Dear All,

I have been reading thru the job scams...a friend of mine went to Quicksilver in Downtown Toronto and was told that he would have to pay $70 so that they can change his resume (even though it was in the Canadian format)....a job was guaranteed in 1-3 weeks.....they would be either admin positions or bank teller jobs.
My friend told the guy he would think about it and didn't go back to them.....

Another friend of mine went to an interview with the Financial Services company PRIMERICA....they have called him again next week....in the meantime he got some info thru google.ca which really portrayed PRIMERICA in a bad light and said that they would need a check for $200 to train people!!!! Would appreciate if anyone has had a meeting with PRIMERICA before.

Thanks,

DB

Primerica is a RIPOFF! I almost got duped by them some time ago. Thankfully my wife decided to check on them before we payed anything. They will take Your money, eat Your lunch and leave You out in the cold. Don't even think about hooking up with this crooks.

DT

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Microsoft - Which end of the stick do you want today?

Though I did not take up any assignment with Primerica, being a finance professional myself, I feel that for the right person, Primerica is a good thing.

It is first of all, a subsidiary of Citibank. What I understand is (and I might be wrong since I have not fully explored it) that Citibank somehow does have licence to operate their mutual fund business here in Canada, or there is some kind of organisation difficulty in doing so. Therefore, they operate this business of selling mutual funds through Primerica.

Primerica basically is an MLM business and as in all MLM businesses, it is purely hard selling from door to door. But it is selling with education and licence and not just Selling per say. What is required is a hard core salesman who operates in Canadian/American fashion (the language, the expressions, the fluency, the mannerisms etc. etc.) in trying to reconstruct the financial debt structure of individuals and families. I personally consider it a good job - though it ultimately means extending a person's debt a little longer mostly. However, if you are a good finance guy, or atleast with good intentions, you can not only restructure the debt of indiviuals, but also somehow teach them how to manage family finances better.

Why I say that it requires a salesman of Canadian style is because most Asians manage finances well and they do not need repair or restructure - it is the goras who are not good at handling personal finances who need help, and to be able to get them as clients, one will have to be able to sell them as any other gora will do!

By the way, the money they take from you is used to pay for the fee of the course/exam they ask you to sit for in order to obtain a licence, without which you are not permitted to sell/market any financial products in Ontario. It is something like Canadian Securities Exam, but with deeper understanding of mutual funds, not equities alone.

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

Primerica is a reputed financial services company, not a scam. I attended some of their training sessions in the US, quite interesting actually. They charge you a fee to cover their training costs & to see if u r serious about enrolling. It's basically becoming a financial salesperson, like a real estate salesperson. You've got to pass a set of professional licensing exams for both. Like Chandresh said, part of it's helping out individuals with personal loan financing and debt restructuring, but a lot of it also involves selling investment services. It's ideal for someone who's outgoing and a real extrovert. Most desis are not, so you won't find too many doing well at it. It's kinda like running yr own business, but with a lotta support from the main office. U get yr own lil office with yr own lil sign, yr own admin and receptionist, and u sell. If u ever thought of going into business for yourself but didn't have the resources or training to do it, companies like Primerica are ideal for you.

BTW, it's built on the same model as women-oriented companies like Avon and Mary-Kay; of course in a totally different field, but the same concept... you do a lot of cold-calling, generate leads, follow-up, and sell yr services to people who need them (mostly individual investors looking for advice and places to grow their bits of money as opposed to corporate investors who take their business direct to large investment houses).

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i am back

btw, i suggest if money is an issue, just go check out their sales pitch and talk to some reps there. u r asked to sign up only at the end of their presentation, by which time u should have a clear idea of what they want from you.

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i am back

Dear All,

Thanks for your feedback, appreciate it.

Regards,

DB

Most probably money they are charging are for the exam you need to clear in order to get license for mutual funds (or insurance), so it should be fair. I know this because one of Primarica Gora approached me for my financial needs analysis. He was surprised to know how I manage my wealth and as Chandresh wrote, their concept is more saleable to Goras rather than us Desis.

At the end of the discussion I told him that it would be difficult to sell your ideas to any desis. When we can invest our money in stores, subways and motels and getting more than 25% return a year, why consider anything with 10 percent return ?

Their main logic is - in stead of putting your money in Money Back Life Insurance policies, go for term life insurances and invest the saved money into mutual funds and get more return.

Now only insurance and investment experts can throw more lights on this.

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A Proud Indian Canadian