Symmetry Financial Group is a Pyramid Scheme (MLM Scam)
Symmetry Financial Group is an MLM scam posing as an insurance agency. It has scammed hundreds of customers and insurance agents by making attractive claims and using false advertising.
Whether you’re interested in joining them as a recruit or their products, it would be best if you go through some of the 100+ Symmetry Financial Group complaints. They will help you understand how dangerous this scam is and why you should stay away from it:
About The Symmetry Financial Group Pyramid Scheme:
Symmetry Financial Group is an Insurance agency in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Their address is 204 Whitson Ave, Swannanoa, NC 28778, US and their contact number is 828-581-0475.
The company claims to offer customized life insurance policies. Furthermore, the company claims to help families and individuals protect what they value most. They even claim to have 8 core values, one of which is doing the right thing even when no one is looking.
However, all of these claims fall flat when you read the various Symmetry Financial Group Glassdoor reviews. According to its employees, this insurance firm is nothing but an MLM scheme.
I have shared some of the hundreds of complaints this company has received over the years to help you understand how this pyramid scheme works and why you should avoid it. But first, let’s look at the masterminds behind the Symmetry Financial Group pyramid scheme:
Who are Casey Watkins & Brandon Ellison?
Casey Watkins and Brandon Ellison are the founders of Symmetry Financial Group. Brandon is the CEO of the firm and is the co-owner of Quility Insurance as well.
He earned his degree in Accounting from the University of Alabama. Brandon Ellison founded this insurance company in 2009 and has been running it since. Apart from that, there isn’t much information available online about the co-founders of this Symmetry Financial Group MLM scheme.
The Symmetry Financial Group MLM Scheme Exposed On Reddit:
On Reddit, a popular social media platform, a user had posted a question regarding this company. They had an interview and wanted to know if this firm is legitimate or just another MLM scam.
The various commenters on the post said that it’s an MLM scheme. All of them pointed out the same issues you’ll find in different Symmetry Financial Group complaints.
After going through these comments the OP realized that the company was definitely a scam and withdrew their candidacy.
Certainly, this insurance agency has gained a lot of notoriety because of its shady business model. Below is the top comment on the post: :
Here’s another one:
Symmetry Financial Group Lawsuit:
One of the customers of this insurance company had filed a lawsuit against a couple of years ago. She alleged that SFG had provided financial advice to her including the purchase of a few financial products based on false information.
Furthermore, Jane Doe, the person who filed the Symmetry Financial Group lawsuit, alleged that Bank of America had known about the false information but refrained from doing anything about it.
In 2020, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed SFG’s complaint against Jane Doe. The judge denied both plaintiff’s motion to dismiss and Jane Doe’s motion for summary judgment.
While the lawsuit ended in Symmetry’s favor, it did so only because it ended against the broker who supplied them with the necessary information.
A Major Reputation Scam: Fake Reviews, Fake PR, Biased Ratings, & More:
I haven’t even brought up the Symmetry Financial Group reviews and you can already see how notorious this company is.
Instead of trying to improve its business model and run a respectful operation, Brandon and Casey use unethical marketing tactics to promote their company. They realize that without having a good reputation in the market, they wouldn’t be able to get more clients (aka victims).
Hence, they spend heavily on paid PR articles and promotions to boost the image of their firm.
On the homepage of SFG, you’d see that they have ranked in the Inc. 5000 listing for 5 years. However, did you know that Inc. 5000 is nothing but a paid PR scheme?
Inc. magazine doesn’t do exhaustive research into various companies to create this list. No, they ask companies to apply and make a certain payment to rank on the list. In other words, it’s a pay-to-rank model. Certainly, most consumers would be unaware of this issue .
Hence, companies can boast of being in the top 5000 fastest growing firms in the US without ever being one. This allows scammers like SFG to appear more reliable and trustworthy than they actually are.
Moreover, this is not the only unethical marketing tactic Symmetry Financial Group uses to gain more victims. They use a bunch of others:
Paying BBB for Accreditation:
If you look up Symmetry Financial Group reviews, you would come across their BBB profile. You’ll notice that they have a BBB accreditation and an A- rating on the platform.
