American Income Life Employment scam ?
I’m getting pretty good at spotting these people a mile away.
Got a phone call from (503) 639-8735, didn’t recognize the number. Did a quick look up of the number on Google and found that they did this quite often. Less then ten minutes later, got another phone call from them which I decided to answer this time.
From the start it was obvious that the lady was working from a memorized script. She was full of “Um’s” and “Uh’s” and “OK, that sounds good” to every answer I said. It felt like she wasn’t really even listening to me. She asked what kind of job I was looking for, but didn’t mention that the company even had any IT jobs at all. She kept pushing to get me in the door.
Further Google Searching finds on scam.com quite a bit of very interesting information. Many people saying that the company is not a scam, but three times as many saying it is. Apparently unlike other insurance companies, they make you pay for all your classes and books to get an insurance license. After that they pump you leads that are two years old, or in many cases, older. They might be slightly legitimate, but any company that has as high of a turn over as they does, has something going wrong.
For the record, (and Google) their Portland Oregon address is:
15575 SW Sequoia Parkway
Suite #150
Portland OR, 97224
The “HR” person told me the door is on the “back of the building” and simply says AIL on it. To me that was the final red flag. If you’re considering working for this company, I would run away as fast as possible.
Update
– August 15th, 2016. I just got called by these guys again. They said that I applied for the position of Customer Service Manager via one of the career boards. But I track all the jobs I apply for in Excel. They are not there under American Income, or their parent company, Torchmark. Nor are they there under job title. So either they are putting out false jobs under different titles and companies, or they are doing the cold call technique. On the good side, the lady this time knew her script much better, but still evaded the truth when I asked if it was for a management position.
The new address is:
7200 NE 41st Street Suite #202
Vancouver WA, 98662
360-947-0987
Another thing I noticed, they now started “celebrating” all their worker’s success via YouTube. Almost every video has comments closed on it. Why would an company that is legitimate and above board being doing that? Even the largest companies like Nike, Exxon, Coke, etc don’t do that!
Funny, I just received a call/offer from them on 3/15 as well except for an Office Manager position for that location…Hmmm…I interview today, we’ll see how this goes.
Watch out for the claims of “Unlimited Income” that seems to be where they get most everyone from what I’m reading.
I’ve worked there for 10 years and it’s not a scam. We tell you up front how hard you have to work to get rolling and EVERY insurance company makes you pay for your licensing and you mystcneclicensed before being hired. Ove made over 6 figures 7 out of my 10 years and I’m not in management with a team I just personal produce. People on here crying about everything are just weak and anybody willing to take time out of their day to write a negative review are just miserable people in general and I’m surprised they hired you with a crappy attitude like that. I love my career. Was it hard the first year, yes I worked my balls off but I made 118,000 my first year and before AIL I was a bartender making about 25000 a year. So don’t listen to these negative punks that couldn’t hack it because they are mentally weak and have no balls
I’m way late… but this is FALSE, no legitimate company makes you PAY for your license, books, courses, any of it… I have worked in insurance, currently a supervisor for Amica, we would never expect our employees to pay.
How did your interview go? I have one scheduled for Wednesday. After reading the reviews seems like a scam…
Based on the fact that this has become the most popular article on this blog, something is up. Has anyone gone through the interview process? What did you find?
RUN, no better yet catch the next Shuttle mission, away from AIL. Worked at this office for 6 months and spent more money than I made, yet I was meeting their sales quotas each week. The road trips are a joke, pay your own way out of state and then hope like hell you get enough sales to cover expenses. What they don’t tell you is when you leave, and you will, you will receive a bill, a vector, for any account that cancels in the first year. They are currently under investigation by the IRS and Oregon employment dept. The agency manager and her boyfriend, the office underwriter, are the single most difficult people to work for I have ever encountered. The weekly meetings are nothing than an hour and a half of yelling.
MY ADVISE IS STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE
You are weak. I’ve been there 10 years and crush it. You are either lying because you couldn’t hack it or you are just a negative miserable human being. That sucks at life
Wow, real image of the company.
well i did an interview a few months ago but turned down the job because of the distance. recently, i noticed that they had an office in my town which i did not know about. i went in and the guy didnt ask me for any money or anything, the only thing he said i would have to pay for were my testing fees and that i could come into the office every tuesday to see what they do there until i get my liscence, so i doubt its a scam, or else why would he let me see whats going on inside before i made a commitment to the company? but anyways, i will find out when i go there on tuesday, and ill probably wait about 4 or 5 weeks before i make a commitment just to b sure
This is not a scam…AIL does not advertise and they do fish for sales agents just like every other insurance company. I am a P & C agent for the #2 Insurance carrier in the country, as well as a former employee for the #1 carrier. They all recruit via job sites. Any sales position is going to have a high turn over as well as a higher risk of not making money. My husband drives his own vehicle, as well as paid for his own license (this was discounted), which was all explained up front. If you want to check them out look up their parent company Torchmark Corp. based in Mckinney, TX. Look, insurance isn’t for everyone, whether it’s Life and Health or P & C. But don’t bash what your not 100% educated on.
I am educated on AIL and I will say, it is a BS job. Scripted mouthpieces to pressure their way into people’s homes to make them watch retarded videos and listen to scripts then try to close a high pressure sale before leaving….because of the “enrollment period”! Ha! Biggest joke ever! The “enrollment period” is your one-hour appointment! And they make you double book appointments. Training is unpaid. They go after green agents and exaggerate the truth. Unlimited income? Yeah right! Lifetime renewals? Sure, if you can stick it out 10 years, work 70+ hours a week and recruit other high pressure scripted mouthpieces. Worst job I ever had!
You are just a negative miserable human being that couldn’t hack it. Ive been there 10 years and make bank. 6 figure income 7 out of my 10 years and I bartended prior to working here. If you failed because you couldn’t hack it then take the time to write up a negative review about the company you are a loser and would’ve worked out wtctheccojosky had you worked this hard at your job as you worked on trashing the company
Josh, The way you talk to other people says a lot to me about what it must be like at AIL, and what is “required to succeed. If I have to be like you, and be around people like you to make it I’d rather fail.
If you wanted to properly defend your company I’d start by not being a cunt.
It is wonderful that you had a good experience with the company, but why do you feel the need to tear everyone down that is just sharing their experience? You are making the company look very bad for people who are interested in it. I would never want to work with someone like you.
300+ Search Engine hits a day using the phrase “American Income Life Scam” says that a lot of other people are feeling pretty wary of this company too.
Even if it was not over employment, that many people searching for scam information about the company paints it in a very bad light.
I was the fool. I signed on with AIL. I am out the money for licensing and coursework. I am out all the money spent on gasoline. But at least, I am no longer spending money I don’t have wasting my time driving to the ghetto and risking my life, to try selling insurance to people that cannot afford to keep a front door on their house.
Back in 2006 I tried to work for AIL too. I paid a lot of money to get licensed; put a lot of miles on my lease and I received very little in the way in returned income. I suppose it works for some people, but it didn’t work for me…@ John-your comment regarding the “ghetto” borderlines as a racist remark. I’m not sure if you intended it that way, but that’s how it comes across. I wish you well in your future endeavors.
He didn’t mention race, he said the ghetto was dangerous. You’re the one making racist assumptions. Dill hole.
Hey ” I fell…”
Using the word ghetto is now racist? No, it didn’t come off as racist. Fact of the matter is these pyramid scams have you go to low-income neiborhoods (which are ghettos) and sell people things that did not ask for and cannot afford no matter what race the person is. “I fell for it too” your are inciting racism which is the only offense comment on this board (some members of all races live in ghettos a-hole). By you drawing attention to something that is clearly not racist makes you the racist. Go play that card somewhere else!
It’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a life insurance company and MANY sales forces use a sales structure where managers get a percentage of those that work under them. You’re stupid. Not only that but they don’t go to the homes of people who don’t want what they’re selling, the customers have requested to have an in home appointment with a sales rep. Stop commenting on things you’re ignorant about. Please.
*offensive
Sounds like ya’ll should go sell Kirby’s if you buy into this crap. At least the product is good. As for me I won’t even bother talking to them – I’ve seen enough to make me run away.
Well, I just got hired about 3 weeks ago with AIL and so far, I don’t see any scam. It is a union based insurance company. I can’t speak for anything that happenend in the past but from what I see, they offer insurance to anyone. There is coverage for any pay bracket. so don’t think that we go to families that can’t afford it. there is a plan for everyone. and as far as employment goes, the opportunity is unlimited. if you work hard, you will be rewarded! its just that simple.NO SCAM THROUGH MY EYES!!!!!!
Please come back in a month or two and let us know how it went.
Yeah I’ve been there for 6 months. Not everyone is cut out for it because in any direct selling company it is hard to make it. The reason for the high turnover is mostly because people don’t want to put in the work it takes to get there. They want the over night success but any successful person knows the only possible way to get rich over night is to win the lottery. But as far as a scam? No, I would just say the people who have a problem with it don’t understand how much work it takes to become wealthy. Just my perspective.
I interviewed with them and thought about running based on this and other articles, but then I thought “what the heck, let me see for myself if it’s legit and make my own educated assessments” so far it’s hard work but the compensation is far more then I was getting paid as a district manager. (I’m making about 1500 a week here) So far The company is “different” then a traditional 9-5 but I wouldn’t say “scam” considering I’m making what they said I’d make. Scam… meh that’s a reach.
First off if you’re gonna make a judgement make sure get all the facts. If you worked for any other insurance company you have to pay for your leads, you don’t at AIL. There is no other insurance company in the world that will give you money the rest of your life if you work for them for ten years. So all you people who want a nice cozy straight pay job go ahead and work for 25 years and get a small amount of pension, if you get one, meanwhile i’m gonna bust my butt off and be sitting on a beach after ten years while your still complaining how much you hate your job.
Author: I applied at Prudential 15 yes ago, they too made you pay for your own license. Does it make sense to pay for a new agents license when they could easily walk away the minute it was issued and go work somewhere else? Provide proof that there is one single insurance company that pays for licensing and I’ll apologize fervently. And then there’s “burned”. Who is this guy? Firstly, if you were meeting sales quotas every week, you wouldn’t be blogging here, you’d still be working with AIL earning about $1,200 a week, so stop the baloney. Secondly, what on earth is an ‘agency underwriter’. The only underwriters that work for this company are at home office in McKinney, TX. Are you sure you actually worked here? Listen up please::!! This company is totally legit. A+ rating with the BBB. A+ Superior rating with AM Best and Co, A+ means the company is extremely strong financially, ‘Superior’ means the company is at the top of the industry with regard to claims paying ability. Check the Insurance Dept. In any state and you will find a 100%, yes no exaggeration, a 100% clean bill of health. If you are outgoing and driven, COME WORK HERE!! If you’re not stay home. Good luck.
There is absolutely no reason a company could not sign an employment contract with new agents to get them licensed. This is extremely common in other industries.
AIL seems to be the the only company with this kind of bad press over it’s hiring and employment practices. If I was a working in insurance, I’d be wanting to work for a much more reputable company.
The fact that the “recruiter” didn’t mention what type of job it was when she contacted me, didn’t seem to give any real answers or interest in my questions during the “interview,” AND the front door was “around the back” and only says “AIL” are all big red flags.
Since then I have been contacted by two other insurance companies to become independent agents with them. The experiences have been night and day. I’ve been told right off the bat what they’re recruiting for, their offices are in easy to find areas and labeled properly, and the interviewer actually carried on a real conversation.
Lastly, please do not mention BBB ratings. That is another whole scam right there.
Rick you still failed to mention the company name that us going to pay for your licensing! I need to know!! I run half of PA, I’ve been here for 5 years, I put my damn heart and soul into every single new agent I recruit. I give average joes with drive and passion a chance to MAKE IT PROFESSIONALLY! some do, and some don’t unfortunately, that is the nature of this business. I’ve been around insurance my entire life, my grandfather sold for prudential for 40 years, attrition is measured on a 6 month basis INDUSTRY-WIDE, 6 MONTHS!! You can’t imagine the amount of people that become licensed to sell insurance in this country and are then out of the business with a half a year. Our Internet presence is poor Based in the law
of large numbers. AIL Is undergoing a massive recruiting effort, and is aggressively looking to become one of, if not THE, largest insurance companies in America. The problem here is, you didn’t even come down for an interview, you never learned about the company and how we do business. Here’s what you did; you read blogs, 90% of which are from OTHER people who were never interviewed, and formulated an opinion, and made a decision based on that alone. So you don’t like the BBB? Fine, no prob. Do you trust FORTUNE, FORBES, STANDARD & POORS, AM BEST, NYSE, ISTOCKANALYST? Rick you need to gather real facts and data before threading a baseless blog with no knowledge or foundation whatsoever. The fact is, you know NOTHING about my company, literally NOTHING. Let me know who thus fantasy company is that’s going to pay for your license so I can contact them to discuss how and why they do this. Thanks man.
You’re right, I didn’t mention any company that was going to pay for licensing, because I don’t know, nor really care to do the legwork to find out. My statement to the contrary in the original blog post is based off of what others have said in the thread that is linked.
This blog post is about how the initial contact from this company felt, coupled with other people’s responses and observances on the same. As I’ve stated twice now, there are some big red flags hanging around this company, flags that I would mention no matter what company it is, or what industry it is in.
I’ve also mentioned that these exact same flags were not raised when I’ve been contacted by other insurance companies looking to get me to work for them.
For the record, I was set to go to the interview, but I was never told what position the interview was for. I was never told the company was American Life Insurance, even after asking. I had to resort to the internet and using Google on the address to find out what company it was for, which I do anyways for any company I interview with as it’s good to know something about the company before going in to the interview. Once I did that, I ran across page after page reporting the bad hiring practices of this company at which point I added my two cents in.
The initial interview felt exactly like the “interview” I was given when an Amway representative tried to recruit me last year. It felt exactly like the interview my ex was given when Herbalife tried to recruit her. It was almost word for word the same as the Mary Kay recruiting pamphlet that I recently browsed during an unrelated matter.
The fact that I’m still getting 150+ hits a day on this blog post with the search term “American Income Life Scam” is extremely telling. The company itself may not be a scam, but it’s recruiting practices are shady at the least.
I’m happy that you’re happy working for AIL. I would not be, and it is obvious, nor would a lot of other people. If their initial contact had been more forthcoming and upfront, I most likely would have gone in to see what they’re about. I probably would have even bought into the program, and I’d willing to bet based on my past performances in sales, that I would be doing quite well.
I know this was years ago but as Rick and many others said, my experience was the same. I answered a job advertisement for customer service management and instead of a company name, it said “company confidential”. I got an email from someone saying he was hr and he made an appointment for me to have an interview but didn’t list a phone#, address or company name again. I got suspicious and asked if it was sales. He wouldn’t answer yes or no, just responded that the company provides supplemental benefits to unions, companies, etc and that the first year average salary is $47,000 which wasn’t the amount of salary listed on the job advertisement I responded to. At this point I asked the company name and phone#. He responded that the company name is Bratin Enterprises, subsidiary of Torchmark but the phone# wasn’t an actual number. After I researched more, I found that it’s American Income Life. I feel like these type recruiting practices are deceptive which is why I’m not interested in that company.
Unfortunately, you’ll never know Rick. Successful people examine all angles, never shut an open door without looking inside. In our agency, recruiting calls are made almost everyday by our internal HR. We provide company name, company website, job title described is ‘sales associate’, YouTube recruiting video. I don’t know man, it’s hard to imagine that another SGA in a different part of the country would do this differently. Rick, good luck in your job search, truly, best of luck. It was good gettting the perspective of a negative blogger, this allows me the opportunty to fine tune our recruiting processes.
This is a lie. I was recruited by a company called “Mortimer Inc” in NC for a “manager in training position”. I was told it was a publicly traded company on the stock market but when i tried to research it, it did not exist. When I pull up to the interview at a sketchy building down a dirt road the door says AIL. It all goes down hill from there, not to mention there were also at least 20 other people there for an interview at the same time. Torchmark was one of the top 10 worst insurance companies in an article I have read, I believe it.
I have an interview with AIL this coming Wednesday, September 29, 2010. After reading all this stuff, I am keeping my mind open. I’ve been working for lawyers for the past 25 years. I got laid off back in January and decided that it was the kick in the butt that I needed to do something different. Something that was going to bring back some satifaction to me when I get up in the morning and get home in the evening. We’ll see how the interview goes and hopefully I will be blogging back in a couple of months with some positive feedback. Change is good!! 🙂
I was recently contacted by an individual from this company via email interested in scheduling an interview. I set up a time and then immediately did a google search on them. Why??? Because I was weary about the whole thing to begin with. The lady first told me I would be meeting in a town different than my hometown which I applied for. When I went to google if there even was a location in my city, the first thing that came up before I was finished typing was “american income life scam”. BINGO!! I read a bunch of threads from people who had horrible experiences with being hired by this company and immediately canceled my interview. Unfortunately, they now have my resume and phone number, which is more than I’d like them to have! Before all of this, I was given an address to report to for the interview, so naturally I looked up directions on google maps. The town is an area I’m familiar with and the address sounded like it would be a business park with office spaces. When I punched the address into the search all that came up was an intersection where the local supermarket is. I discovered this page after I canceled my appointment, but it just makes me feel that much better about my decision after reading this!
If a company does not invest anything in their employees, then promises you how rich you can get, you are being used. If they are so profitable, they could afford to hire, train, and retain good talent.
you’re saying this without ever actually checking out the company…you are telling people to run away from something you have never experienced yourself. I admit it seems shady but at first thought who would ever get excited to sell life insurance? Truth is you wouldn’t show up for the interview if they were straight forward with you. Once you actually get in the door and learn about the opportunity you will know if its for you or not.
But… if they were able to keep their workers and didn’t have such a high turnover, they wouldn’t need to be so shady in their initial contacts, which would have actually led me personally into going in and checking them out. That part that all you AIL defenders are missing, is that some of us are not afraid of hard work or long hours. We’re just not willing to deal with a company that doesn’t put it’s best foot forward.
Instead, I wrote a blog post about their shady initial contact, and based on anywhere between 50 to 300 hits a day using the phrase “American Income Employment Scam,” many others feel the exact same way about them.
Also keep in mind that I’m also getting employment offers from many other insurance companies (State Farm, Farmers, Country.) They all state straight up who they are. They all state that they pay all fees and training. They all state that they offer a livable wage that does not need to be paid back for the first six months while you get up to speed. They all state that the job is an insurance agent position. Their initial phone contacts feel professional, they don’t ask about my job experience and simply say “Oh, OK.” They don’t feel like they’re reading from a script. They’re up front with all their answers. They’re not promising six figure incomes in five years, and they’re willing to take no for an answer.
Yes…I got an email also….it is AFLAC all over.
They will destroy you and take your money for books and offer no support.
I worked for AFLAC and as I made my way I visited someone I know to sell the policy’s…and he pulled out over 50 other AFLAC representatives cards he had been approached over 2 years!!
