insurance agent

sales representative

sales associate

agente comercial de seguros

agent

American Income Life

Where to begin...The on-boarding process was like pulling teeth. First, I found myself in a group interview where the main recruiter pitched a simple, yet attractive, sales program. The thought of making a solid living in the insurance business was very appealing; especially of the idea of obtaining residual income. Looking around, I got the immediate feeling this company was trying to throw as much mud against the wall as possible just to see what would stick. This was never more apparent than a few weeks later, hardly any of the people in the interview were still around. The things we were told during that initial interview were we had to pay for our own licensing classes and tests and our own lap tops. This was understandable since we were hired as 1099 contractors and the company did not want to invest money in people who wouldn’t last the first month. 

Then came a time for my second one-on-one interview with my future manager. Very little about the company was revealed. I was given a sheet of paper that had the initial costs of the licensing process listed on it. With that, I made an immediate $125 investment to take the 215 life Insurance and Annuities on-line licensing class. About a week and a half later, I was ready to schedule my licensing exam. This took an additional week and a half (for those keeping track, that’s over 3 weeks of making no money so far). After passing my exam, I took me three attempts to connect with my manager. Twice, I was supposed to meet him in the office, and twice he no-showed me for one reason or another (Add another week of not making money). When we finally connected, I had to pay an additional $50 to file for my license. 

Next came the initial training process. The two members of the management team did their best to train and prepare us to sell insurance to potential customers. This is where I learned about AIL’s true marketing strategy. Their marketing strategy was all predicated on the State Of Florida’s Child Safe Kit program. This is a program designed to provide law enforcement with necessary information to help activate the amber alert system in the event a person’s child went missing. Throughout the state of Florida (mainly like places such as a Dollar Tree stores), people fill out and submit forms to receive information on the aforementioned child safe kits. Other people go onto social media web sites (such as Facebook) to inquire about it. Other people would fill out forms to inquire about a save a child program at the local tax collector’s office when renewing their licenses. The head of the agency would invest his money in purchasing mainly child safe kit leads from these different sources. These leads would then be distributed to different agents to try and set up appointments. Other leads would go to a couple of call centers (more on these call centers later). Training lasted about two more weeks. This is where I learned the ugly truth. For the most part, we were asked to perform a “bait and switch” scheme; meaning people were booking appointments expecting to learn about child safe kits. Throughout the process , we were taught to gather information, conduct a needs analysis, and qualify these people, and sell them on the need for life insurance. Hence, the term “bait and switch”. Throughout the process, I was trained very well on scripts until I was ready to be cut loose and go out on appointments on my own (for those keeping track, add two more weeks of not making any money).

When it was time to go out on my own, I was given a sheet to sign. It was a pseudo contract, involving the use of the call center, for me to sign. In order for agents to benefit from the call center, they are expected to pay $500 a month. That’s $125 a week. For brand new agents with limited experience, a $6000 a year investment is a tough pill to swallow. This was yet another investment that was not explained at the outset of the hiring process. What this meant was that if you used the call center, each week, you would be in the negative $125.00. Normally, this would be OK, except our call center was loaded with brand new employees who had no idea how to build any value in the appointments they were setting. This resulted in very poor show rates on appointments that were set. Half the time, I would sho up on appointments to be greeted by a person expecting for a pamphlet to simply be dropped off. Many times, I would end up with impromptu days off due to re-occurring technical issues with the call center and it’s inability to get the schedules out correctly. Other times, I would be double-booked on appointments with other agents. This is not exactly something I expected from a $500 a month investment. 

To make matters worse, there were days I would be booked in areas roughly an hour to an hour and a half away from where I lived. Not only was I putting $40 worth of gas in my car 4-5 times a week, but I was tacking on insane miles on it too. All in all, in the three months I actually spent with the company, I made about $3000 (maybe a little less). I burned through well over $5000. As time went on, my savings account dwindled more and more until I was left with a measly $50. Many of the people, who actually purchased policies, ended up cancelling (mainly due to the feeling of being taken advantage of through the “bait and switch” tactics were were taught as agents). These cancellations or refusal of payments ended up as chargebacks. In the insurance industry, when chargebacks occur, an agent has to pay back previously paid commissions. Anytime I spoke up about my concerns, I was looked at as a malcontent with a poor attitude. The so-called managers truly had little to no management experience. Looking back on the whole experience, I truly believe the smartest people were those who never returned after day one of the group interview. It’s a shame because AIL’s products and their customer service is phenomenal. Their marketing strategy leaves many people with a sour taste in their mouths.

