Are you thinking about selling insurance with either Transamerica and Primerica? Have you been to opportunity meetings and found out as much information as you can but are still stuck trying to decide which organization to join?

If so, you’ve found the right article!

In today’s post, I will detail some of the key differences between Transamerica vs. Primerica to help you better understand which of these options will best suit you. Moreover, I’ll share my perspective on the issue and highlight why you might want to consider other insurance opportunities besides Transamerica and Primerica.

Let’s begin!

PS: If you would like to learn more about insurance sales opportunities other than Transamerica and Primerica, we’ve posted tons of insurance agency reviews on this page.

NOTE: Are you interested in selling insurance as a business? Yes, then check out my Free Insurance Agent Resource Guide to find out more.

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• • About

• • Products Sold

• • Commission

• • My Thoughts

About Transamerica and Primerica

Transamerica is one of the world’s leading financial service companies. It is a subsidiary of the Aegon Group, international life insurance, pension, and investment company based in The Hague, Netherlands. The company is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Transamerica operates in a multi-level marketing (MLM) fashion, in other words, it encourages agents to recruit other members. Based on a dual-earning system, they can make money both on their own commissions and the commissions of their recruits.

Primerica provides insurance and financial services and is the largest independent financial services marketing organization in North America. Primerica’s headquarters are located in Duluth, Georgia.

Just like Transamerica, Primerica also uses a multi-level marketing structure. Its insurance agents are not employees but rather independent contractors.

Products Sold And Market Focus

Transamerica sells term life insurance, whole life insurance, universal life insurance, index universal life insurance, as well as final expense life insurance. The company offers two types of term life insurance policies, with 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30-year terms:

• • The Trendsetter Super policy offers up to $10 million in coverage, and

• • The Trendsetter LB policy offers up to $2 million in coverage. It also gives access to some of the money before death in the case the policyholder is diagnosed with a chronic, critical, or terminal illness.

Transamerica offers several additional financial products and services, such as annuities, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), retirement planning, and workplace benefits.

Similarly, Primerica provides a range of products including term life insurance, mutual funds, and annuities, in addition to auto and homeowners insurance. The company also provides investment accounts and other financial services, as well as prepaid legal and identity theft services provided by other companies.

Commission Levels

Both Transamerica and Primerica’s agent earnings are commission-based.

Transamerica’s agents are paid a commission that is either fixed or based on a percentage of the premium written.

In addition, Transamerica career insurance agents are eligible for various cash or non-cash awards and incentive compensation such as free trips, bonuses, and prizes, depending on their performance. Because it is an MLM organization, agents may also receive a commission for supervising, managing, or recruiting other agents.

Likewise, Primerica does not pay its insurance agents a salary but is a straight commission sales opportunity. Primerica’s agents start at around 25% of 30% commission based on the sale of their insurance products. The commission goes higher with production and recruiting.

Primerica’s commissions are based on an eleven-tiered multi-level marketing system. While the company’s sales representatives receive a commission for selling financial and insurance products, a portion of the amount is paid to the representative’s recruiter and the recruiter’s recruiters, up to eleven levels.

My Thoughts

Now you know a little more about how working for Primerica and Transamerica works, I’d like to provide my experience and knowledge as an insurance agent since 2011 and as an insurance agency owner since 2014.

Seeing the people is everything in insurance sales

There’s a lot of emphasis in books and from sales gurus that the art of persuasion is everything when it comes to a successful insurance agent. And no doubt, whether you join Transamerica, Primerica, or another Insurance Agency, you certainly have to have a strategy in place that guarantees you the best results.

However, more often than not, people seem to miss the importance of having enough prospects to see on a weekly basis. Without prospects, how will you maximize the sales training you’ve learned?

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why agents fail in this business (and over 90% fail in their first year, by the way) is because they don’t have enough people to see.

Seeing the people as we say it in the insurance business is critical to your success—no matter the insurance agency. Whether you join Primerica, Transamerica, or any other organization, it’s vital that you understand how to generate enough prospects every week to stay sustainably successful.

Without a strategy to generate prospects consistently, you’re already doomed!

Here’s the thing both with Transamerica and Primerica. If you want to be successful with either, you’re going to have to find prospects within your existing network of friends, relatives, and former business associates.

We call this network marketing or referral marketing. And a lot of people hate the idea of bothering friends and family to potentially sell life insurance or anything else for that matter.

That’s why I bring this up. You need to decide right now whether or not you’re comfortable with this marketing process. Why? Because if you’re not, it’s going to be a grind trying to find insurance prospects while working under one of these organizations.

The good news is that other agencies exist that incorporate various lead generation strategies that don’t involve selling insurance to the people you know.

For example, at my final expense agency, we incorporate paid lead strategies such as Direct Mail, Facebook, and television leads, to generate highly qualified prospects. This means that our leads are generally interested in what we have to offer. Plus, this allows us to avoid the drudgery of asking friends and family to consider buying.

Sure, you have to invest your own money into the business to buy leads. But it avoids the typically painful and frustrating experience of attempting to sell insurance to the people you know.

Consider commission levels 

Compared to my agency, as well as the other insurance sales opportunities, both Transamerica and Primerica start agents at a lower commission level.

Why is this a problem? Well, your commission level directly impacts the amount of money you’re going to make. The lower it is, the less you’ll earn. The higher it is, the more you’ll earn. Pretty standard stuff, right?

However, if you join either of these organizations, you could easily end up getting paid far less than you would with any other agency, including my own. For instance, other insurance sales opportunities offer double, triple even quadruple the amount of commission that you’d start with at both Primerica and Transamerica.

Consider who will be training you

One of the most important things to consider before joining any insurance agency is whether that particular organization will invest a lot of time training you to become a top producer.

Whether you join Transamerica, Primerica, or any other company, it’s critical that you learn the art and science behind selling insurance successfully. But, without a mentor who’s been exactly where you are and where you want to be, the odds are stacked heavily against you.

In fact, one of the worst things you can do is join an insurance agency where the manager has little to no experience selling insurance.

Think about it, how on earth will they be able to train you if they haven’t successfully sold insurance themselves? What knowledge or hands-on training could your manager possibly pass on to you if they’re still learning the ropes?

Unfortunately, this is the norm in the insurance sales and recruiting business. Seemingly “experienced” agents recruit new agents all the time. And new recruits find out too late, typically after they’ve invested time and money, that their line manager has no real street experience!

If I were a new agent and had to decide between joining Transamerica or Primerica, I would always choose the organization that encouraged training and development. Whichever agency has the most experienced line manager, someone who also enjoys teaching new agents, that’s the one I would join.

To me, that’s the most important factor impacting your decision.

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped clarify whether or not Transamerica or Primerica (or another agency for that matter) is the better choice for you.

Either way, I highly recommend you continue researching which organization, Transamerica, Primerica, or another one, will be in your best interest.

If you’d like to learn more about how I’ve helped insurance agents sell final expense and Medicare either over the phone or face-to-face, there’s more information on my FAQ page.

Plus, feel free to check out my Free Insurance Agent Resource Guide for more useful articles and information about how the insurance sales business works. You’ll learn more about the insurance industry as a whole and find advice and tips that’ll help you decide which direction to take your career.

Thanks for reading!