Wow…I literally just got a call from a rep asking me to come in for an interview tomorrow. She kept asking me do I want a career, do I want unlimited income (very scripted- now that I think about it). The entire time she did not give me the name of company. She just rushed me off phone and asked me to come in tomorrow for interview. So before we hung up and asked her for name of company because I like to research companies even before I interview with them. So glad I did the research on this one and I will not be going to interview tomorrow. Besides it’s a hour away from where I live and it sounded like it was more of an information session because she kept stressing to be on time or I wouldn’t be allowed in…very interesting.
i chose to turn down a management position because it was something that i wasnt good at doing personally but i can speak i went to my interview but as for the people that are saying “Oh thanx for telling me i was going to go but now im not. Or, i dont know if i should go anymore im to scared thankyou everybody. you cant base your decisions on what people say if you havnt seen for yourself you dont have that right they do they went to thiers and decided it wasnt for them. if they are paying you for the work you put out thats what you get! this is sales isnt it? not a scam look SALES up . if sales not for you dont even bother going its for some people not for all. but dont let that sway your decision of wanting to go cause it might be something you might like in the long run it might not be the best JOB BUT ITS A JOB do you look at the news today NO JOBS people suffer getting food stmps and state just be glad you even got a call back for a job we all cant be picky these days. i have two kidz and if i have to work at mcdonalds to feed them i will if i have to work at AIL then so be it its a job, might work my butt of for little but its something rather then zero, you choose go to school get a degree thats in high demand or spend the rest of your life trying to find a job that might be impossible for you to get these days.
and as for anyone who didnt like what i to said you must of cause you read through my whole comment but im speaking truth ….thats all
In this business you notice how some people are pretty funny. I LOVE working for AIL and all I can say is it was the best decision I ever made to pick up that phone. A lot of you sound like very skeptical people. I’m glad I don’t have to work with ANY of you.. no matter what job it is lol.
I to work for AIL and I can honestly say that Ive had nothing but the most professional, respectful, truthful, and detailed experiences with them since day 1. Im not sure where all the negativity comes from but if people stepped out of their comfort zone…….life might not seem so negative. AIL is not a scam and the money is there if you want it youll make it.
I’m not going to kid anyone here. I am someone that just went through the interview process. I see that people talk about sales jobs all the time as scams. I will admit that I’ve never worked an insurance sales position before, but as far as I know, they all require you to pay for your own license and classes. The only one that I’ve heard anything contrary to that statement was maybe possibly State Farm, and I’m sure that it all depends on which region that you work in. At one point and time, I also looked into becoming a stockbroker. At each and every firm that I looked into, they all also required you to pay for your classes and series 7 license. Does that make a stockbroker with countless numbers of brokerage firms a scam position as well?
I have also worked quite a few jobs in the past 20 plus years that are 100% commission only jobs and have done very well with them. In fact, people turn their nose up to what I do right now as a door to door cable salesman as an independent contractor. The funny thing is that before working as in independent contractor, I used to work for the cable company directly. I used to make about $80,000 per year for the big cable company before they started tinkering with commission structure which brought it down to about $40,000. Yes, I had a base pay with the big cable company. Yes, I had EXCELLENT benefits with the big cable company, including free cable (Digital Premier with all the channels) and internet, but now that I’m working as an independent contractor, I make WAY MORE than what I could have inside the big cable company, and even when you factor in what I have to pay for my own benefits and that does include the free cable and internet, I can say that my position is not a scam, the checks are real, I did have to pay for my own drug test, and background check, and I even have to pay for my own uniforms. Oh yeah, I also have to pay for my own gas, and cell phone and yes, now even for my own cable as well. The way people on here react, that would qualify this job as a scam.
However, since I have had the opportunity to work for the real cable company as a w2 employee for 7 years, I have a little bit of a different perspective. With the money that I can make as a contractor, I kind of want to say that working there as an employee was a scam. How is it that I can make so much more as a contractor than I can as an actual employee? How is it that I can control my schedule and not have to worry about who’s listening to my phone calls (yes, when you call in and it says that this call “May be recorded for quality and training purposes” should say that these calls are 100% recorded). Why did you say this? Why did you say that? Why did you go to the bathroom for 4 minutes, when it should only take you two? Why didn’t you take your break on time? Why didn’t you punch out at 6pm instead of 5:54?
What it really sounds like to me is that so many people that blog the negative aspects of AIL is that they are so used to working a nice safe job (Just Over Broke) position/career and are used to someone telling them what to do every minute of every day of their lives that they don’t think, nor believe that there are positions out there that really do offer financial freedom out there, and yes, sometimes you even have to make an investment in yourself to get that position.
No, not everyone will have the entrepreneurial spirit to do what it takes to seriously look into something that actually could be life changing to them. I’m sorry, but what I have read leads nothing to believe that this company is a scam. The biggest part of what is being called a scam is that you have to pay for your insurance license (which as far as I know, the vast majority of all other insurance companies out there also require you to pay for your own insurance license). Sorry folks! For all of the ranting and raving out there on the blogs, including the ripoff report (which by the way posted that they have found that AIL is NOT a scam), you have not convinced me as to why I should not give this opportunity a fair try.
Please come back in a month or two months and let everyone know how it’s gone.
You sound like the most negative individual ice ever heard talk. If you would’ve had the balks to show up to the interview with that attitude we wouldn’t have hired you akywayZ ice been tgere 10 years and 7 of the 10 made 6 figures. I can confidently say it’s changed my lifeZ and every insurance company makes you pay to get licensed so quit being a pansy and trying to scare everybody away from a great opportunity because you didn’t have the balls for sales
I recently dumped an associate for his involvement in American income life. He has a business degree and previously spent his time jumping from hotel job to hotel job pretty much a new one every year. He is a career loser, but that is his own fault, he’s lazy and chooses to do the bare minimum in whatever hotel manager or gm job that he happens to land.
He knew he would be getting fired soon at the last hotel he worked at, so he started posting on job boards, and the ail vultures descended. He drank the Kool aid and believed all the hype about residual income, being vested, unlimited income, being his own boss and managing his own team (and getting part of their commission). He quit his job to join Ail, and instantly started bragging about how they work with unions and how lucrative it can be, he was totally brainwashed.
After covid hit, the complaining started; how he was ineligible for unemployment due to quitting his previous job, how he’d been out of work and struggling longer than anyone else. He even asked us to stop posting food pictures on social media, I’m guessing because he couldn’t afford food because he wasn’t making any sales just like 99.9% of people who join ail or any other mlm.
He had no qualms about targeting lower income people, guilting them for their financial situations, or lying to/trying to hustle them. He didn’t feel bad about harassing people on the phone all day, then randomly dropping by their homes late in the evening. He didn’t feel bad about misrepresenting himself or the company when using the freebies to get through their doors, nor did he feel bad about signing them up for an expense that he knew they didn’t need and couldn’t afford. He was willing to stoop to whatever to gain a $20 or $30 commission and that is despicable to me. He also convinced a couple poor saps to quit their jobs to be his downline. Fortunately, they didn’t stay very long.
Got to always have good karma people. This guy finally quit about 9 months into it. He is broke, destitute and currently working whatever delivery jobs he can get. All because he drank the Ail Kool aid and thought he was as special as they made him feel in a attempt to recruit gullible people like him so they can hit a sales goal and get a bonus.
Hmmmm… I hate to say that I am going to have to eat my words, BUT… I have actually taken another offer, so I really won’t be able to report back on this opportunity. I will say that the offer that I have taken has given me better benefits and definitely a much better schedule. So I will say that I am not going to work for AIL because of anything that has been posted.
I am currently an American Income Life agent. I can understand why so many people view this as a scam, and even I have my reservations on certain business practices. Let me clarify who AIL is and share with you the pros and cons.
First the pros. AIL a legitament business and not a scam. AIL is currently working with 40,000 different Unions, Credit Unions, and Association’s and offer benefits that are lacking in their health care. The benefit’s offered by AIL were created with the cooperation from the Board of Directors from those unions because the union benefits don’t help everyone as much as they would like.
For example, medical benefit’s pay for medical bills, but while you are in the hospitol you are not making money to pay your bills and feed your family. The benefits offered by AIL help to pay for lost income to people who are dealing with this situation. When you go through the licensing process you find out that any insurance company (car, life, health, property, etc) is highly regulated by federal and state regulations. If AIL was just a scam then there would be hell to pay and we would all be in serioius legal trouble.
As for the cons. AIL’s hiring process really isn’t great. For example, to qualify for an SGA (Supervising General Agent) you are required to hire at least one person a week. You must maintain that quota to maintain your position because of the performance based promotions. As you can imagine this requirement alone generally puts AIL in a bad spot light because the SGA often doesn’t have enough time to train these agents while maintaining sales numbers in the field. MGA’s (Managing General Agents) are required to hire 2 people a week (all the while training current agents and trying to maintain sales numbers) in order to maintain their position in the company. This flaw with quotas is what makes AIL have such a high turn over rate.
It isn’t that AIL or it’s employees are horrible. Many of the people I work with have huge hearts and are great people. The potential to make money is definitely there as well, but structured quite different from the jobs we are used to. If you want to make 100,000 a year it is definitely realistic, but it depends on how much time you are willing to spend working. Let’s face it, 100,000 in a year is a great income. . . but if you are working 7 days a week to earn it it doesn’t seem as great.
Would you care to talk about the other consistent issues – that of stale leads, and the quality of the product itself?
I was called today from this company, and off the bat I felt something was wrong. Who calls on a late Sunday evening to schedule an interview? Then when I was told the name of the company, I was tempted to hang up. This same company has been sending me E-Mails for months, about wanting to schedule and interview. I’ve sent replies back telling them no, and I still get an email on average every two weeks.
Also, the position they contacted me for, it seems that it would be considered outside of my scope of experience. I’ve worked in retail and security for the most part. So tell me how I am qualified to be a Manager at a life insurance company?
Overall, I can’t help but view this company as desperate for employees. They seem to target people that feel could fall for their gimmick. Well, I didn’t fall prey to them, and I hope other people will be wise enough not to either.
Rick, you have way too much time on your hands for this kind of thing lol…if AIL isnt the job for you, Any of you, then shut up and go find a job that you would prefer and by the way good luck with that in todays market. AIL takes a go getter attitude and you must use the fact that if you dont do your job right you wont make any money to motivate you to get your sales.
last year I worked in a factory and i was layed off around october along with quite a few other hard working people with families, and i had just hired in so unemployement was not an option. i looked everywhere for work and finally landed a job at wendy’s. for my son i would work anywhere and so i did. i had always looked for more work though and finally yes i got “the call” you all so skeptically speak of and i did the liscencing and funny thing is i even recieved financial help from an employee at AIL to recieve my liscence and start work. well, im at my 3rd week now and i have made more in these 3 weeks than i had in 3 months at wnedy’s.
driving cost too much? drive a kia lol
didn’t succeed? you didn’t think of your families welfare when you were tryin to get paid.
want me to give another report in 2 onths rick? i will be happy to!
i love the people i work with, i love the money i make, and i LOVE the risk! it motivates me even more
and just because of all the people that have been shunned away from such an oppertunity by people like you i going to be a little more motivated to make more money next week!
I bet you are one of those people that believes in government conspiracies brainwashing…and the fact is, your doing the same thing that you say they do. some poor guy with 4 kids is still working at taco bell after recieving the call and turning down the oppertunity over reading your posts on internet that he had to steal from his neighbor because he cant afford it on his own…
go build a model or something! take your dog for a walk! ANYTHING! because i am telling you that all of these posts are not hurting this company at all…not in the slightest bit. your only hurting the people who could have been better off before reading your pathetic posts.
Please do give another report in 3 months.
Unfortunately, like in any other MLM company I do not think you’re going to last long. How many accounts have you signed up? How many have canceled on you? How many hours a week do you work?
Wow you are a complete loser with no job obviously since you have all the time in the world to be on here. If you applied the same effort into sales you would actually be making money. So you say he won’t be there long again I’ve been with the company ten years made 6 figures 7 out of 10 years and I have never worked 70 hours a week and don’t even work weekends. Olive been on countless paid vacations from the company to islands I can’t even pronounce. If you are positive and aren’t a total pussie like this guy Rick you will do well here
Going on an iterview today ill tell everybody how it goes. Niggahz I’m out
Hmmm reading all this is crazy. I recently was hired with AIL and yes it did cost money to get my license but that is something that stay with me if I work there or not. I was trained by my very successful managers and saw many sales which meant more people that were protected with life insurance. This is not a scam. As for the leads, yeah sometimes it hard to set appoinments but most of the people are willing to meet and after seeing everything AIL has to offer, they decide we are the company that they are going to let insure them. So a scam… NO WAY! Im on a manger track and it is def possible to become a manager with not much prior experience. Its common sense, dedication, and motivation for success that is going to take you places, not sitting here bashing a company that you know nothing about.
I have an interview with American Income on Monday. The position is for a Benefits coordinator. I told the HR representive that I didn’t have any experience in the Insurance field, but she said that was not a problem. Has anyone had any experience interviewing for this position?
Yes, that is their MO. They make the job sound like it’s not Insurance Sales to get you in the door, then they do the pitch.
Wow. All I can say is I’m intrigued by all of this. I got a call not long ago, didn’t answer though. I listened to the message and it was a lady from American Life–is what she said. After hearing the message, I did a lot of looking. I tried to see where the company is located through whitepages, and the phone number is not found. That scared me. I didn’t apply to the company either, so that threw me off a little, since I have an extensive list of places I’ve applied for. I posted my resume on a website where employers can look at it to see if I would be a fit for their company. Her message didn’t sound scripted, but after reading most of this blog, I’m tempted to call and see what she has to say. There is a lot of good, but seemly more bad. I don’t know what to do. I think I will call and try to see what position they are trying to fill. I recently graduated from college and I am looking for a job in my studies–I can say it doesn’t have to do with selling insurance!! I already applied to Farmers, had an interview–which wasn’t for the position I applied for–and they tried to get me into sales. Excuse me, I’m NOT sales material! I will re post at some point to let you know what I did and if I went through with the interview.
Oh wow! Too much time on your hands. Everyone is not cut out for the field of insurance. You basically get out of it what you put into it. The leads, referrals, and the calls. If you are a go getter this is not an issue. If not you’re unemployed. Someone need to work on the jobs….who will we sell insurance to? Sales is a very rewarding career if its for you. If not there are jobs out there if you qualify and have the experience. So stop the pissing contest!!! The glass is half full.
I’ve been receiving generic e-mails from this company for weeks. No contact name, no proper salutation indicating that this e-mail was not mass generated and sent out to 1,000 people all at once, and so I deleted them. I just received one that actually addressed me by name and signed off with the name of a real person. Of course, I did the Google search.
There is only one post in favor of AIL that I respect and would consider to be “legitimate.” That is the post made by “AIL Agent” on January 7, 2011. It comes across as a thoughtful response from a bona fide agent providing reasonable explanations to many of the concerns expressed.
Keep up the good work with this blog, Rick. You’re saving a lot of people who can’t afford to make someone else rich a lot of money.
As for the rest of you posers who claim to be AIL agents – I believe you do work for AIL, but your really employed as trolls, and your job is to go in and bash and discredit anyone who has anything negative to say. Insulting people’s work ethic and using fear techniques are exactly the tactics scam companies use in their lame attempt to appear “legitimate.” What I really find to be the truest test regarding this company’s “legitimacy” is not the amount of alleged employees making “more many in three weeks than I have in three months anywhere else!” It’s the amount of new-hires who admit that they are new, see nothing wrong so far, but will report back in three months – and then never do.
What makes it so obvious that you posers are indeed posers? The fact that you have such a strong work ethic and your family comes first, and so what that you have to put long hours in seven days a week – this company ROCKS!! BUT – you have time to Google negative comments and you have more time still to make multiple comments on each and every negative site you come across. You obviously aren’t working trying to sell insurance.
I have an interview with American Income for a Benefits Coordinator. The HR person said it is not sales, no selling. I read someone else went and they were told the same thing and they lied and it was a sales job. I have to drive an hour to get to this place I don’t want to go if its is a scam. Did anyone else have this same offer?
I was told it was for a manager position in the first “interview.”
These guys are such crooks they still owe me 700+ dollars for reimbursements from a year and half ago. What a joke this company is, don’t do business with them they are bad news. Companies like these should be shut down, I don’t understand how they can get away with this stuff, sad.
I too was recruited by AIL recently and went in for the interview. All sorts of literature strewn about the office praising AIL. I was told they were on Yahoo’s list of the top 100 companies to work for, but I Googled that and nothing came up to back up that claim. I have attempted to sell benefits for AFLAC and failed miserably, but these guys said that AIL is nothing like AFLAC. I paid $100 for my Life Insurance workbook, then I did some research on these folks. Not liking what I found, so I contacted the local office yesterday and told them “thanks but no thanks”. I have resolved for myself finally that no matter how good someone makes selling insurance seem, it’s not for me. I also received no response from the local office to my email, so yeah I’m just another failed interview for them.
It is simply incredible to me how easily someone can be swayed to not pursue something based on a set of opinions from complete strangers. Rick, I understand what you’re trying to do with this blog and I know that you have good intentions, but this is getting ridiculous. As Nate said, and I can fully attest AIL is not a scam. Its as if you have a personal vendetta against a company that has done nothing but try to offer you a position. I have been with the company going on 4 years and love every second. As a lot of you have read, yes this is a sales position and not for everyone. The reason someone in HR calls you and tells you could possibly be “a fit” (even though you may not have a background or experience in sales/insurance) is because they provide training based on a proven system. Literally, people from all walks of life have come to the company and been successful. I made 70k+ my first full year and 100k+ my second. All the offices are independently owned so I am not sure of the practices in other locations. I can tell you that If someone over the phone mentioned sales/insurance/commission over the phone to me, I would have probably been a little hesitant too. Those words all have pretty bad connotations. The conversation on the phone is brief because as James Keefer mentioned insurance has a bad stigma in general. Most people think insurance and want to run in the other direction. Yes, we are a little creative to have you come in for an interview. Its not about misleading anyone as it is about wanting the candidate to see the ‘whole picture’ (ie culture, environment, the people etc.) It’s no different than a car salesmen showing all the features of a new car, taking you on a test drive, and showing the sticker price at the end. With the way market is setup and the training AIL provides, its all whole different ball game from other insurance positions. The support, training, lead based market of over 40,000 unions/associations is something that sets AIL apart from a AFLAC or a State Farm. As far as these other insurance companies being more ‘honest’ and upfront, the thing about people is you cannot tell them everything all at once until they see the entire package. From there, you as adults can make your best assessement if the opportunity is for you or not. I can tell you that in the company overview during my interview process, I was told of ALL the challenges and pitfalls that would make this position difficult before I was hired. As I said, the agencies and offices are independently owned and operated so other offices may not be doing this part. For those offices that are not openly discussing the challenges at some point before you are hired, shame on them. Those offices make it harder for offices that do things the right way. However, it still kills me how many weak spirited individuals on here can read a blog or two and not even check it out! It’s not like you go in and someone puts a gun to your head to join the company. Laughable!
The fact is State Farm or AFLAC, while they are both great companies, cannot compete with the compensation structure, lead base, or proven system and support of an AIL. They use advertising dollars for name recognition, provide very little training and compensate their workforce pretty modestly for their work. You cannot go to a State Farm, Prudential, AFLAC etc and have the same advancement opportunities nor the income potential as quickly as in AIL. The AIL agency force that has tenure of at least 18mo+ or longer, 37% of those individuals earn over six figures. I can say it cause I have lived it(and still do!) I know most of you will see 37% and think “sure”. Do you know why that sounds ridiculous? It’s because less than 3% of people in this country (maybe even a smaller percentage during this recession)actually do that. So when people are pointing out that there is much more negative than positive out on the company, of course there is. Its a fact and you can check any basic college business course on this, that negative feedback always spread faster and at a much higher rate than positive feedback. If you have had a good experience with the company vs. a negative one there will always be more negative than positive. Moreover, people making that kind of money do not go on blogs like this to post their woes of a ‘shady’ call or how many ‘red flags’ they can count. You people need to “sack up,” as we say, and check things out for yourself. And guess what, if its not a fit, no worries then move on to the next thing. But if it could have been something that was right and have changed you and your families life, is a random blog of a few bad encounters worth the cost of a lost opportunity?