First, the BAIT, they draw you in to a cattle-call style interview with 20 other people. They get you in via an ad offering a management position - no mention of life insurance - that's the first switch, it's not management, it's life insurance sales. Then you sit in a room and they throw all these promises at you about how much money you're going to make (bait), how you'll set your own hours and work schedule and be able to achieve the life of your dreams. Next they give you training in tiny little pieces so you have no chance of putting together the full picture of what's going to happen to you until it's too late (switch). They have you pay for your own state test fee, which doesn't seem unreasonable as they tell you they'll take care of all the costs from there - your license, etc. SWITCH! Psych, you actually have to pay for your own license too. So by this point you've been "working" and studying and taking tests and jumping through all their hoops in hopes of finally getting that bait. SWITCH! You don't get paid until your license comes through via the state which can take from 10 to 30 days. They'll tell you that you're going to make a percentage of the commission that your field trainer makes when you're out on the road with him, but then when payday comes they say "oh, well you're not licensed yet so we can't pay you until that happens." Then WHY did I work 50 hours that week? They BAIT you again with, "well, next week you'll get your base pay at least." So you keep trying. 

During all this you're expected to go to the office every day for a training meeting, then out into the field with a manager for however long it takes them to do their job. The next week comes when you're supposed to get that portion of the commission and again - SWITCH! "Well you're not coded to the company yet so it's out my hands when you get paid, but it'll happen next week." After five weeks of this and having my power shut off, bills unpaid, etc., I left. My investment in the testing and licensing was over $100, not to mention the gas to drive there every day, having to buy food on the road and not getting back to the office often until 12am or later. That certainly doesn't sound like I'm "making my own schedule." They micromanage you in training so you're strung along every step of the way. They have a scripted answer to give to every question you ask that actually just dances around the question and is meant to make you feel better about continuing to fall deeper into their scam. Then when you're "near" being released as an agent on your own, you have to go through making dozens of video presentations in front of managers, being quizzed on a seven page script they expect you to know verbatim, bottom to top, and not in the order the script is actually presented to you (also, you get the script while you're spending those 50+ hours in the field not being paid - so when exactly would one study?). You're expected to call your manager every single night after 9pm to check in every day. 

If you jump through ALL these hoops, learn what you've had to learn, gotten your license, ready to rock - they still hold you back. They set a pre-pre-release meeting, then a pre-release meeting, then they do another pre-release meeting and it is never ending. 

They promise you leads. Bait - "these leads are hot, they come directly from members who want to help their families." Switch. They are actually response cards that were sent in from up to a year ago that the people have completely forgotten about. So when you call to set up an appointment, no, it's not technically a cold call, but it's about as chilly as they come. You're expected to do this in the office on Sunday evenings, thus, this becomes a 7 day per week job.

When you decide that you're over being strung along and bait/switched, they tell you it's YOUR fault for not putting in enough time/effort and nothing about the business is a bait and switch - "I don't think you understand that term." No, sir, I actually do, I have a University English Degree and understand words pretty thoroughly. They also like to play the semantics game when you ask why they have to recruit people under the guise of a different business - I applied for management with some unknown financial group, turns out it's actually selling life insurance. "We don't sell anything, we provide benefits to members." Well, you go to someone's house to give them  "free" benefits, but then you turn the meeting into a presentation to get them to buy the permanent benefits... Last I checked if you offer something to someone in exchange for them paying you, that's called sales. Not simply "benefits." So they can call it whatever they want but it is definitely straight up life insurance sales. 

