Primerica Life Insurance Review: What You Need to Know in 2023

You’ve likely heard of the Primerica Life Insurance Company through a family or friend. We’re going to go over this company in detail in our review.

Referred to by the company as the “Primerica Business Opportunity,” Primerica (or “Prime America” as some people erroneously call it) agents are trained to target their friends and family to help them with their financial planning, which in turn can become an effort to sell a Primerica term life policy.

With insurance or any other financial advisory role the goal should always be to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest when you’re looking for protection.  Any concerns are not ideal when you are trying to make healthy money choices.

We provide reviews to give you an overview of the business models and ratings of individual insurance companies. We always advise our readers to do their own research, or speak to an independent financial advisor. Take time to ensure you understand what products you’re investing in and whether they are the right choice for you and your personal situation. Then you can make certain you are striking a perfect balance between sufficient protection and your monthly premiums.

Primerica’s model of insurance sales works for many well enough. The company is public and traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

If you’re ready to compare Primerica life insurance rates, enter your ZIP code above. Find cheap Primerica rates and compare quotes to the top companies.

What is Primerica?

If you don’t want to read this entire insurance business overview, just digest this one piece of information:

You can find better life insurance plans and investment products by going elsewhere to compare rates.

Primerica is by no means a scam. Its life insurance offerings, including term coverage products, are fine but lacking. Their mutual funds are also satisfactory, but can be considered expensive.

Primerica is a company with more than $2 billion in revenue and most of the income is from term life insurance premiums. This is a life insurance company at its core. They insure over 4.4 million people.

Should you “buy term and invest the difference”?

Primerica agents are trained on the concept “buy term and invest the difference,” which means to not purchase whole life insurance. The company whole-heartedly believes everyone should own term life insurance and everything else is a rip-off. However, some people may feel that protection with term life coverage isn’t enough and would prefer permanent insurance.

Everyone is different. Some families want to pass on the death benefit to their children, guaranteed – a guaranteed universal life insurance policy will help with that. Primerica agents can’t sell it.

Some seniors over 60 years old may want a small whole life insurance policy to cover their burial and final expenses. There are final expense burial insurance policies out there available with guaranteed level premiums for the rest of your life – but the company won’t sell these.

These are just two examples of dozens of situations where a permanent policy would be appropriate. Having a blanket statement that term is better for everyone is absurd. Primerica advisors are not prepared to help you compare all of the life insurance offerings available to you and that’s important.

Does Primerica term life insurance have good ratings?

Unfortunately, Primerica doesn’t do well in the ratings category. While State Farm and Nationwide rank at the top of J.D. Power’s 2021 survey of life insurance companies, Primerica ranks almost at the bottom of well-known insurers.

So why is this the case? Term life insurance is a commodity – you can compare rates online and find a much better-priced term life insurance policy in minutes. All the companies you’ll see quoted online will also have conversion options that Primerica does not have.

A conversion is the ability to convert your term life insurance policy into a permanent one with no evidence of insurability. What this means is you can simply fill out paperwork, typically including a health questionnaire, and convert all or a portion of your death benefit at any time during your term to a permanent life insurance policy.

But why is this so important?

Consider this: What happens at the end of your term, if you developed a health condition where you can’t qualify for traditional coverage anymore?

With this insurer, you can annually renew but the cost skyrockets every year. With other companies, you can convert your policy to a permanent one based on the health classification you received when you purchased the policy – even if that was 20 years ago. Low- and middle-income families are harmed by these rate hikes the most, and they are the ones that depend on access to affordable life insurance the most.

95% or more of term life insurance companies on the market have these very important conversion options built into their policies.

Primerica’s underwriting is very tight. We run across a lot of people who have been declined for a term insurance policy by Primerica because of health or lifestyle issues, but we were able to get them affordable coverage.

When it comes down to it, you can get better-priced coverage with more flexibility with other term policies on the market from a company like MetLife.

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How does Primerica insurance work?

After a Primerica representative or agent sells you term life insurance or any of their other financial products (like a mutual fund), they’ll ask you to join them so they can then earn overrides on anything you sell. The agent who sold you his policy makes a commission and so did his recruiter, his recruiter’s recruiter, and so on. There are 11 total tiers according to Primerica’s public prospectus (page 112).

According to Primerica’s own website:

Primerica’s independent representatives obtain required state and/or federal financial licenses to offer Primerica’s products and services. Once licensed, Primerica’s independent representatives earn commissions based on personal sales and override income on the sales of the team members they recruit, train and supervise.

Agents are encouraged to recruit more people to continue bringing in sales. Some have reflected on whether this marketing strategy could impact the way that Primerica representatives sell their financial services and the individual life insurance they offer.

Our research found that the average Primerica agent makes $6,030 a year. Most sales recruits are sold on the dream of what their top-tiered agents are doing and go to work part-time with that dream in mind.

Is it multi-level marketing?

Understanding Primerica’s business set-up requires that you do a bit of research.

As for how agents become part of the Primerica system, according to the company to become a Primerica representative costs $99 upfront and you’re highly encouraged to pay a $25/mo fee for access to Primerica Online. It’s easy to assume that any job that you need to buy into to get started is not one with your best interest in mind.

Primerica boasts 100,000 reps – so $2.5 million dollars in recurring fees on top of the 15,000 or so recruits they get every month (nine out of 10 don’t make it) that pay $99. This money is from Primerica’s own “employees” and doesn’t even count the commission income.

There is no inventory, you have to pay fees, and there are 11 tiers above an entry point.

If you were thinking about buying from them, you can do much better. This is a payment you can potentially be making for 10-20+ years – you want to make sure you’re getting the absolute best rates.

What is Primerica’s story?

The company was formed in 1977 by a life insurance industry legend, A.L. Williams. He designed Primerica around the concept of “buy term and invest the difference” and used to write life insurance underwritten through Financial Assurance, Inc.

In 1980, A.L. Williams entered into a contract with Massachusetts Indemnity and Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of PennCorp. In 1983, PennCorp merged with American Can Company. In 1987, the American Can Company changed its name to Primerica Corporation. That’s where the name comes from.

In 1998, they became affiliated with CitiGroup. In 2009, the company went public. In 2011, CitiGroup sold off its remaining shares and they discontinued their association with CitiGroup.

There have been some household names associated with Primerica – Travelers Insurance and CitiGroup specifically. Both of them appear to have distanced themselves from the company in recent years.

Should you buy Primerica life insurance?

If you do a little bit of online research, you may run across skepticism about Primerica, including the low customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power, as we mentioned. Most Primerica online reviews are poor or bad, including customer service.

There are a variety of reviews online from ex-Primerica agents “telling all” about their experiences with Primerica. Reddit has a related posts on feedback from former agents and customers, as well.

Just know that you can buy a better term life insurance policy. Many other life insurance companies, such as MetLife, Liberty Mutual, AIG and others, offer more competitive pricing.

If you’re ready to compare Primerica life insurance quotes with top competitors, enter your ZIP code below to buy cheap Primerica life insurance.

Enter your ZIP code below to compare cheap life insurance rates.

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