depending on the union leads you get.
All in all it was good for my first time in the industry as I learned a lot, but you won't make a good living. My advice would be learn what you can to improve your craft. Improve your morals as they will make you a better producer and go back to being independent.

 

[xrac]

My experience mostly reflects xrac's. It was good for the training, but you depend on the bonus from the sale, which is pretty good, not so much on the commission which is very low.
Leads were free, but the amount of leads you received were based on the referral sales you made. It was good experience on how to get referrals.
You will work your butt off to try and make a living and you will be chasing after NSF's. Not doing so will cost you as you will lose your bonus if your persistency falls below 50%...which is not hard depending on the union leads you get.
All in all it was good for my first time in the industry as I learned a lot, but you won't make a good living. My advice would be learn what you can to improve your craft. Improve your morals as they will make you a better producer and go back to being independent.

We "allowed" our leads to give us the names of family or friends that they wanted to get a "free" $1,000 accident policy. That was how we got more leads.

 

[VolAgent]

We "allowed" our leads to give us the names of family or friends that they wanted to get a "free" $1,000 accident policy. That was how we got more leads.

I suspect that approach worked a lot better. Where you did it almost as a take away, where they had to earn it, versus begging for the referral.