The worst part about the whole deal is that it's presented that you're going to be helping families by giving them a few benefits for free. That's how you get in the door - false pretenses. Then once you're in you've baited the customer into letting you in,  you then switch it on them to get them to buy life insurance. You're also expected to get the customer you're sitting with to call all their friends and family to get you referrals so you can give them the "free" benefits (oh, and sell them the life insurance but we won't tell them that). 

Overall, every step of the way, either someone is being dishonest to you, or you're being forced to be dishonest to a client to get in the door. I'm not into dishonesty. I'm certain people out there ACTUALLY DO want life insurance and that there must be a better way to go about it than American Income/Altig's approach. Plus I'm guessing other insurance companies actually pay their employees for working, especially after 5-6 weeks of training. 

Don't fall for it like I did. The money seems too good to be true because it is. Don't be a horse like me that just focuses on the worthless carrot they dangle in front of you. Every step forward they're just going to push the carrot that much further away. Save your time, money, and sanity.

My experience at Arias Agencies (AIL) in the Morgantown office can be summed up as the most stressful job experience of my life. The interviewing process starts off as if you are walking through the doors of a brokerage firm on Wall Street in Manhattan (they'll actually like that I said this because of their egotistical style). However, please check yourself into reality (unlike my witty 21 year old self did not) and realize that you are entering a near fraternity style office building that is parked next to a chain-bar and a Harley-Davidson dealership. This is not Wall Street, ladies and gentlemen this is a pyramid-scheme flying under the radars of the Better Business Bureau (not even my words this came from multiple peers that watched me fail over the course of my time with AIL). You are told that you are to be interviewed in a 3-round stage. First starts with a brief one-on-one interview with a low-level manager in my case. All that I remember from that initial interview was the gentleman (if you can call him that) stating "I really ******* like you." To a 21 year old guy that felt awesome to hear that from a cheap suit like that guy. I passed "stage one." Moments later I was shoved into a small classroom with twenty other hopeless souls like myself where a presentation blew everyone away with promises of money and lifestyle opportunities that seemed endless. They actually refer to this as "Opportunity Unlimited." Everyone was then given a fifty-something question personality test. After you are finished with that test you go home for the day. Then they explain to you that you will be given a call back later that afternoon if they are interested in you. Obviously, I got the call back and I went in the next day for "round 3." This interview was conducted by a man wearing an Hermes belt and a fancy suit.. He was actually a very nice person, probably one of the few professional people at AIL. He blew me away during the interview and I was offered the job, and immediately asked to pay $150 if I were to accept. Blindly, I did and i pulled out my debit card, and just like that I was enrolled in a life insurance course. I was asked to finish that course in a week. Then pay nearly $100 for a licensing test which I failed multiple times and had to repay each time. After that I passed and then came another $50 for the license out of my pocket. At this point I thought I was done spending money but then came yet another $50 out of my pocket for fingerprinting. Now, i thought I could start making money with this company and I was super excited. Yet, I was asked to memorize a 3,000 word sales script. Then, I could start working. I came to work for a manager (will refer to them with male pronouns for anonymity guidelines per indeed). This man drove me insane with his poor leadership and example-setting. He demanded me to show up to the office at 8:45am every morning for training. Which was a fair expectation, however the only person at the office then was the polite and kind secretary. Some days he would show up then to see if I was there as a little mind-game. However most days he would walk through the doors nearly an hour later. My training class started around 9:30am which had nothing to even do with him, just his ego. During training, the "professor" taught us how to use AIL's software and a few other things like that. This consisted of a typical training day there (in office)- Morning training class, noon break, 2pm meeting, a little training, then 4pm to whenever he said to go home which could some days be 9pm or later. These in office days were know as phone days. You would cold-call union workers who were under the impression that they were being called to setup delivery of a benefit's package. However little did these people know he was coming to their door to not just drop of a "No cost- $2000 Accidental Death and Dismemberment policy, but to solicit a hard-working family into purchasing whole-life or final expense coverage. These long nights cold calling would setup your "field day." A field day consisted of morning training, a lunch break, then a road trip with him across the boonies of West Virginia until only god knows when you'll be getting home to your family that night. He could choose how much to compensate his trainee for the week. Typically I heard cases of him compensating people $400 to $600. All while his trainee setup the appointment and did the majority of in-home work. He would take home a much higher percentage of the weekly sales. Personally, I know this from experience accounts of others. I never participated in field day training for a number of personal reasons or for one day when the man "benched" me for not showing up to the office on time for one of his morning mind-games. I never saw a dollar from AIL because you had to go to field training to make weekly pay. The 12 plus hour days that I spent in class and on the phone setting up lucrative appointments all translated to zero compensation. To be fair to AIL I was aware of this, just want to point out what a big waste of time this job was. This company recruited me with little sales experience and on-boarded me over the course of months, whilst having me invest countless dollars into this "career" at zero cost to them. They market products to people that are not interested and in some cases cannot even afford the coverage. They claim to be ranked a happier place to work than even Disney is by using a chart from Forbes about Globe Life (Globe Life being the parent company of AIL, who is the parent company of Arias Agencies.) I am sure Globe Life might actually be a wonderful place to work to deserve such a distinguished ranking from a business journal such as Forbes, however Arias Agencies fails to live up to those standards. The company is an embarrassment to the brand that Globe Life has established.

