Primerica Financial Services?

[Christopher]

A friend of ours is working for Primerica and came over to give us the presentation. We have no intention of working for the company what's so ever, but I am interested in their services. So my question is, are their services worth paying for? She was selling the fact that the company strives to help people. Sounds kind of corny to me, but are they a full functioning financial services company that will help us achieve our financial goals like she was advertising? Are their people educated and trained well enough to provide these services, and are they competitively priced?

 

[Wayne Z]

Considering they "hire" anyone as long as they are breathing, no I would not say that their people are educated and well trained.

Their products tend to be expensive relative to comparable products in the market. They will show you how much cheaper their life insurance is compared on whole (cash value) life but it is expensive when compared to other term insurance.

I am not sure about their mutual funds but they used to be very expensive.

The mortgages tend to be very bad. Their rates are high and so are their fees. They tend to charge very high points but will graciously roll those points in to the mortgage. There is also usually a very high prepayment penalty if you ever want to refinance out of their mortgage. Lastly, their mortgages are "simple interest" mortgages which means interest accrues until the day the payment is received. Most normal mortgages have a grace period for every payment but simple interest mortgages do not.