So you're wondering "is Transamerica a scam?"
Welcome to my Transamerica review Updated for 2023!
Let me admit that Transamerica looks like an amazing opportunity to work from home as it seems to have a great business model.
But is it an UGLY pyramid scheme?
I want to congratulate you for taking the time to do your homework and research before falling for a seemingly good looking program!
That's how you can avoid scams and find a legitimate opportunity online!
Before we dive into this review, let me tell you that I'm by no means affiliated with Transamerica.
So you can expect from me an in-depth and honest review!
Transamerica Quick Summary Review
Name: Transamerica
Website: transamerica.com
Founder: Hubert Humphrey
Type: Insurance MLM Company
Best for: People that want to sell insurance policies
Recommended? No
What is Transamerica?
Transamerica is an insurance company that sells insurance and financial plans, it was founded in 1991 by Hubert Humphrey. Transamerica also has an MLM program where you can make money by selling their insurance products as well as recruiting new members to earn commissions.
Quick Facts About Transamerica
- Transamerica used to use unlawful marketing techniques.
- This company was fined for their marketing techniques and members the complaints
- In 1999 Hubert sold Transamerica to Aegon.
- Transamerica was renamed World Marketing Alliance.
- Transamerica owns another insurance selling company named World Financial Group which has the same MLM scheme.
- Hubert has had massive success with other companies after he sold Transamerica.
- Hubert managed to build a $50 million mansion which unfortunately was seized by the bank and sold to a couple in 2005.
The Transamerica Products & Services
Transamerica offers insurance and financial services, they offer different types of life and health insurance policies that include:
- Whole life
- Term life
- Universal life
- Variable universal life
- Accidental death
- Medicare supplement
- Long term care
Transamerica also offers a variety of annuities and mutual funds.
When you compare the policies in the market and the Transamerica policies you'll notice that the Transamerica policies are seriously overpriced.
This is something typical with MLM schemes because they usually overprice their products in order to afford to pay their distributors and sales agents.
Life Insurance Policies by Transamerica Explained
There are two types of term life insurance policies offered by Transamerica with terms of 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years.
- Trendsetter Super - This insurance policy can offer coverage of up to $10 million and possibly even more depending on the circumstances.
- Trendsetter LB - Choosing this insurance policy can potentially offer you coverage of up to $2 million. If the insured individual is diagnosed with a chronic, critical, or terminal illness, they may be able to access some of the money before they die.
Whole life insurance policies has up to $2 million in coverage and a range of riders available. Riders for persons with chronic, critical, or terminal conditions include hastened death benefits.
You can learn about their indexed universal life insurance details by contacting an agent. A market index, such as the S&P 500, is used as the basis for the cash value growth.
The final expense insurance is a type of whole life insurance policy with minimum death benefits. The benefits can range from $1,000 to $50,000 depending on the age of the client which can be up to 85 years old. This policy is not available in New York.
Employers might also purchase group life insurance from the company.
Can You Make Money with Transamerica?
Transamerica has an MLM program where you can apply and become a Transamerica sales agent that sells the Transamerica products for commissions.
If you're familiar with MLM schemes like Primerica, Optavia, Evolution Travel, Beachbody & American Income Life they are pretty similar to Transamerica's MLM scheme.
To start making money and sign up as a Transamerica distributor you will need to pay a processing fee of $100 and to start recruiting new members you will need to pay another $300.
Many people think that...
I see many people out there calling Transamerica a scam or a pyramid scheme because it focuses heavily on recruiting new members.
I can understand this doubt, in fact, Transamerica does encourage their distributors to recruit more members more than encouraging them to sell the actual company's products.
This is exactly what makes Transamerica a potential pyramid scheme.
I'm going to talk more about this point below so keep reading. 😉
The Transamerica UGLY Truths & Concerns
#1 - Is Transamerica a Pyramid Scheme?
The biggest concern about Transamerica is it's doubted so much about being a big pyramid scheme. There are many scam signs and red flags that show Transamerica could be a pyramid scheme in disguise.
First of all, Transamerica as I said above focuses heavily on recruitment which is the biggest sign of a pyramid scheme.
Secondly, the compensation plan is hidden, and there is not much info available about it online.
Another sign that Transamerica could be a pyramid scheme is the fact their products are overpriced. Pyramid schemes usually overprice their products so they can make the opportunity look very profitable for the representatives and the distributors.
Here is a video that talks in details about Transamerica being a pyramid scheme.
#2 - This Opportunity is VERY Expensive
Another ugly truth about Transamerica is it's pretty expensive. Their products are expensive and also their business opportunity. If you're planning to become a sales representative of this company you should expect to chunk out lots of money.