In closing, the only reason I decided to post something on this blog (since I am suppose to be too busy for this haha)is because I have been reading blogs like this for years and have to say that its sad. I think it is so sad how many people, most of whom are struggling to just to find a job, would not not even accept an interview from a company that is obviously hiring and growing. Around since 1951, A+ Superior rated, owned by Torchmark Corp (TMK), BBB, the list goes on and on….but none of that matters to you people. Fear is a strong emotion for the weak. And that is what blogs like this keep alive and well. It is not my intention to come across negative. As I said in the intro, I understand what you are trying to do Rick. I respect you for it. But as grown adults, you people really need to take some ownership for your own career moves and decide independently on what’s good for you or not. Not a blog, not Rick or even me. I wish you all the best in whatever it is you pursue. Let’s face facts people, if these blogs were really relevant, than AIL would not have just come off its 4th consecutive record year in 2010. Companies that have been around since 1951 are simply not doing that. AIL is not going ANYWHERE and those ‘brave’ enough to check it out FOR YOURSELVES, may actually find out its pretty awesome…And I for one cannot wait for Miami Beach Memorial Day Weekend and Punta Cana next year. (that is where our annual all expense paid convention will be this year and 2012 respectively!) Please feel free to follow up with me so I can honestly and candidly respond. God Bless!
I’m glad that you’re happy there. But as I’ve said before, I ended up going to an interview with another insurance company. Light and day difference from the first point of contact all the way through the Interview. I was told flat up it was an Insurance Sales position.
If AIL had handled my contact the same way from the first, maybe I’d be working for them. At the time I was first contacted, I was more then willing to change careers.
My only vendetta against this company is the way they lied to me and others to get me in the door.
Hello three year vet,what can I do if my leader pushes me off and does not wan’t to train me.Just leave me in a corner to teach myself..My leader says I can’t ask him any questions ask the manager who is training me and he doesn’t train me…Talk to me negative and shews me off.
I love the thrive of the company and have a gutt feeling if trained correctly, I would be awesome.I love people,and I want to be a blessing to people.Be helpful to people.
You’ve been with AIL for THREE YEARS, and you still need training?
No that’s a different guy. Maybe if you could read you would see that. My gosh you are a complete loser
I got the vague phone call inviting me to an interview with “IL” tomorrow. I specifically asked if the position involved sales and was given an answer of “good question ask at the interview”. Doing a little detective work i.e. reverse look up on the phone number /I found out the company is American Insurance Life. And the “Benefit Coordinator/ Office Manager” positions are glorified insurance sales jobs.
Deceptive recruitment is definetely a huge red flag. I had the pleasure of working a similar position at another company 20 + years ago. Same old pitch line “unlimited income” = commision sales. Sorry been there, done that. I’ve had both liscenses before (NASD & state insurance) and only made money off people I knew personally even though they provided free pre-qualified leads.
This may work work well for a dedicated few but count me in as one of those that says “this is not the career for me”. Good luck to anyone willing to spend their money on it.
I just got a call, literally 10 minutes ago. I was very confused when I heard “I’m with American Income”, which certainly wasn’t anything I had applied for. But, not wanting to throw away any career opportunities, I went ahead and scheduled for next week, even though she was very pushy about scheduling sometime soon.
“Tomorrow doesn’t work? How about Wednesday? Thursday? Ok, the following Monday then.”
That in itself set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head.
So I did some research, and ended up here.
Ever since I joined Monster(dot)com, I have been getting emails from all sorts of insurance companies asking if I’m interested. But to be honest, an email is way different than a DELIBERATELY misleading phone call, to schedule interviews. Above and beyond rude. Comon, I am a 5 year Army Infantryman vet, and I have 3 semesters of college. Does it really look like I want to sell insurance? If I did, do you really think calling me for a job I didn’t apply for, with deceptive intentions is REALLY going to make me want to pursue it?
Their hiring process pisses me off. I kind of want to show up to the interview, an hour away, to kindly tell them to shove it.
Thanks Rick, for your blog. To all you AIL fan boys out there, no way around it: AIL’s hiring ‘process’ and quasi-pyramid scheme is bullcrap.(a weekly hiring quota to get promoted? HA.) Go cavort with Amway. Peace.
Northwestern Mutual pays for training (4 grand) and pays for all licenses, etc.
First off, I read all those blogs man. I almost went to a second interview yesterday. YES THIS IS 4 months after my last second interview, different location. And who did I get Rick, guess? Some lady that was in a hurry, like last time, who was in too BIG of a hurry, like last time. And yea hey you 3 Year AIL VET Girl…Vet Girl huh…wtf…are you really serious about being proud to work with a company that so many potential future CUSTOMERS might be scared of? Can you read that a fee more times, see if your smart enough to understand what I’m talking about..lol..when you really are a “VET” since the company still will be standing through all this money they owe people, what are YOU gonna do when WE say no? Everyone is goin to think, “ah, that’s the company made sit two hours for crap!” wait a minute…haha… You need to chill with that name. I got 8 years sweatin makin in-n-out burgers while AIL lies & lies
I have my second interview tomorrow(first one was 2 days ago) and ill admit, i have my fears. I have never done sales before and always told myself that i never would,but something about this has peaked my interests. I do have a TON of questions still though,and thanks to this blog i will be asking all of them tomorrow. I deffinately have my concerns,,especially after reading all the posts,but im going into it with an open mind and intend to get as much info before i deside if its for me or not.
My nephew asked me to look into AIL for him. I did and gave him the advice that I will give all of you on this blog. Don’t ever go to work for a company that requires you to lay out any of your own money in advance. No exceptions. I’d even go a step further and add, they need to pay you, either a small base salary or a draw on future commissions. Why?Because the employer and employee both need to have skin in the game for the relationship to work. For the employer, the skin comes in the form of a salary or draw on commission. For the employee, the skin comes in the form of committment to training, sales meetings, daily updates to CRM or completing progress reports and sales results. A manager is going to be much more interested in your success if he or she has made an investment. The employee’s success ratio will be significantly higher if he or she has the support from management. If you place no value on your time and service than why should your employer.
The world works on perceived value so you need to market yourself as an exceptional value and not a bargain.
I got a call from them yesterday and ended up calling them back today. She was extremely vague and because of that i did my research. Looked at their site first, then ended up here. The woman offered me a management position interview, but after i read this i had to call her back and get answers. I have no experience in sales, nor do i wish to gain some. I asked her, is this sales? She said “Its a team of 4-7 agents, you would be leading them and making money off what they sell”…. I did not fancy that…. You people who have worked for them, you’re all biased. If you work there, of course you’re going to praise your company, make more money, get more recruits. All of you who no longer work there, how can we trust you did not lose your job for some stupid reason and are just trying to make them look bad? We don’t. I read all these comments, and when i was questioning the woman she just kept proving to me this operation is not 100% legit. Maybe it is the right career path for some, I know its not for me. So i canceled my interview for tomorrow. …I agree with a lot of what Robin (Feb 9) said. You people are just trolling, say you’re going to come back but don’t. Even if it is legit, its not for me. Sucks though, i was excited at first..
I received a phone call a few days ago prior to business hours which appeared strange in itself, to which I forwared it to voicemail. Immediately upon reviewing the message, I called back and the recruiter’s line answered with the busy mode (on another call) apparently recruiting others for an interview, that much I figured! When I spoke to the recruiter, she stated that my resume was viewed by the employer and that there are management positions needed to run in 2 locations and that’s what I would be doing. When I asked them what exactly the position was titled, I was told that she doesn’t know but her supervisor would speak about the position. I was told not to bring pen or paper and allow two hours for the interview. However, I must say that I was quite astonished since I have a bachelor’s and masters degree in applied sciences. I’ve been reading the blogs and until the phone call a few days ago, I have never heard of them. I am only hesitant b/c at this point in my life with job opportunities being scarce due to the economy in its poor condition, I want to be open-minded however I don’t want to waste my time & MONEY that I do have in my pocket (trying to keep) going to an interview that’s a waste of time and obviously pointless. Nonetheless, I also noted in all of these comments, the commute is out of catchment area/difficult to find/an hour or more away…which is the same on this end! The feedback good and bad is good to learn in making a decision. The fact that she couldn’t tell me what the position was for after she recruited me for a position I didn’t apply for makes me suspicious.
I just attended a “second interview” with AIL in Columbus, Ohio. I was told by both the phone screener and the gentleman who conducted my first interview that I was being considered for a “benefits specialist” position where I would be providing service and troubleshooting for EXISTING clients. My second interview was in a class of about 30 others and we were pitched the real job, which is door to door sales. (They try to claim that it’s not door to door sales, but when you knock on a stranger’s door and try to sell them a product or service that they do not currently have, that is precisely what it is.) I don’t think the company is exactly a scam, and I do believe that there are some employees who make actual money. However, the way they get people to come to the interviews is flat out dishonest. If AIL told people up front that they would be going to people’s houses, selling insurance and that they would need to pay several hundred dollars before being eligible to make any money, AIL would not get applicants through the door. The office where I was “interviewed” was only about 10 min from my home, so the only thing I lost was 90 minutes of my time. There were others who came to both interviews, on different days, from over 100 miles away. The AIL “agents” in Ohio should be ashamed of themselves. People are very anxious to find a job, any job to support their families in this terrible economy. Companies that value integrity and honesty would be straightforward with their potential applicants about the available positions, especially if they have someone drive 200 miles round trip for an interview.
Once again a lie. We don’t do door to door sales. We work with existing clients and union members that return a card showing interest. I’ve been there 10 years and don’t do four to door so obviously you have ZERO CLUE AS TO WHATXYOU ARE TALKING ABOUT
You do door knocking or like I like to call it… stalk those memebers who filled out the card until they answer the door because they already told you to F off on the phone
I am proud to say that I have been with this company for 4 years. Within the first 6 months I was offered an opportunity of advancement. In the following 6 months I was giving the same options. Three years later I gross amounts in income that many will not see in a lifetime… AIL offered me an advantage when I was confused about career choice and direction. SO WHAT I paid for a license…. you get the money back for the exams + 200.00 more. I will be fully vested in the company in 6 years… and that means I am able to retire and have a wonderful income that I can reap rewards from without worry (by the way I am currently 26).
To all of you that bash.. walk a day in the shoes of one of this agents, you will seem that it is hard, earnest, rewarding work…. A scam No…. not for everyone YES….
The methods in recruiting are used in many practices; WHAT do you guys expect to do with an insurance firm???? If a person is vague probe them for more information… simple as that!!!
To each his own everyone that is current with AIL good luck and GOD Bless…
all others good luck with career pursuit… GOD Bless..
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW I WAS SUPPOSE TO START TRAINING AND TAKE MY $200.00 TODAY BUT AFTER ALL THESE BLOGS I WAS A LITTLE SKEPTICAL. HELL I DONT HAVE MONEY TO THROW AWAY ON NONSENSE. HOPE EVERYONE THE BEST OF LUCK.
I received a phone call today to attend an interview tomorrow at 11 am. When I told one of my co-worker’s about it she said her sister had just recieved the same call for an interview tomorrow at the same time as my shceduled interview. They told me it was for a management position and that is what they told her. That made me skeptical and think it was a scam so I will not be attending the interview on tomorrow. I can not afford to quit my current job and then things do not work out at this company. I know this is the chance you have to take when switching jobs, but after reading all these posts, I just have to follow my heart and not go to this interview.
Fidelity pays for your 1st liscening test. If you fail, then you pay for the next.If they can do it, since they will be making money off your performance, why can’t AIL? I understand there is a difference in the product offered, but AIL will be making money off of your performance. Why do they not pay for the 1st test? Why do they not cover travel expense w/ limitations? Am I an independent contractor? If no, then why am I not filling out tax forms? Scam, scam, scam.
Okay, so AIL calls me and leaves a number & name for callback. Yes, I double checked the number in v-mail. Why does the number not work.
And honestly, I am an AVP for a major financial institution as I am sure they saw on my monster or linkedin page. Do they really expect me to work off commision only?
It has been 2 weeks now that I have been receiving calls from ‘The Tucker Group’ which is actually American Income Life. I know this because I finally connected with someone on the phone. They found my resume on Monster.com and wanted to interview me for a management position with their company. I specifically asked if this was a sales and/or a commission job, as I do not want to do that. She said ‘no’. I drove 45 minutes to a building where I am rushed into a conference room with 3 or 4 other people. By the time it was interview time there were 30 of us crammed in this little room. We were given a packet to fill out. (Already I was angry because I was completely mislead about this situation.) My ‘interview’ was a business overview. By the end of him showing us videos and giving his speech about how much endless money we can make he says that only 3 or 4 of us are going to make it in their business. Oh my goodness, I was so aggravated the entire time. I was sitting next to a women who was doing accounting for 20 years and I have been in business management for 10. Why were we even targeted for such a joke? It is $230 for a Missouri license and $50 for a temporary Illinois one. This office is in St. Louis. No one there had a clue as to what they were doing there.
Being lied to to get me in the door was my first turn-off. The opposite of intimate interviewing setting was the next displeasing situation. Then he tried to switch on the competitor talk with us as there were 30 and ‘only 3 or 4 would make it’.
They called me back today for a second interview. I don’t feel like I got my first.
OH, and to add to all of this. When I told you that they had been trying to contact me for 2 weeks, it was different offices in Illinois and Missouri. What I am gathering is these offices are working under LaTonya Tucker aka The Tucker Group.
I ranted and shared with you my experience. My advice is to not put all your eggs in THAT basket. You will be sadly disappointed (and out of some of your hard earned cash).
Here is my experience with AIL. I received a call from them after they saw my resume online. I was told that they were looking for people to negotiate insurance contracts between unions and insurance companies to give the workers the best deal. I was asked to come in for an interview. This was Monday and the interview was scheduled for Wednesday. I was told to dress professionally and bring in 3 copies of my resume. I thought telling me how to dress was strange. The next day after the phone call, Tuesday, I went to an amusement park so I was not home all day. I had 4, yes 4, voicemails from the woman I spoke with the day reminding me about the interview and asking me if I was going to show up for it. Immediate red flags went up. After seeing all the negative comments online about working there, I did not go to the interview.
For the record, my previous job was in insurance sales. They paid for all of the classes and licensing fees, I received a base salary plus commission, full benefits. I was paid during training, even while I was attending the insurance classes. I also got reimbursed for mileage. Also, I was never expected to work more than 40 hours a week and I got paid holidays and PTO. Any employer that makes the employee pay for these things themselves is a scam. AIL may be selling legitimate insurance, but their employer practices sound unethical.
I too think this is a scam. I received a phone call stating that “American Income” had received my resume and was interested in hiring me. The person who contacted me could not tell me what the job was. When I told him I was an accountant and had no interest in a sales position and had no experience in insurance. He said they had some management jobs too but the HR person who interviewed me would tell me what I was qualified for. I think I know better than anyone what my qualifications are. He also told me to bring my resume to the interview. If they already had my resume, why would I need to bring it?
I asked for an email confirmation and the name of the person who would be conducting the interview.
I have worked for many years and this hiring process is completely foreign to me. If this were a legit company I don’t think this is the they wouod recruit new employees.
I RAN
When I got the email confirmation, it waw from a completely different company. After a Google search, I immediately cancelled the interview.
First, let me say that AIL is NOT a scam. It is a legitimate company that is highly rated. Now that that’s out of the way, let me also say that working for AIL out of the agency I was with is NOT for me! I signed a contract stating clearly that I was an independent agent, yet I was treated – as were we all – like an employee who had to be in the office on certain days at certain times. I was putting a lot of money into getting to work, and my resources were running out. Of course, I’m in a unique situation, which made working for them even harder. Despite many red flags (which I ignored) and ill-luck associated with working for the company, I persevered until I could not go on. The majority of classroom training focused on the presentation – not the application process or the products. It wasn’t until my 4th week that the teacher who taught us (a manager) gave very clear information on the products and on the presentation. Did I mention there was a different manager teaching each week?
We were in no way compensated for our time spent in the office and in no way given any help financially. What makes AIL difficult to stick, and why they have such a high turnover, is the fact that they “train” you for 6-8 weeks, and you are expected to be in the office 3-5 days a week. Once field and phone training start, you need to be available 5-7 days a week, and you will not be making any sales until you are presenting AND already licensed. I had to quit my part-time afternoon job in order to be available.
I made my first three sales (one cancelled the next day) 4 weeks ago and another sale the following week. I was unable to work last week because I literally ran out of money and couldn’t afford the 1 hour 1 way drive to get into the office or go out into the field. I was supposed to receive my first check last Friday, or this Monday or Tuesday “depending when the mail got in,” according to my supervisor. It’s Saturday, and I still haven’t seen a check.
I had to quit because it was becoming less what they made it out to be and more a work-horse type of job. Not only would they treat you like an employee, but they treated you with an attitude of “you should’ve known that” even if you were never trained on it. And if you asked a question, you were looked down on like you were stupid. Granted, that was only in the office I worked out of, but they weren’t living up to their promises. I understand that anything worth doing takes time, but I was told I would be working out of Ventura County, which is where I live, and where I know, and was expecting. All my leads were done out of the San Fernando Valley, and I was expected to go out by myself. Well, I did, and I was not happy about it! For two days, I was out in unfamiliar territory, and the most dangerous areas of the Valley! To top it off, I was expected to door knock – which I did – by myself in these very dangerous and scary places, 50 miles from home! If you see me, you know why I’m upset: I’m a size 2, 5’3″, female who looks like I’m under 18. Yet here I am, working out of the valley? Not happening.
I decided, while driving to and from my appointments and my door knocks, that I did not want to spend my career life in my car in grafitti-ridden areas by myself, 50 miles from home, where no one would find me if I went missing. That, and I still hadn’t seen any money from the previous weeks’ sales.
Right now, I decided this isn’t for me. It’s way too expensive to work for this company and the pay off is near minimum wage. My supervisor is only making $51,000 a year total working 6 days a week, 14-16 hour days. Uh…. No thanks.
Instead, I’m going to complete my schooling and pursue my passions in life. Why they hell would I spend that kind of time for stress in a field I know I’m not going to love? Thanks, but I’ll take my license, use it to get a regular job (they exist, you know) and work towards my real career goals.
Now, I do have to add something: If you want a company that pays for licensing, go to State Farm. Their interviewing process is far more rigorous and they weed out anyone who won’t be a good fit, but once you get past that, they intern you full-time (with full-time pay) for 6-9 months, during which you are fully trained and licensed (which they pay for!). I’m looking into working out of an agency selling their lif insurance with a salary + commission structure. We’ll see how it goes.
They sold us the opportunity and used an agent who makes $5,000 a week working 3 days a week as an example, but he’s an anomaly. It can and does happen, but not everyone can achieve that. So before you buy into it like I did, sleep on it and determine if you have BOTH the drive AND the resources necessary. I had the drive, but not the resources! Think before you act.
I do have to say, though, that I am glad I tried this because 1) I know what I DON’T want to do in life and 2) I know what I DO want to do in life. It was a good, albeit expensive, kick in the butt for me.
