Financial Industry Sales -- Ethics question

[jay santos]

I see an old buddy that works for WMA or whatever it's called now, selling variable life or whatever their shitty product is. Retirement investments sold through a multi-level channel. Yeah, that sounds like a winner!

Anyway, 10 years ago when he first started selling this crap, he was young and stupid and when he gave me his pitch, I wrote him off as innocent and gullible but never questioned his morals or ethics.

Now he's rich off it--wealthy. I see him every now and then and last time I saw him, he gave me the same pitch. I thought he knew me better than that. "We've got a new product that just became available to regular investors. It beats S&P by 20% with a fraction of the risk." I almost laughed out loud. My next emotion was wanting to punch him in the gut.

So question...is my friend going to hell? He's no longer innocent; he knows exactly what he's doing--or is it possible he doesn't? Is there a reasonable explanation for what he does that doesn't paint him as a despicable predator?

[Indy Coug]

It's my experience that many life insurance agents often don't really understand what they're selling, they just learn the sales pitch and how to click the right buttons to illustrate future policy values.

So it's possible he doesn't know any better.