Pre-Paid Legal Services Books
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Success in Group Sales- what you need to succeed in group marketing! (Success in Pre-Paid Legal series, Vol. 3)
Published in Paperback by Insight Publishing Group (2004-01-01)
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An action plan for Pre-Paid Group sales
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-26
Review Date: 2007-04-26
The Pre-Paid Legal Story: The Story of One Man, His Company, and Its Mission to Provide Affordable Legal Protection for Everyone
Published in Hardcover by Prima Lifestyles (2000-03-16)
List price: $25.00
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Collectible price: $14.99
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How true is this story?
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 47 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-16
Review Date: 2003-01-16
Buisness Week:
Stonecipher's account of his accident leaves out a few details, however. According to his attorney at the time and copies of the suits obtained by BusinessWeek Online, he was the first to sue in court for injuries. He later settled. Meanwhile, the driver of the other car sued Stonecipher the following year for just a fraction of what Stonecipher had sought for injuries incurred in the accident. A spokesperson for Pre-Paid says only that Stonecipher's recollection of the events are 33 years old.
Stonecipher's account of his accident leaves out a few details, however. According to his attorney at the time and copies of the suits obtained by BusinessWeek Online, he was the first to sue in court for injuries. He later settled. Meanwhile, the driver of the other car sued Stonecipher the following year for just a fraction of what Stonecipher had sought for injuries incurred in the accident. A spokesperson for Pre-Paid says only that Stonecipher's recollection of the events are 33 years old.
TheStreet.com:
In his latest IRS battle, Stonecipher is also fighting allegations that he continues
to improperly deduct losses for a personal ranch that has already been denied for-profit classification by the IRS. When ruling
against Stonecipher two years ago, the IRS said the ranch was never operated like a true business destined for profitability.
Specifically, the agency said, Stonecipher failed to keep any formal books or records about the operation...Stonecipher recently
settled the prior case related to his cattle ranch deductions. He also stopped claiming losses from coonhound breeding years
ago, when his IRS troubles began.
LieffCabraser.com:
Plaintiffs further allege that Pre-Paid Legal Services operates
an unlawful pyramid sales scheme. The marketing scheme allegedly depends upon commissions paid for sales of plans and upon
the recruitment of other sales associates. For every sale of a plan, the associates are paid an advance commission, a percentage
of which goes to those who recruited them. Bonuses are paid based upon recruitment of associates. Plaintiffs allege that defendants
generate millions of dollars each year from marketing the "Opportunity," together with the sale of marketing materials, worthless
lead lists, and valueless training programs sold as part of the Opportunity.
The Pre-Paid Legal Story: The Story of One Man, His Company,
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2002-07-30
Review Date: 2002-07-30
I enjoyed the book. It is a good thing to see someone follow their vision with a passion and a unique business model.
I thought it was a good book when I first read it, but it appears some facts were left out
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-07
Review Date: 2007-04-07
Here is the real story behind Mr. Stonecipher's lawsuit:
[...]
The story is company legend. In 1969, Harland C. Stonecipher, founder of Pre-Paid Legal Services, was involved in a car accident. The driver of the other car survived the crash. But, as Stonecipher later wrote in a corporate memoir, "I faced thousands of dollars in legal costs stemming from an accident in which I was blameless."
The experience gave him the idea to start a business charging customers a monthly fee to cover future legal expenses. Today, Pre-Paid (PPD ) has more than 1.2 million customers paying an average of $21 a month to access its network of lawyers. Revenues of the New York Stock Exchange-traded company topped $300 million last year, and at a recent price of $29, its stock is trading at a healthy 19 times the last 12 months' earnings.
Stonecipher's account of his accident leaves out a few details, however. According to his attorney at the time and copies of the suits obtained by BusinessWeek Online, he was the first to sue in court for injuries. He later settled. Meanwhile, the driver of the other car sued Stonecipher the following year for just a fraction of what Stonecipher had sought for injuries incurred in the accident. A spokesperson for Pre-Paid says only that Stonecipher's recollection of the events are 33 years old.
NUMEROUS CHARGES. A growing number of Pre-Paid's customers and salespeople say they think its sale's pitch is also missing a few details. Pre-Paid laid out $1.5 million in 2001 to settle a series of suits from customers in Alabama who claimed that it overstated the amount of legal coverage it offered. Since then, at least 20 new cases involving 113 former customers and salespeople have been filed in that state.
In March, four former salespeople filed a fraud and breach-of-contract suit in Oklahoma, this time accusing Pre-Paid of operating an "illegal pyramid scheme." On Apr. 19, two other former customers filed suit in Pre-Paid's home state of Oklahoma, alleging breach of contract, negligent hiring, training, and supervision, and other violations of the state's consumer protection act.