Carmen
Carmen once again I find another former agent ok here full of lies. This I don’t get, once these people fail and quit they take all this time to come on here and write a bad review about the company and embellish everything. These kinds of people are miserable. I compare them to people that go out to a restaraunt and their steak cones out and it’s not cooked to proper specification and they throw a fit to their server about it instead of realizing these things happen, it’s not the servers fault and all it takes to fix it is to throw it back on the grill for a few minutes. These people that usually freak out and bitch up a storm to their server about a minor error are just miserable people in general. Then that individual is so unhappy about their steak being undercooked they complain till the manager goes out of his way and comps the Neal. Then this miserable human being after getting a free meal still goes back home and gets on the Internet and goes to the company website or a blog like this to complain and give a bad review. When this miserable human being writes about their “horrible” experience they embellish for example they say that they were so polite and how they eat there all the time and never have problems but they got this one server who just couldn’t get it right. Then they go on to complain about the steak being underprepared and say the server copped an attitude about it and not only was their steak undercooked but now they embellish more and sat their baked potato was cold, their ice was warm??, their salad barely had any cheese on it and their ice cream desert came out and was already half melted and then they embellish more about their experience, again because these kinds of people that take time out of their day to write a complaint to the company or write on a thread like this are just miserable, so then they explain tgatctheajager comped their meal nug did it with an attitude and they feel they should’ve got sonething for free like a gift care to take care of their next meal…but of course now “I’m never eating at that filthy restaraunt again…ever after how terrible my experience was!”
And again all this was over a steak that was undercooked, a server that apologized politely, a manager that apologized politely who was polite, apologized and comped their whole bill and the whole time at the restaraunt they were complete assholes. And that individual turns an undercooked steak into a nightmare of an experience because that’s the kind of people that take the time out to write a review about a company, they are miserable people that like to lie to drive their poky across.
Of course with these people on here it’s never your fault. It’s never the fact that you had a bad attitude and couldn’t get told no when selling someone without it breaking your poor little heart, it’s not that you were mentally weak so you quit at the first sign of adversity, they never mention that during the group interview which is the same across the United States that they tell you that we work irregular hours(we have to see the members when they are off work), they never wrote on here that we tell them during that interview that we call the first 3 months boot camp because we are going to have you in everyday working on learning the benefits and your manager is going to put long hours in training the crap out of you to guarantee your success, they just complain about the hours, they don’t write on here that we tell them during that interview that it’s 100% commission and up front you won’t get paid until you are licensed, and that we tell them they have to pay for and obtain that license before starting here, they just complain that they had to pay for their own license. They never write on here that we even being the spouse in to explain all this to her on the last one on one interview so she understands how much work it’s going to require during the first 90 days(boot camp) and make sure not only are you on board for that sacrifice but your spouse is too, they just complain after they quit that they worked crazy hours the first 3 months and never got to see their family. They never tell you that we tell them up front that it can be very challenging and it’s going to take a huge sacrifice up front and it’s not going to be easy that actually it’s going to require more dedication here compared to any other career they’ve had previously and make sure that they are on board, they just complain that conceals hard. They never talk about how during training with a manager in your car they are following the system exactly because a manager is there watching them and making sure they are on systems and procedures and they make a ton of money, then once released from their manager and are able to sell on their own some of these guys feel that they made it and stop practicing, stop learning and fall off track as fracas systems and procedures and stop doing all the stuff they did when their manager was with them that made them a success, they instead just point the finger anywhere but at themselves and blame the leads, blame the training , bad mouth the company, etc. Amd yea ove posted on here multiple times Rick because I’m calling a spade a spade here, a liar a liar. This girls post above mentions she was pretty muchvselkingvinsursbxecin Compton and she wasn’t even 18. Poor her. Another lie though. You have to be 18 to obtain an insurance license. So I can’t stand people lying and saying we pay for leads, or we pay for training, that our leads are cold, that we aren’t up front with you during the group interview as far as the good stuff but also tell each recruit about the challenges and make sure they are ready to sacrifice short term for a long term gain, they point the finger at the company. It’s obviously our fault. And hearing lies about a company that’s completely changed my life in so many ways. Of course it changed my life financially I went from a bartender making less than 30k a year to making 6 figures imnediatly the first year. But it’s changed my life for the better in so many other ways where now I’m on a schedule, now I don’t enjoy sleeping in, id rather be up and workout at the gym, now I read motivational books not because I am told to but because I want to. I now crave knowledge more than any time in my life and want to be the best me mind, body, and spirit and I work out, I read to exercise the mind and I’m actively involved in my church again. So a huge life change for the positive for me and I love what I do, love my career and I absolutely love this company that these negative individuals are lying about and bashing on here because they didn’t live up to their end of the commitment they gave us and couldn’t hack it when things got tough and again we told you there would be times that got frustrating and tough.
So that’s why I’m so upset about this blog and these lies they are telling about American Income. They are very transparent in the interview process amd they train you very very well and lite their time andcheartcibtibtrsijung you to be successful where at other companies first I had to pay for leads and once I was licensed they pretty much threw me out to the winked to sell after very minimal training because I was a number to then. At American income you aren’t just a number you are a human that they genuinely care about your success so I urge anybody reading all these negative comments to go in for a first group interview/company overview and see for yourself how transparent we are as a company and experience it for yourself instead of listening to these “restaraunt guests” whose steak was undercooked, potato cold, managers rude, etc etc.
have a great day y’all and realize these people couldn’t hack it themselves so they want to put a stop to you pursuing your dreams. They are haters?
Dear AIL Vet of 3 years, or whatever your name is. That is the exact “holier than thou” attitude my supervisor and MGA looked at us new agents with while I was working out of the office. And here you are, talking down to other individuals with lucrative careers in other fields, all because you had success in your field. I drove 50 miles one way as an agent, almost everyday, and I hated it. This was not the career path for me.
As for State Farm, they have a more rigorous training procedure during which they pay for all the licensing and training. AIL’s structure, which is 6-8 weeks, is no where near perfect, nor is it the best in the industry. If it was, AIL wouldn’t have the high turnover it does. From the words of my former MGA, they are constantly recruiting until they get “what sticks.” State Farm, on the other hand, has the highest agent retention rate in the insurance industry. And that’s because they don’t just recruit to get “what sticks,” they actually interview you thoroughly to make sure you’re the right fit before they even consider you for training! And because their hiring practices are so thorough, they have built a name for themselves that doesn’t require much more than advertising to get customers in the door. Funny how those two tie in together.
Bottom line, AIL isn’t for everyone. I’m glad you have achieved success in the company, and I wish you further success. But I guarantee that if they changed their hiring practices, blogs like this would cease to exist. If they want to keep their agents, and not waste time training people who won’t stay, then they need to pay for training to build loyalty and offer a more rigorous hiring process to weed out the feelers. Someone mentioned the company needs to invest in the agent, and I completely agree. Had I had the financial support needed to maintain working for them, I would still be with them, and not on this blog.
Oh, and change the attitude, and tell others in the company to do the same. No one likes an arrogant jerk, no matter how rich he pretends to be.
(The SGA of my company who did my final interview was genuinely nice and not at all arrogant. If my SA and MGA had been more like him, maybe I’d have stuck it out through the financial hardship.)
I just completed my interview process with AIL. I would have say my interviewing process was totally different. I responded to a posting for a sales position on line. Although the company name was not mentioned. ( Which for some jobs do not on Craiglist)The rep who contacted me, without me asking identified the company and facts about the company. I have to admit, I do have a sales background and applied for a sales position. However, I have also encounter companies contacting me for positions I did not applied for. Nature of the beast when you put your resume out there on sites like Monster.com. You have to keep in mind, people look for certain things when looking for prospects for opportunties. Some may look at people in dead end jobs, low paying jobs or jobs without growth to offer you an opportunity to try something different. I would take it as a good thing, that someone that you were important enough to call. I would worry if no one called.
I have read many views regarding this company as well as other sites for company history and facts. What I have concluded is that most complaints were about individual practices, not company practies. Sorry guys, I guess I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that some people will do about anything to get a sell, and then there are some who will do the right thing.
I already have a licease that I had paid for when I worked for another Fortune 500 Insurance company. Remember people, the license is not for the company, but a requirement from the state. If a company pays for it for you, just remember, “much is given, much required.” Therfore, it is not uncommon for insurance company to require you to pay and this is not a scam. Also, the licence stays with you.
I am excited about the opportunity and looking forward to financial growth. Oh yeah, I was informed by the person who interviewed me about the cons. And he made it clear about the many points many have raised including that it would require long hours and hard work. Interesting concept, almost every sucessful person said the same thing.
I am sorry Rick was mislead. But thank you for the heads up. I guess I got someone in the company who have morals instead of greed.
Last, to those who are considering any big or life changing decisions make sure it is yours not some else. Like a comments made earlier, “before you close an open door look inside first.”
Lisa
American Income Life and Prime America are both pyramid schemes that involve insurance of some kind. My advice is to steer clear of both of these so called companies. Any involvement with either is illegal and could have serious repercussions if you are found to be involved with it. Ignorance will not protect you either. Here’s a warning from the FTC on how these types of scams work and how they are disguised to look legitimate. It also covers briefly on Ponzi schemes as well.
http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm
For those of you who are involved with either of these schemes and think they are legitimate, think again. If I were you, I’d bail out ASAP. For the rest of you, continue to steer clear, as you are doing the right thing.
One more thing for those of you in the Phoenix Metro area. American Income Life is located at 3800 N Central Ave in a building that humorously has a wire pyramid located on top of it. Kind of an interesting irony in itself. They are on the sixth floor in suite 600. Their current telephone number is 602-266-8220. Any calls from this telephone number should be ignored. They may go by the name of Brandon Cooley when they call if they give any name at all. Brandon is apparently the guy who is running this part of the scheme here.
Here’s a picture from Wikipedia of the building they are in here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_City_Square
Anyone in the Phoenix area should recognize this office building if they have been here for a while.
AIL is not a scam. This is a company where you have to build your own business, your own empire. This is not a 9-5 job with weekends off and vacation time. It takes alot of work and long hours to be successful. It is up to you to be successful. They will not force you to work if you don’t want to. Money will not be handed to you just because you got dressed and came into work…its not an hourly based job. The money you make is up to you (opportunity unlimited, there’s no limit to how much money you can make). If you have never started your own business don’t expect to understand it. People give this company a bad wrap because they chose to give up and quit before they saw any results…if you don’t work hard, you will not be rewarded in this company. You have to be willing to sacrifice short term gratification for long term gain. Not many people are in a financial position to do that and that’s another reason people say horrible things about AIL. My boyfriend has worked for AIL for sometime now. There are sacrifices we both make in our relationship for the success in this company. He works from 830 am to 1130 pm sometimes. He works Saturdays and Sundays also. He has missed family get togethers and holiday functions with me on the account of working; he is rarely home. This is where I sacrifice because I rarely get to see him. If your spouse or significant other is not your number one teammate in this job you will not be successful. You have to have support from your significant other and you have to be positive, patient, diligent, driven and motivated to succeed. If you’re not, you will fail…which is
why most people leave the negative comments. AIL is the company to work for if you want to become successful in a short amount of time. It takes a certain kind of work ethic to do this job and to be successful…not everybody has it, but that doesn’t make the company a scam. I’ve seen the paychecks, I’ve seen the W2’s…its very real! I’m a very lucky girl and I’m beyond proud of my man for everything he’s doing with this career.
than x for your comment people suck I’m going to give them a aif a chance to prove all these people wrong bu t if i find out different there will be a lesson learned one way or a another
american income financial my interview is June 4,2015
Rick, thank you for this blog as I received a call awhile ago from a guy named “Gary” from American Income. I decided to search about this company and I’m glad I did. Thanks to all those who posted here warning about the outcome. You sure all helped. Thank you!
No problem, I can always tell when they’re on a new recruitment drive because the traffic to this article doubles. 🙂
I was just hired with Altig last week. For those who don’t know Altig is a shoot off of AIL and it’s parent company Torchmark (TMK). I am not required to pay for any study materials or pay for licensing fees. I don’t see how this job could be a scam. Many people here have been saying that an association with AIL is a scam because a new hire would have to pay before getting paid. It is a sales job. IT IS COMMISSION BASED!!! My manager was very honest and up front about that. People need to learn how to ask the right questions. Everyone is complaining about not having jobs and not going on interviews, but when AIL calls people get scared off because of a bloggers little article. Anything in life worth having is going to be earned with hard work and dedication. I am looking forward to hard-work, developing community relationships, and helping families prepare for the inevitable future that awaits all of us.
I was hired with AILI a couple of weeks ago. It seems like a good deal, if you’re willing to do the work. Alot of people don’t have that drive or desire to be successful, they are just satisfied with their given situation. Anything worthwhile is never easy and if it’s experience I gain, then that’s what pays later.
The fact of the matter is this… we live in an imperfect world. People lie, cheat, steal, deceive, and aren’t always forth coming. Yes, it maybe true that there are some AIL agents/ recruiters that are up front and forth coming with the details of their company and the position they’re hiring for but, it seems that more often than not representatives for the company are taking a “do anything to get them in” approach, and once in the recruiters are just continuing on with that mentality. I don’t do commission sales; bottom line. When I have done them, both times it was for my employer which were well known departments stores. And even that was just for extended warranties or shoes. I can’t sell something I don’t believe in or wouldn’t buy myself. I’m no stranger to hard work and have been working since I was 16, so I know that with any job you have to put in the time and effort to get the results you want. The thing of it is when you have this many people complaining about something and calling foul (and not just employees or recent applicants, but policy holders too) you have to sit back and look at the big picture. This insurance company is, with all due respect, an unknown. You don’t see it advertised and from all the reading I’ve done, in order to find out about it you have to Google it. That being said, the arguments being waged are based on trivial things. It’s great that in comparison they do some things differently and others they do the same, but what people are TRYING to SAY is that they’re being lied to in order to get them in. That’s the big point. It’s not about sales or having to work hard it’s the fact that there are a few bad practices being used across the board at a high volume of AIL offices. People are being manipulated to come in for a job with potential to earn big. It’s not a guaranteed pay check of said amount every two weeks or every month; it’s a “could be” game. Your paycheck could be this, this week but it could be this next week; it just depends on you. That’s what peoples complaints are about. It’s not too much to ask to be honest and upfront. Take away the fact they’re an insurance company; if it were any other employer seeking people to hire and they lied to you or didn’t tell you about the position they were looking to fill would you want to stay with them or even give them a second look. In all likelihood no, you wouldn’t. What each of these people want is full disclosure. They want to know what they’re getting into before they sign up not after. People are tired of being lied to or made to believe something that’s not true. Yes, I don’t know anything about AIL but what I do know, and what seems apparent, is that AIL needs to instill policies that are followed throughout their entire network of offices and agencies. People want honesty and when they’re given that they can make the choice of what they want to do or pursue without second guessing or being wary of their choice.
I got a call from AIL and set up an interview for Feb. 16th. The woman said the position was for a customer service rep. I told her I was not interested in sales and did not know insurance products. She said it was not a sales position, but rather a position where I would speak with customers and help them understand how to best utilize the insurance products after they were already purchased. She told me this AFTER I had told her that I had spent the last 12 years as a field trainer for biotechnology products, helping customers after they had bought the machinery my old company sold. The AIL HR manager said the position she was recruiting for was very similar to what I had been doing, only the products would be different. I asked if there was a program in place to educate me on the insurance products since I had absolutely no experience in that field. She said absolutely they did. She did not mention that I would need any license or give me any indication I would need to pay for this out of pocket.
So, now I have pretty much figured out this is probably just a sales job. I told that HR woman in the first minute she called that I didn’t like or want to do sales. Like so many others I don’t appreciate the sly way they try to get you to the interview. Thanks Rick.
God, I wish I had seen this before I wasted 2 1/2 weeks with this “puppy mill” of an insurance agency. As an unemployed engineer looking for some cash, I thought I could “stick it out”. But the level of the “management”, the crass way they operate…..I was mortified. They bad mouth each other, skip mandatory proceedures and lie to customers. And when I took my concerns to the head guy, he was just a big thug that happened to make money off the uneducated masses that he was lucky enough to retain. The turn over rate there is unbelievable. This is the absolute lowest rung of insurance….and for that matter business.
New York Life, enough said!!! Now thats a company! AIL cant touch it, thy should take some pointers on the training they offer at NYLife!
I went for my “5 point interview process” today. I am supposed to go back at 9 am tomorrow. From what I was told today I wouldn’t spend a dime on leads school or marketing tools. What should I do? These posts date back 2 years. WOW! I personally know the guy that runs the mcintosh group in asheville. I’m going to BLOW HIS MIND when I take in the print offs of all this. He’ll have some explaining to do!
Today I went to AIL for the first portion of the interview process. The pitch that was given in a conference room to myself and several other individuals, was very intriguing. Promises of large paychecks and stock options, you get what you put into it. We were told to go home and “research ” the company tonight and to expect a phone call for a follow up interview tomorrow. Upon researching the company this is what ive found. I don’t have time to read through every post….if there’s ANYONE who knows anything about the legitimacy of the office in Maine please help!!
I’m currently employed by an insurance company in Hartford, CT. I recently put my resume on career builder, and because the word ‘insurance’ appears in my resume, I immediately get solicitations from State Farm, Aflac, Prudential, etc. to become an ‘independent agent.’ I am not a salesman. I suck at it. Therefore, I run away from any commission-based employment opportunity.
I received my call from an AIL ‘recruiter’ yesterday afternoon for a Benefit Specialist position at an office in Burlington, MA (about an hour from my house). Having been bilked by a pyramid scheme in the past, my spidey senses were immediately triggered. My caller ID came up as a ‘wireless caller’, then she went into the whole speech about AIL and their parent company torchmark. I told her I didn’t want sales. And as a couple of other post-ers have indicated here, she told me it would just be travelling and explaining benefits to customers.
That’s when I did my research that led me to this blog. I will not be going to this ‘interview’ today. I’m not saying that you can’t make money off of AIL, but as many people have indicated here, their ‘recruiting’ is very, very shady to get you in the door. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
I am a manager at AIL and I only want to recruit those who want an opportunity. How can you say anything about an opportunity if you never gave it a chance? Opportunity here at AIL is real and all it takes is you deciding you want to make it happen. People come in and love it because they are motivated, willing to learn, and have a positive attitude. As you can see those who talked bad about AIL never gave it a chance and those who worked for AIL but did not make it is not motivated, not willing to learn, or does not have a positive attitude. Simple as that. You can take this anywhere actually, not just AIL. Just do those three and you will be successful anywhere.
I just want to remind anyone posting new comments on here to refrain from making vague comments, posting curse words or knee-jerk emotional responses. Otherwise you may discredit yourself before AIL.
I am also considering getting my license with AIL, but the recruiter who spoke to me didn’t try to rope me into anything…She said she wanted to make sure that I was a “good fit.” She answered some questions about the duties and the pay-even clarified what a guaranteed commission was vs. a regular commission. Something most jobs won’t even allow for a phone interview.
It seems like most people on here are upset about the job being mis-represented once they arrived for an interview or after being hired.
From what I read about the company online, each office is owned and operated by a manager who follows the standards and quotas created by AIL. You know, like the Best Western hotels. So, I can only assume that there are some bad managers…
Anyway, I encourage everyone currently looking for ANY job to listen to what you feel about the job AND the potential boss and not take a One-Size-Fits all attitude. I made that mistake at my last job, and now someone else is in my place making the money that I rejected because of anonymous faces complaining on the web.
WOW! These comments make me wonder whether some of the complainers were not successful due to poor listening skills.
REMEMBER: This is an insurance sales position! THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. If the recruiter told you “no sales”, but the interviewer says “yes sales”, you need to grow some and tell the manager that their Recruiter is giving misleading information. Why would you post the information anonymously where no one will benefit from the constructive criticism?
