My initial reaction was to laugh at the card, and then my laughter changed to concern. How many individuals were sent this malarkey? Here are some of the “finer” bullet points from the list of discussion topics:
- Avoid the long delays and costs of probate
- Opportunities and solutions to help protect your assets for the future
- Avoid significant tax losses when passing on your assets
It became apparent that this free dinner seminar was nothing more than a sales pitch for a company to sell life insurance and annuities to unsuspecting individuals. A search on the Internet provided more detail on the company (whose name has been removed from the postcard) and it was apparent they are in the business of selling insurance products. The interesting thing was that I could find not one individual contact name or person for the company. This is scary.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Be cautious of companies that try to lure individuals in with the goodwill of a free meal only to try to catch you in their trap of high-commissioned, surrender charge-heavy products and promises of retirement security. Almost always, these types of bait and switch tactics are a sham – and you should avoid them.
If you can see the fine print at the bottom you’ll notice two striking phrases:
- NO AGENTS, BROKERS, OR DEALERS PERMITTED IN THIS SEMINAR!
- Nothing will be sold at this seminar. Topics covered may require the purchase of insurance products.
Why wouldn’t I be allowed in? And of course, no free lunch would be complete without a helping of the second phrase. In other words, “We’re hoping you’ll feel obligated to us for the free meal by buying insurance products which just makes sense based on our biased and subjective informational seminar.”
This postcard got added to our wall of shame.