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calonego

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I hope this is an April Fools joke... but if it is, this is presented in a way that could be an SEC violation.  He doesn't look like he is joking.

 

I'm not impressed with what I see at the company... I do not believe they are honest, and I would not believe that Buffett would want to buy an Ameriprise esque business like this...

 

We'll see.

 

Ben

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I believe that is an April Fool's joke, but the actual Primerica business model is very much in line with other multi-level marketing businesses.  Berkshire already owns one...The Pampered Chef. 

 

I think much of the negativity around Primerica is due to the cult-like sales force and their efforts, and the comments from many of their competitors.  But the ROE at Primerica is around 17-18% historically, and the upper management is actually full of fantastic leaders.  How do I know?  I used to have a mutual fund and insurance business through them. 

 

I was terrible at it...the sales side...but I learned what I liked and disliked about the financial industry through them.  It was directly through them that I understood what an awful business the mutual fund industry is, as far as the individual consumer is concerned.  As well as the incestuous relationship between fund companies, their dealers and brokers.  It's why I ended up going on my own and starting my own company and funds. 

 

I've always thought that Primerica was actually the jewel in the Citi crown, as well as the Smith Barney investment bank business.  Before Primerica, there were alot of really crappy whole life and universal life policies floating around.  The industry realized that and made their product more competitive.  I think it would be an ideal business for Berkshire to own, but I would hope that their funds would become an in-house value product.  Cheers!   

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Isn't Kirby Vacuums a  MLM organization too?

 

There's two main reasons outside of the MLM debate/etc as to why I don't believe he would ever be interested:

- He's always talked ad nauseam about AMEX from the card/network perspective, but ignored Ameriprise (which was a large part of the valuation before).

- He hates most active money management and the variety sold via smaller IAs, DSC'd crap product, is up there with buying term-life on your neighbor.

 

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