Btw, AIL is not a scam. They market to the unions not the general public. I have seen the policies, the paperwork, and have taken phone calls from policy holders. They also been around for over 55 years and have never had to change their name. To me, that says a lot about the credibility of the company.
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If you are not making money after being hired there are only (3) possibilities:
1. You are not following your training.
2. The manager has trained you poorly.
3. Perhaps both of the above
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Unfortunately, yes there are some bad seeds that work in the financial industry. Being famous in the finance industry does not exempt you from this. (Think Enron or freshly imprisoned Dominique Strauss-Kahn) But what most people forget is that your success in dependent on YOU.
AIL is not an adult daycare. We do not put up with people giving impressions with no follow-through/work ethic.
I don’t know about the other locations, but at my AIL office in North Carolina we don’t make ANYONE pay for training, licensing or supplies. AIL takes care of the details as long as we find enthusiastic and qualified candidates. I think you will be hard pressed to find an insurance company that will pay for your license and not make you pay for leads AND offer stock options AND have retirement benefits AND membership into an a Union.
If you cannot make at least $500 per week, then it’s just not for you, or you’ve chosen not to listen to your trainer on how to manage your time efficiently PERIOD.
My name is Kortnie, and I work full-time as an Office Manager and a Recruiter for AIL. I was suspicious when I was hired, but then I did the research. My manager was a jar head (He calls himself that so spare me the offense) who made over 100K with AIL fresh out of the Marines.
If anyone reading this would like to know more from someone within the company: kortnieemmonsAIL@gmail.com
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BOTTOM LINE:You will get exactly what you put into this position, and anyone who says differently is looking for a hand-out. If you want the pay without having to do the work, go back to Chili’s.
FYI: The last two comments, from “Considering Getting my License” and “AIL Recruiter here” are from the same IP address. Also, the first one has the same email address as posted in the comment of the second one.
So Kortnie, are you looking to get recruited by AIL and getting your license? Or are you recruiting FOR AIL?
BTW, “You will get exactly what you put into this position, and anyone who says differently is looking for a hand-out.” is exactly the same thing Amway reps say when they’re trying to recruit.
That applies to life in general negative Nancy Rick. You get out of it what you put into it. Obviously you don’t do much but post on here so it don’t take a rocket scientist to know you aren’t successful
These guys are a legalized scam. Nothing they are doing is illegal. But the method that they use to mislead people should be. Anyone who has been there at least three months can see what is going on. What they do is mass hire. It is to their benefit to mass hire so that they can sell you false dreams and hope for the time you’re there. They won’t tell you that anything pending at the time you quit or half of your income which is your backend will be theirs at any point they decide or you decide to terminate yourself. So they have you trapped. If you quit they take half your money and if you stay they continually get a cut of whatever you make. They’d rather you stay so that they can continually make money off you but most people 98 percent won’t last a year so they need to constantly hire. Of course you won’t know that upfront until you quit or if you work nonstop and put your life behind so that you can be that 2 percent that makes it to manager and makes a living off hiring other people. They also won’t tell you when you get hired that a large percentage of people quit their policies or don’t qualify so its very hard to make money unless you work nonstop and god forbid you have a family because you won’t see them. It will also be pretty common that you spend more money in gas, food, then you actually made that week. To get to bonus you need 1100 alp. Lets say you get 1100 alp. What you made that week is $550. Not bad right? Well you will only get paid about half that and get the rest in 9 months. God forbid they lose their job or have money problems which is a common issue and cancel or miss their payments because you will have to pay all the money back. I use to be in the managers meetings and not even the managers could consistently get sales every week. They might get a good week of 3000 alp or more and then several weeks goes by where they made next to nothing. But god forbid we let anyone we hire know how difficult it is because we want them to think this job is soo easy and so we can make money off them for as long as possible till they realize the deceit that we need them in order to pay our bills.
Yes, I did post both comments.
They were two different viewpoints of mine:
1. Considering getting my own license before having a position with AIL.
2. Now as a recruiter for AIL.
I don’t know anything about amway, sorry.
Whether I’m recruiting or not, the point is not to get in an argument about, “Yes! I knew it, they’re abc.” or “No! I knew it, they’re xyz.” It’s about giving out facts and personal accounts that support or correct the(mostly false and biased)information floating around the internet.
Let’s put it this way – Many people in the mid-late ’90s found themselves using Wally World more and more because it provided a one-stop shop environment for them. This eventually led to many smaller mom-and-pop businesses failing because their main demographic of shoppers began using w-mart for almost every purchase.
Is/was Walmart really to blame for local businesses closing down? Maybe. Is it illegal for the smaller business to lose customers to Walmart? Definitely not. But the choices the shopper made influenced both businesses. SO, the final conclusion that we must remember is that it’s the individual’s responsibility to decide which business has their best interest at heart. Both can provide what the consumer wants and maybe one distributor is better than the other, but to conclude that the larger company is always preying on the individual like The Big Bad Wolf completely discounts the fact that everyone has a choice and an opportunity to do their research.
If you don’t like the idea of working for a major business or a corporation, chances are you won’t like AIL! If you prefer to work for a mom-and-pop business, then do it! If you want to work outside, go work for a agricultural or a construction company!
The time has already passed where we could blame our personal and professional hang-ups on a job or a single entity. If you don’t like what you see, don’t let the door hit ‘ya on the way! And if you think it’s a scam…Well, then you probably don’t understand the opportunity or the world we live in very well.
That’s all I’m going to say on this subject. To all the successful people: Make it happen!
I can name TWO legitimate, very highly recognized insurance companies that not only pay for your licensing, but your training as well. They also give you a base salary AND any commission earned is on top of your base. Ameriprise and United Health Group. I worked for both. I started at UHG and they paid for 8 weeks of training, paid for the 3 days of licensing classes, paid for me to take my exam (Accident/Health License). At Amerirpise same story. Paid for 8 weeks of traning, paid for the 5 days of licensing classes, paid for me to take both my Property and Casualty exams. I passed both the first time but if I had not they would pay 2 more times for me to try. I have been an insurance agent for 5 years and trust me, companies do pay for this stuff. AIL sounds like a bad company with borderline unethical practices and scams.
Oh and neither of those companies made me pay for leads. I am curious. I live in NC and I am reading all over the internet that AIL will not pay for licensing. But a few posts up someone says that AIL WILL pay for licensing. Which is it?
Sorry to keep replying but the person that wrote two different posts under the same ip address and got caught. I was about to believe you. I read your post under the AIL recruiter and was going to email you. But now that I realize you posted 2 things under 2 different “names” I feel like you just confirmed the the very picture of ail that you were trying to negate. Who does that?
I recently went through the interview process. I recieved a phone call to set up an interview. The lady on the phone didnt answer any of my questions she just kept saying “they’ll go over that at your interview” I went to the interview which was 1 on 1 to start and was asked a few basic questions what do you like to do on your free time and things like that. Then 12 of us were put into a conference room. A guy walks in and says “I make a millon dollars a month and i only work 4 hours a day” and for the next hour he talks about how he makes all this money blah blah blah. Then we all got seperated again. I was told that I have the best potential out of everyone interviewing. As I was leaving, I walked by another office and I overheard the exact same speech I was told best potential blah blah blah. I asked about pay and all I got was a bunch of numbers put on paper that didnt make since at all I tried to ask questions but the guy just kept dancing around them. I told them I wasnt interested in a job and I told them I felt like this was a “get rich quick scam” This company gave out my email address and my cell phone number. Now Im receiving all kinds of telemarketing calls and my email is filled with get rich quick crap. I was at the Ft collins, CO office. YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE MAKING MONEY AT THE SLOT MACHINES THAN THIS COMPANY.
I have just been through this nightmare with AIL and YES they are a scam and with my documents as well as theirs I just filled out my paperwork for Civil Suit. I did everything I could to succeed here. If you are not in your 20s you get bad training. I was sent out with two SA that had only been doing it 2 months. One SA had me misrepresent myself. In writing and in person I went to management. Janet Hill tried to mediate and I have a small reimbursement check. But guess what the SA that violated 9 laws in less than a week has her job. Shes part of a clique that is disgusting. Then in the middle of our training , the whole office took off for 2 weeks leaving us with 2 more weeks of no money. I could go on forever but here was the last straw. They know that I have work in legals and have a pretty decent knowledge of contracts. They tried to slip a bunch of lies into a legal document( I am using this in court)
jennifer Thomas
TO:
Janet Hill
Message flagged Tuesday, May 15, 2012 11:54 AM
Janet, ( this is not personally towards you)
Couple concerns with this settlement, My appointment went through with AIL not Altig, This settlement states that I was not contracted with AIL. This is a false statement. My appointment was given April 26th 2012. so I CAN NOT sign it. While I understand that your business is trying to cover itself, this could go back on me as lying on several legal documents, which you know I wont do and seeing that the employment office has this info I would then be required to pay all of my benefits back, Not going to do that for 300.00 dollars. I also have a problem with it because if I receive any violation in the future because Gary complains, then I am on my own and 316.00 wont cover that. I am out of a job, out of my benefits, Months of work I can’t get back, Legal consequent regarding my unemployment benefits ( I made a statement regarding Ail to them) and your lawyers have the notion that I will sign this. all this should have said is that I am no longer affiliated with and this was a reimbursement for money I already paid for a bogus job, bogus training and a bunch of kids that took off in the middle of this so they could make more money and leave us screwed for two extra weeks. while the person that violated still works for the company. Then I will have a huge fine to pay, Could get jail time, pay back the 8 grand I have received from employment benefits. I worked my tail off for nothing and may end up with a problem later and AIL skips away unscathed. Especially with the info I just received from the commissioners office. AIL has a lot more problems than just me, I am so glad that I contacted them about my appointment. That was a low thing for AIL to do and knowing that I have a background in this type of thing. I now feel that when I was trying to be nice and walk away with my lousy 316.00. your company took it as stupidity. Instead of respecting that or having some appreciation for it, you insult my intelligence and think that I would not realize what this was. I know that you did not write this Janet but to be honest, This is insult on top of injury, With everything you have heard about me and all the things I have done for others that I would set myself or my family up for this kind of harm. You want to call and talk to me that’s fine. But if not, that’s fine too, now all of this will go to the commissioners office so they can deal with these violations as well as they can deal with Jahara.
The only words I have left is how dare you AIL! For a company already under investigation, not real bright!
Jennifer
e me a very illegal settlement to sign. This was not a settlement it was reimbursement. This legal contract false, a false document because it was written with false info and they new it.
Needless to say I got my reimbursement without signing that garbage. So for all you AIL employees, Yeah good for you, you kissed enough butt to be part of the team, you go!
For the rest of us, we know the truth, we were there. By the way if you want to say its because we are not driven, I will put my history and accomplishments up against yours any day. We also know why this company picks 22 year old kids to run their business, They are young, haven’t lived yet and will do whatever they say. The moment I realized kids were running things I got nervous. I am going to do everything in my power to bring the truth of this horrible company to light
if you have to sacrfice your family for a job its probably not worth it. I bought into it for 2 months now and jumped out of a field trainers car in the middle of the hood with my laptop in tow and quit today. I have worked rediculous hours for a month with no compensation because it is all scripted and dirty tactics. It’s BS.
I just received a call for an interview for a manager position set for tomorrow, Haha, after reading 2 years of posts I’m surely not going on that interview, and that phone number is blocked. As an unemployed engineer bs if I would pay for training on selling insurance.
Ok people I think we need to settle this whole sales thing a bit. Everyday when you open your eyes something is being sold to you. If you are to ignorant to see that then maybe the blinders need to come off. Unless you are living in the woods, with the all natural life (which means you would not be on here posting) something around you that is in your home or personal belongings was sold to you. I.E. the food that you ate whether it was one of the fast food chains, a sit down restaurant, or lunch from home, it was sold to you. Your means of transportation, the gasoline you buy, your entertainment providers, your technology, choice of music, clothes you wear or your children wear,make up, perfume, cologne, and the list can go on was all sold to you!! Some people have what is called charisma/character that makes them successful sales people some don’t. But if your not honest with yourself and know yourself or goals then this job probably isn’t for you, or any job cause at some point you are going to have to sell yourself(also known as the interview).
Now I had an interview today with AIL. They did not “lie” to me on the phone, and Arville was very nice and answered my questions. The HR manager gave me a 2 min interview and then proceeded to take me to the 2nd interview which was kinda like an orientation……all pros and cons were laid out on the table. I texted my grandfather who was an Independent insurance adjuster for 30 years before retiring and guess what? He paid for his License and cert. And paid to have them renewed. He said it was common practice, once again showing the company incentive that you want to work for them. Oh and my grandpa lives on the otherside of the US from me, and in the beginning a door to door salesman. Also like many stated the license is yours, not the companies, if it doesn’t pan out oh well guess what you made a small investment on yourself. Do i have questions that have come to light since the grueling? Yes and hopefully I impressed them enough to come back for that thrid interview to pan this out. I did forget to ask for their finical records, and the contract. My bad. But hopefully i brought some light to the table about sales if nothing else. Believe me if you think Donald Trump, or a few others like him work 5 days a week,, 9-5 you are sadly mistaken. Hence the reason they have been married multiple times. Even a common race horse has the exctinct bredded into him to be the best and never settle for less, if an animal can do it then so can i because guess what? Iam human and supposedly at the top off the food chain because i stand upright. So think outside the box and go to see what it is about,and do some critical thinking for yourself instead of being sheep and make your own decesion. Then maybe the world will be right again, before we become drones?
Theresa-no one is biting. Your analogies are beyond ridiculous. Yes we all sell ourselves in interviews. We all buy products that are sold daily. We get that. I’ve been in insurance for 6 years and I’m here to tell you reputable insurance companies PAY for your licensing and subsequent continuing ed. Now back in the day I’m sure reputable agencies did make you pay but that’s not the case today. This American Income Life is a scam. It’s blatantly obvious and the only reason people even consider it is because we are desperate for gainful employment and we want to believe this is legit. It’s NOT. We all know your one of their cronies. If its such a legit company why did no one respond to my emails voicing my concerns? Ha.
So I literally just got hired by AIL yesterday. They are fully paying for me to get my license and as skeptical as I am after reading this I might as well get my license on their money and see how it goes from there on. Right?
Please come back in a few months and do let us know how it worked out. Are you sure they’re not taking the money for your license out of future money you maybe making?
Been “working” for AIL for a little bit under a month and I can’t say I’m not nervous. Paid for the online training software, testing fees and state registration fees (about $350 in total) not to mention the 3 weeks of training and shadowing where you didn’t get paid for (other then the occasional 35 dollar gas kickback). Add that in with the horrid hours, the amount driving and the fears over having to pay if the policy sold ( i have sold some policies and made bonus in my first week, not sure what the check will look like yet) and what has been mentioned here has made me uncomfortable. Not sure I’ll be here much longer.
Not that I know of Rick, but that is something I should ask. I’ll be back to tell me story. Thank you.
Hello Morty, How Did AIL work out for you?
Seriously Rick you have been on here for like 4 years of your life bashing a company that you know nothing about. Get a life. We are the ONLY company trusted to work with the teachers union, firefighters, police, and all the restock the 20,000+ unions and veterans associations for the last 70 years. We just be doing sonething right.
I have been with the company for 3 months now. AIL’s insurance program is designed to keep the premiums within 4% of your income. Now there are those few homes that really cannot afford it, but we do not go into homes with an intent to get as high of a profit off them as we can. If you were in this business just to make a ton of money then you were here for the wrong reason. I have been making good money and I have helped many families. Now is there some money I have to put out for gas and car maintenence? Yes. Is it costing me more to do this than what I’m bringing in? No. You will reap what you sow. You put in the time and effort and you make those sacrifices, you will get what you deserve. Insurance is the hardest field to get into and to stay with. It is not for everyone. Making a ton of money should not be your main goal in any job, no matter what it is. If you do something that you have a passion for, you will succeed and you will make the money in time. No matter what job it is. As far as the scam thing is concerned, AIL does NOT advertise so not many people know what this company is about and because of that, it is very easy for people to try and scam the company. AIL is a legit company with legit values and commitments to our clients who are mainly union, credit union, and association members. Only recently has this company opened up to service friends and families of these members. Make you sure you are doing your research before you can make your judgement.
I received a phone call from AIL on Monday asking if I could come in for an interview on Wednesday. My expertise was in inside sales, which I mentioned to the woman on the phone, and she said it was for an inside sales position. I went to my interview and the waiting room was packed with close to ten people. There weren’t even enough chairs to accomodate everyone. This is in the Detroit metro area where unemployment is high, so it did not surprise me that a lot of people were there. A woman asked for my application and that I sign in. Almost as soon as I sat down, who I could only assume were ‘managers’ started coming through the door at roughly 10 minute intervals calling people in. Most everyone that was there was dressed business professional, though one or two looked as if they had little to no professional sales experience whatsoever. I was called into an office and spoke with one gentleman that seemed impress with my credentials. He then escorted me to a conference room for my ‘second’ interview, which consisted of literally everyone that showed up. I sat down and was given a presentation about the company, what their market is and the benefits. Much like most have verbalized here, there is the promise of unlimited income down the line, with risidual pay after ten years. They offer roughly $170.00 for gas and you have to pay $134.99 for your insurance license, which is not refundable. There was no base pay, and you are essentially paid on retention of the policies you are sold, and there is an 80% retention rate. I left the interview feeling somewhat optimistic and was told I would receive a call either later that afternoon or the next day for a third interview. I received a call that afternoon asking if could come in for an interview the next day and I accepted. In doing further research and reading sites such as this one, I cancelled my third interview. It seemed like a pyramid scheme, but those are not illegal, and thought this place might be different. I will not assume that every person who accepts a job with AIL will have a horrible experience, only because I never made it far enough to find out, but I worked as a sales executive for 5+ years in the IT industry and will tell this to anyone who is looking to take a job with AIL: Look at the facts and weigh the pros and cons:
1. Paying for your insurance license may not be that absurd of a concept, but as it has been stated in these posts, there are more well known insurance agencies out there that do not make you pay for it.
2. When your turn-over for new agents is 98%, as it has been well documented, that isn’t just a case of people not being able to cut it when it comes to selling insurance.
3. When an organization doesn’t check your references (I put on my resume I can provide references upon request, so in my case, they were willing to hire me with no references at all) that should tell you something.
4. Again, I never made it that far, but there was no mention of a drug test, so you could be a crack head for all they care.
5. Count the number of negative comments people have made about working as a sales rep for AIL (all of these comments usually are backed up with names, locations, phone numbers, articles) then compare them with the positive comments which are never verified or proven and usually contain the phrase “I made $3000 last week” or some equally high dollar amount.
6. People who have been burned or deceived by AIL, or any former employer for that matter, have nothing to gain by posting negative comments about them. The internet gives them a voice to pass their bad experience along to others in an effort to keep other people from making the mistake they made. They don’t get an apologetic email with a check from AIL because they feel they were treated unfairly. AIL field trainers, however, do have an interest in negative comments about their hiring practices and sales jobs because that is how they make money, so you do the math.
7. It is harder to hire someone the legitimate way and give them a base salary plus compensation then give them a sales goal of signing 20 new policies and much easier and less costly to hire 20 people and hope they sell at least one new policy. Those twenty people come at no cost to AIL since they make back what they pay you in what you don’t sell.
8. this is most important: A REAL SALES JOB GIVES YOU A BASE PAY PLUS COMMISSION. You are essentially an independent contractor for AIL, meaning your pay structure is on par with a newpaper carrier.
