May 18, 2006 -- The skinny on Pre-Paid Legal
For as many years as Clark can count, people have been calling the show to ask about pre-paid legal services and whether they are worth it. The most well known is Pre-Paid Legal. Barrons did a story on this company recently and discussed the many pitfalls of getting involved. The article said the company is basically a multi-level marketing company and its numbers are growing. But what else do you need to know about the company? Well, you pay a monthly fee and you have access to an attorney for 60 hours of tiral defense work. That means time in the courtroom, so people only get about two hours of prep time outside the courtroom. Any attorney knows that most of the time is spent preparing for time in the courtroom. So, how do people feel about the company? Well, membership in the organization has continued to grow, but about 50 percent of the customers drop out after one year. After two years, two thirds are gone. On the other hand, competitor MetLife keeps 99 percent of its clients. If youre considering being a customer, that should be clear enough. If youre considering a sales position, only two percent of sales reps sold more than 10 memberships to the company. So the sales success rate is pretty low.