Recently I applied to a company in Lake Mary Fl called AP Financial for the position of executive recruit / financial planner. I was pleased when I recieved an e-mail from the Executive Director with an offer of an interview on a Tuesday at 10:00am. Unfortunately I was out of town and did not check my email until the day before but as luck would have it she was able to shift the interview to the following Tuesday at 10:00am. Hmmm.
Upon arrival I found myself in a conference room with about 25 other job seekers. The director went through a brief intro and then another staff member continued. We were bedazzled with promises of opportunity and stories of anecdotal success by current employees. It all sounded good and promising. Next, we were taken individually into offices for a 1on1 interview. My experience was pleasant and I was asked to return for a secondary interview with the executive director.
The day of the secondary found me back at AP along with about 10 others or roughly half of the initial crowd. The presentations continued with promises of rapid advancement and dramatic increases in earnings. At the end we were all given the secondary with the ED and left with a promise of a phone call by the end of the day. This resulted in a position being offered. I thought great!
So here is the deal, first all the 10:00 am tuesday interview is a revolving door of weekly interviews. The entire process is just that a process. You are hired with out pay while you are "trained" by more expereinced employees. During your training you are given a committment of 5 new accounts none of which you will recieve a commission on because you don't have a license yet. You are promised your NASD series 6 license and a base salary once you have been "trained" and have produced the 5 or more new accounts. The fine print is that you are expected to leverage your friends and family to sign up with an account. The presentations that you sit through on the second day talk very generally about the world of financial planning and discuss many different strategies. Oddly enough the only liscense that is every discussed is the series 6 which is a valid only for life insurance products. If do web searches on APfinancial, AP financial, Aegon, WMF, or any of the other keywords associated with this company you will quickly put together the real story.
AP financial is a pyramid scheme that generates revenue for the prinicipal employees through "warm" lead generation obtained from "new" employees that it constantly churns through its process. It is all perfectly legal and highly unethical.
If you go on the FINRA website and search for actions taken against firms using any of AP's parents you will see a history of handslaps. This is not a reputable firm. If they were they would pay for training, pay you while you train, and pay you while you get established. There you have it, Good luck.
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