From my persepective, you would have to be insane to take a sales job with them. It is a pyramid scheme, plain and simple. Even if you go out and bust your *** and make sales, the guy over you will not advance you because then he loses out on money.
I would not trust a single positive comment made about AIL because they have everything to lose the more negative information that is floated around about them.
You are dumb. I can’t believe there are pages like this one all over the net where one retard asks a stupid question and then 700 other retards answer it 700 different ways with none being correct. This agency is not a scam. I just got a job with them and bought the computer im talking shit to you with. GET A LIFE
Jake- if AIL would hire a person like you to represent them, then clearly I made the correct choice by not working there. You use insults to “prove” your argument. That just makes your argument weak. Peace!
Once again to make this crystal clear for anyone asking for names of insurance agencies that pay for training, licensing and fees, United Health Group and Ameriprise are two! This is fact and from personal experience. They paid for 8 weeks of training, all the licensing classes, the actual exam fees and books. Both also will pay up to 3x if you can’t pass the first go! They also pay for continuing education! They also do not make you pay for leads. Now these positions were salaried, plus commission as well. Usually 30k base plus commission. At UHG the commission was pretty much unlimited. Ameriprise was about $1-2k extra a month. Also my neighbor works at Wells Fargo and they have paid for his series 7 exams. It’s tough out there, but there are great companies that will invest in you!
Well Chat there definitely is pie in your face, because I’am not one of their “cronies”. I had actually turned down the job after a third interview because of the hours of commitment. I then went to another interview with Farmer’s and State Farm, and guess what? They also wanted up front payment for licensing. Now those are big companies, so to my conclusion it seems that every company is different about this. Its just a matter of who you want to work for and where. Either way I don’t care because I found my dream job and quite pleased with the fact I had waited before excepting anything.
No sorry, there is no pie in my face. What, you expect me to believe you? To take your word that State Farm requires the agent to pay for his/her license? That’s funny because I applied there as well and they were going to pay for my licensing fees. I’m just trying to protect people that could get preyed on.
Hey guys, this place is a scam they hire anyone and right after they hire you they ask for $150 for training. Any job thats legit will give you free training. I will be contacting the FBI on these people. They are getting people hopes up of work and these people will never see money. I notice something funny about them when i went up there and it was like 30 other people up there. Then i look on their wall its just pictures of them not no other workers. Now if this suppose to be a big company then why not have your workers on their to. You can tell something funny is going on in there its on there face. The lady at the front desk seems to know its wrong but hey shes getting paid as a cover up. We must all put this company on blast. Im even call the news station about this, this place was close down in 2011 so the guy changes the company name to his name. Any real job will tell 100’s of people they are hire at once. Its not enough money to go around for that, they dont even have thier own building. This is scary and sad what people are doing to others own American’s. They tell you they will train you but they dont tell u once u get the license they wont give u work or people to contact sell insurance to. Its all on you. But this is what really got me, they call people back who is in need of money. Like they call people back who usually wouldnt get call back like me. Just being real i have a felony for Arm bank robbery and i put that down, not once did Corey Neff ask me about that felony and it was right in front of his face. Thats signs of a scam! What company dont bring that up at all even tho its right in their face on paper? Funny business.
Below is the website where people are making the same complaints. You guys who speak good of this company are full of crap u work for the scame of course you will protect it.
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-602-266-8220/3
You are lying obviously because you can’t get licenses with a felony so we dont accept applicants who have a felony. Take your lies somewhere else
Im a felon, they hired me, im 50% through the class, after everything Ive read, this job is clearly a scam. They want me to get the sales so they dont have to pitch anymore. They are running out of people to pitch. I got a canvassing job where i try to sell a FREE demo appointment with hopes that after the demo they buy. They are giving me a base pay plus incentives. Which is way more than this “lucrative” sales agents / manager in training/ work at ail, who works for altig, who works for torchmark. I also thought it was funny that people who didnt quit after a month or 3, stayed for ten years, which were 4 people in this entire blog, they reposted their stories 2 times each….
So i have been working for AIL for just over 6 months now, and can truthfully state that this company is not a scam for consumers but it is for employment. My manager “helped” me to my first 2-3 weeks to get to the so called worlds greatest bonus. ALL that business canceled or fell off the books. So again i am stuck not making a check for the 3rd time. I consistently excell at the required amount of business to meet my set goals by more than double, and have barely scraped 400 a week and have never seen a bonus. I am officially quitting today and will be contacting a lawyer. It is illegal to not pay an employee if they go out and actually do the work.
Hey buddie im sorry to hear you fell to the Pyramid Scheme they are pulling on folks. I suppose to pay my $150 on thursday to start the greenlight training but im not going. I would hurt these people if they took my money and scam me. Good luck bro ill testify on your behalf if you need people. I already put them in burea buisness and contacted the FBI on the company in Phoenix. Their investigated and do not know it.
Yea, I’ll second anyone who said it felt a bit offputting, both with the random phonecall for an “office manager” and then the interview process itself. When I first recieved the phone call, I was a bit hesitant because no information was given, no company name…nothing; the only thing provided was you will be interviewing with “so and so”. My first impulse was “OK, maybe they are a temp agency or hiring firm and that’s ok”.
So I go to this thing about a month ago…pretty nice building, average car in the parking lot probably cost around 30,000, etc. All of this seems pretty decent so far. Get into the lobby and I see khakis, brown Sketchers (sneakers), Un-ironed shirts…*oh boy*. I wore a suit and had just polished my shoes.
Meet with a guy for a few minutes, seems pretty nice, but then I get handed a bunch of paper to fill out with ridiculous questions that should be asked by an interviewer, not hurridly scrawled on a packet. Ushered into a room with about 30 other people…given presentation…more paperwork…Q&A regarding experience (I have a pretty solid sales background with a number of references) Some people are talking about McDonalds and Walmart, which, not to be mean, is a caliber of people I do not want to be interviewing with. Thats the problem with “group interviews”, it makes the qualified people feel silly and “played” to have shown up.
Long story short, Im going to keep looking.
Thank you so much for your blog and to others for the feedback posted here. I went for an interview with AIL in Fort Collins, Colorado and met initially with the office manager who told me that if I thought that this was for me, to come back at 10 that morning. At 10, roughly 15 other people were crammed into a room to have an “interactive” group interview about “how to build a roadmap to a career full of success” – which, surprisingly, began with a career at AIL. I sensed about twenty minutes into this 90 minute sales pitch that it was a scam. Any legitimate company will pay or compensate you for training because they are investing in their own growth and profit by properly training you. I would think that it’s pretty common knowledge that a happy employee is a more productive employee?
Their hiring practice is scandalous, and to top it off you are expected to come back the very next day with 80 dollars on a bank card only no cash or check to pay for your training materials.
BEWARE!!
omg…. I am so glad I didn’t call these people back. They have called me 3 times and emailed me 4 times.
“Hi, my name is Theo Pappas and I am a State Director for American Income Life. I saw your resume on the internet and felt that I should contact you immediately. Our company currently has openings for several outstanding individuals like you. “
Thanks for this site.
Yes they are a scam far as employment. They are a real company that sells insurance but they already have all the ppl in their company. Any body like us they scam.
the commissions are the worst in the industry. a crappy 50% and there 10 year vesting deal is a straight scam. in normal company you get annual residuals 2~10% each year. in this bs they give you ONLY 10% of 5% which is .005%. then and i roflmao tell you after 10 years you will vest 100% of the 5% you would have earned every year with another company.
run away fast as you can. soon as i recoop some $$ I’m gone
I worked for the company for 8 months and should have left a lot sooner. I was a personal recruit and was told everything upfront about what I would have to pay for and the training process. I didn’t think it was a big deal paying for my training and licensing, especially if I was supposedly going to be making all this money. HAH! I spent more on “working” for this company than I made. The commission is nothing unless you’re at 15% bonus level. Forget taking time off to see your family, go to a wedding/funeral, or even take a day off. You’re screwed if you don’t hit your quota and you’re not at 15%. The “guaranteed advance” is not guaranteed.. so no, they DO NOT pay for your gas and cell like they tell you.
I still defended the company saying that they were great and blah blah blah… when my parents saw me struggling and continuously got phone calls from me saying I needed gas/food money, or that I wasn’t getting paid on Monday because of chargebacks, insufficient funds, etc.
I wasted tons of money on gas to go see “clients”… people who thought they were getting a free child safety kit (which is bs, an officer told me that those would not help the police start an Amber Alert), and they do what they tell you to do and pull the bait and switch on people and try to sell them insurance that most people can’t even qualify for.
For some reason, I had so much belief in the company and in myself, that after I had to voluntarily repossess my vehicle since I wasn’t able to survive on the paychecks I was recieving (or not recieving), I STILL defended the company and got upset with my family for not believing in me. This company had more control over me than my own family.. who I didn’t even get to see anyway because I was required to work 70-80 hours a week and they lived 9 hours away.
Forget the leads, they may be free but they are worthless. These people think they just have to sign a paper for their free $3000 of AD&D, or they don’t remember filling their info out on the yellow 3×5 card 2+ years ago. They are hard to book with and they are unaware about the “additional benefits you have to qualify for.” It’s better to cold call all your referrals who’s sponsors usually “forgot” to tell their friends they gave out their name and number to an agent.
If I’m a 1099 and supposedly self employed, why am I required to be in the office every morning and required to sit through all these hypocritical meetings and make phone calls for 5 hours? I don’t think that’s legal..
And listening to preaching about “mind, body, spirit,” make sure you work out and get 8 hours of sleep a night! Excuse me, when do I have time to work out when I can’t even sleep for 8 hours because I’m required to be in the field until at least 9pm?! Then you play some motivational video about “sleep is for suckers, how bad do you want success??!” Seriously, what the hell does this company think we are? Super humans? Or that we have a clone that can work out and sleep for us while we grind? Get real.
Forget moving up to an MGA or higher unless you know someone in the top 10 in your agency. I’ve seen people write $8k worth of fake business and then all of a sudden they’re in charge of the office. Oh wait, they were a personal friend with the SGA.. that makes sense now.
If you don’t want to make recruiting phone calls for a few hours every day of random people from monster.com and careerbuilder.com, you’re out too.
Words from my MGA even.. American Income is NOT a life insurance company, It’s a RECRUITING COMPANY THAT SELLS LIFE INSURANCE.
Yeah, great concept, but it doesn’t work! It’s structured horribly and on the verge of being illegal, lucky for AIL they don’t advertise, which is the only reason they can do what they do. I don’t think it’s necessesarily a scam, but it’s unfair, hypocritical, grueling, and it can lead to depression, reposession, bad credit, and loss of muscle tone or weight gain 🙁 They don’t tell you this part up front.
FINALLY 7 months later, after living off of food stamps and saving a few bucks here and there since I didn’t have to buy gas, I got a new car and most importantly stopped giving a sh*t. I made up excuses to not go into the office, I said my schedule was booked up so I didn’t have to attend phone nights, I went to one of the Monday meetings tipsy so I could live through it, and I booked 2 or 3 appointments a week.. and these were only people who REALLY wanted me to come bring them their child safety kits. I kind of did it for fun and something to do, plus I liked going to DC. This last month I wrote more business than I had ever in the company other than my first month. Not that I made much money because of the bonus levels but it was enough to allow me to quit, take a break, see my family, relax for the first time in almost a year, and find a new job.
I now work for Lincoln Heritage part time. I am not required to go to the office or attend meeting, I have no quotas, I choose where and when I work (making my own schedule is amazing, and I can do it part time!) Yes, I have to buy leads, but I have a lead account so I don’t pay out of pocket. With Lincoln Heritage, my leads I buy have called the company in the past week or two requesting more information and life insurance. And it’s a whole lot easier to educate about one type of life insurance that’s there for one purpose- their funeral. Plus, 90% of people can qualify, so they’re overjoyed and I’m happy and getting a paid without having to worry about a bonus. I just started getting my paythrough and it’s been 40 days, not 13 months. I’m also 100% vested in 2015, I don’t have to wait until 2022.
If you get anything from this, please PLEASE stay away from AIL! If you leave, watch out for the vector you’ll get in the mail. Don’t pay them!! They say I owe then $2,800. Really? THEY owe ME!! Time is money, and they hurt my relationship with my family. Plus that’s more than I actually profited from this company… I did my taxes and my accountant said if it were possible for a 1099 to get money back without dependents I’d be getting a ton back from what I put in to AIL.
$2,800?? Kiss my a$$ AIL, you’re never going to get that out of me 🙂
STAY AWAY PLEASEE!!!
With an attitude likecthatchivwobdrr your deals werejtcstickingvsjdctgeycwrrr canceling. I have a 90% retention of buisness because I don’t whine like you and I work hard but never work weekends and go on about 3 vacations per year and no I’m not an mga or in management at all. I make movies schedule and enroll members when I want to. All these negative comments from you are outrageous. If you worked this hard at ail as you did on these reviews you would stil be there
Hi my fiancee’ just purchased whole term life insurance with AIL. I was at a meeting and I could not attend when the agent stopped by. He had a kidney transplant in 2006 and is doing well, but takes the ant-rejection meds daily. However, I think 50.00 per month is a bit high for less than 50k worth of coverage. I have heard that it may possibly only be burial insurance. Now the person says he has to go to a 2nd underwriting phase…I asked would this increase his payment, she said it shouldn’t…I do not believe her…please advise
No switch insurance and quick!
I agree. You should switch, this is not a reputable or ethical company. Get rid of them and buy from someone like State Farm. They offer whole life and term life insurance and they are nationally known and have high customer satisfaction ratings. Just my two cents. I am not currently licensed, but I was a licensed property and casualty agent for 5 years. Before that I was a licensed accident/health agent. Good luck!
You should switch ASAP. There’s no such thing as “whole term life.” If anywhere it says term, drop it. That’s what you should be paying for burial insurance (which is strictly whole life.) Term will run out on you eventually leaving your family vulnerable. Sounds like your agent didn’t do their job right.
If you want very affordable whole life rates, contact Forethought or Royal Neighbors of America. NO ONE beats Royal, no matter what they say. They can beat AIL by almost 50%.
I do apologize the agent said it was whole life insurance. Nevertheless, I found out that she herself was not a licensed agent and that American Income Life has negative ratings from the NAIC (National Assoc. of Insurance Commissioners) and had a bunch of complaints reported to PA Insurance Dept. The BBB has closed many of the 132 complaint cases but before a person complains to the BBB most try to rectify the issue with company first. What I am saying is that I am sure most people tried to resolve the issue before reporting it to the BBB. The complaints are registered when the Consumer has had enough with AIL and turns to a third party for a resolution.
I can’t believe she was able to sell you insurance without being licensed! I’m not sure how she was able to get an agent number. Do you happen to know what agency she was with or the city she worked in?
Watch if you cancel your policy that they don’t continue drafting your account, I’ve seen in happen many times. I’ve been wondering how they keep up that A+ rating with AM Best.. but since it’s just for financial security, they have no problem making money by taking in from past agents who have quit.
Well I just got hired. I don’t know how it was years ago, but they paid for my courses and my licensing. It will require hard work and wear and tear on your own vehicle but ultimately the pay structure is good. You have to want to work and not expect things to fall in your lap. I don’t have to pay for leads and there is a great support structure from general management up to regional management.
Please come back in two or three months and let us know how it worked out. Good or bad.
I truly hope that it does work out for you, however are you sure they aren’t taking the fees for your licensing and classes out of your first check/commission? I’ve heard they do that. They’ll pay up front, but require you to pay them back, and they take it out of your pay. Furthermore as soon as someone on here makes the statement regarding, “you have to want to work and not expect things to fall in your lap” I immediately feel that you are not unbiased. The argument is always the same with them, if you feel they’re a scam, then you are just lazy, unmotivated and unwilling to work hard.
Another lie. You pay for your license up front out of your own money yes like 97% of other insurance companies but you don’t pay a dime for training and unlike other companies our leads are free. So please quit lying because you couldnt hack it
Are you still with tge company?
Hello Appletree! How did AIL work out for you?
They will expect you to pay them back for your licensing.. it’s a loan to help you out till you get started. I was hired less than a year ago.. and trust me.. I worked my a$$ off, 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, sometimes close to 90 hours a week. If you call that lazy, then I don’t know what the hell hard work is.
Appletree- the leads are free but they are terrible. Would a company really give you free leads if they were guaranteed sales? Especially with how easy it is to get a job at AIL? No, they wouldn’t. I saw so many people come and go, lots of people quit during training or right after training. Out of the people who thought that AIL was what they say it is during the overview and stayed to ask questions at the end and fill out their profiles, 90% were hired. And of those people 90% quit.
The ALP they call out in the meetings is just what agents have reported. Not what actually loaded, and NOT what their paycheck is if you cut that number in half. So many people I worked with wrote $4000 ALP and their paycheck was $400 if they were lucky.
I wish you the best of luck, but don’t be like me and stick around for 8 months, give your car back to the dealership because you can’t afford it and you lose sleep at night fearing that it will be repossessed during the night, and still stick up for the company and say “it’ll turn around, things will work out for me!” When things start to go even slightly downhill, please, RUN!
Mea once again lies from someone who couldn’t hack it. Been there 10 years and made 6 figures 7 out of my ten years and never worked over 59 hours a week. The leads are solid and referrals off them are gold. It amazes me the people that couldn’t hack it come on here and spend so much time complaining. Not surprised you couldn’t make it in a buisness where you get paid for what you put into it and how positive you are. I’ve never seen so many xobohsints from people that failed. Instead of picking yourself up you complain and what upsets me the most is the complete and utter lies that you pay for your training, that there are cold calls, that you wrote ALL this buisness but hardly got paid anything, etc LIES. You people are garbage for blatantly lying about a company that’s A+ superior rated financially and the ONLY company out of 2000+ insurance companies chosen and trusted to work with all the unions, credit unions and veterans assiciatioks the last 70+ years. Yeah I’d say we are doing sonething right
I don’t believe the company overall is a scam from a product-perspective, but the employment practices are severely questionable. They surf the net for resumes and call people who have posted resumes online with the false line that “(John Doe), our Manager, saw your resume online, was impressed by your qualifications, and asked me to call you to invite you in for an interview”. Actually, (John Doe) never saw your resume, it was farmed by the receptionist, Cindy, in the office who spends all day surfing the net for resumes and performing the pitch or one of several other recruiters (in addition to $8/hr for their time, they are compensated an additional $25 for every recruit who interviews and passes the state insurance department’s licensing requirements.
When they call you, they will invite you in for an interview, during which you will be interviewed briefly (sometimes in tandem with another potential agent and then be asked to join 40-50 others in a conference room for a video and a “company pitch” from a relatively new agent who describes how successful she has become in such a short time as an AIL agent. They then give you a test/questionnaire (which I doubt anyone reads) and tell you that 3-5 of you will be fortunate enough to receive a call back for a final interview (…they call everyone) and that only 2-3 of those will actually be hired (they’ll hire anyone).
I fell for this.
In the final interview, you’ll meet with a Manager who will vaguely describe the position and promise $400-800/week during training “…because we understand that you will need income during that period..” (yeah, right…see more about that later). If you do not yet have an insurance license, they require you to sign up for their recommended online training program with Greenlight Training at a cost of $150, which they say is a great deal because it normally costs $199 but they have a special arrangement with Greenlight (hate to be cynical here, but the AIL agent probably gets the other $49.
So, after $400 or so in costs…you’re hired. Three weeks of training of which one week is mornings in the office and afternoons making appointments over the phone or out in the field.
The way they are able to compensate you $400-800 during training is that they take it from the commissions of the person training you (more about that later). The company actually pays nothing.