However, you should know that to get a BBB accreditation, a business doesn’t need to follow any ethics or provide stellar service to its clients. No, all it needs is to pay an annual fee to the popular review platform.
The BBB accreditation fee may go up to $10,000 per annum. But it ensures that a company has an accredited status and a rating of A, A+ or A- on the platform.
CNN Money had did extensive research on this terrible practice. They found that scammers and companies facing charges of discrimination and fraud, enjoyed A+ ratings on BBB because they had an accreditation.
SFG isn’t the only shady company that has utilized this unethical marketing technique. For example, K. Kay Durairaj M.D. is a plastic surgeon notorious for botching procedures and providing terrible service to her clients. However, her notoriety and poor customer service doesn’t affect her BBB rating because she has an accreditation aka a paid membership of BBB.
SFG has been a BBB accredited business since 2015:
Paying 3rd Party Sites to Praise Them:
Brandon doesn’t stop there. His firm goes further in using unethical marketing tactics by paying 3rd party blogs and PR sites to write praises for them.
These paid PR articles help them seem reliable and distract consumers from the numerous complaints they have received for being an MLM scam. Furthermore, most people wouldn’t realize that the articles are written by paid affiliates.
So, they may believe that the praise is genuine and authentic.
Here’s a screenshot of one of those articles:
Atlanta Metals Xchange is another shady company that uses this marketing tactic to gain customers.
Using Paid Positive Reviews to Deceive Consumers:
Because the company has received too many complaints for its MLM scheme, it doesn’t enjoy a good reputation in the market. To counter this problem, they pay service providers and bloggers to write positive reviews on their company.
When you look up Symmetry Financial Group reviews, you may come across several blog posts covering the pyramid scheme of the company and claiming how it’s not one.
In the above snippet, you can clearly see that the author of the article is targeting the keyphrase “Is Symmetry Financial Group a pyramid scheme?” It’s a sketchy tactic but it doesn’t seem like SFG cares about ethics anymore.
All of these reviews are from paid affiliates and help the company distract consumers from their actual complaints.
Moreover, the company has tried to post fake 5-star reviews on Yelp as well. Luckily, Yelp uses sophisticated AI algorithms to identify fake 5-star reviews. The popular review platform marks a fake reviews as “Not Recommended”.
Currently, their Yelp profile has 5 flagged reviews. It’s proof that SFG deliberately tries to manipulate its ratings on review platforms.
There’s a good chance that Symmetry Financial Group will try to manipulate the ratings on this review page by posting fake 5-star reviews. Beware!””””
Symmetry Financial Group Jobs Are Simply Horrible: Salary, Employees, Glassdoor & Indeed
When you look up “Symmetry Financial Group Salary” or its jobs, you’d see that they have a relatively positive rating on popular employee review platforms Glassdoor and Indeed.com:
However, this is highly misleading. Considering how SFG uses multiple unethical marketing tactics to promote itself, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if they force their employees to post fake 5-star reviews on these platforms as well.
Furthermore, SFG has received 100+ complaints from its employees within a few years.
Hence, before you apply for any Symmetry Financial Group jobs, it would be best if you go through some of the following 100+ complaints. They will give you an idea of what it’s like to work here:
They Make Bogus Promises About How Much You’ll Make
Here, the reviewer highlights that SFG makes a lot of bogus promises about how much money you will make. The firm makes money regardless of your policy sales because you have to buy leads from them which they have already sold to several other agents.
So, you end up calling a No Sale list. The people in the list have already said no to the agents in the past months. Now, you are going to try and get them to buy from you.
According to the reviewer, this business model is absolute trash. Furthermore, the leads are quite expensive as 25 leads cost $100. Moreover, they expect you to dial 350 every week. You’ll end up losing money instead of making any.
“Symmetry Financial Group is a MLM Scam Group and a Cult”
The above reviewer shares that they learned several life lessons while working at Symmetry Financial Group. They learned what insurance is and is not. Also, they learned how to be in denial when you are in an MLM and how to get scammed .
They also learned what it takes to deprogram your mind after being in a cult. The reviewer highlights that SFG is an IMO which means it’s an independent marketing organization.