Where to start. Let me begin with letting you know this place is a complete SCAM and the employees will lie about anything and everything to get you come work for them. The first scam starts with the indeed job posting. They say the company name is Eliteam, I'm presuming this is so you don't research and find the MASSIVE amount of complaints for AIL. When you are contacted, the person claims to be a human resources manager, which in fact is a lie. She's actually a supervising agent. Next, when you are contacted the guy sounds pretty convincing about how awesome it is and how much money you can potentially make. When you get there, you are taken into a room with a group of people so they can try and convince you even further how great it is. So now I've been duped and am super excited to start. My group had me and four other people who were hired. At this point you're told you need to get licensed and pay for everything out of your own pocket. Interesting. Anyway, when I came in about a week later (and $400 less rich) I asked if the other people had turned down the job because no one else was there. The manager responded, "Oh no they all accepted and every time we hire people they ALWAYS go all the way through the process and work for us." At this point I felt he was trying way too hard to convince me this job is "awesome" and everyone wants to work there. I finally start and realize I really the only one out of my group to go all the way through. Apparently everyone else didn't fall for the scam. 

Now this is the great part. This job is a 1099 so you're an independent contractor. However, you are required to come to mandatory meetings multiple times a week that last hours, which in turn actually makes you an EMPLOYEE but they don't compensate you as such. The meetings are a bunch of pointless lectures on how to be great and successful. I realize now that they do this because everyone who works there is maybe 21-22 years old and need to be told what to do.  They play very loud music, drink alcohol, and waste even more hours of your time after these "meetings". After that you now have to call your "leads". Which aren't even real leads. Going into this, the only reason I didn't run in the first place is because you are told there is no cold-calling and you are given your leads. That's another lie to get you into the door. Your leads are actually union members who are entitled to an AD&D insurance coverage. They fill out the card and turn it in thinking that's what they're getting but in reality you present to them child safety kids. After the child safety kit you ask them for sponsors so they can get the kits for free. When really it's just to get yourself some more leads. PS folks, you can get these free online! Anyway, after the kits  you try to sell them insurance. Listening to the guy I rode out with was horrendous. The amount of lies and deceit he spewed out of his mouth was disgusting. So in short, your leads are not real. Most are old and recycled and you end up calling the same people as your peers. And your "leads" have NO clue what's about to be presented to them. Even on the phone they think you're just coming out to explain their benefits to them. 