Pre-Paid says the suits are without merit and were initiated by attorneys who advertised for plaintiffs. The suits are proof, says one company executive, of the "need for a legal service like ours in this litigious society."
JUST ONE WORD. But the escalating number of cases could become a burden for Pre-Paid, whose stock has more than doubled in the last year. "Members are not given sufficient information to know what they are buying," says Edward E. Angwin, a Birmingham (Ala.) attorney behind many of the suits. "We want them to stop selling the product as it is."
The recurring theme in the litigation is that Pre-Paid's salespeople overstate what its membership contracts cover. In the suits, former salespeople and customers claim that they're told Pre-Paid will cover all of a person's legal needs. Indeed, in a copy of its in-house magazine distributed to salespeople last year, Pre-Paid board member David A. Savula wrote: "All you have to know is the word: Yes. Does our product cover everything? Yes. So if somebody asks does it cover this or does it cover that, we're going to say, 'Yes.'"
However, Savula's article goes on to recommend that salespeople walk prospective customers through the company's brochures, which detail benefits more specifically.
NOT COVERED. A review of sample Pre-Paid contracts shows many limitations. Cases involving bankruptcy, alcohol, drugs, pre-existing conditions, wage garnishment, divorce, annulment, child custody, class actions, hit and runs, driving without a license, civil or criminal charges associated with a business, and commercial vehicles over two axles aren't covered. Nor are any "claim, defense, or legal position which, in the opinion of the Provider Attorney, will not prevail in court." Pre-Paid provides for 60 hours of trial time per year, but pretrial work -- the bulk of most cases -- is limited to 2.5 hours per year in a basic policy.
Pre-Paid provides its service through a network of designated law firms, typically one per state. Customers whose legal work falls in uncovered areas are offered the ability to contract with Pre-Paid's attorneys at a discount of 25% off the hourly rates. Those fees can be high, says Robert Schweikert, a 61-year-old food vendor in Charlotte, N.C. He became a Pre-Paid salesman and customer in March, 2000.
Schweikert says he twice tried to use Pre-Paid's attorneys for services he thought were covered under his membership, once to add a new beneficiary to his will and a second time to incorporate a new business. In each case, Schweikert says, Pre-Paid's representative wanted additional compensation to do the work. In the case of the business document, the fee was twice what Schweikert's regular attorney charged.
RESTATED FINANCIALS. "Everything you do with them costs money," says Schweikert, who is one of the plaintiffs in the first suit seeking class action status in Oklahoma. "The services were not what they were advertised." Pre-Paid says it won't comment on the specifics of any ongoing cases, but it asserts that it more than adequately discloses what it covers and that Schweikert has never complained directly to Pre-Paid about his coverage.
Pre-Paid is no stranger to controversy. It has publicly battled short-sellers -- investors who bet that the stock will fall -- for years. In 1987, Pre-Paid asked the American Stock Exchange to investigate possible manipulation of the stock by short-sellers. In 2001, it changed its accounting methods and restated its financials at the request of the Securities & Exchange Commission. Pre-Paid had been booking commissions advanced to salespeople as an asset rather than expensing them in its earnings.
Pre-Paid ultimately restated three years worth of results, cutting earnings in half and reducing assets by two-thirds for that period. In a letter to shareholders announcing the change, PrePaid's chairman wrote: "We are now required to expense commission advances when paid. Doing so does not change our ultimate profitability; it only changes the timing of reported profits. Even after restating reported results, we were quite profitable in 2001, and we grew."
NO PAIN? Pre-Paid has had some good news in the courtroom. In March, a suit from shareholders regarding the accounting changes was dismissed, in part, because the judge found that "reasonably diligent investors" could have investigated the allegations using public SEC filings.
On Apr. 22, Pre-Paid announced that a record 200,000 new members had signed up for its services in its most recent quarter. Revenues increased 17%, to $82 million, and earnings were up an equal percentage, to $8.8 million. Allen H. Lee, an analyst at Allen Financial Advisors doesn't think the lawsuits will hurt Pre-Paid's finances. "So far, there hasn't been any impact," Lee says. "It has had them before. It's a 30-year-old company."
Pre-Paid may yet triumph over its latest suits, but for a company that aims to solve people's legal troubles, it certainly has attracted a large share of its own.
[...]
The story is company legend. In 1969, Harland C. Stonecipher, founder of Pre-Paid Legal Services, was involved in a car accident. The driver of the other car survived the crash. But, as Stonecipher later wrote in a corporate memoir, "I faced thousands of dollars in legal costs stemming from an accident in which I was blameless."