So then you work 70-80 hours/week, 6-7 days/week. While the company pays weekly, you only get paid $175 after the first week. After the second week, if your trainer has had a good week, you might make $550-600…if they don’t have a payroll problem.
In my case, they had a payroll problem. On Monday of the third week, they couldn’t find my check. Then when they researched it, they said it had been direct-deposited (I had filled out a direct deposit form a few days earlier, but had been told it would be a real check for 2-3 weeks until it processed). They did, however have a real check for approximately $60 for my performance bonus which, for some inexplicable reason, is paid by physical check even when you have direct-deposit.
The Supervising Agent training me said she sent an email to the corporate headquarters. No response. She later told me that the Managing Agent sent an email to corporate headquarters. I was then told to get on the phones.
On Tuesday, I asked the Managing Agent about the issue. He replied that he had sent an email and they were “waiting for confirmation”. I then went to my bank, who confirmed that no deposit had been made. On Wednesday, 5 days after the direct deposit should have been made, I asked the Managing Agent to provide me with the name and contact information of the person he’d been dealing with in the corporate office. He replied that I “do not contact home office…”. I replied that I had not contacted home office, but needed to know what was being done about my pay. He replied that I had no idea how much he was doing to get me paid and was clearly indignant about me questioning him on the issue. I informed him that “I sent them an email” is not sufficient follow-up when an employee’s pay is concerned.
On Friday, seven days after I was to be paid, I received a voice-mail from the Supervising Manager in charge of my training informing me that they had a check for me and to contact her regarding picking it up. I sent her a response indicating that I understood that she was probably out in the field and that she could contact me with a time and place to meet her the following day or that I could come to the office on Monday when she is typically there. I did not receive a response.
On Monday, I went to the office and she told me I’d have to talk to the Managing Agent. He stated that he had the check, but would need confirmation from the corporate office over whether to give it to me. We then went through the same routine about whether he had done enough to ensure that I was paid for my efforts. I had worked something like 70 hours/week for 3 weeks at this point…and had been paid $175 plus approximately $60…roughly $235 for something like 210 hours of work.
His response was that the Supervising Agent had given a lot up for me to get part of her commissions and he felt I hadn’t contributed enough to the sales effort to have earned them…interesting considering that I’m not bilingual and most of the presentations were to Spanish-speaking leads which naturally limited my ability to contribute (…or, for that matter, to learn…).
So he left it with the point that I should be paid tomorrow (…I won’t hold my breath waiting…).
In essence…so far I’ve invested $400 in my own money for licensing and 200+ hours of time over 3 weeks…and I’ve received $235 in compensation.
I don’t believe this was a wise choice on my part…or theirs…
Well folks, I am now going to cancel my interview that is suppose to be tomorrow. It was for a benefits coordinator position. I initially applied from Craigslist as I thought it would be an office type job. The contact sent me an email confirming the interview and said I could email him with any questions. So I asked him about the various things I heard a benefits coordinator does. He said their managers only work 35 to 40 hrs a week and there is no cold calling or door to door. Heck I will just copy and paste his response back. This is for down in Cincinnati, Ohio although I live in Dayton? Already skeptical. Ain’t going. Here is his response….
“This is not a 24/7 career. Most of our managers work 35-40 hours a week. Your pay scale depends on which of the following positions we would be looking at you for. The email you responded to was for a benefits supervisor which is a management position. They get paid multiple ways, there is a guarantee base, commissions off of whatever your team enrolls and weekly bonuses. We also offer renewals which is a retirement program. Our company DOES NOT do any door to door, business to business(B2B) or cold calling so that is not a concern. I hope this helps you.”
It’s funny how those who like AIL have such poor grammer. I bet not one of them has a 4 year college degree. I went to the final interview and it was a joke. No gas money, no health benefits, no hotel expenses, and worse the part about it is the lack of respect they have for the clients. The guy who offered me a job said, “once you make a sale to someone, you dont even have to say thank you”. He then said, “they should thank you and if they want to meet with you again, tell the client or potential client you do not have time. Rude and unprofessional. That is not the way an insurance sales person should carry themselves. I worked at penn mutual prior to our office closing and our number one policy was to care about our clients and to make sure to follow up with them every few months. Avoid this company like the plague.
I got in there today and the second I sat down, major alarm bells went off. The whole time I was thinking to myself, “This is a pyramid scheme, google it when you get home to be sure, but this is a major pyramid scheme!” Good to see my alarms are in good working order
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I applied based on a job posting on craigslist. I interview believing I was interviewing for the “junior manager” position the posted. I’ve managed people all over the world so I figured I was a shoe in. 2 days later I was called by the secretary and came in for an interview with the office manager. I kind of knew what they were looking for as I had asked the secretary over the phone if this position involved selling annuities or insurance and she said “yes”. They had me fill out a couple papers while I was there, then I was shuffled into another room where there were several other folks already waiting. I along with the other folks watched a motivational movie they presented. I was then asked to hang around for a few minutes as the office manager would like to speak with me. I interviewed (I think that is what they called it) for about 5 minutes with him, but I believe he was just looking to see if I was the kind of person who would be able to cold call etc.
The office was a professional environment with nothing visible to make you think this place is a scam. My first meeting we watched a video on top producers (motivational). I then filled out a contract and left. I’ve been studying online for the state exam for a week now at their expense. I should say, after our weekly meeting folks went to separate rooms to role play and practice the script AIL has. I’ve not encountered any type of unprofessional behavior or anything. The team that is being built is 2/3 women so I doubt they discriminate like some blogs suggest. There are road trips, and these were mentioned briefly but I never went into any detailed questioning about these with the manager. One can already understand who pays for what so the decision to do it pretty much is up to you. I am currently in sales and you can go from hero to zero quickly. As others have already mentioned, sales isn’t for everyone. I will let you know if I make any money or if I will pull out soon. I have a full time job making great money now so I only committed to afternoons with AIL.
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I can’t believe this thread is 3 years long! I take my license test Sunday the 4th. if I pass I’m going on board with AIL. I’ll get back to this post and let everyone know how it goes. i’ll be out of the west orange, nj office. so far no promises, but they did say there are ups and downs and long hours. they have been up-front about everything.
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Hello will! How did AIL work out for you?
The fact that the person calling to recruit me could not remember the name of the company when I asked her leads me to believe this place is a joke. I have a degree in engineering so I do not understand why they are calling me to sell insurance.
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My son graduated from college this past May and put his resume on career builder. He was contacted by AIL. Last night 3 guys came to his apartment. He thought they were coming to talk to him about a job. Two hours later he calls me and asked me what I know about this company and he had went through an application process for life insurance that he would pay $25 per week and when he was 65 he would have income of $65,000 per year. He felt pushed into this. I asked him if he signed anything. He said no but they took all his information including his bank information and entered it on the computer stating we have to see if you are accepted first. They left him absolutely no information or a binding receipt or anything, not even a card. This seems very scamish to me. Not only the fact that he is a starving college graduate. I have never seen a life agent who came in on the pretense of something else and filled out an application on the computer not leaving anything with the applicant. Can anyone respond to this?
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I think to call AIL a complete scam is a little far fetched. If you’re looking for a steady paycheck, this job might not be for you. You also need to put in a lot of time at this job, you will be driving alot, putting wear and tear on your car, and life insurance is not the easiest product to sell in today’s market. However, if you work hard at this job and have the right attitude, you CAN make a lot of money at this job. Also, there is room for growth at this company if you want it. Probably one of the best examples how REAL HARD work pays off.
Thanks guys and gals you saved me some cash and time.
I too, recieved a call from a man who identified himself on voicemail, as “Edward” from Robinson and Associates which stated they found my resume on careerbuilder (which I rarely use) Very unprofessional voice mail, had to replay several times to see what he was saying. The message says he found my resume on careerbuilder which I very rarely use. He said to call him back at 407-574-4670. I called him, and it definitely seemed to be his cell phone # and not an office #. He said I had called or applied for a job position, to which I informed him I was merely returning HIS call, and never applied for a position with Henderson & Assoc. Then he said he found my resume on monster, to which I reminded him that on his vmail, he stated it was on careerbuilder. He proceeded to say that since I live in the Daytona Beach area, he will schedule an interview at 444 Seabreeze Blve, suite 750 32118 in Daytona Beach. He said the location is in the 5th 3rd bank building, 2nd story, 7th floor. I found this interesting, since my resume does not list Daytona area or any area, and all job positions I apply for, are for the tampa area. I questioned this, and he said we can schedule you an interview in tampa this week instead. He said they are hiring all over. I questioned him about the position, and he stated it is a commission job only, and they provide a list of clientele so we don’t have to find our own. He further stated that they work with labor union members, providing benefits. I asked if there was travel involved, he said about 15%. A quick glassdoor lookup by name Henderson & Assoc provided a company statement, but had absolutely not a single review, which is extremely rare, for glassdoor. Here is what I found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptmWRvwJpo –funny, they never mentioned it was a life insurance company on the phone. Upon further digging
: Matt Henderson & Associates Reviews & Info Matt Henderson & Associates is an insurance agency that maintains an office in Altamonte Springs, FL.110 W Orange St Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
321-277-7612
Matt Henderson & Associates Reviews & Info
Matt Henderson & Associates is an insurance agency that maintains an office in Altamonte Springs, FL.
Brokers that work at Matt Henderson & Associates
Contact:
110 W Orange St
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
321-277-7612
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptmWRvwJpo
http://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/benefits-representative-JV_IC1154247_KO0,23_IE190050.htm?jl=1366274252&paoIdKey=MA==
the company also has a Fb page called Henderson Agency. seems to be a legit person who moved up in the ranks with AIL (American Income Life) insurance co. And now hires people under him, but seems he is an employee of this company.
http://www.pissedconsumer.com/company/american-income-life/american-income-life-is-a-scam-20081011139009.html (interesting read, so apparently not a scam, but sounds like you may be out a bunch of money, and possibly work very long days on comission only)
I have been working for AIL for 2 years and making a very lucrative living. The only fee i paid for was exam $45 and License fee $55. I think it depends on the office because people can move up and open their own office so it depends on how that individual runs their office. We are not made to recruit, however if you need income during the time pre exam and during training you may choose to recruit for an hourly wage and then You make your own schedule based on how much money you want to make every Monday. Any sales based position like some car sales, Mathis brothers and such have draw backs but you cant expect to book 3-6 appointments a week because of cancellations and realistically there is only about a 30% close ratio. So it’s all a number game. You also don’t just have to sit back and wait for their leads, be pro active generate your own leads close to home if you don’t want to be driving all over the place. Good Luck to those willing to give it a try but I do make my own hours, work what days I want and the meetings my office has is not mandatory but you may attend for information and questions. So know working for them is not a scam but a jib that you will get out of it what you put in, if you want a job that has a set salary this is not for you because although you are not guaranteed a set salary you are not limited to one and making a 6 figure income is very possible every year and you consistently get residual checks. My office keeps 25% of your commission in a residual account to protect against those policies that cancel before the year so that you are not out of pocket owing money or owe the company if you decide to leave, Some of you have just had the bad misfortune of joining under people that are kind of like crooks and don’t care for their agents and no plan in place to protect their agents and their present and future income. I don’t know about the other branches but I know the one in Tulsa is great and he was with me from the beginning and making opportunities for me from the beginning to make money until I got my license to be able to help with my bills.
One day I was bored and looking through jobs on Craigslist (senior year of college), when I found a posting about “management training” of some sort. I responded to it, and received an email shortly thereafter. I also responded to other postings – which, as I later found out, were from the same company (AIL). The next day, I ended up having three different phone conversations (with three different people, of course – all from the same damn office – all not saying it was a sales position), but, despite that (and despite googling “AIL scam”, I decided to go to the “interview”). At worst, it would be an hour wasted – and potentially something slightly ridiculous/funny to rant about later. As it turned out, that was what happened.
The “interview” consisted of me and about 30 other people – the majority of whom seemed at or below the level of the average mental deficient. It was us sitting in a room with some smooth-talking, cocky guys giving us a sales pitch – they were there to sell us this job. Before they began the speech, there was a TV playing with Ray Lewis giving some sort of pump up speech (great to hear from a murderer about how to be ethical and hard-working, isn’t it?). They littered the entire pitch to us with sports references, and, while I’m a sports fan, it just gave off this cliche, and, frankly, insincere (childish even) vibe. I left knowing 100% that this wasn’t something I was interested in, and, moreover, that they were asshats who were not in the least bit honest when it comes to telling people what they’re interviewing for. Additionally, as I’ve previously emphasized, I think it was beyond insulting to tell us to show up for an interview only to have us sit in a room with 30 other people to listen to a few guys talk for an hour – which was then followed by each of us standing up and briefly saying our names and why we felt we would be appropriate for the job. Afterwards, they said they’d call some of us back (based upon, apparently, the short questionnaire we’d answered – they gave us this questionnaire on our way in). The questions in no way would differentiate any of us from each other, so I can only assume they called us all back (as they called me back – and I answered a few of their questions negatively, as my distaste for them had grown fairly strong by the time I walked into the building to find I was “interviewing” with dozens of other people). All in all, this company is definitely NOT a scam with regards to the product they sell, but the way they lure people in for “interviews” is pretty shameful. How people can stand all the hours, driving, and script-reading to people in their homes is beyond me – but this job sounds about as interesting and fulfilling as talking to a wall.
Wife got a call from them few months back. Her resume was online and she’s in IT. Exactly as everyone says, They offered sales to management position. She set an interview. We did our research. She didn’t go to the interview. Still still kept getting calls to re schedule. Which company does that when a candidate doesn’t even show.
After extensive research it shows the company is a scam right from hiring call – interview – hiring – training – working – even after quitting. Do your research in each and every aspect, you’ll see. Even their product is shabby and it seems one has to jump through hoops to even get paid. In ‘boiler room’ at least the agents got paid. You can succeed I guess if you have the mind of a hustler and con artist, not just for the sales portion, but to recruit others, and to get paid there. We have a distant relative like that and everyone stays away from him. He was in insurance, maybe AIL, but quit after he was badly beaten up in a rough neighborhood making an insurance call. Another thing to consider.
I want to share our recent experience because it seems like there is a whole industry preying on the desperate. An ugly side which we have never experienced before. ‘Recruiters’ called in saying they had opportunities for her. Another scam. They ask for money. Mostly foreigners, Indian, perhaps not even in the country, because their accents were so deep.
But we weren’t that desperate as my income was coming in and now thankfully she has a job in her field. So stick it out. Even work min. wage to fill in your resume and to let them know you are employable. A reputable company or recruiter will never ask for money to hire or train you. My wife and I have worked at 3 different companies each. Each time they have paid for background, drug testing and all other fees. Ok so you say Insurance has a high turnover rate, so blah blah. My wife worked at a day care at my sons school just to keep busy for a few hours. That has a very high turnover rate, as its near min. wage and you have to work with kids and be outside too in cold weather for some time. They not only paid for the above mentioned tests, but trained and licensed her in CPR and other techniques out of their own pocket.
Having shills write good reviews is another red flag. Very apparent and hillarious especially the bold letters. ‘You CAN make it’ 🙂 . They are/were suing Google and few other companies for displaying bad reviews. A few relatively small shady companies i heard of even threatened individual reviewers with defamation etc. Needless to say, one such company that I know has been busted and the owner in jail.
Calling AIL a scam may be a bit over but they are definately unethical at every step and you would have to be too to succeed there. So look at all the negatives. They are probably all true and see if you can handle that. End rant
AIL is an amazing company. I have the privledge to work with people change their financial status in their lives. It’s such a gift to watch someone from checking their bank amount before they go get groceries to not having to check at all. I am extremely grateful to American Income Life for allowing me to have this opportunity! I’ve been with this company for almost 5 years now. Thanks for reading.
Do you have any comments on the other criticisms here? IE, the hiring process? The amount of hours worked? Not being reimbursed for basic business expenses? Extremely cold sales leads?
Once again Rick you are stating things that are blatantly untrue. Quite sad that you spend this much time on here as the admin of a page full of negativity and lies
Hey guys i work at ail…great money but i hate my job. 2000 weekly easy but management is rude to the other agents who dont make money. Meetings are scheduled for 10 and they show at 11. And if your late they are upset. This is my 9th week and ive saved 10 grand. Im quitting because of the environment. I hate this place…..good way to catch up on bills though and get the f out. And yes they hire anyone that looks like a people person, and lie to get you in the door. Very good speakers and salesmen. Ive learned alot but im done with these people…..thanks for teaching me how to ail….peace.
Let me start off by saying this :
Anyone that goes to the internet to make a career decision should probably resort to making cheeseburgers for a living. Yes you pay for your license .Yes you pay for your gas .Yes you work long hours…What are we talking about here. You are building your own business at AIL. Thats what it takes .HARD WORK -DEDICATION
Most of your sorry asses have no clue what that even means thats why you will continue to make shit money while making someone else rich. Get off your ass and work hard for your future. Thats the biggest problem with society today. Everyone deserves something for nothing. Ha. Just like these Walmart employees that want $15 an hour. Have you ever paid attention to the people that work there ? I wouldn’t hire any of them to take out my trash but they deserve $15 an hr to stock shelves. Cmon man this is reality. Most of you will hate what I have to say and your the same ones that complain about everything in life. MAKE YOUR HUSTLE LOUDER THAN YOUR MOUTH !! And spare me with the racist comments already. There are a shit load of extremely successful black people out there. You don’t hear or see them saying that crap its the ones that have done nothing with their lives that feel thats the best card to pull. WE ARE AMERICANS ! WE ARE ONE. INSTEAD OF FINDING REASONS TO HATE EACHOTHER WE SHOULD COME TOGETHER AND MAKE THIS COUNTRY WHAT IT ONCE WAS ….UNITED. UNTIL THEN STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE. YOU WANT FINANCIAL FREEDOME YOU BETTER BE WILLING TO WORK THAT ASS OFF NO MATTER THE PRICE OR THE HOURS. Oh and Rick : Next time you have a thought that involves AIL…..LET IT GO !! HAVE A BLESSED DAY
Hi Chris, thank you for stopping by. Do you perhaps have any comments about the AIL work environment? The hiring practices? The forced long hours and the stale sales leads?
I just updated the post, but they just called me again. This time stating that I applied for the job. I did not, at least under the AIL or TorchMark names. Nor did I apply for a “Customer Service Manager” position.
New address is:
7200 NE 41st Street Suite #202
Vancouver WA, 98662
360-947-0987
Crazy world out there bro. Thanks for this blog. I applied for the customer service manager job. Should have known it would be a scam…these guys reek. Keep fighting the good fight. You know, its so easy to get suspicious when you see all the positive online propaganda out there. I would be ya a dollar to a dog biscuit that they employ a few floors of people to write positive comments about them. Thanks for saving me the trip to the Couve. New to the area and looking for work, this is the last thing I need to get sucked in to.
