LegalShield MLM Review: Can You Make Money With LegalShield?

The overview and rankings

Name: LegalShield

Founder: Harland Stonecipher in 1972

Type: Prepaid Legal Services MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 50 out of 100

Success Stories: 1 out of 100

Price To Join MLM: $99 to join + $20 a month

Or $249 per year (60 out of 100)

What To Look For In An MLM:

What is LegalShield?

LegalShield (formerly "Pre-Paid Legal Services) is a legal services Multi-Level-Marketing company.

They provide "affordable" legal services and identity theft monitoring services.

It's been around for almost 50 years and offers everyday people the opportunity to make money from home. 

You can see more about this opportunity in the 5-minute video below...

So it may be starting to sound like a great opportunity!

But you're smart enough to realise this is just a sales video by LegalShield. 

So you're probably still wondering...

Is LegalShield a pyramid scheme?

No LegalShield is not a pyramid scheme.

The sell legit services that people can sell and earn a commission from.

However, it's only possible to make a good amount of money by actually recruiting people into the MLM program. 

This makes LegalShield very similar to a "pyramid scheme in disguise". 

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company that promises members payment by recruiting more people into the company instead of selling a product or service.

Pyramid schemes are illegal in most countries because it is impossible for everyone to make money inside them, as you can see in the Wikipedia diagram below...

Most MLM companies do sell legit products or services. 

However, many of them make it very hard to earn decent money or even cover their own expenses unless they recruit people. 

LegalShield will cost around $600 a year to be an associate yet you will only earn around $25 per annual membership that you sell. The main way to make money is by recruiting people to join the MLM program very similarly to a pyramid scheme in disguise. 

The 5 minute video below explains this a bit better...

Success is rare with LegalShield

In fact, success is rare within any MLM company. 

Did you know that between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money?

LegalShield released an income disclosure in 2018, which shows that only 1 in 300 members of the program earnt over $1,000 in the entire year.

Does that sound like an opportunity that you can really be "your own boss" and "live life in your own terms" as that sales video above made it seem?

I'll show you the proof of this later in this LegalShield MLM review, but for now let's figure out...

How does LegalShield Work?

LegalShield provides legal services for a range of issues everyday people and small businesses have with the law.

Instead of spending loads of money on advertising and marketing, LegalShield gets everyday people to "spread the word". In return these people (associates) can get paid commissions and bonuses for selling the products.

It's like a win-win!

LegalShield products

LegalShield offers a wide range of pre-paid legal services for individuals and small businesses.  

There are 4 plans that they provide (prices are per month and subject to change):

1. Personal plans: $24.95 (consultation, document preparation, auto, family issues, IRS)
2. Small business: $39 (debt collection, contract renewal, trial defense, landlord issues)
3. Commercial driver plan: $32.95
4. Identity theft: $12.95 (credit monitoring and restoration)

It sounds pretty good right?

Well, my wife and I have been subject to identify theft before. Someone used our names to pay for things on credit and never paid it off!

Did it cost us money to fix this?

Nope!

We just used a free credit checker to see the places where there were issues and contacted them to inform them. 

Was it annoying? Yes!

Did we spend $12.95 a month for years? Nope!

We also had issues removing some tenants from our house that we wanted to sell. Did it cost $39 a month?

Nope... we Googled a specialist company and spent a one time $80 fee to help!

Also note that there are many other businesses out there that sell the saem stuff with Team National. Here are some of the most notable ones:

• Asirvia
• Fluorescent Sand
• Genistar
• Cowboy Wealth
• Global Dream Network
• 7K Metals
• OnPassive
• United Success Network

So let's dig into LegalShield's main service a bit more...

LegalShield flagship product

The main product for most people will be the personal plan.

For a "small monthly fee", LegalShield claims they can help you with:

• Landlord / Tenant issues
• Consumer Finance
• Traffic problems
• Estate Planning
• Real Estate
• Employment
• Collection
• Family Law
• Civil Litigation
• Criminal

I guess it offers people peace of mind knowing they can get legal support for an affordable price. 

