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P.S. These guys are really really good. And they are your friends, your neighbors. They will invite you to golf tournaments, help you talk to the local priva

by critium 12y ago

P.S. These guys are really really good. And they are your friends, your neighbors. They will invite you to golf tournaments, help you talk to the local private school director (who is also their client) and then they're ingratiated. If you're not anglo and male, they'll bring an attractive assistant along that looks like from your home country and speaks your language. Its actually in their playbook (yes a real playbook). I found out somebody talked by parents into a variable rate annuity. The worst of the worst. Guess who it was? My cousin.

saryant 12y ago
I got hit with this by a college roommate who joined Primerica. I didn't know anything about investing during college so I let him open a Roth IRA for me and put in $100/month from my part-time job. I fell for everything from him and his boss. Looking back, I definitely feel like a moron. The fund he had me in was terrible. An expense ratio of something like 1.5%, a maxed-out 12b1 fee and a front-load sales charge of 5.25%. At least it wasn't an annuity. Once I graduated and got my first full-time job, I started reading over the 401k material and doing my own research which lead me to the Boglehead's site. I slowly began the realize the fraud my friend had pulled over me. When I presented him with the evidence, he literally lied to my face. That or he had so completely swallowed Primerica's literature that he believed himself. He tried to tell me that their fund had outperformed the market (it had not) and had stayed stable through the 2008 crash (it had not, it lost far more than the market). He tried to convince me that the fees were actually quite low compared to the average (obviously not) and that Vanguard was in fact more expensive. I ordered him to transfer the entire account over to Vanguard and we haven't spoken since. (Another unspoken advantage of Vanguard or Schwab: if they do something I don't like, I can safely pull my business without risking a personal relationship)
- PhantomGremlin 12y ago
  Keep this in mind next time you interact with a salesman. It's a quip I found on the Internet: All really good salesmen temporarily believe whatever bullshit they are selling at the time. It's kind of like method acting.
  - free2rhyme214 12y ago
    You have no idea how sales really works do you?
    - dang 12y ago
      This comment breaks the two most important rules of HN threads: to say something of substance and to be personally civil. A good version of this comment would teach us something about how sales really works, while being polite.
walshemj 12y ago
Given annuity rates at the moment are in the toilet would a fixed rate been that much better? Interestingly the UK is relaxing the requirement to buy an annuity when your DC (defined contribution) Pension matures.

by critium 12y ago

saryant 12y ago

I got hit with this by a college roommate who joined Primerica. I didn't know anything about investing during college so I let him open a Roth IRA for me and put in $100/month from my part-time job. I fell for everything from him and his boss. Looking back, I definitely feel like a moron. The fund he had me in was terrible. An expense ratio of something like 1.5%, a maxed-out 12b1 fee and a front-load sales charge of 5.25%. At least it wasn't an annuity. Once I graduated and got my first full-time job, I started reading over the 401k material and doing my own research which lead me to the Boglehead's site. I slowly began the realize the fraud my friend had pulled over me. When I presented him with the evidence, he literally lied to my face. That or he had so completely swallowed Primerica's literature that he believed himself. He tried to tell me that their fund had outperformed the market (it had not) and had stayed stable through the 2008 crash (it had not, it lost far more than the market). He tried to convince me that the fees were actually quite low compared to the average (obviously not) and that Vanguard was in fact more expensive. I ordered him to transfer the entire account over to Vanguard and we haven't spoken since. (Another unspoken advantage of Vanguard or Schwab: if they do something I don't like, I can safely pull my business without risking a personal relationship)

PhantomGremlin 12y ago
Keep this in mind next time you interact with a salesman. It's a quip I found on the Internet: All really good salesmen temporarily believe whatever bullshit they are selling at the time. It's kind of like method acting.
- free2rhyme214 12y ago
  You have no idea how sales really works do you?
  - dang 12y ago
    This comment breaks the two most important rules of HN threads: to say something of substance and to be personally civil. A good version of this comment would teach us something about how sales really works, while being polite.

walshemj 12y ago

Given annuity rates at the moment are in the toilet would a fixed rate been that much better? Interestingly the UK is relaxing the requirement to buy an annuity when your DC (defined contribution) Pension matures.