However, it’s worth noting that an IMO is not an insurance company. While there is a lot of regulation for insurance companies, most of them don’t apply to IMOs as they are third parties.
Hence, you shouldn’t believe they are credible just because they are borrowing credibility from different insurance companies. Moreover, when the reviewer had joined this company, the recruiter did not tell that it was actually an MLM. He highlights that the company calls itself an IMO but it functions like an MLM.
In the “Cons” section, the reviewer adds that their supervisor was all about recruiting. He didn’t sell insurance because it was such a hassle when there was an ‘easier’ system in place.
Later, the reviewer discovered that his supervisor got so many chargebacks from Foresters that he could no longer sell their product. When the reviewer joined the firm, he thought he was signing people up for insurance. After he received his license, things changed instantly.
Now, his supervisor wanted him to recruit new agents and put money into an ad recruiting system in addition to the leads. Eventually, the reviewer figured out the system. It consisted of getting free labor to work their leads along with their marketing/recruiting.
He adds that the new agents carry the burden of the cost of running the agency while the owner keeps half their commission with virtually no operating costs. Basically, the company scams the new agents just like Amway or any other MLM scheme.
They make you dump your money into useless leads and ads and the few sales you make will get eaten up by this scheme. At first, you might not think that SFG is a cult. But when you see the definition of what a cult is and compare that with SFG’s operation, you’ll realize that they are indeed one.
The reviewer is sure that there might be one or two legit insurance agencies here. However, if that’s what the company truly wants to operate, it should get rid of the agency owners abusing the new agents. On the other hand, if Symmetry Financial Group is well aware of this scam, then they are clearly running a humongous MLM scheme.
SFG Traps You So You Won’t Leave Them, Beware!
Here, the reviewer highlights that the company is like the jealous ex who will not accept that it didn’t work out between you. The reviewer turned in his resignation with the IMO on May 19 2021. Over a month later, the reviewer is still not able to work properly at his new IMO because of the constant drama they are facing with SFG.
He has been trying to get them to accept the fact that he is leaving. The reviewer discovered that he can earn 50% more with most of the other IMOs. Hence, he left SFG. He says that if you’re a new or experienced licensed insurance agent looking for a place to call home in the IMO sector, don’t stop at Symmetry Financial Group.
According to the reviewer, you’ll regret the day you ever met this organization. The reviewer highlights that it’s in their policy to keep you hostage for 6 months if you decide to leave them for another IMO who deals with the same carriers.
Keep in mind that all the IMOs have most of the same if not all of the same carriers including:
- AIG
- John Hancock
- Mutual of Omaha
- Foresters
And others.
SFG’s policy says that it is at their discretion to release or not to release you from your contract with them. The reviewer highlights that he didn’t mean them any harm. However, they keep holding on.
He highlights that he had no idea that SFG would be like this. Also, he points out that waiting 6 months to have full use of the best carriers will hurt you financially. Then, maybe that’s what SFG wants its employees to know. If you don’t work for them, you can’t work for anyone else.
First, they will ruin you or if not ruin, then leave you with a limp. The reviewer says that even though it has been weeks since he turned in his letter of resignation, he hasn’t received the release. He is still waiting.
“Symmetry Financial Group is Purely A Pyramid Scheme”
The above reviewer points out that the only positive of working at Symmetry Financial Group is that you can set your own work hours.
However, there are a ton of cons. First, it’s a pyramid scheme. You earn 60% commission on any policy you write up while the manager gets the result. The solution to this problem, according to SFG, is to sell more and bring on an agent of your own.
So, when the agent you bring in sells a policy, you make 15% of their commissions. By definition, it’s a pyramid scheme where the people at the top rake in while those at the bottom struggle to make ends meet.
Also, the leads they give you are sketchy. They claim that there’s no cold calling because everyone you call has already submitted a mailer asking for more info, which is a blatant lie.
That’s because whenever the reviewer called someone they did not recall filling anything out. The lead data contains their mortgage company, term and rate while the customer has no recollection of authorizing SFG to get that info.
