Give it time and someone will find a way to make an MLM corporation out of an industry. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the legal profession has entered the age of the MLM as you will see in my LegalShield MLM Review.
Lawyers are smart and when they see a way to make money, they do take advantage of it. In this case, they have used their own profession to make money through the MLM. To find out all about LegalShield and how it works, you need to keep reading our article.
It is always best to look before you make that leap and sell a product you may not be sure is top quality or not. Invest a few minutes f your time then do some more research on your own before you decide to work from home, or if this is a company you want to work with.
What is LegalShield?
Started in 1972 by Harvey Stonecipher, yes we know it is a unique name, this company supposedly provides legal help when you need it. In the past 50 years, it has grown from one location to offices in 49 states as well as 4 Canadian provinces. They were known as Prepaid Legal Services and I was an Executive Director In New York back then.
It is unclear why the founder waited 12 years to offer their services to the public but in 1984 the public was given the opportunity to invest a little money via monthly fees and retain legal protection for different issues.
What makes Legalshield unique is that so far it is the only legal firm to use the MLM business plan to find clients and make money. In 2011 it was bought out by Mid-Ocean Partners which may explain the downgrade in customer service the company provides.
Basically, LegalShield is supposed to provide members with prepaid legal services but often they only provide discounted legal aid and not a lot of it for some customers.
How Does LegalShield Work?
What LegalShield does is provide a variety of legal services that cover issues related to but not limited to the following areas of law:
- Landlord / Tenant
- Consumer Finance
- Traffic
- Estate Planning
- Real Estate
- Employment
- Collection
- Family Law
- Civil Litigation
- Criminal
To get access to their legal services you must sign up for one of their 3 monthly plans. The personal plan is the cheapest and it runs you about $20 every month. Then there is the business plan and the price per month for that protection varies depending on the type of business you own.
Finally, there is the identity theft plan which is divided further into 2 more plans. One costs you roughly $15.95 and the other about $30 and of curse the more expensive plan supposedly provides you with more protections.
There is a $10 enrollment fee that is charged with your first-month payment. Once you sign up you are supposed to have legal protection for that small sum of money. Yet accessing that protection may take some doing as Legalshield is not known to provide First Class customer service.
The process is simple. You pay your money and when you need a lawyer you just call them up.
Can You Make Money With LegalShield?
Signing up at LegalShield is simple. They have an associate sign-up page on their website which tells you that you can work for them in two ways. First, you can be a regular associate and just make money off your membership sales.
Second, you can create a team of downlines and earn money off of their sales and your own. A third way to make money is through long-term membership income. But like all MLM corporations, you have to pay to play.
There are 2 levels you can sign up at. The first costs you $99 plus $20 per month thereafter. The extra $20 gets you the legal protections your members get. Then there is the $249 plan which includes the $20 monthly fee and saves you about $90.
It is said that it may take an associate up to 2 years to make even $720 approx., a year. It may take you between 5 and 20 years to really see any money coming from your efforts.
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What you get for your efforts are:
- Associate Portal
- Online Training
- Weekly Newsletter
- Support Center
- Associate Perks
- Help From the Sponsor, Team, and Local Leaders
Money is something that may not come to you anytime soon.
How To Make Money with LegalShield
This is an MLM business plan and with that concept, you do have opportunities to make money. The compensation plan is complicated and very confusing to explain.
To make money you need to be a member of one of the following groups:
- Associate
- Senior Associate
- Manager
- Senior Manager
- Director
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
The associate level is where you make money off of your own sales effort. You have to be a senior associate or higher to earn any money off the downlines you have recruited.
That money is called an override and the fee starts at $10 and goes on up to $50. Plus you are paid in advance. But if the membership is canceled, the company will hit you with a refund charge and take some of that advance back from you.
So the only way you can make money is through selling the memberships yourself, recruiting very motivated downlines, or hoping that the people you have signed up with keep renewing their memberships.
Just brace yourself for the fact that you may be one of the 98% +/- of associates that do not make any money through selling these memberships.
LegalShield MLM Review Pros and Cons:
Pros:
It is nice to have legal protection for only about $20 a month. Not everyone will need that protection but they get a little peace of mind. These positives should help the peace be stronger.
The company has been in business for almost 50 years
You are selling memberships for legal protection
It is a unique business using the MLM format
The plans are affordable for members
You get legal protection as well
No physical products so no inventory to store
Cons:
Now that your mind is at ease the following negatives will help you keep everything n perspective:
You need to recruit to make money
Need to pay to play
You do not make a lot of money initially
The company’s customer service reputation is very low
You can’t vouch for their services
You get charged back when members cancel their memberships
Hard to cancel accounts
Hotline staff may not be real lawyers
Any Negatives? Beware of Lawsuits
There are a lot of negatives when it comes to Legalshield and their bad customer service is just the tip of the iceberg. They have been sued many times and those cases have been settled out of court for the most part. They have won and lost those cases.
The founder was convicted of deceptive advertising and misrepresenting income statements in Missouri and on it goes. There are probably too many negatives to list here and that is for a legal service that claims to help keep you out of legal trouble.
Also, the type of legal service you are getting is best summed up in the old phrase, ‘you get what you paid for’. Do not expect Clarence Darrow or F Lee Bailey to come to your rescue when you are only paying $20 a month.
You will be lucky to get a paralegal at that price and their skills are not even close to top quality.
Is LegalShield Legitimate?
Even on the legal side of things, it is hard to claim that LegalShield is legitimate. Given the number of issues their members have had with the company, it looks like it is just a money-making scheme offering pretend legal security
Here are some of the categories that members have had problems with after thinking they are paying for top-drawer legal help:
Incorrect evaluations of contracts
Putting incorrect information on a will.
Spelling names incorrectly multiple times.
Taking months to get a basic will completed.
Don’t make the proper corrections after requested
How they pay their associates is questionable as well. The complicated compensation plan makes it difficult for anyone to make any money. Then you have to factor in the credibility and qualifications of those people staffing the company’s hotlines.
The rumor is that these people may have gone to law school but it was not to an accredited law school that allows them to take the BAR exam. You do not know who is taking your call and the advice some people have reported receiving tends to make one think that they are not real lawyers.
Final Thoughts
It is a nice thought to have some legal protection. After all legal costs can be quite high and also can cause you financial problems if you are not careful. So the concept is perfect for the little guy who can’t afford a good lawyer.
The trouble is that this company is not filled with good lawyers and their advice and help are not as good as a second-grader could provide. While some people have been helped and praise the company, the majority of people feel like they have wasted their money on something they thought they had.
It would be best to avoid legal shield and simply put $20 a month in a bank account designed to cover legal expenses when they arise. At least you will get interested in your money.
Plus, you will have a fund that is ready to serve when you need it. LegalShield is not the protection you are getting when you sign up.
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