Pros
Few, but let me explain the most important ones. Keep in mind that everything here is my opinion only, based on my limited experience, and may differ with other agencies, and is not intended to be legal or financial advice. One thing that American Income does very well is their training. They make an exceptional effort to put you in touch with field trainers who will help you improve all elements of your insurance presentation. From daily calls, weekly trainings, paid zoom calls, motivational videos, and more, you will be taught and trained on the specifics of products, scripts, and sales psychology. Additionally, they have a very strong culture of people celebrating each other's success and winning, with daily leaderboard emails, weekly leaderboard emails, social media and print marketing showing who sold the most, and trophies for people who make certain milestones. For the select few who do not leave, the opportunity can be very profitable, especially if you grow a massive team and make a large spread off them or end up becoming an SGA and owning all of the business in your agency. There are a select few who end up having very large renewal checks, and they seem to be enjoying a very comfortable lifesyle. However, this is not what happens to most people, and you can see more in the cons below.
Cons
Many, but let me explain the most egregious (from someone who worked there for 11 years and the went to another company). Keep in mind that everything here is my opinion only, based on my limited experience, and may differ with other agencies, and is not intended to be legal or financial advice. - You will be asked to make 200 dials a day to attempt to sell insurance to people who did not request it, which is a flawed endeavor from the start. People request will kits or child safe kits, and your job is to sell them and their friends and family overpriced whole life insurance. - You have no benefits at this job for the average agent, and it is commission only. You may have some benefits if you become a top manager. - You will only be allowed to sell AIL products, which include overpriced whole life that the client will pay for the rest of your life and a 4 or 10-year renewable term policy. The technology and software used are buggy, slow, and take 1-2 hours to get through an application. The freedom of choice certificate rarely pays out, and if so, rarely on time. You will also be expected to lie about the ratings of the company (saying it's A+ when the most recent rating was A). - You will be told that you are opening up your own business as an independent contractor, while also being asked to sign a contract that gives you no rights or legal ownership over your business, commissions, clients, or renewals. In truth, you have no rights to your own business at all. You will be told you can set whatever hours you want, but then you will be harangued for not conforming to the agency schedule. - You will be told that you are a proud union member of OPEIU Local 277, that the union is there to support you, and offer you fantastic benefits. None of these are ever explained however, and the union cannot do much to support you because they have no rights or authority over the SGA. - You will be told that you are vested in 10 years for lifetime renewals, even if you leave. This is a lie because your SGA owns all of your business and your clients, and only at the discretion of your SGA will you get (or not get) your renewals. I have numerous people work at AIL for more than 10 years who now have nothing in renewals because they work at another insurance company now. Likewise, there have people who have left after 5 years but who got their renewals because their SGA wanted them to. - Consequently, the entire AIL machine is focused around the SGA taking your business. They focusing on hiring and hiring, and when they bring in new people, they make them sell their friends and family (or whatever cold leads they manage to sell), and then when they can't pay their bills, the disgruntled agent leaves and the SGA keeps the business and renewals. - You will be micromanaged and henpecked by your uplines about dialing incessantly, always being on Zoom with the camera on, and why you aren't sacrificing every minute of your spare time to work for your SGA. You will be inducted into a cult that worships unhealthy and unbalanced sacrifice and a few top managers, while there is high turnover in the office. - You will be given excuses when asked about how much the agency owner makes off of you. The truth is that agency owners can be upwards of 110-120%, so if you're a new agent at 50% of first year premium, they make more than you do off of a sale, plus everything else they earn in subsequent years. They will give top managers better leads, and pay the managers a field training bonus off you in your first 90 days (125% if you're coded to an SA and 150% if you're coded to a GA). - You must recruit in order to promote, and you will be paid $750 per recruit in your first 90 days and $250 per recruit after your first 90 days. If this doesn't scream MLM, I don't know what does. I could go on and on, but this is the system, and the system is fundamentally flawed for the agent, and it is only designed to line the pockets of the SGA. There are more companies out there with higher compensation, more competitive products, bigger bonuses, and more supportive culture. While I am grateful for my time there, I'd strongly advise anyone to do their research before joining this misleading company.