Some of the expenses include:
- The $100 processing fee.
- $300 for recruiting new members
- You need to buy tickets to expensive conferences where you'll find a high profile to recruit.
Thanks to this Program I was able to quit the MLM schemes and create a 4-figure monthly income online.
The best part is I did not have to waste thousands of dollars or get involved in a risky business!
#3 - Lots of Transamerica Negative Agents Reviews
I have read quite a lot of negative reviews from the Transamerica agents.
Some Transamerica agents quit Transamerica because it was encouraging them to lie to their recruits and make them feel worthless if they quit.
There are also complaints about Transamerica ONLY trains you on how to recruit and not how to sell the insurance policies which is another massive pyramid scheme red flag.
Another complaint I read from one Transamerica agent is about Transamerica promising people mansions and fancy cars if they recruit more members.
There are lots of negative reviews about Transamerica that you can find on sites like Glassdoor, Indeed & ConsumerAffairs.
I have also included screenshots of some negative reviews about Transamerica below.
Transamerica 2022 review update!
On consumeraffairs.com, new 2022 reviews popped up about Transamerica. It seems that their reviews has gotten positive drastically with mostly 4 star ratings. However you must keep in mind that a big company like this could easily buy positive reviews.
The same can also be said when you look at their reviews on indeed.com
You can read all the new 2022 reviews by clicking on the links below.
- ConsumerAffairs - 3.8 out of 5 based on 286 reviews.
- Indeed - 3.5 out of 5 based on 1,500 reviews
#4 - The Transamerica Misleading Job Offers
Transamerica job offers are VERY misleading.
Their jobs are advertised as upper management jobs where you will get a fixed salary, but when you get in and learn more about it you will realize it's nothing but a sales job.
Basically, Transamerica pretends like it's offering real jobs with a fixed salary, but in reality people will be paid in strict commission basis and have to cold call people in order to make money!
#5 - Joining the NFL Club...
In order to make money with Transamerica, you will need to recruit your friends and family and get them to become a Transamerica sales agent just like you.
This is something that will get you straight into the NFL club!
Nope!
Not the National Football League club but the "No Friends Left" club!
Yes because if you continually bug your friends and family to join and buy the Transamerica products it will just be a matter of time that you will find yourself without friends!
#5 - Transamerica is NOT BBB Accredited (Updated 2022)
I checked the Transamerica BBB profile and I noticed they have a B rating. They are also still not accredited by BBB.
On top of that, Transamerica has tons of complaints published on their BBB profile.
#6 - The Transamerica Lawsuit
According to Investmentnews.com Transamerica had to pay $195 million to settle a lawsuit over universal life insurance.
So basically Transamerica improperly increased the monthly fee on over 70,000 universal life insurance policies.
What I Liked about Transamerica
#1 - The Transamerica Ratings
They got an A+ rating from AM Best & Fitch.
Transamerica got AA- rating from S&P Global & A1 from Moody's.
As you can see the Transamerica products are rated very well from the best rating agencies which is a good sign.
#2 - Good Customer Support
Another good thing about Transamerica is they got an excellent customer support team.
If you need any help, you just call them or shoot them an email, and they are available 24/7 to help you out.
Their customer support team is also available in the social networks so there are different ways to get support from Transamerica which is a good thing about this company.
Is Transamerica a Scam?
In my opinion, Transamerica is a legitimate company that offers solid financial products and services.
But if you're planning to become a sales agent, I'd advise you to think again because this opportunity is quite expensive, and there are many shady things going on with it.
If you want to make a full-time income online without losing your money and friends, then I recommend you to keep reading below.
This is How I Make Money from Home...
I personally used to do MLM's but I quickly realized it was NOT for me not because it was illegal but because it's VERY expensive and it's hard to find success in it.
That's why I prefer affiliate marketing because it's more profitable and a lot cheaper to start.
Thanks to affiliate marketing I was able to:
- Build my own affiliate site with over 30k visitors a month
- Quit my boring day job & my university studies.
- Work when I want and whenever I want!
With affiliate marketing, I can earn this kind of affiliate commissions on a regular basis!
My November affiliate commissions thanks to affiliate marketing!
The best part is I don't have to recruit my friends or my family members to make money!
There are so much false claims in this post. I would not trust this article. If you are truly interested in an opportunity, explore it and make a judgement call yourself.
Can you please elaborate on what are these false claims? Maybe its a change for us to update the review is any info is not updated, thank you.