Now here's the real fun part. You are told you receive $500 a week for training. I tracked my hours the first week and it ended up being 32.5 hours. I was originally told I would be training the full 50-60 hours but he would move my start time and cut me early. Which was frustrating considering I could've stayed at my other job during this time. Anyway, I was only able to ride out with an agent one day. It was a total of 14 hours. So. I check my bank account on payday and realize I was paid EIGHTEEN DOLLARS!!!! I asked the guy I rode out with and he said it's because I only rode out one day. THATS STILL ONLY ONE DOLLAR AN HOUR! Then the next week I rode out one day again, same amount of hours. Want to know how much I was paid for that? NOTHING. I also found out that people train for months on end and you have to split your earnings with the person you ride out with. Unreal. Nobody can afford this! Another lie is how much people get paid. The guy I rode with tried saying he made $90,000 the year prior. But when numbers were rolling out every week, he was either taking home nothing, or below $1,000. This is when I noticed the numbers aren't adding up. What made me throw the towel in is when they told me I needed $46,000 in ALP for the rest of the year to make it to the convention in Vegas. A HUGE amount of people don't make it. Now let me explain. If you sold that amount in ALP then that means you take home approx $23,000. That's only $46,000 a year (which again, that much ALP is hard to make) . So how in the heck is this dude taking home 90 when he didn't even make it to convention?! That's when I knew I had to be done.

So again. RUNNNN RUN FAST. The only reviews that are positive on here are from current employees who want to dupe you into coming to work for them. Don't fall for it like I did!

When I was hired, I was told several things:  

 --That I would be an independent agent, basically a contractor 

--That taxes would not be withheld and there were no benefits such as insurance, paid time off, etc. 

--That I would receive no base pay 

--That I would have the ability to build my own schedule and answer to myself for my work 

--That I would be provided with UNION LEADS. I was shown a union card and told there was no shortage of these leads and that these were people who had already asked to review their benefits. I was told that they exclusively served unions, credit unions, and associations. 

--That there would be absolutely no cold-calling 

This definitely describes a job as an independent agent, particularly when you consider the taxes and benefits. This was the job I accepted and the job I expected (and wanted!) to work. 

 
What I got instead: 

 --I did not build my own schedule. I was constantly pressured to fill every day that I could with “presets” that matched the numbers that AIL has deemed acceptable. Being able to take a day off for a doctor appointment is not building your own schedule. Hourly jobs provide that as well 

--I did not work for myself. I answered to an immediate supervisor and was expected to stay in touch with her on a regular basis 

 --I was expected to be a part of a HUGE group text and receive messages all day long reviewing other “independent agents” and their numbers 

--I was expected to act as a door-to-door salesperson, harassing people who I was unable to contact and who have not agreed to meet with me 


--Deceptive leads 
     -The union leads are very few and far between 

     -There was no mention of Child Safe Kit, Discount Card, or Will Kit 
      leads during orientation 

     -There was no mention that we would have to build our own lead pool 
      through referrals and gather them through CS boxes  

--Yes, there is most definitely cold-calling 


My thoughts on the leads: 
I find it astounding that people who refuse the presentation get cycled back into the lead database. The discount card leads are particularly bad. Most of these people don’t even remember or know what the discount card is. The agents go to a house and gather “leads” under the guise of providing free benefits. Then once they get names, phone numbers, and addresses, the unsuspecting people are locked in, never to be removed from the lead pool, unless they are irate and demand to be taken of the list. Many of the people the agents visit asked for child safe kits or will kits, and have no idea that they are going to be roped into a life insurance pitch because the phone scripts are made to be deceptively vague about that. 

I was given 50 leads, many of which didn’t even have working numbers. So, I had 35 leads of my own to call after that. I was also given two other agents' leads (agents that were not longer with the company) which seem 	to be given to many new agents to show them that they will “always have leads.” So, I then had 35 leads and a bunch of dead, constantly used leads. I was told to call my leads twice a day, then call them again the next day. And the next. And to text them. Then to go to their house in a "drop by," often after dark, like a door-to-door salesperson. This is harassment, plain and simple. Those were NOT the union leads I was promised in orientation. The overwhelming majority of leads do not pick up the phone, and many of the ones that do simply hang up on you. 

If you do the math, there is simply no way for a new agent to meet the numbers that are demanded (20 presentations a week) which is why many new agents struggle. It is not because they do not put in the work, it is because there IS a shortage of leads. And many of the “new” leads agents get are again, simply recycled leads that other people went through, resolved, and sent back to the main lead pool. Leads are “refreshed” back to 50, but again, 50 leads and a bunch of dead leads does not equal 20 presentations a week when you consider how many people don't even pick up. 