Its pretty sad that a couple lf negative reviews online could impact somebody so much that they would run from an opportunity…I mean scam ???? Cmon guys. AIL gas been around for 70 years. Are you that much of a follower that you would let some online comments steer you from opportunity. When I looked into AIL I had questions too. But I face my fears , I take risks in life. Thats probably the reason I make the money I do ,drive the car I drive and have the time with my family I do. I was never afraid of risk , I was never afraid of failure and I sure as hell never let ANYONE OR ANYTHING GET IN THE WAY OF MY DREAMS AND BETTERING MY LIFE….Believe what you want but AIL is the farthest thing from a scam. We provide life and Health insurance. If it was a scam would we payout benefits ??? Don’t listen to these weaklings online that do nothing but complain about everything cause they are too weak of individuals to get out there and earn it !!! The biggest scam in the world is the 40-40-40 scam
WORK SOMEWHERE FOR 40 HOURS A WEEK MAKING THEM RICH WHILE YOU STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET
WORK THAT JOB FOR 40 YEARS
THEN RETIRE FOR 40% OF THE PAY YOU BARELY SURVIVED ON TO BEGIN WITH
THATS THE REAL SCAM IN LIFE…ITS CALLED A JOB. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR SEARCH and by the way look up any vompany in the world on google and include the word scam after it its kinda funny but every company in the world is a scam
Hi Chris, welcome back again. As last time, do you have comments about the hiring process? In my most recent case of yesterday, either posting the wrong job title online that I applied for, or cold calling me to tell me that I had applied for the job? On top of that, do you not find the usage of Multi-Level-Marketing terms and phrases during the hiring process to not be a little suspect? Lastly, did you, or did you not pay for you own license? And are you reimbursed for all of your business related expenses?
Rick I would live to talk to you. Do you have a number that you can be reached at and I will tell you everything in detail so I don’t have to type it all
Your message would have more impact and reach a wider audience if it you posted here. We welcome all points of view here, and I don’t want to be accused of deliberately/accidentally saying the wrong thing.
Sure thing..
1st off this is not a job this is a career with unlimited opportunity . Did I question things when I came on board ? Ofcourse , I think I would do that at any company. But a Scam ???Not a chance !! You wouldn’t and couldn’t last 70 years scamming people. Absolutely impossible !!There are no guarantees. Nobody is going to promise you anything. Nobody is going to call you and ask you why your not at work at 8 am. Nobody is going to pay for your gas. Now that we have gotten passed the crap that people post on here lets get to the real deal. This is 100% what you put into it.No question. Go start a landscaping business tomorrow , or a construction business , or better yet go open your own restaurant and tell me who is going to pay gor your gas , your rent pmt, your electric bill and so on..Guess who ?? Thats right you are !! Why ! Because you are a business owner and thats what business owners do. I wasn’t promised a damn thing when I joined AIL. What is was promised is this :
This is not for everyone . This will require dedication. This will require hard work. This will require you to manage your time . And guess what if you do these thing you can make a shit ton of money. Im sorry for being real but I can’t sit back and read some of this shit that people post on these blogs or whatever you want to call this and keep my mouth shut. You are going to have to face adversity , you are going to have to have a warrior menatlity. YOU ARE A BUSINESS OWNER ! Those of you that want to sit here and post about why things didn’t work out for you and its AIL’s fault are WEAK !! You don’t have to like it I could care less. When I start my Bentley in the morning I actually feel sorry that most people will never experience lige like I get to. Then I think but then again most people are willing to fo what I fo and make sacrifices like I have and thats why they will be a part of the biggest scam in this country . Its called the 40-40-40 scam also known as a job. Work 40 hours a week making someone else rich and struggle to pay your bills . Work at that job for 40 years so you can retire with 40% of the income you’ve made !!! Yea not for me !! At all !! I knew at a young age that if I wanted to get somewhere in life I had to be willing to do what most people won’t do so I can live my life like most people can’t. Period !! As far as your claims of people reaching out to you about a job you didn’t inquire about I cannot speak on that as that has never happened to me . Listen the point is this , the only thing in life thats guaranteed is we will all die one day. I can’t sit here and tell you that everyone that comes on board will be successful however I will tell you that there are many that make 6 and 7 figures in this company and many that don’t….1 more guarantee, YOU WILL MISS 100% OF THE SHOTS YOU NEVER TAKE !! Why would this company pay for your license so you can go work somewhere else on their dime ?? I sure as hell wouldn’t do that and wouldn’t expect them to either. You are an independent contractor and if you don’t understand what that means Google it like you did to find this. One more thing. Type any damn business in this country and include the word scam after it. Its amazing !! Now make a decision, listen to people on here that complain and make their failures out to be everyone elses fault or listen to a guy that came from nothing and now has the world at his fingertips. Not trying to be cocky at all just real. I only have what I have because I worked for and earned it. Nobody has ever handed me shit !
You still didn’t answer any of my questions about the shady hiring techniques.
Because I am not 100% sure what you mean about shady hiring techniques..because they do group interviews ? Because they tell you your opportuities are unlimited ? When you have thousands of leads coming in to work and you only have 50 or 100 or 200 agents. You need alot of agents wouldn’t you agree ? And with that being said wouldn’t you agree that only 2 to 3% of that group will actually go through the entire process and become an agent. So do the math. Out of the room full of recruits you may get a few that are actually worth bringing on board and that are willing to go through the process. I was a VP for my previous company and prior I was a regional. With that being said I would sometimes interview 60 people before I hired 1. Same concept. Its a numbers game just like sales. I was looking for studs not those people that feel they are owed something..I am still trying to find outbwhat the scam is after reading 166 posts from disgruntled past employees that couldn’t hack it…Remember this to anyone reading this shit….For the hundreds of complaints here there are thousands that have been successfull..
So you feel it is OK for the company to mis-represent the job when they are contacting people to hire? If this is such an effective hiring technique, why do no other insurance companies do so?
Mis-represent what ????
Just in case you’ve forgotten it, since you’ve been there so long and are obviously a happy employee, here is the AIL hiring script.
1.) AIL representatives usually start with “you recently applied for one of our jobs posted.” Yet I have never applied at AIL, TorchMark, or New York Life Insurance, and have no interest in working in the financial, insurance or sales fields and have never applied there in the time AIL has been contacting me. So either AIL is posting false job leads in other industries with other job titles to gather contact information. Or AIL is cold calling people and lying to keep you on the phone so they can go through their spiel.
2.) They ask about your experience. No matter what that experience is, you are always “highly qualified” for the job. I’ve heard of people fresh out of college, housewives re-entering the job market, and minimum-wage workers with no job experience in sales being told they’re highly qualified.
3.) They are purposely evasive about the actual job and it’s duties. In my experience, once you pin them down it is “customer service manager.” Always a manager position in my case. Yet when I ask about how many people I’d be supervising, there is no answer or “it varies from office to office.” No, any company will at least have a range of people supervised.
4.) They give you the address for the “job interview” and then tell you to repeat it back. I have never been asked, much less told to repeat the address back by any hiring manager ever. I’ve voluntarily confirmed the address, but they’ve always assumed I’m competent enough to get it the first time.
5.) No talk of pay rate at all. This right here is a big red flag. Every recruiter or hiring manager asks what I am expecting, or gives a figure outright at first to be sure that I am willing to take it.
6.) Unless asked directly, they never state the company name. Even then they say AIL and say it fast so that you might miss it. I had to search the address to find the company name the first time.
7.) The group interviews that are 100% MLM recruitment speeches. Then the individual interviews are another MLM technique with the added benefit of the interviewer saying “I can see that you’re the best of the best here and will go far.”
It is impossible to hire the best of the best by grabbing anyone you can trick to come through the door. It is a waste of precious resources on all sides. If the companies hiring practices were legitimate and ethical they would be contacting people interested in sales or insurance in the first place. They would be up front about who they are and what they are. They would be willing to give the person reasons to stay with the company – like paying for the insurance license and giving them a pay check to make ends meet. They would not be trying to sell people on the job, they would be looking for that person who actually wants to make it a career and would not be promising them that they’d get rich.
If this is really a career, then you’re going to talk about the environment, the chance of promotions, the ability to do new and interesting things. I get a cold emails from some of the other insurance agencies every couple of months or so who are at least up front about who they are and what the job is. I ask about the license and pay rate every time. So far they have all stated that they pay a steady paycheck, and for the license. One even said to me “It sounds like you’ve interviewed with AIL.”
Even “independent contractors” are legally entitled to their business expenses. Unless you’re selling products from multiple insurance companies and running your own office, you’re technically not an “independent contractor”. The only things “independent contractors” have to pay are their taxes. The company uses “independent contractors” to save on paying employment taxes, Social Security, unemployment, etc, and to get more then 40 hours a week of work out them with out violating labor laws or having to pay overtime. This right here is a big red flag and another sure sign of an unethical company, especially one that has reported assets of $2.6 Billion
Even your comments here use MLM tactics. “opportuities are unlimited” “1st off this is not a job this is a career with unlimited opportunity” “This is 100% what you put into it.” “You are going to have to face adversity , you are going to have to have a warrior menatlity. YOU ARE A BUSINESS OWNER ! Those of you that want to sit here and post about why things didn’t work out for you and its AIL’s fault are WEAK !!” and of course the good old “40-40-40” line. That is one of my favorites! I’ve heard these same lines from dozens of other MLM companies from Amway to Mary Kay to Herbalife. The subtle negging insults, bragging about how much you’re making (while I suspect stretching the truth,) and telling people it is not for everyone, (but you’re obviously special and have what it takes to make it.) And of course saying that they can make it rich! Yes, the companies themselves may not be scams, but their tactics are unethical and rely on tricking poor dupes into creating a “downline” in the hopes of making millions. From what I and many others see, AIL is the exact same.
This is why the title of article is “American Income Life Employment scam” as it refers to the hiring practices of the company, not the companies’ products. I have no experience with the product so I am not qualified to comment on it. I am qualified to comment on the hiring practices though as I have been on both sides of them many times, I have worked in sales, and many of my clients have been insurance agencies where I need to know their business procedures so that I can effectively support them. I have also been an “independent contractor” of both types, the kind where I was being taken advantage of, and the kind where the company was actually using us legally.
I understand 100% of what you just said. However I disagree with most of it. Im not sure where your from meaning which part of the country however we hire and recruit much differently that you describe. Is it possible there are a few bad apples ? Ofcourse. As a matter of fact I break it down to exactly what they would be doing and how they get paid before I waste theirs or my time. After I have described what the job is , how it works , requirements and how they get paid , I ask 1 simple question. Is this something you would like to move forward on ? Their answer determines the next step. In any sales job that is a commission based job you have to have all the things I described in my previous posts. I have never met an independent contractor in my life that has a company paying their expenses. This is why write off’s were created through the IRS. Maybe you have experienced things much different than what I have with AIL actually the exact opposite. And for anyone reading this post and had a bad experience all I can say is not everywhere in the country is the same. Just like a franchise . You may walk into one and have a great experience and have the exact opposite at another. It doesn’t make the company as a whole a SCAM. Everyone hires differently however I can assure you we have peoples best interest at heart. If you want to continue using your energy to make a company look as if they are a scam based on what some people say on here go ahead. We are not by any means a scam or an MLM company . You can create a great future for yourself here. Will everyone do great ? No. That goes for any business in the world. If you go for a job interview and they offer you 50k a yr, is that guaranteed? Maybe from the start, then it boils down to YOUR personal performance..Go in there and perform like crap and that 50k can turn into 30k or zero real quick.
Just like any 1099 Rick buisness expenses are tax deductible. Have you ever worked a 1099 before? It doesn’t sound like it from the way you tear down AIL and you’ve Literalky been in this blog the last 6 years trying to sway people away from a career that has changed my life significantly with blatant lies to these poor people
I’m still just amazed that a guy has spent the last 6 years bashing a conpany that Rick not only have you not worked for but haven’t even stepped inside of our doors. It sounds like you are very confused as to what an independent contractor is and wjat running your own buisness entails. You know why you see all negative on here mostly? Because it’s a bunch of people that couldn’t hack it when things got tough and quit instead of pushing themselves. We are very clear on the positions up front, it being 100% commission and we even go over the obstacles with the interview telling them what’s hard about this job. It’s not easy. We never tell people that. And again I’ve been here 10 years and have made 6 figures 7 out of 10 years with 63000 being my lowest year and I did that without having a team of being in management. That opportunity is there for those that want to push themselves and run scream and make 7 figures but you can crush it making great money on your own. So you are bashing the only company trusted the last 70 years to work with all the unions and veterans associations. I’m guessing the agents are doing sonething right and th company is doing sonething right if we are chosen over the other 2000 insurance companies to handle their benefits. Seriously though the waycyouvtalj about the company and the fact that you’ve spent 6 years of your life bashing a company that you never worked for and from your comments that you know nothing about. You would think that the CEO of this company has been banging your wife and you found out in 2010 when you started your bashing. Find a life
Thank you for stopping by Josh. As has been pointed out multiple times, no one is calling the company a scam, merely the hiring process. Do you have any comments about the hiring process that is the subject of this blog post?
Also, if you could comment in a civil manner without bandying insults as you just did in 16 separate comments, it would be appreciated (and would go a long ways towards adding weight to your arguments.)
Take a look at my most recent comment above and you will aee that from my experience the last 10 years with the company I’ve never experienced the kinda stuff you guys are all talking about. Definitely not at my agency. And to say that nobody is calling ail a scam it’s just the hiring process you guys are taking about is way off. Have you read any of the comments in here? Just about every comment or two is a former disgruntled agent who is complaining about it being a scam and they aren’t talking about the hiring process they are saying it’s the leads, it’s management not trying them they are lying and saying they had to pay to be trained after they are licensed, they are complaining that you have to pay the state for their own license which you can use to work for any company and currently 97% of companies don’t pay for your licensing. Most of them fill out the area where you put your name as scam! And go on to talk about the products the training, the long hours, the leads, etc which have nothing to do with the hiring practices which again in the agency I work for all the stuff being said about recruiting is foreign to how we operate here. And once you come in for a group interview/company overview we are extremely transparent and all company overview are the same regardless of whatxstatecyou work in and what agency. Now the recruiting is different from agency to agency and there may be a few bad apples out there. Same as I can go to one McDonald’s and get excellent service, warm fries a great burger, etc and go to another McDonald’s the same day in a different part of town, run by different managers and my burger might suck, my fries aren’t hot and the service was less than fantastic and almost rude. Does that mean that the McDonald’s franchise is terrible?? No of course not, you just experienced their one bad apple and there should be an overhaul of that particular McDonald’s restaraunt. We are very forward about it being sakes and sakes management opportunities when we call resumes on mobster or careerbuilder, we do job fairs, we don’t tell them they applied for any job, we tell them exactly what the situation is that we came across their resume on mobster or another site and it looks like they may have a skillet due to their experiences at different jobs that would possibly be a great fit at AIL and ask if they have time to speak right now. We are very selective during the hiring process because we train you so well and spend so much time training you during the first 90 days that way we don’t waste your time or ours. So there is my take on our hiring process which is mentioned in about 10% of the comments (exept yours) while the other 90% are mostly lies by disgruntled former agents who bash the company and bash our leads, our management, pretty much everything so don’t tell me that NOBODY is saying the company is a scam, just their hiring practices becausextgatcis completely false. And as far as my 16 comments or so, first off you’ve been on here commenting for 6 YEARS!!! About a company who you have never worked for and never even came in to experience our hiring methods minus the first initial phone call which is different from agency to agency and it sounds like you and maybe a few others found the bad apples because I agree with you I would be skeptical too if what you are saying about your experience with being called by us is indeed true. So yea I commented on here a lot and responded to a lot of comments bashing my company I’ve worked for the last 10 years that has completely changed my life in so many ways. Isn’t it’s very frustrating because one of the main reasons I’m so passionate about AIL besides that it’s changed my life is because of their transparency and honesty about this career from the first phone call I received through the interview process and all throughout my career. So yes it’s very frustrating seeing all these people that quit and now are lying about so many things on here. And they try scare people off just because they didn’t live up to their end of the bargain as far as the sacrifice they said they would make and since they quit and failed and they couldn’t do it they want to tell everybody else they can’t do it and shoot down others dreams and that’s garbage.
You are correct, some commenters here have called the company a scam. I misstated by saying that, because I was referring to myself. But do you really think our experiences with AIL are any less valid then yours? Especially when most of our first contacts with this company were absolutely horrible cold-calls filled with lies? Add in the blatant MLM language both in recruiting and among the agents who have posted here, and one has to be forgiven that the impression they get from AIL is a scam.
And yes, I’ve been here for six years. This is my blog, and I enjoy working on it in my spare time. Perhaps you’d care to comment on some of the other scams I’ve posted about over the years?
I received a call from this company, saying that I qualified for job that I did not even applied. The caller mentioned that they received my resume and willing to give me an interview, but when we almost ended our conversation, he mentioned to bring a copies of my resume. Now, wait?.. it does not make any sense if you have my resume in front of you. How hard to print a copy or multiple copies thru your office?.
Next, It sounds legit since the office that refer me to report is only 5 minutes away ( I live in Daytona Beach,FL). However, something is not right. I graduated with a BS degree in aviation related field and graduated top of the class when I received my associate. How in the world I would qualified to work for that company? (as I mentioned “Aviation related field”).
In addition, I do not have any sales related experience and most of my previous years was in the United States Army and deployed in Iraq for 3 times.
Can anyone give me a decent advise? The scheduled interview sounds promising since the caller gave me a point of contact personnel and his phone number.
My idiot ex husband left a job at Ford Motor Company less than 9 months before he would’ve hit 20 years to work AIL. What a fool!!!!!! He followed his psychotic wife there. Less than 2 years later, neither one of them are there. They’re making a living riding the coat tails of their young son. Losers. No wonder AIL hired them.
Not the company for me. I cant say for every branch, but the local office here just lies so much in the hiring process, and then you have to basically pull teeth or lie your way into peoples homes to sell them insurance. The company is not a scam per se, but if your local office is anything like mine, you may not get honest answers to your questions in the interview process or even the training process. They said things like, training is paid (lie), I specifically asked about cold calling and door knocks and was told we do not do that (lie), I asked was I being interviewed for a position to handle clients coming to the company because they wanted or needed insurance and is that who I would be serving, they said yes (lie). We basically trying to collect the contact info and address of every person we can, and sell them insurance. The company is so thirsty, we are told to lie about benefits “increasing” in order to set up appointments, we pressure them to close on sales the first day and also they cannot receive certain benefits after the meeting as the benefits have an “enrollment period” lol and i could go on and on. Just not a transparent company from the jump and I am not into forcing my will on other people or taking advantage of them will fancy talk and shock value. If you want to bust your butt pulling teeth to sell insurance, you can make a lot of money with this company. But its just not the right career for me, constantly lying to make money off of other people.
Im a boyfriend to a current AIL employee and my own bank account has deminished since my gf got his job, screw AIL ruining my relationship by filling my gfs head full of lies making her depend on me 150% i have to pay for her gas i had to pay for her license i am having to pay for her trip outta town and now we are gonna be living in our own cars before long because my job which is 25-70 an hour still isnt enough to keep us afloat, so now im paying 1500 a month on expenses her job should provide their employees to fucking live. Do they expect their employees to be millionairs before they apply cause it seems like they need 6 figures a year in order to pay to have a job there. In my opinion AIL should be reevaluated.
It’s a scam . I knew it right away when I when to the first meeting.
I meant to say; It’s a scam . I knew it right away when I went to the first meeting.
That josh faggot is probably running the scam himself. Lol all these fake comment supporting AIL are hilarious. Fuck AIL don’t be a dummy
I don’t think it’s a scam. As a recruit, I’ll even tolerate the alias company (Rhode Island, Inc—- please), and group interviews. What really aggravates me is they called and said “we have a salaried position with benefits.” If they said “we’re AIL and are looking to train new life insurance agents to become IC’s,:” I’d be more interested because it would have been up-front. I’m guessing they can’t grow using honesty, so they have to resort to methods like this. More than pleased to do the work for a rewarding career change, but not for bait & switch used car salesmen. I’m also guessing the state insurance commissioner offices have better things to do than chase AIL and a couple others for sketchy recruiting, so they will continue to get away with it.
Oops, too late!