I will admit, I have recently gotten on board with the company, time will tell (I’ll come back to this). Bear in mind that I do not have a Transamerica policy, but have policies that are similar in the fact that the growth is dependent on the stock market and there are floors, ceilings, and participation rates involved. These are not always bad, all things considered. Is it a perfect retirement plan? Depends how much you are willing to put into it and what your age is. Is it great life insurance? I can’t attest to that since a) I don’t have their policy, and b) I’m still alive, but the numbers and research show that they do pay out the amount that the policy is valued at. Again, I said what the policy is valued at, I have not been privy to one of these being fulfilled and knowing what all the details were, so I cannot make claims one way or the other if the beneficiary also receives the compounded interest that has accrued on the account.
Moving on to where I see this to be a beneficial. The average interest on a savings account is sitting at or below .50%, which doesn’t even pay enough in dividends to cover inflation. It is acceptable for keeping $10k set aside in case the family car breaks down, but not much else. An account with guaranteed .70%+ even when the market dips can be a good idea if it suits your circumstances.
Now, back to me being “on board” with them. I saw potential and better security against inflation in a product, so I agreed to inform people about said product. I also made it very clear that I will not falsify what I do nor do I have any intention of trying to recruit my family/friends/colleagues to also sell the accounts and plans that they offer. The numbers will speak for themselves. We will see how it goes, I may be back here in a couple months updating to show them as a horrible company or as a fantastic company.
Will an insurance company ridicule me for trying to sell insurance instead of recruiting people? Stay tuned…
Thanks for sharing with us your feedback about Transamerica!
Update?
1/22/2020 – My neighbor has just started working with TransAmerica. He ask me if I would mind if I met with him (neighbor) and his ‘mentor’ (Colorado) so I could give feedback and ask questions – so my neighbor could learn from the questions I ask. Hey, he’s a friend, so I thought why not. THEN I did research on TransAmerica. OMG!!.. the negative things I found out. When I read this:
So my neighbor just got into this, he’s a good guy I’ve known for years. He came over with another guy and presented the service as a training for my neighbor. Since I’m a good friend, I sat with them and listened to what the business was about. I have an Accounting degree and know a few things about retirement, finances, and what needs to be done to get there, so for the guy to go over things I already knew about wasn’t really anything new for me to hear about. After about 30-45 minutes I wasn’t impressed with anything that was presented. I have another meeting with my neighbor and the guy today, which I’m going to cancel. I know they want to try and sell me some type of life Ins plan, which I have through my job already, so this isn’t something that I will be going forward with. I’ll have to ask my neighbor if this is something he researched fully. After I did a search on this company I figured I would find out what I already knew.
I felt almost betrayed – the EXACT Same verbiage my neighbor used – I will tell my neighbor this – and back out of this ‘meeting’ before it even gets started.
It seems to me this company survives by finding desperate people, that need to make money to retire (and let’s face it, there will be many in this boat) but easy money, investing, life insurance, … is not to be had. A quick search of TransAmerica will tell you there are many issues (perhaps past issues, but issues) and I want nothing to do with this company. Oh, TA will hire anyone – no experience needed – they only want bodies and don’t care if you succeed or not. It’s a numbers game to them.
Hi Scott thanks for your feedback it’s really useful and in-depth many people considering joining Transamerica will find it useful!
Hi Anis, thank you for your views on Transamerica.
As someone who is looking at earning online, this has certainly provided a good insight into Transamerica and MLMs. You have certainly saved someone a lot of expenses with your review if they were seriously considering signing up to Transamerica.
It is good advice to anyone who is considering ways to earn additional income or working with companies such as Transamerica, that they research first particularly useful blogs such as yours. Thank you.
You’re welcome Joanne, I’m happy that my Transamerica review was useful to you!
Well Anis, this is one that I have not heard of before. Transamerica. When someone knows about MLM’s like you seem to, it is not hard to be able to figure out which ones are Product based and which ones are Recruitment based. Yes, it is very similar to one that I was involved with about 30 years ago, originally named AL Williams, changed to the one you mentioned above, Primerica.
Sadly there are people out there that will buy into the ‘promises’ given by unscrupulous agents and recruiters. Despite the many red flags that pop up or warnings that are posted.
You have done very well on this review of Transamerica. It is definitely an illegal Pyramid. I have also seen other companies that “Hide” their compensation plan and when asked to explain how it works they really can’t.
Sonny
Hi Sonny, Transamerica is not 100% a pyramid scheme, but there are big doubts it is since they rely so much on recruiting and how they train their agents.
Thanks for your comment and visit.
Anis