But the truth is that if you spend $24.95 a month for 10 years you will have spent $2,994.

Chances are you could afford a pretty good lawyer for that if you just put that money aside! Specialist lawyers are far better than generic advice (which LegalShield provides) and with the help from Google, they are super easy to find these days!

Maybe when LegalShield started it was a great business model. Today, technology beats it by a mile. 

Here is another 90-second clever sales video to explain the service a bit more...

Can you make money with LegalShield?

Hardly anyone makes good money from LegalShield. 

The few people that will make money from it will be pretty much a full time salesperson who are good at recruiting people into the MLM business.

Here's the open truth on LegalShield's website...

Only 1.6% of all members made any sales. And when you actually work out the numbers you can see that 0.384% of all members made over $1,000 in 2018.

Put another way, 299 members out of 300 made less than $1,000 for the year!

Yes, I know that not everyone will even try to sell LegalShield, but you can see that between 17-32% do become an associate from this data...

That means that around 1 out of 80 people that are trying to make money from LegalShield earn over $1,000 a year!

How to make money with LegalShield MLM

There are 2 ways that associates can make money from the LegalShield MLM:

1. Sell the legal service membership to receive a commission
2. Recruit more people in their "downline" to receive bonuses from the sales they make

Before we dig into the compensation plan a bit more you're probably wondering...

How much does it cost to join LegalShield MLM?

There are two options to join the LegalShield MLM program:

1. A one time fee of $99 then $19.95 a month 
2. One time fee of $249 for your first 12 months then $19.95 a month

But the costs do not stop there...

LegalShield monthly cost

To "remain active" you will need to do one of two things:

1. Maintain a LegalShield membership yourself
2. Sell 3 memberships every 3 months

To be totally honest, if you are planning on promoting LegalShield then you should probably have a membership yourself. 

Otherwise you can't test out the services and you'll be like one of those sales people who doesn't actually believe or use the products themselves!

So the total cost for your first year will be:

• $99
• $19.95 x 12
• $24.95 x 12

Minimum total first year expenses = $637.8

And this is before you add on any additional training that LegalShield provides or any marketing materials you may require such as your own website.

LegalShield compensation plan

For some reason most MLM companies like to make their compensation plan harder to understand than solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded.

Can you see what I mean from the diagram below...

They typically use weird acronyms such as PV, ED, QD and Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti (not really the last 7... that's the sound of music).

So I will do my best to keep this simple...

There are 7 ways you can get paid from LegalShield as an associate...

(The below examples are based on selling the $35.95 plan a month... aka legal services plus identity protection) 

1. Personal sales advance ($34.57 commission straight away... that's only 8% commission for the yearly membership)
2. Team override ($34.57 on any downline sales)
3. Fast start qualification (double your bonuses if you earn 5 points in 30 days: A membership is worth 1 point and recruiting an associate is 2 points)
4. Performance club bonus (5 points every month to get $150 bonus after months 3 and 6)
5. Car bonus ($500 when you reach a certain "rank")
6. Residual income (keep your own membership active and receive monthly commission on anyone that continues their membership past 12 months)
7. Contests and promotions (reward trips if you sell and recruit during these promotions)

If you are still confused at what any of this means it's because that's exactly what MLM's want! They want it to seem like there are endless ways for you to be paid!

But all you really need to understand is WHAT you need to do to make money:

1. Sell memberships
2. Recruit people

And do you notice that 6 out of the 7 ways you can get paid requires you to recruit people?

The 9 minute video below explains the compensation plan in more detail if you'd like to try and get your head around it...

Is LegalShield a scam?

No LegalShield is not a scam. 

They sell a legit service and pay their associates like they say they will.

However, is this the right "opportunity" for you to "be your own boss"?

Only you can decide, but the rest of this LegalShield MLM review will help you to make an informed choice...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse LegalShield in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

What I like about LegalShield

There are some things that I really like about LegalShield compared to other MLM programs out there...

Key Terms:

• Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
• Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
• Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 No physical products

So many other MLM programs such as Rodan and Fields, Isagenix and Ariix, sell physical products.