 

I have other issues with this company as well, but I will go ahead and stop here. If this is the job at AIL, that’s perfectly fine and it is a legitimate career for those who want to do the job. HOWEVER, it was NOT the job that was described to me, and I do feel like deceptive hiring practices were used.

Let me just start this off saying I truly enjoyed the people I worked with. Everyone was nice and encouraging and I still have some friends that I met while I was working there. It is also true that you have a lot of freedom in making your own schedule. Unfortunately, this is where the positives end.

You will be required to purchase all the necessary technology and use your own phone to contact customers. You will be expected to work 6 days a week and encouraged to work all week. To be successful, you will be expected to cold call people from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep. They will tell you that they are investing in you by purchasing leads, while sharing your leads with others in the company.  You are told to make 1000 phone calls a week to be successful. They know that selling life insurance is a numbers game. They want as many people calling each lead as much possible. There were points where I was calling the same people 12 times in a week. These people are being called because they filled out a card offering free life insurance benefits, and in tiny font at the bottom says that a benefits representative will reach out to deliver those free benefits AND discuss other insurance benefits. The second part that is written in tiny font is how you make money since this job is commission only. Nobody is expecting your call and certainly nobody is even thinking that you will be asking for their money after you explain their free benefits. Making a sale for this company is hard, but not impossible. You can be successful in this company but it requires so much time that the work-life balance they boast about might as well not even exist. 

As you're reading this you may be thinking: "Wow, that sounds tough. I can understand why he decided to leave a review." But you'd actually be wrong. The reason for my review is how I was treated immediately before I left. Your manager will tell you that if you're ever having a hard time to reach out to them and they will help you work it out. That is a straight up lie. I sent a message to my boss saying that I was having a hard time. He said "I will call you shortly." 8 hours later, no call but it's okay I'm sure he's busy. I reach out again saying I would appreciate the call when he has a chance. He never gave me that call. In fact, he never even responded to my follow up text. I was shocked, I was actually being ghosted by my own boss. I figured that I had done something wrong for MONTHS. For MONTHS I sat there wondering what went wrong, what I did to make him treat me like that. Recently, I reached out to a friend of mine who was actually hired around the same time that I was. You guessed it, the EXACT same thing happened to him. He wanted to talk to his boss about how he was struggling and BOOM ghosted. This is so completely unprofessional to the point that it is just straight up disrespectful. You spend 55+ hours a week grinding for this company and when you need support the most they completely cut you out. 

As I write this, I am struggling to find the words to explain how much this affected me and I don't think I can write enough words to ever make me feel better about the way I was treated. The only thing I can do is leave this review and hope that it reaches someone who is thinking about being a benefits representative for the SSBH branch of American Income. To that person I say do not walk, RUN away from this company. They will tell you that they are investing in you but they will not spend a dime on you. In reality it's you investing in yourself, and if you're gonna do that then you might as well do that at a company that is willing to show you some support.

1. Culture
AIL appears to be a great company. However, this company has hundreds of different agencies and they are all different. This agency in particular is very divisive and gives off high school vibes. Everyone is on different teams and will hardly associate with you if you’re not on their team. The owner is great until you go a few weeks without making the most sales. Then their attention is more focused on the ones who are making them money instead of trying to help where needed.

2. A lot of back and forth. There is no set schedule. Most times you’re working 1pm (sometimes earlier if they get you to be in upper level management) until 9pm or later. And sometimes they will switch up the schedule and have everyone calling leads together at 10am and still working the rest of the day. 

3. Very redundant 
You call the same leads all day long until the next week when they give you new ones. After you call for a few hours, you get to take a 30 minute “lunch break” and then immediately go into appointments trying to sell life insurance using the “these are free leads” pitch. 

4. They will try to make you put money into the company /agency. Don’t do it.

5. Renewals
They tell you that after your 1st full year of working with the company, you get 10% of renewals. 2nd year is 20%, so on and so forth all the way to the 10th year being 100%. So basically if you work here 10 years, you get 100% of your renewal checks as long as the client is still paying on the policy. Renewals were cool while working here. But they also lie and tell you that you continue to get those renewals after you quit for however many years you worked. Flat out lie. No more renewals have been received and I can’t believe I fell for it. 

