Type Subsidiary Website Official website Founder Hubert Humphrey | Industry Financial services CEO Joe DiPaola (1 Apr 2008–) Founded 2001 | |
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Products Annuities
College savings plans
Debt relief
Identity theft protection
Life insurance
Long-term care
Mutual funds
Retirement plan
Segregated fund
Unit investment trusts Headquarters Johns Creek, Georgia, United States Parent organizations Aegon N.V., AEGON Asset Management Services, Inc. Subsidiaries WFG Reinsurance Limited, WFG China Holdings, Inc., Innergy Lending, LLC, WFG Properties Holdings, LLC | ||
World Financial Group (WFG) is a multi-level marketing company based in Johns Creek, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, which sells investment, insurance, and various other financial products through a network of distributors in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It is wholly owned by Transamerica, a subsidiary of Aegon.
Contents
World Financial Group associates are compensated by selling financial services products and receiving commission overrides from people that agents sponsor into the company. Associates use "six fundamentals of personal finance" to build financial plans. These fundamentals are cash management, debt management, emergency fund creation, insurance protection (includes life insurance, critical illness insurance, disability insurance etc...), asset accumulation and estate preservation.
World financial group advertisement 1
History
World Marketing Alliance (WMA) was founded by Hubert Humphrey after he left Primerica in 1991. The original name was Alexander, Inc. but shortly thereafter was renamed World Marketing Alliance. The original idea was that the baby boomers needed a solution for wealth creation and tax protection, and that the "buy term and invest the difference" philosophy of Primerica (formerly A.L. Williams) could be better addressed with variable universal life insurance.
While in A.L., Humphrey created and introduced the Business Format System (BFS), a business sales and recruiting methodology. Williams continued to develop the methodology in WMA. MD TV, the company's private satellite television network, was also introduced during this period. The company expanded its operations to Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The company held its first convention in Las Vegas in 1992. It was attended by about 2,000 associates.
On March 23, 1998, WMA Executive World Headquarters opened in Duluth, Georgia. The 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) building housed 500+ employees.
In November 1998, WMA was fined $100,000 "for not properly supervising its sales agents" after their clients lost nearly $2 million in unregistered investments. In 2000, WMA was fined $125,000 "for failing to report nearly 900 customer complaints".
In June 2001, select assets of WMA were purchased by AEGON and renamed World Financial Group, Inc. Humphrey retained WMA Mortgage Services, Inc. and the original logo, which was used in his subsequent companies World Leadership Group and Hegemon Group International. As part of the conditions of sale, Humphrey was placed on a noncompete agreement and could not compete in the insurance industry until 2013. Following the sale of WMA to Aegon, Alexander Wynaendts, chief executive of AEGON, was quoted as saying, "When we took the company over, we put in place very strict regulatory and compliance procedures".
World Financial Group has over 3,500 offices in the United States. The World Financial Group Canadian division, World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Canada Inc., moved to Toronto, Ontario in February 2012. In 2008, World Financial Group had over 80 Canadian offices and over 1,500 agents.
On July 1, 2013, The MFDA announces that effective immediately, the WFG Securities of Canada Inc. securities dealer is now, Transamerica Securities Inc.
Provider companies
WFG works with hundreds of product provider companies, including mutual funds and unit investment trusts, and various insurance and financial services-related companies.
Regulatory issues
WFG's stated mission goal is to "serve the financial needs of individuals and families typically overlooked by the financial services industry". It is yet unclear how successfully the company has managed to distance itself from its more controversial U.S.-based predecessor WMA, associated with fraud, misrepresentation and false statements, and the subject of class action lawsuits, and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) disciplinary action. In preparation for Aegon's acquisition in 2001, "World Marketing Alliance 'ramped up' compliance before the acquisition". As reported in the same Bloomberg article, Aegon's Chief Executive Officer Alexander Wynaendts said on Bloomberg TV that "When we took the company over, we put in place very strict regulatory and compliance procedures, Of course, when you have such large numbers of people out there in the field, it is quite an effort. We feel comfortable that we now have the regulatory issues under control."