The experience gave him the idea to start a business charging customers a monthly fee to cover future legal expenses. Today, Pre-Paid (PPD ) has more than 1.2 million customers paying an average of $21 a month to access its network of lawyers. Revenues of the New York Stock Exchange-traded company topped $300 million last year, and at a recent price of $29, its stock is trading at a healthy 19 times the last 12 months' earnings.
Stonecipher's account of his accident leaves out a few details, however. According to his attorney at the time and copies of the suits obtained by BusinessWeek Online, he was the first to sue in court for injuries. He later settled. Meanwhile, the driver of the other car sued Stonecipher the following year for just a fraction of what Stonecipher had sought for injuries incurred in the accident. A spokesperson for Pre-Paid says only that Stonecipher's recollection of the events are 33 years old.
NUMEROUS CHARGES. A growing number of Pre-Paid's customers and salespeople say they think its sale's pitch is also missing a few details. Pre-Paid laid out $1.5 million in 2001 to settle a series of suits from customers in Alabama who claimed that it overstated the amount of legal coverage it offered. Since then, at least 20 new cases involving 113 former customers and salespeople have been filed in that state.
In March, four former salespeople filed a fraud and breach-of-contract suit in Oklahoma, this time accusing Pre-Paid of operating an "illegal pyramid scheme." On Apr. 19, two other former customers filed suit in Pre-Paid's home state of Oklahoma, alleging breach of contract, negligent hiring, training, and supervision, and other violations of the state's consumer protection act.
Pre-Paid says the suits are without merit and were initiated by attorneys who advertised for plaintiffs. The suits are proof, says one company executive, of the "need for a legal service like ours in this litigious society."
JUST ONE WORD. But the escalating number of cases could become a burden for Pre-Paid, whose stock has more than doubled in the last year. "Members are not given sufficient information to know what they are buying," says Edward E. Angwin, a Birmingham (Ala.) attorney behind many of the suits. "We want them to stop selling the product as it is."
The recurring theme in the litigation is that Pre-Paid's salespeople overstate what its membership contracts cover. In the suits, former salespeople and customers claim that they're told Pre-Paid will cover all of a person's legal needs. Indeed, in a copy of its in-house magazine distributed to salespeople last year, Pre-Paid board member David A. Savula wrote: "All you have to know is the word: Yes. Does our product cover everything? Yes. So if somebody asks does it cover this or does it cover that, we're going to say, 'Yes.'"
However, Savula's article goes on to recommend that salespeople walk prospective customers through the company's brochures, which detail benefits more specifically.
NOT COVERED. A review of sample Pre-Paid contracts shows many limitations. Cases involving bankruptcy, alcohol, drugs, pre-existing conditions, wage garnishment, divorce, annulment, child custody, class actions, hit and runs, driving without a license, civil or criminal charges associated with a business, and commercial vehicles over two axles aren't covered. Nor are any "claim, defense, or legal position which, in the opinion of the Provider Attorney, will not prevail in court." Pre-Paid provides for 60 hours of trial time per year, but pretrial work -- the bulk of most cases -- is limited to 2.5 hours per year in a basic policy.
Pre-Paid provides its service through a network of designated law firms, typically one per state. Customers whose legal work falls in uncovered areas are offered the ability to contract with Pre-Paid's attorneys at a discount of 25% off the hourly rates. Those fees can be high, says Robert Schweikert, a 61-year-old food vendor in Charlotte, N.C. He became a Pre-Paid salesman and customer in March, 2000.
Schweikert says he twice tried to use Pre-Paid's attorneys for services he thought were covered under his membership, once to add a new beneficiary to his will and a second time to incorporate a new business. In each case, Schweikert says, Pre-Paid's representative wanted additional compensation to do the work. In the case of the business document, the fee was twice what Schweikert's regular attorney charged.
RESTATED FINANCIALS. "Everything you do with them costs money," says Schweikert, who is one of the plaintiffs in the first suit seeking class action status in Oklahoma. "The services were not what they were advertised." Pre-Paid says it won't comment on the specifics of any ongoing cases, but it asserts that it more than adequately discloses what it covers and that Schweikert has never complained directly to Pre-Paid about his coverage.
Pre-Paid is no stranger to controversy. It has publicly battled short-sellers -- investors who bet that the stock will fall -- for years. In 1987, Pre-Paid asked the American Stock Exchange to investigate possible manipulation of the stock by short-sellers. In 2001, it changed its accounting methods and restated its financials at the request of the Securities & Exchange Commission. Pre-Paid had been booking commissions advanced to salespeople as an asset rather than expensing them in its earnings.
