Financial services company Primerica traces its roots to 1977, when its founders spearheaded the “buy the term and invest the difference” movement that had already taken root in the minds of some Americans as the public grew increasingly discontent with the then trend of being I sell whole life insurance.

Primerica specializes in term life insurance products. The company does not deal with any other type of life insurance. However, the company also offers investment services including stock brokerage and mutual fund services. Like most large life insurance and financial services companies, Primerica offers people a free Financial Needs Analysis (FNA) to help them better understand their own personal financial situation, money management habits (good or bad) and needs for financial products. . The idea with FNA is to help drive sales, but it’s also about showing people exactly what they need and then matching those needs with the most appropriate products that Primerica offers.

Primerica has grown into a very large life insurance and financial services company and has become part of Citigroup (the latter, which is the world’s largest financial services company, manages more than $2 trillion in assets and is one of the 30 member companies that create the Dow Jones Industrial Average).

The salient facts about Primerica listed by the company are:

*Primerica serves six million customers in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico and Spain

*The company has more than 100,000 authorized representatives, including 25,000 authorized to sell mutual funds, to whom it paid more than $682 million in compensation in 2007, making them the largest sales force in North America.

*Primerica placed more than $90 billion in life insurance in 2007 alone, and the company’s securities clients have $40 billion in assets invested in Primerica care

*Primerica pays an average of $2 million per day in death benefits

*In the spring of 2008, independent insurance ratings agency AM Best gave Primerica a Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A+ (Superior) and Issuer Credit Ratings (ICR) of “aa” in recognition of “its strong continued profitability, its leading position in the US term life insurance market, strong risk-adjusted capitalization, and a favorable liquidity profile.”

Primerica also actively encourages the general public to live within their means and stop the spending habits of the average American household that owes 20% more in debt than it takes in in annual payment. The company says Americans should learn to stop habitually using revolving lines of credit (credit cards), to get into a fixed debt program and pay off debt and pay it off, and if necessary, make lifestyle changes. with these ends in mind. “Wants” should be separated from “needs,” the company says in its ongoing efforts to make people’s financial lives more secure and solid.

Yet despite these good qualities of the company, its name continues to be sullied by much of its sales practice. Primerica has many licensed agents who only work part-time for the company, hoping to earn a little extra money. The company also has far more licensed agents who can only sell life insurance than those who can do a full FNA and sell the full range of investment products to allow people to “buy forward and invest the difference.”

Because Primerica’s term life premiums are far from the cheapest, and because it encourages a very hard sell methodology by many agents who, being only part-time, lack experience and knowledge, a methodology which actively encourages the writing of replacement policies. (removing a home’s current life insurance and replacing it with Primerica), if a Primerica customer does not in fact “buy the term and invest the difference,” that customer is getting a raw deal. Much of the insurance placed by Primerica is replaced by other companies that offer better premiums and better customer service from better-trained agents.