I-InsureMe operates within the insurance coverage MLM area of interest.
The corporate is predicated out of Arizona within the US and headed up by proprietor and CEO Paul Langley.
The earliest enterprise historical past I used to be capable of finding on Langley (proper) was Clear Enterprise Options.
I wasn’t capable of pin down when it began however as per a Higher Enterprise Bureau itemizing, previous to 2005 Clear Enterprise Options “supplied a well being care financial savings plan”.
As of March 2005, the corporate has ceased this sort of enterprise and now presents a service to shut gross sales for coastal holidays enterprise alternatives.
Coastal Holidays is your typical MLM journey area of interest recruitment alternative.
In line with Langley’s LinkedIn profile, he owned and operated Devoted Monetary Group from August 2006 to April 2014.
An official Devoted Monetary Group Fb web page describes the enterprise because the “developer of the retirement rescue plan”.
These Fb posts hyperlink to still-available electronic mail advertising copy, which reveals Devoted Monetary Group was a monetary providers MLM alternative.
Contemplating Devoted Monetary Group led to April 2014 and I-InsureMe was launched that very same month, it seems I-InsureMe was a rebranding.
Learn on for a full assessment of I-InsureMe’s MLM alternative.
I-InsureMe’s Merchandise
I-InsureMe markets property & casualty insurance coverage, damaged right down to house, auto and/or enterprise insurance coverage insurance policies.
Insurance coverage insurance policies are offered by Dickinson Insurance coverage, an Idaho company that pitches it self as “the insurance coverage specialists”.
By means of Dickinson Insurance coverage, supplied insurance policies can be found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida (no HO), Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
These areas are taken immediately from I-InsureMe’s web site on the time of publication.
Seeing as pricing is coverage dependent, I can’t present any retail pricing examples.
I-InsureMe do nevertheless state that
70-80% of the time, an individual can get higher protection, higher pricing, or each on his/her house/auto/enterprise insurance coverage.
I-InsureMe’s Compensation Plan
I-InsureMe’s compensation plan combines recruitment and insurance coverage coverage commissions.
Affiliate Membership Tiers
I-InsureMe’s compensation documentation particulars three affiliate membership tiers:
- Consultant – will get paid to refer insurance coverage shoppers (no MLM)
- Affiliate – paid to recruit new Associates and Consultant Associates
- Consultant Associates – paid to refer insurance coverage shoppers and recruit new Associates and Consultant Associates
Whereas coverage quantity generated by Representatives is paid out through I-InsureMe’s compensation plan, Representatives themselves can’t earn MLM commissions.
Associates earn each direct and handed up recruitment commissions.
Representatives earn direct, handed up and residual coverage and recruitment commissions.
Insurance coverage Referral Charges
Licensed Representatives and Consultant Associates earn insurance coverage referral charges.
Insurance coverage referral charges are calculated yearly however paid month-to-month.
- 1.02% is paid on the primary $25,000 PV
- 5.04% is paid on $25,001 PV and better quantity
As per I-InsureMe’s compensation materials, this equates to 0.085% or 0.42% a month respectively.
Notice that when an unlicensed Consultant or Consultant Affiliate, insurance coverage referral charges are handed as much as the primary upline Consultant or Consultant Affiliate.
When an unlicensed Consultant or Consultant Affiliate turns into licensed, they obtain previously handed up referral charges on their PV.
Recruitment Commissions
I-InsureMe pays commissions on IIM System commissions paid by Associates and Consultant Associates.
A $25 monthly fee is paid per Affiliate or Consultant Affiliate recruited.
Notice that recruitment commissions paid on the primary two associates recruited are handed upline (to the affiliate who recruited you).
In flip, personally recruited associates should additionally go up commissions generated by their first two recruits.
Consultant Associates want solely go up one recruit, as their very own IIM System charge cost counts as one go up.
Residual Commissions
I-InsureMe pays residual commissions to Consultant Associates through a unilevel compensation construction.
A unilevel compensation construction locations a Consultant Affiliate on the high of a unilevel workforce, with each personally recruited affiliate positioned immediately below them (degree 1):
If any degree 1 associates recruit new associates, they’re positioned on degree 2 of the unique affiliate’s unilevel workforce.
If any degree 2 associates recruit new associates, they’re positioned on degree 3 and so forth and so forth down a theoretical infinite variety of ranges.
I-InsureMe caps payable unilevel commissions at 4 ranges.
Residual commissions are paid out based mostly on IIM System charge funds, coverage gross sales or complete PV generated by unilevel workforce degree associates.
- degree 1 (personally recruited associates) – unlicensed Consultant Associates earn the usual recruitment fee price ($25 a month), licensed Consultant Associates earn 0.24% of generated PV whether it is increased
- ranges 2 to 4 – $10 paid on the primary coverage of associates on these ranges, or 0.24% of their complete PV paid at 0.02% a month
I-InsureMe’s compensation materials counsel that, excluding the $25 a month first-level fee, residual commissions are tracked however not paid till a license is acquired.
Notice that on degree 1, if the $25 recruitment fee is the usual “recruitment fee” detailed above.
That’s to say the $25 fee on degree 1 isn’t paid out a twice (each as a recruitment fee and residual fee).