Their distributors will often need to buy a certain amount of product each month to "remain active" (like you need the membership at LegalShield).

This means their homes are full with these products such as protein shakes, makeup, supplements, clothes or skin care products.

It often times leaves people's homes looking like this...

At LegalShield you will never need to stockpile any products as it is just a service being sold!

#2 Positive LegalShield reviews

There are some legit positive legalShield reviews online such as this one below...

It's so important to have real customers in a legit MLM rather than everyone being an associate and only using it to try to make money.

#3 Unique service that people want

This is probably the biggest selling point for LegalShield. 

There are literally thousands of MLMs that exist now and new ones are starting all the time.

The vast majority are pretty much identical to others and you can easily pick up the same products on Amazon for a fraction of the price. 

But many people will have no idea where to start with legal service! And having the convenience of someone putting something like this on their plate may be worth more to them than having to figure it out by themselves. 

What I don't like about LegalShield

Saying this, there are some hidden truths that most people will only find out once they join the LegalShield MLM...

#1 Can you really make money with LegalShield?... Not really

So we've already found out that only 1 in 80 LegalShield associates made $1,000+ for the year in 2018 from the income disclosure. 

Now, I'm not much of a fan of just taking the word of one random guy. I even suggest you be the same (don't even just take my word for it, always do your own research!)

So I did my own research in the SEC.gov document to see if the things he says are actually true...

You can see there were 502,982 LegalShield plans sold in 2010. But there were over 438,000 associates.

So that means that each associate is only selling just over 1 membership on average. Would a one time $25 commission be enough for you and your family to live off for a year?

You can also see that there were $114 million commissions in 2010, when you include bonuses and everything that associates earn from their "downline".

That sounds impressive, right?

Well, that's an average of $261 per member per year!

There were also nearly 50% of plans are cancelled before 1 year! So remember those "paid in advance commissions" you get?

Well, these commissions can be withdrawn!

And that "residual income" you get if they stay a member past 1 year? Just look at the rate that people drop off yourself (only 10% are still a member after 7 years!)...

#2 History of lawsuits

Wikipedia shows a wide range of lawsuits against the company (in 2001, 2004 & 2007).

A Mississippi Jury found the company and its founding CEO, Harland Stonecipher, guilty of deceptive advertising and misrepresenting income statements.

I mean, if you have watched any of those sales videos above you can see why!

#3 Complaints around customer service & products

There are different places online that you can see what real customers think about the service and products from any company. 

One of the best places to check is the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Just look at what people say...

The common issues are that:

• People feel like they aren't really getting the service they deserve 
• The customer service is terrible
• They were misled into buying something that doesn't deliver

Now does that lawsuit above sound familiar?

This isn't me just cherry picking a poor review either. 

You can see for yourself there are almost 200 complaints on the BBB alone...

#4 Limitations to get refund or use the service

Another very common issue according to customers and associates is how hard it is to get a refund or cancel the membership...

There are dozens of people saying this exact same thing.

So if you think you can cancel at any time like they claim you can, you may need to think again!

#5 Is LegalShield just a pyramid scheme in disguise?

There are many articles claiming LegalShield is just a pyramid scheme such as in Newswire.

To be honest, you have to take these articles with a pinch of salt. 

LegalShield is NOT a pyramid scheme because it's possible for associates to make money by selling the membership.

However when you take these things into account, it's hard to deny that LegalShield operates very similar to a "pyramid scheme in disguise":

• The compensation plan is heavily focused on recruiting rather than selling the products
• 6 out of 7 ways you get paid requires you to recruit someone
• You can ONLY realistically earn good money ($1,000+ a year) by recruiting people into your downline

My opinion - LegalShield MLM

LegalShield offers a unique service that a lot of people would be interested in. 

However, what do I think the chances are of you making money from the LegalShield MLM?...

When you are required to recruit people to make good money, it is impossible for everyone to be successful within the company.

That means you will need to persuade people to join knowing that vast majority of them will lose money.

That's not my idea of ethical business!

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

• You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
• You never need to sell to friends and family
• It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.