6. Training meetings
They like to hold meetings on closing, referral gathering, etc. Before I go any further, there are only about 3 people in this agency who have been here for longer than 5 years…And two of them own the agency. They want to have these meetings on how to get better, but no one has ever seen any of them actually work a presentation with a client. They are all talk and just trying to keep agents motivated so they don’t quit. I have seen some of the best (if not all of the best) agents quit this agency strictly  because of the owners and how things are run.

7. Work/life balance 
As if all the other issues weren’t enough…there is no time to have a life at this place. If you have kids…GOOD LUCK! They tell you that you have flexible schedule when you’re really just running yourself into the ground 5 to 6 days a week. 

8. Management 
Not hard to get into management. You will get promoted very fast. It’s all a part of their plan to have more managers even when the agent is not ready. You will get paid a percentage from the people working under you but you will also have to give a lot of business away. If you’re training a new agent, don’t expect to get paid as if you wrote the policy. They will make you give it to the agent. You feed your new agent money until they are released to be on their own. Then they will quit and you will train someone else and do the same thing. 

9. You only get benefits if you qualify for them. So basically if you write enough business, you get health insurance that you’ll pay $100+ a month for.

10. Overall, there is a lot of misrepresentation from the interview all the way to your last day. Lots of lies. Lots of inconsistency. Lots of favoritism. This place is a joke and I am ashamed that I spent so much of my time here. 

I worked for AIL for six months and saw many pros and cons. There is a pretty decent commission structure and bonuses were nice. New agents also got a good recruiting bonus. Management was very helpful and motivating, depending on who was above you in your hierarchy (a lot of the people I tried to recruit told me it was a pyramid scam, it kinda is because a % of your sales funnel up the management ladder but that's how the company motivates managers to help you). 

The hardest part for me was making the job work financially. Your supervising agent will help you make your first sales but about six of my first nine sales were charged back because the client either cancelled or didn't pay, even though we did our best to weed out the ones whom we knew couldn't afford it or would get declined. I usually worked six or seven days a week, made upwards of 350 calls a week and door knocked when I didn't have appointments but still couldn't get in front of enough people to make a profit (I also got a letter after I quit saying I still owe the company over $1000 because of chargebacks).

Statistically, half of your appointments will cancel on you and it will be difficult to get the 25+ appointments per week that you need to be successful unless you are a master at collecting referrals. The company does provide leads, free of charge, however you get what you pay for. I found that out of my 50-60 monthly leads, about 15-20 would have a disconnected/wrong phone number and about 15-20 more would never pick up the phone or return your messages. When they did pick up, you are trained to be as vague as possible and not mention the company name in order to have a better chance at booking it. It is technically not cold-calling but 90% of the people you call will not remember what they signed up for or hang up on you because they think you're a telemarketer. If you don't hide the fact that you're coming to sell insurance or you're just not very good at BS'ing when they have questions, you probably won't get into many homes.

The sales meetings were actually very motivational and informative and I met several people making over six figures while I worked there. Many of those spoke more than one language, which really helps because the immigrant market has less competition and they are less likely to research the company beforehand - a lot of people I set appointments with cancelled after telling me they looked the company up and were no longer interested, which is why you are told not to mention the company name unless they ask for it. 

Its a tough gig with a lot of turnover. You get paid based on what you sell and you are a 1099 contractor so you don't get any reimbursements for training or licensing. There is the potential to make a lot of money but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that doesn't have a previous successful track record in commission-only sales.

This is a recruiting company that sales insurance!

Worked here briefly as I saw the business model as a multi level management position. You must call people who filled a form and were told they would just get information and basically beg them to see you  also, you must play on their emotions and feelings to make sales. You have to drive and knock on doors. The attitude is knock until your knuckles bleed and call until they tell you not to call them again. There is no investment on the part of ail to get good people  most of the people in management there are young men, very unprofessional environment. Lots of meetings with motivational speeches because you are always getting beat down by the clients saying no.