Becoming a member of I-InsureMe
I-InsureMe MLM affiliate pricing is as follows:
- Affiliate – $50 a month
- Consultant Affiliate – $149 a month
I-InsureMe’s Phrases and Circumstances states these charges are non-refundable.
Notice that the above charges are waived as per the next circumstances:
- Affiliate charges are waived when a Consultant Affiliate sells their first insurance coverage coverage
- 50% of the IIM System Charge is waived when a Consultant or Consultant Affiliate refers $12,500 PV
- 100% of the IIM System Charge is waived when a Consultant or Consultant Affiliate refers $25,000 PV
For reference, I-InsureMe’s non-MLM membership (Consultant) prices $99 a month.
Conclusion
I-Insurance coverage Me’s MLM alternative accommodates two distinct enterprise fashions, each tied to chain recruitment.
The primary is the affiliate aspect of the enterprise. You enroll, pay a membership charge and receives a commission to recruit others who do the identical.
An insurance coverage license isn’t required to take part, and CEO Paul Langley describes this element of I-InsureMe’s compensation plan as “implausible”.
Nothing is being marketed or bought to retail clients, that means that from a regulatory standpoint it is a blatant pyramid scheme.
The insurance coverage aspect of I-InsureMe presents itself as retail-centric. That is completed by emphasizing insurance coverage being obligatory (i.e. everybody within the goal market wants and might be paying for it).
Evaluation of I-InsureMe’s personal advertising materials nevertheless suggests the coverage element can also be rooted in chain-recruitment.
There are not any retail shopper qualifiers in I-InsureMe’s compensation plan. Associates are in a position to enroll, get a coverage and give attention to recruiting others who do the identical.
That is actually the one insurance coverage revenue instance offered in I-Insure Me’s compensation materials, narrated by Paul Langley;
You may earn $10 a month on the primary coverage that every Consultant refers on ranges 2 by 4.
And whose coverage is that more likely to be?
It’s most certainly to be the Consultant’s own residence and auto coverage.
An enormous deal is made about insurance coverage being obligatory, which makes it sound like this may be a super retail centered alternative.
In actuality the insurance coverage trade is very aggressive, therefore why a third-party is tasked with closing gross sales and offering the precise insurance coverage insurance policies.
In Langley’s personal phrases, I-InsureMe’s “audience” is “individuals who pay for house and auto and wish to construct residual revenue”.
This alone differentiates I-InsureMe from a retail-centric alternative. And once more, in Langley’s personal phrases, brings affiliate recruitment to the forefront of the coverage aspect of the enterprise;
Everybody focuses on referring one shopper, in all probability themselves, and sponsoring simply two PSRs (personally sponsored Representatives), who wish to do the identical.
This isn’t as blatant because the membership charge fee pyramid scheme, however continues to be a 100% inner consumption mannequin. The FTC has spelled out MLM firms with out important retail gross sales are pyramid schemes.
I haven’t even gone into insurance coverage licensing necessities, with out which all an I-InsureMe affiliate can earn is recruitment commissions.
One other facet of I-InsureMe I wish to contact on is revenue claims.
Going again to Devoted Monetary Group, right here’s how Langley pitched it;
That is actually the “tip of the iceberg”, as there might be some individuals making $250,000 per MONTH with this.
That was circa 2013. And seeing as, a minimum of so far as I can inform, I-InsureMe was merely a rebranding of Devoted Monetary Group, absolutely after seven years there’s a minimum of a handful of associates making $250 a month?
And naturally that’d be on a majority of retail insurance policies throughout their total downline?
With respect to I-InsureMe, Langley touts “$10,000+ month-to-month residual revenue … in as little as 1-2 years working part-time”.
So once more what number of I-InsureMe associates are there presently? And what number of of them which were with the corporate for 1-2 years are banking $10,000+ a month?
If I used to be contemplating I-InsureMe as an revenue alternative, these are the primary two questions I’d be asking my potential downline.
Subsequent I’d be asking what number of retail insurance policies they’ve bought, and what number of of these are nonetheless energetic – weighed towards associates of their downline who took out one coverage for themselves.
What you wish to see is a majority swing in the direction of retail insurance policies. Which, for causes defined above, I’m uncertain you’ll discover.
Not withstanding if Langley is misrepresenting potential revenue for I-InsureMe associates, that may be an FTC Act violation.
Given the compensation plan and fairly apparent advertising, I’m assured I-InsureMe actually has not generated and retained retail coverage gross sales in important numbers. No less than not when weighed towards the variety of energetic affiliate coverage purchases.
As beforehand acknowledged, if that’s the case this may make I-InsureMe a pyramid scheme.
There isn’t a defending or justifying the chain-recruitment commissions paid on affiliate membership charges.
The above is from a 2015 Insurance coverage Boards thread. Langley isn’t unsuitable in his identification of a pyramid scheme. The issue is he hasn’t acknowledged is merely having a retail choice isn’t sufficient.
Retail gross sales want to really be made and so they have to be your main generator of commissionable gross sales income company-wide.
Replace ninth March 2022 – The Clear Enterprise Options Higher Enterprise Bureau itemizing cited on this assessment has been deleted.
I did have a hyperlink to the itemizing however as such have eliminated it.