Primerica markets itself as a financial education company offering middle-class families tools to achieve financial independence.
On paper, it sounds like a noble mission: sell term life insurance, help people reduce debt, and empower them to invest in their futures. But once you peel back the marketing fluff and dive into how Primerica really operates, the lines between financial literacy and multi-level marketing (MLM) begin to blur—dramatically.
This blog represents my opinion based on archived public materials, whistleblower accounts, and third-party reporting. I was unable to access Primerica’s official website from New Zealand as of 28 June 2025. Therefore, I gathered my intel from archived pages dated 15 December 2018, using the Wayback Machine (source).
Credit Where It’s Due: Always Marco’s Groundbreaking Work
Much of the material in this blog builds on the hard-hitting investigative work done by Marco Moukhaiber, known online as Always Marco. His viral 2023 video titled “Infiltrating a Pyramid Scheme: Primerica” documented a firsthand undercover investigation into Primerica’s tactics. That video—and the fallout that followed—caused enough disruption that Primerica sued him in Canada.
The lawsuit (Primerica vs. Marco Moukhaiber, Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, Action No. Q2303 13143) alleges that Marco’s content caused “irreparable harm to the Applicants’ reputation, goodwill and business interests.” Primerica is seeking not just removal of his videos, but a court-ordered ban on Marco mentioning their brand at all.
But the real question is: Why would a legitimate financial services company sue a YouTuber for exposing how their recruitment model works?
Because what Marco showed… wasn’t a good look.
Financial Needs Analysis or Recruitment Funnel?
Primerica boasts a “complimentary, confidential Financial Needs Analysis (FNA),” supposedly to help families assess their savings, debt, and insurance needs. But that FNA isn’t just a benevolent consultation—it’s a sales tool.
Once prospects agree to sit down for their FNA, they’re introduced to Primerica’s suite of services: insurance, investments, legal protection, long-term care, and more. But here’s the catch—most of those services are sold by part-time reps, many of whom have no formal background in finance. And guess how those reps are recruited? Through that very same ‘free consultation.’
In my opinion, Primerica’s real product isn’t financial services—it’s people.
The Real Business: Selling the Dream
From the outside, Primerica’s focus appears to be insurance and investments. But insiders and former reps know that the true emphasis is on recruitment. You’re encouraged to build a team, sign up friends and family, and climb a commission-based hierarchy. This mirrors the classic MLM structure: the more people you recruit beneath you, the more passive income you supposedly earn.
This isn’t speculation—it’s embedded in Primerica’s culture. They promote “ownership” of your own business, provide motivational materials, and even encourage reps to buy books like “Network Marketing: Pyramid Scheme or Entrepreneur’s Dream?” by Daniel Alonzo and Gary Kornegay—both Primerica royalty.
So let’s call it what it is: the financial hustle dressed up in a pinstripe suit.
The “Power of Compound Interest”… and Compounding Confusion
Primerica’s education materials include flashy animations about compound interest, the Rule of 72, and debt stacking—all basic financial concepts you can learn for free on YouTube. But Primerica uses them as bait.
Take the Power of Compound Interest chart: they claim saving $200 a month at 12% interest could yield $1.3 million over 35 years. Never mind that 12% annual returns are wildly unrealistic for the average investor. But when you’re selling dreams, realism is optional.
These projections aren’t just misleading—they’re weaponized to convince people to buy into insurance, investment products, and—most of all—the opportunity to become a rep.
Legal Shield, Identity Theft, and… Upsells?
Beyond insurance, Primerica also sells services like ID Theft Defense and LegalShield memberships—but not directly. These are upsold through referral agreements with third-party providers. Primerica’s site even admits that reps do not directly provide these services.
Which begs the question: Why does a company claiming to focus on financial literacy spend so much time upselling legal insurance and identity theft protection?
It all ties back to their pitch: “You can make money selling everything we offer.”
