Citizen Corps - Home Business Review

Wealth Masters International Review

Overall
Products
Marketing System
Startup Costs
Compensation Plan

Synopsis:

Wealth Masters International is primarily a financial education company that is based in Texas and was founded in 2005. They have a legitimate and unique product line that includes a high profit margin for the sales consultants. The product line has limited appeal due to the fact that the primary product is mainly applicable only to U.S Citizens and is unnecessary for those individuals who already have financial planners and advisors whom they trust.

The changes that Wealth Masters implemented at the beginning of 2008 have resulted in a reduction to a two star overall rating. These changes include monthly fees for corporate websites, compensation plan changes to favor the up-line, and affiliation with Carbon Copy Pro. Plus their stated “signature” product, the Wealth Acceleration Program now requires that members pay a monthly subscription fee in order to utilize this program. These changes all take more money out of the hands of the consultants and ranks Wealth Masters as having the highest startup costs of the all the legitimate businesses.

The Wealth Masters business is promoted as a direct sales model, but the compensation plan is a multi-level plan consisting of only two levels. Combined with the quota requirement to continuously recruit new members in order to continue to receive the second level income precludes the ability to build a real business that will provide a residual income.

Products:

Wealth Masters entry-level product is the M1 Masters Course. This is a combination of a physical product delivered to the customer and a group of alliances. The physical product contains CD’s and DVD’s.

There is a set of CD’s produced by Wealth Masters with general financial knowledge provided by the company co-founder Kip Herriage and some of the Alliances. These CD’s contain some good information on financial matters such as incorporation, asset protection estate planning, tax strategies and such. Good general information but to implement them you would need to utilize the services of professionals such as their recommended alliances. There is not a financial benefit of being a member of Wealth Masters when using their alliances as you still pay for their services. These alliances are merely recommendations by Wealth Masters International.

Also contained in the package is Sandy Botkins tax strategies course, the movie “The Secret”, a copy of Jeff Combs book “More Heart Than Talent”, a healthy eating course from Deanna Latson and a CD from Elle Drake.

The price for the M1 Masters Course is $1995.

Wealth Masters second level product is the M2 Wealth conference, which retails for $8,995 and includes a ticket for one person. Once again this is primarily a financial education conference. Some of their alliances are speakers at this conference and others are representatives of companies that are looking for investors. In addition to the financial information they also have speakers on the subjects of personal development and health.

Wealth Masters third product is the M3 Lifestyle Experience, which retails for $12,995 which again is for one individual to attend. This is an event held at a more exotic location. The inaugural M3 was held in Budapest Hungary. This conference includes some of the same speakers from the M2 conference, but is geared more towards the personal growth aspect of their Health, Wealth and Wisdom focus. The inaugural M3, with approximately 130 members in attendance, featured LifePath Unlimited Co-Founder Patrick Combs.

Citizen Corps Product Review:

The concept of the Wealth Masters product line is to provide financial education on topics such as asset protection, financial planning and tax minimization. The second part of their product line is their alliances. Basically these are referrals to professionals that have a proven track record in their field.

Overall it is a good product line with a major flaw in that in lacks a market. The target market for the Wealth Masters products are people with disposable incomes. The catch is that most people who have disposable income already have financial planners and advisors that they trust and therefore have no need of the Wealth Masters products.

Marketing Systems:

Wealth Masters International does not provide a marketing system and only endorses one supposedly third party marketing system. We say supposedly third party because a Wealth Masters International Senior Vice President owns the system which is called Carbon Copy Pro.

Citizen Corps Systems Review:

The relationship with Carbon Copy Pro actually lowers the overall standing of Wealth Masters International as a home business opportunity. This system is a knock off of the Reverse Funnel System by Ty Coughlin.

Carbon Copy Pro utilizes a funded proposal model to attract potential customers. This marketing system is built from the ground up on deception. Just launched at the end of 2007, it claims that this system was created after 4 years of research and development and makes further claims of having produced 6 millionaires. It contains income testimonies from members that may be true testimonies about their success in this industry, when actually their success wasn’t achieved by using Carbon Copy Pro and many of these testimonies were not even related to Wealth Masters. You can find some of the same people and their testimonies on other websites that are promoting products from a different company. Several of the people whose testimonies were on the website were contacted and they are no longer associated with Wealth Masters International and many of them had never used Carbon Copy Pro.

A complete investigation of Carbon Copy Pro is underway at this time, but enough information has been collected to effectively lower the overall rating of the Wealth Masters Opportunity.

Startup Costs:

Wealth Masters International enrollment fee - $99

Required Wealth Masters Consultant site - $49.95 per month.

Carbon Copy Pro Marketing System - $150 per month. (Additional fees per each sale apply)

Wealth Acceleration Program Marketing Site - $29.95 per month

Purchase of M1 Masters program (or pass up 3 sales) - $1,995

Advertising money necessary to make sales not included in these costs.

Note: To earn the commissions from sales of the M2 and M3 products requires a one time purchase of each of these products. This is unusual in the network marketing industry as most companies adhere to the policy of no investment required to participate at any level. Earning a multiple six-figure income with Wealth Masters as advertised with Carbon Copy Pro will require purchase of these two products.

M2 Wealth Conference - $8,995

M3 Lifestyle Experience - $12,995

Citizen Corps Startup Costs Review:

Wealth Masters International has one of the highest startup costs in the industry. The annual cost to maintain the associate status and subscribe to the preferred marketing system is $2,857.80. In order to collect profits on the sales of all products, associates are required to purchase the M2 and M3 products and should purchase the M1 for a total of $23,985.

First year capitol investment is $26,842. Advertising costs are not included as they are variable and necessary for any home business.

Compensation Plan:

Wealth Master International utilizes a hybrid of the Direct Sales and Multi-Level Marketing compensation models.

In Direct Sales 100% of the profit is earned by one individual. In Multi-Level Marketing profits from each sale are shared between multiple individuals.

Wealth Masters International utilizes a two-level compensation plan. Profits from each sale are shared between the consultant making the sale and the consultants sponsor.

M1 Masters program yields $1,400 in profit

$1,000 paid to selling consultant.

$400 paid to sponsoring consultant

M2 Wealth Conference yields $6,000 in profit.

First ten sales

$3,000 paid to selling consultant.

$3,000 paid to sponsoring consultant.

After ten sales

$5,000 paid to selling consultant.

$1,000 paid to sponsoring consultant.

M3 Lifestyle Experience yields $9,000 profit

First ten sales

$5,000 paid to selling consultant.

$4,000 paid to sponsoring consultant.

After ten sales

$7,500 paid to selling consultant.

$1,500 paid to sponsoring consultant.

Citizen Corps Compensation Review:

The Wealth Masters International compensation plan is basically a multi-level plan consisting of only two levels. This results in almost no leverage. Consultants income is dependent on their own efforts and the commissions they receive from the sales of only their directly sponsored consultants. The compensation plan was changed in 2008 to increase the profits paid to the sponsoring consultant.

The power and appeal of network marketing is in the ability to leverage other people’s time and resources in order to earn a significant income and develop a passive residual income. Although the Wealth Masters compensation plan provides high profits from it’s product sales, it does not provide a means to develop a passive residual income. The only passive income comes from the over-ride commissions of the first level consultants, but it can only be earned as long as the consultant maintains a minimum of at least one sale a month, ten months out of every year. The requirement to continuously recruit new members precludes building a business that has the ability to earn a residual Income.