You must pay for the class, license, training and all those expenses are on you  you are paid on a 1099. No risk for them, you are replaceable and its a constant revolving door. Not to mention that everyone gets a piece of your sale. You get a commission, your sa gets a commission, ssga gets a commission all on your sale, to me thats the definition of a pyramid.

They will tell you that you have to get people under you to make money.  Your primary job is to get referrals from the people you visit so they can be called time after time. Most agents put in fake referrals as they measure your referral input  they are just interested in having you build their database for the next reps.

No benefits, its 100% on you, the company culture is also loose. They break the rules. For instance, if your prospect smokes, but they want the cheaper rate. The agent takes the spit test. So the client gets the non smoker rate even when they smoke...Just to make the sale  the call room is so noisy, you cannot concentrate. Everything is tracked, so the managers show you how to get around “gigs and ack” as they are called. It cost me money to work there  

Taking the class, they only concentrate on getting you to 70% which is passing. So the training is very limited and that is why when you go take the class, you will see they do not qualify their people well. Gigs and ack will come by always saying you will be a millionaire. I got friendly with managers and reps. The most the manager made was 150k, he has been there for years. The top sales person under him was making 80k. If you chose to avoid this warning, enter at your own risk.

They play on the clients emotions and fears to get a sale. They expect you to use your salesmanship and make them scared   

The managers are always backstabbing each other and they do not want you to mingle with other teams. Its a very wierd environment. A boiler room environment.

Watch boiler room before going there so you can see what it is you are getting into  

You are required to work all the time, even sunday's they want you to make calls  6 days a week and working until late in the evenings  I never knocked on doors after it got dark. You will also be targeting a specific demographic. Young married couple, 30-40k, a few kids. So the neighborhoods you may not ordinarily be in  this isnwh they hire young people, not professionals.

It costs them nothing to have you strung along on a need to know basis. Because if you did know you would realize before you got started but a bunch of...it is. So as a former employee let me break it down for ya.
1. They recruit every 3 mo because no one lasts loner than that before they realize they have been had.
2. They do it in mass recruits where they try to make you feel special when and if they pick you. The only ones that are not picked are the ones who run because they saw through it. They get your name off job websites where you have a resume saying they think you would be perfect for this job.
3. They have one of the team leaders take you into a room and quickly tell you some glossy vague description of the company that can earn you a high figure would yoube interested. If you say yes then you wait until they have enough seen to usher eveyone at once into a conference room where the bull over runnith. They say you can make 6 figures, break down the pyramid of wealth and your at the bottom. Try to tell you how easy it is and it will only cost $75 at one point. You wait until your called back into the office and they tell you they will call if your hired.
4. Of course they call and you are told to come in where you find out you get no hourly wage and you have to pay $75 for online training that you will spend 1 week there and 1 week at home training and then 1 week for prep. then take your life and health state exams and your on your way to driving a ferrari
5. It's the hardest testing and it takes longer than 2 weeks to learn and dont expect any answers from anyone there they dont know and will not help. They dont want to see until you past your test. Oh ya it costs another $75 for the test and if you fail even 1 another $75 and so on. Meanwhile you are bringing in no money just paying;.
4. After you get your license you have to train with someone who came just a little before you and are still buying the bull working up the pyramid. They say you have to be in their car for 2 wks and then close out with the boss after an oral quiz. Which actually is your doing the sweat shop deeds of their job cold calling setting appts until you get to vocal and they release you. Now they let you kinow you have to pay another $150 for your licensing before you can sell.
5.You spend a fortune in gas running way beaten leads they give you and you have to put boxes out in territory where you run into each other and have to go check on for 1 or 2  leads to cold call because these are your only chance of selling. You will only receive a check after you bonus and it will only be the bonus. You have to wait another week for your commision. 
5. Your commision gets less and less to because your team leader takes more and more until it is costing you to run leads for them. You  have to be there for a year before you can get risiduals and no one I mean no one survives and then who gets your risiduals, your team leader and they start recruiting again. 

This company is worse than used car salesman with their pitch and I was a desperate mothe of three who learned her lesson. Don't do it...it keeps them in business and restarting the cycle

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