(Offline)
The church that I attend is offering Dave Ramsey's 13 week FPU course, as noted in this week's church bulletin. As part of the notice, it gives the name, email address and phone number of someone to contact in order to register for the course @ a cost of $100. Coincidentally this person has also advertised in the church bulletin for many years. This person represents Ameriprise, according to the ad.
Of course, as a skeptic, I quickly put two and two together and smell a rat, or at least a "ratish" stench.
Upon checking Dave's website I see that the FPU course requires "coordinators", but no certification is required as they seem to be used as discussion leaders in connection with the DVDs that cover the 13 weeks of the course. It says that "Local Financial Counselors" are small-business and fees and services may vary. ( I assume by this wording that these folks are financial planners, brokers, etc.). It refers to Endorsed Local Providers (ELP), but there is very little info about who these guys are (I have to send an email to them and they will tell me who my local guy is~no thanks Dave). Reference is made to the Lampo Group, Inc., so I assume that professional are somehow tied to this company.
I got this interesting quote from wickipedia.com~
Quote:
Wall Street Journal best-selling author and nationally syndicated columnist Eric Tyson criticizes Ramsey for referring listeners to endorsed, commission-based brokers (who pay fees back to Ramsey) instead of fee-based advisors;
(my bold)
It appears to me that this Amerprise rep mentioned earlier could be using this church venue to collect a list of potential unsuspecting clients. My experience leads me to believe that commission-based sales folks are "always selling".
Has anyone in this forum attended a FPU series and noticed that the "coordinator" just so happened to be a commission-hungry stock broker/financial advisor/mutual fund salesman/insurance agent? Or, am I just being paranoid about this entire deal?
(Offline)
I never have micharch but it doesn't smell right to me either. Is the rep related to the church in some way other than being an advertiser? Maybe he's found an untapped niche there he's exploiting. You could check the person out with the BBB.
(Offline)
Church should be about church imho, newsletters included. It's a sticky situation when he's advertised there regularly but at the same time you wouldn't want to let it pass and see some church member be taken advantage of. I haven't any experience of an FPU series micharch nor advice. The name alone would make me suspicious. I'll keep an eye out for it being talked about and let you know if I see anything.
(Offline)
I hate it when people use their church as a base for sales. Insurance, financial services, etc. Multi-level marketing is the worst one...you are at church, so you want to be polite, but...argh!
Once, the guy cutting my hair started trying to sell me on some Amway/Shacklee style product MLM stuff. How do you deal with that? He's got scissors :) Heck of a captive sales prospect.
LOL, savingtools. I hope you didn't stand too close to his open razor either. That's still not as bad as using a church, for goodness sake. That feels so wrong to me. I remember when church newsletter were about baptisms, funerals and the church ladies' bake sales. How times have changed.
Micharch, any update on this? I don't have any personal input, sorry but I'm interested in how this turned out.
(Offline)
Update: Heard that there is an "information" meeting @ the church this coming week for those interested in FPU.
(Offline)
Update: Heard that there is an "information" meeting" @ the church this coming week for those interested in FPU.
Sound like information = sales pitch, judging by your quotation marks. Maybe you should go and ask awkward questions LOL. :)
I hate it when people use their church as a base for sales. Insurance, financial services, etc. Multi-level marketing is the worst one...you are at church, so you want to be polite, but...argh!
Once, the guy cutting my hair started trying to sell me on some Amway/Shacklee style product MLM stuff. How do you deal with that? He's got scissors :) Heck of a captive sales prospect.