Can somebody please tell these “Wealth Planners”, “Financial Consultants”, and “Asset Growth Specialists” to shut up and sit down on Instagram? Every end of the year or quarter, without fail, my feed is flooded with the exact same copy-paste post:
“So humbled and blessed to achieve Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) / Court of the Table (COT) again! Thank you to my amazing clients for trusting me with your financial journey! ❤️ lower left icon emoji 🙏”#Humbled #Blessed #FinancialFreedom #InsuranceLife
Humbled my foot lah
You stand in front of a rented Mercedes or hold a freshly bought Rolex with a champagne glass in your hand, writing 500 words about how much you “love helping families protect their future”.
Let’s be 100% real for a second. What does MDRT actually mean? It doesn’t mean you are a genius fund manager. It doesn’t mean your stock picking beats Warren Buffett. It literally just means you hit a sales target. You extracted enough first-year commissions from unsuspecting uncles, aunties, and fresh grads to land $70k+ in your own pocket. For COT, you did triple that.
And how did you hit that COT? By shoving high-commission Investment-Linked Policies (ILPs) down people’s throats.
The moment a fresh poly/uni grad gets their first $3,000 paycheck, these FAs slide into their Instagram DMs: “Eh bro, long time no see! Catch up over coffee?” Then at Starbucks, they whip out an iPad with pretty colorful charts. They pitch you an ILP as this “magical product” where you can insure yourself AND invest at the same time!
What they don’t tell you upfront in big bold letters is the commission structure. In the first year of an ILP, up to 50% (or more) of your hard-earned premium goes straight into the agent’s commission and agency distribution fees, NOT into your actual investment portfolio. You think you’re investing $500 a month into S&P 500 or global funds? No, bro. For the first two years, half your money is buying their Rolex, funding their agency’s overseas “incentive trip” to Hokkaido, and paying for their COT trophy.
Then 3 years later, when the client realizes the fund returns are completely underwater because of the absurd wrap fees, policy charges, and upfront hit, they text the agent. Guess what? The agent already quit the industry to become a property agent or join another MLM, leaving behind an orphaned policy!
If you sell pure protection plans (like term life or hospital plans) with honest, transparent advice, respect to you — you are actually helping people. But if your entire business model is tricking financially illiterate 22-year-olds into 30-year ILP lock-ins just so you can flex a COT badge on social media, stop acting like you’re doing charity work.
You’re a salesman/scammer in a tailored suit, not a financial savior. Stop flexing how much commission you extracted from your friends and family. It’s not inspiring, it’s just damn annoying.