Basically, the reviewer says that SFG can be a good place for someone who wants to bully people into life insurance policies and has $10,000+ in savings because you won’t earn anything for the first 3-5 months. Also, be ready to tell your family and friends that you’ve joined the bottom step of a pyramid scheme when you join SFG.
He recommends the management to be truthful with the recruits. The reviewer suggests the management tells the recruits what they are getting into honestly, instead of lying about the process and the leads. Below is another review saying the same thing:
See also Jeremy Grabow of JayPac – Scammer Facing Lawsuits
“All of those Positive Glassdoor Reviews are Fake”
Here, the reviewer says that if you like earning lower commissions in other companies because you want your manager and his superiors to earn more, then this is the best place to work at.
He highlights that people looking for a job typically need to get a paycheck. However, when you join this company, you will need to spend a boatload of money for leads, some of which are horrid and duplicative. Then, you’ll be praying to get a hit.
Moreover, the company loses nothing by selling you a bad lead. He points out that it’s just a matter of time before people file a Symmetry Financial Group lawsuit.
Furthermore, he points out that the various Glassdoor reviews on SFG praising the company are pathetically fake. Real reviews don’t sound like them. Also, all of those reviews have the exact theme saying how wonderful the rewards are in exchange for the hard work.
The reviewer also points out that most of the positive reviews don’t list any cons and praise the owners as well as the system.
Clearly, the company writes these fake reviews to get more recruits. This makes the company more dangerous. Also, SFG provides you with no benefits so there’s no way it can be ‘this’ great even if we were to believe those fake reviews.
He says that Symmetry Financial Group is a company with zero culture and zero concern for its employees.
The reviewer lost $2,000 with their leads. When the reviewer complained about it, all they had to say was “Well, wish you the best in the future”.
“You Have to Purchase Their Leads which may Cost up to $30 per Lead”
SFG had hired this person saying that there leads he can purchase for between $0.25 to $30 each lead. However, all of the leads are trash and mainly consist of people who have responded to a mailer which is set up to trick the homeowner to get contacted.
Furthermore, some leads require you to drive for 50 to 80 miles at your own expense.
Like all of the other Symmetry Financial Group reviews, this one also highlights that it’s a pyramid scheme. He points out that the management does not assist in anything but collects their share of anything you sell when you get lucky.
Additional Symmetry Financial Group Reviews For You To Read:
Read Symmetry Financial Group Reviews from Its Clients:
Apart from the employees, the customers of SFG aren’t happy with its services either. The company has received a plethora of complaints for having poor customer service and policies.
Many customers complain that the company keeps bothering them even though they have declined their offers. This must be because of the repeated leads they sell to their new recruits to make actual profits.
Being a pyramid scheme doesn’t help SFG either. For example, here’s a serious complaint by Oliver Sheridan.
Oliver shares that SFG is the most conniving company he has ever come across. The company initially contacted him and his spouse with a letter resembling an eviction notice from their lender.
It said that they needed their immediate information claiming that something had been missed out in the lending process. SFG posed as the main lender of Oliver and his spouse, hiding the fact that they were a third party organization.
Moreover, SFG heckled Oliver with calls after calls explaining that he and his spouse needed the mortgage protection.
After he put two and two together, he courteously shared his disapproval of their service. However, that didn’t stop SFG as it kept calling and texting him for months. Furthermore, every representative he talked to claimed that they had never spoken to Oliver and his spouse.
Oliver says that Symmetry Financial Group is terribly disorganized, unethical and unprofessional. He highly recommends avoiding working with this awful company.
Below are some of the many Symmetry Financial Group complaints from its clients:
Verdict
After going through the above 100+ reviews and complaints, it’s obvious that Symmetry Financial Group is a pyramid scheme. It’s scamming consumers by using the credibility of reputed insurance companies.
Furthermore, it deceives consumers by making false promises in its job advertisements. It has taken advantage of countless people who wanted to start a career in the insurance industry.
Also, the company offers no benefits to its employees and prevents them from joining any other independent marketing organization. It’s an MLM scam posing as an insurance agency.
Both the clients and the employees have suffered greatly because of this firm. Due to these reasons, it would be best for you to avoid working with SFG and find a different company.