The $728 Billion Lie?
Primerica claims they have over $728 billion of life insurance in force, with over $3.5 million in benefits paid daily. But these numbers are highly misleading if not contextualized.
‘Life insurance in force’ simply means the face value of all policies sold—not that this amount has been paid out or even collected. The average consumer sees a figure like that and assumes it’s cash in the bank. It’s not. It’s an inflated number designed to impress.
And while Primerica boasts a 94% claim payout rate, the fine print tells a different story: the majority of reps never make real money, and many clients don’t even understand what they’re buying.
Suing to Stay Silent: Primerica vs. Free Speech
Marco Moukhaiber isn’t the first critic Primerica has tried to shut down—and he probably won’t be the last. But their ongoing Canadian lawsuit exposes something important: Primerica doesn’t just want to win in court—they want silence.
In their July 2023 affidavit, they cite the “scope and global reach” of Marco’s videos and claim they breached the Trademarks Act, the Copyright Act, and the Competition Act. They’ve sought court orders to force YouTube to remove his content and to unblock Primerica’s lawyers from Marco’s social media accounts.
This isn’t about protecting consumers. It’s about protecting the brand.
Who’s Really in Charge? Glenn J. Williams at the Helm
At the top of the Primerica pyramid sits Glenn J. Williams, the company’s CEO since 2015. With decades inside the Primerica machine, Williams isn’t just some hired gun—he’s part of the system that built this recruitment-driven empire. Under his leadership, Primerica has continued to frame its agents as “financial educators,” while aggressively expanding its downline-focused sales model. In my opinion, any serious discussion about Primerica’s ethical failures needs to start at the top. If the company truly believes in empowering Main Street families, why sue a YouTuber instead of addressing the real issues in-house? Leadership isn’t about protecting your brand through litigation—it’s about accountability.
Final Thoughts: My Opinion, My Warning
In my opinion, Primerica walks, talks, and recruits like an MLM. It offers entry-level financial services, then convinces its own customers to become unpaid marketers of those services. It teaches simple financial concepts, but only as a setup for a more complex pitch: join us, sell the dream, climb the ladder.
If Primerica wants to be taken seriously as a financial services provider, they should stop acting like a recruitment machine and start behaving like a regulated institution. Suing a YouTuber for speaking out? That’s not the move of a confident company—it’s the move of one trying to hide its true nature.
To Marco—keep fighting. You’ve inspired others to speak up. And to anyone considering joining Primerica: Do your research. And if it smells like an MLM… it probably is.
Stay tuned. We’ll be embedding Marco’s video directly into this blog post.
And as always, this blog represents my opinion—but when enough people speak out, the truth gets louder.
About the Author
Danny de Hek, also known as The Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger, is a New Zealand-based investigative journalist specializing in exposing crypto fraud, Ponzi schemes, and MLM scams. His work has been featured by Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Guardian Australia, ABC News Australia, and other international outlets.
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My work exposing crypto fraud has been featured in:
- Bloomberg Documentary (2025): A 20-minute exposé on Ponzi schemes and crypto card fraud
- News.com.au (2025): Profiled as one of the leading scam-busters in Australasia
- OpIndia (2025): Cited for uncovering Pakistani software houses linked to drug trafficking, visa scams, and global financial fraud
- The Press / Stuff.co.nz (2023): Successfully defeated $3.85M gag lawsuit; court ruled it was a vexatious attempt to silence whistleblowing
- The Guardian Australia (2023): National warning on crypto MLMs affecting Aussie families
- ABC News Australia (2023): Investigation into Blockchain Global and its collapse
- The New York Times (2022): A full two-page feature on dismantling HyperVerse and its global network
- Radio New Zealand (2022): “The Kiwi YouTuber Taking Down Crypto Scammers From His Christchurch Home”
- Otago Daily Times (2022): A profile on my investigative work and the impact of crypto fraud in New Zealand
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