[net.consumers] Summary-- A.L. Williams Insurance Co.

mrc@panda.UUCP (Mike R. Connell) (01/23/86)

A few weeks ago I posted a query regarding the A.L. Williams Insurance Co.

Below I have quoted from the many responses I received.  Thank you to all who 
took the time to give me some help.

All in all it appears that my original fears of ALW being a possible 
Amway-type scam operation were disappointingly true.

Some response excerpts:

From	Beth Katz Dept. of Computer Science - Univ. of MD:

 >A.L. Williams is one of the companies in which you recruit your
 >friends if you want to make it big. My
 >experience is through my father.  He joined and passed all the
 >exams for selling investments, but he isn't big on recruiting
 >friends.  He also saw that they weren't selling the best stuff.
 >Join at your own risk.

>From Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G-202, Holmdel NJ
 
 >- they're basically another AMWAY-clone; they'll sell
 >you life insurance that's not a bad deal compared to traditional whole
 >life policy, but traditional whole life policies are such a scam anyway
 >that you about break even.
  
        >> Guess who?  After being assured the this was not an
        >>"Amway" type pitch (it wasn't), I let them in.
           ^^^^^              ^^^^^^^^^
 >Well, it was (my brother-in-law went for them for a while).  They're
 >a bit better behaved than most Amway or other pyramid outfits, and more
 >into "training classes" than "rallies", but eventually they get to the
 >point:
	>>The second part of the spiel was to invite me
	>>to become a part time agent for them and make
	>>skads of extra cash.
 >The way you make skads of extra cash working for them is *not* to sell
 >insurance, though this generates some cashflow; it's by getting *other
 >suckers* to join the pyramid and sell A.L.Williams.
   
 >Another point that's commonly true with Amway, and presumably with ALW,
 >is that to make big bucks you have to do a lot of work; it's not a 
 >free lunch.  Some of the work is raking off the people below you, but most
  ^^^^ ^^^^^
	I guess this is the real bottom line.

 >of it is real work. 
 
      >>What A.L. Williams is is a company built on the "buy term and invest the
      >>difference" philosophy.  Basically they take your whole life premium, 
      >>spend half on term for you (ususally with mor coverage) and invest 
      >>the balance in some venture (mostly mutual funds).

 >Look at the math more closely, and at the assumptions behind it.
 >Remember that term insurance has the property of "cheap when you're
 >young, expensive when you're old" - are they using a term insurance
 >price that adequately reflects the average (amortized) cost of term
 >insurance when you get to be 50 or 60, or are they using a cost that's
 >nice and low because you're (presumably?) younger?
 >ALW has the reputation of being a little better than most of the
 >Amway-clones out there, but the whole setup is still pretty slimy.

>From Wayne Thompson:
 
 >It doesn't sound out of place. I used to sell insurance(term).
 >But if you have friends and want to keep them, don't sell life insurance.
 
>From Steve Aldrich (ihnp4!ihlpa!amra):

 >Regarding A.L. Williams insurance, my advice is RUN LIKE HELL AND DON'T
 >LOOK BACK! I had a similiar experience, and just for laughs I accepted
 >an appointment with a representative from the company. It's basicaly a
 >pyramid-like operation, much like tupperware, Amway, Avon, etc....
 >According to a friend who works in the insurance industry, these people
 >are to be avoided. They also tend to overstate the possible return on the
 >"investment" portion of the scam.
 >Also the Better Business Bureau had some info on this operation. They advised
 >caution in dealing with this company for many reasons.

Fropm ejc:
 
 >I heard that they were under investigation.  They also
 >tend to operate like amway....get you involved then ask
 >you to get really involved...
  
>From Tom Hill:
 
 >My advice is to watch out.  Insurance is a very tricky thing.  My Dad is
 >an insurance agent with Aetna and I have picked up a few things over the
 >years.  It would be impossible to go into a lot of detail so my suggestion
 >would be to talk to various other insurance agents and see what they say.
 
>From Rick Janka ..!ihnp4!abcom!cnmsrkj
 
 >Check their price/coverage for their term and compare with others; they
 >may be high (though I have never even head of a.l. Williams).  I'm sure
 >they're selling load mutual funds, though, which typically take 8.5% off
 >the top as commission.  You'd probably come out ahead by finding a plain
 >vanilla term policy (IEEE has good rates, or check the business section of
 >any major city's Sunday paper) and putting the rest in no-load mutual funds.
 >I also would advise against the universal life policies.  They seem to be
 >based on a very long term view, and it is my basic premise that anyone who
 >wants to invest "long term" (meaning in one vehicle for a long period of
 >time) is going to get creamed; I do not believe our economy will remain
 >stable for the next 20-30 years.  One can do better in a simple family of
 >no-load mutual funds that permit one to pull out or switch between funds in
 >the family with a simple phone call.

>From Marie Kramer Bellcore!pyuxc!mdk:
 
 >Beware of A. L. Williams... the company sells most of it's insurance
 >through part time agents... One of the requirements of becoming one
 >of their part time agents is to give them the names of 3 friends or
 >relatives who would be willing to listen to a presentation to help you -
 >the part time agent get certified - to become one of their agents.
 >Our friend used us as a reference to become a part time agent. His
 >quote "manager" gave us the presentation and said that he wanted us to 
 >understand what our friend will be doing. After doing this to several of
 >his friends our friend was finally certified.... He never earned a cent...
 >After a couple of months he gave up trying.
 >I Repeat Beware..........
 
Once again, thank you all very much.  The evidence indicates that ALW proves
several old saws--- "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't" and 
"There's a sucker born every minute".

					"See you in the funny papers"

							MRC