Freedom Equity Group  –  Ponzi Scheme –  MLM Scam

Website & Company Information

The web domain of the company was registered privately on the 10th of January 2013 and was later updated on 2019–03–06. Freedom Equity Group claims of operating since 2002 but we doubt that the company has been in the market for that long. 

Company’s LinkedIn page suggests that their HQ is in Arroyo Grande, California. 

According to the site, the company is run by Ron Bloomingkemper (Chairman), Ron Petrinovich (CEO), Bill St. Clair (PRESIDENT). The bio of these individuals suggests that they are well experienced to handle this business. 

Prior to co-founding the company, Bloomingkeeper was actively involved with A.L. Williams and Primerica, a company that dates back to 1977. 

So far, it all looks good. Let us move on to the next section of this review. 

Freedom Equity Group’s Products

Freedom Equity Group leverages third-party partners to market indexed universal life insurance and annuities. Read here to know more about indexed universal life insurance and annuities

Apart from its business niche, the website does not provide anything specific. Some basic information about IULs or annuities would be greatly appreciated here

Freedom Equity Group’s Compensation Plan

The company has gone all out on marketing income potential on their plans but one thing that hits us is their lack of transparency. At least they could provide compensation documentation to the public and prospective affiliates. 

Going through this review was tough because we had to dig deep into the official marketing videos of the company. Below is the compensation details that we could gather by recollecting and attaching the broken pieces of the ‘puzzle’. 

As said earlier, the company is more interested in hyping up its income potential than showing the actual compensation information. 

Freedom Equity Group Affiliate Ranks

According to the presentation videos published on Youtube by Freedom Equity Group, the company has six affiliate ranks. 

  • Training Representative
  • Representative
  • District Manager
  • Division Manager
  • Regional Manager
  • Regional Vice President

A piece of information dated back to 2017 suggests that Freedom Equity Group rank progression is tied to the commissionable volume generated via policy sales. 

Existing affiliates sell these premiums to direct customers or direct recruits. The premium volume that is commissionable is split between personal production and downline production.

Note: Individual and team recruitment efforts are directly proportional to Freedom Equity Group rank progression. 

Direct Commissions

On every policy sold to retail customers and direct recruits, the affiliate receives a direct commission.

  • Training Representatives — 30%
  • Representatives —  35%
  • District Managers —  40%
  • Division Managers —  45%
  • Regional Managers —  55%
  • Regional Vice Presidents —  70%

Note: These are percentages of commissionable volume generated by policy sales, not percentages of policy sales themselves.

Residual Commissions

The group pays residual commissions as downline overrides, followed by a unilevel team.

These overrides are paid on Regional Vice Presidents found in respective unilevel team leg. The residual commissions are paid on up to six Regional Vice Presidents per unilevel team leg.

  • A 14% override is paid to the first upline RVP
  • A 9% override is paid to the second upline RVP
  • An 8% override is paid to the third and fourth upline RVP
  • A 7% override is paid to the fifth and sixth upline RVP

Joining Freedom Equity Group

As per the information collected from the internet, the cost to buy an affiliate membership into the company is $125. An additional fee of $200–300 may be levied on “license fees” and fee may vary from state to state. 

Conclusion

Before conducting this review, we assumed that FEG is a miniature opportunity and may not bother people but as we continued our research we were astonished to see the size of this MLM. Going through all the online elements of the business felt like hovering through a marketing funnel. 

In the end, we learned that the company is highly ambiguous in putting out more details on their products and plans. Yet, they are aggressive in marketing that could get them more affiliates and hence more money!

One of the marketing presentations showed that they are promising returns on investments:

We believe in fixed, guaranteed no risk products, that offer our clients an opportunity to receive a GUARANTEED LIFETIME INCOME.

In addition, the company also promises you ‘success’. Amusingly, According to Freedom Equity Group’s 2018 Income Disclosure Statement:

So an affiliate received a yearly payout of $7,084 only? Yes, they will make you very very successful, lol!

See below what they are promising:

We can’t really decide whether its a Pyramid scam or not, but we would suggest you exercise caution because the company is not transparent enough. Freedom Equity Group deserves an independent audit and a regulatory scrutiny. 

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