Pre-Paid ultimately restated three years worth of results, cutting earnings in half and reducing assets by two-thirds for that period. In a letter to shareholders announcing the change, PrePaid's chairman wrote: "We are now required to expense commission advances when paid. Doing so does not change our ultimate profitability; it only changes the timing of reported profits. Even after restating reported results, we were quite profitable in 2001, and we grew."
NO PAIN? Pre-Paid has had some good news in the courtroom. In March, a suit from shareholders regarding the accounting changes was dismissed, in part, because the judge found that "reasonably diligent investors" could have investigated the allegations using public SEC filings.
On Apr. 22, Pre-Paid announced that a record 200,000 new members had signed up for its services in its most recent quarter. Revenues increased 17%, to $82 million, and earnings were up an equal percentage, to $8.8 million. Allen H. Lee, an analyst at Allen Financial Advisors doesn't think the lawsuits will hurt Pre-Paid's finances. "So far, there hasn't been any impact," Lee says. "It has had them before. It's a 30-year-old company."
Pre-Paid may yet triumph over its latest suits, but for a company that aims to solve people's legal troubles, it certainly has attracted a large share of its own.
The facts speak volumes
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-15
Review Date: 2003-09-15
I love the kind of comments from someone like Jason in the January 2003 review! And am grateful for the sites he listed so
I could check out the lawsuit he spoke of and get the current information! Once again, blessings and beauty come out of negative
situations! How powerful that lawsuit is in dispelling the myths; the false perceptions, and misunderstanding of what PPL
is all about!
Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. (inc. in 1976) is one of the top 50 companies traded on the NYSE and is an 'open book' to all. (See their stock: PPD)
Being a PPL associate is everything I have ever hoped and dreamed for in my life: to help and greatly impact the lives of people across America and Canada, and make a nice living doing it - does it get any better than that!?
I urge you to protect your family in what the American Bar Association itself has deemed the 'the BEST way for the majority of Americans to assure themselves of legal assistance when they need it is through a prepaid legal plan...'.
Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. (inc. in 1976) is one of the top 50 companies traded on the NYSE and is an 'open book' to all. (See their stock: PPD)
Being a PPL associate is everything I have ever hoped and dreamed for in my life: to help and greatly impact the lives of people across America and Canada, and make a nice living doing it - does it get any better than that!?
I urge you to protect your family in what the American Bar Association itself has deemed the 'the BEST way for the majority of Americans to assure themselves of legal assistance when they need it is through a prepaid legal plan...'.
We
wouldn't be without our car insurance, or health insurance (yet how often are we in the hospital, or have a car accident,
God forbid) yet we have legal/financial situations continually!
God Bless Harland Stonecipher for bringing affordable,
accessible legal assistance to everyone - 'with liberty and justice for all'!
www.prepaidlegal.com/info/gailjensen
A Fantastic book to inspire you to catch your dreams
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2002-09-01
Review Date: 2002-09-01
This book is a must read for everyone. This is not only the rags to riches story of Mr. Stoneceipher, but the story of those
who have joined him in his quest to truly make justice equal to all. This book has been an inspiration to me and my organization.
Thank you sir for writing this wonderful book...
21 Great Ways to Build Your Own Successful Business
Published in Audio Cassette by Pre -Paid Legal Services (2000)
List price:
An analysis of the Shreveport pre-paid legal plan after one year of operation
Published in Unknown Binding by American Bar Foundation (1972)
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APA members now have access to pre-paid legal coverage.(American Psychotherapy Association): An article from: Annals of the
American Psychotherapy Association
Published in Digital by American Psychotherapy Association (2002-05-01)
List price: $5.95
New price: $5.95
Companies offering pre-paid legal assistance.: An article from: San Diego Business Journal
Published in Digital by CBJ, L.P. (1993-11-15)
List price: $5.95
New price: $5.95
Fast Start to Success
Published in Paperback by Pre-paid Legal Services, Inc. (2001)
List price:
Fast Start to Success: Getting Started Right
Published in Audio Cassette by Pre-paid legal services (2000)
List price:
Used price: $3.95
In Their Own Words: A Collection of Letters From Our Members
Published in Paperback by Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (2005)
List price:
Used price: $45.00
In Their Own Words: A Collection of Letters from Our Members
Published in Paperback by Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (2001)
List price:
Used price: $7.79
Books-Under-Review-->Society-->Law-->Services-->Lawyers and Law Firms-->Pre-Paid Legal Services
Related Subjects:
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Chapters include how to get to the decision makers, decision maker presentations, presentation to the employee groups and group service & retention following the sale.
Comments from top group producers, such as Gordon Darrah, Amilda Coffman & several others give proven tactics for success.
At less that 200 pages, this book is a quick read, but is packed with information. It will put you on the right path to success.