Monday, March 09, 2009

Citigroup just gave 13 million dollars away to a bunch of insurance brokers WTF

Citigroup Said to Pay $13 Million for Scrapped Resort Trips - Bloomberg.com

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the recipient of $45 billion in government rescue funds, doled out $13 million as compensation to employees whose trips to resorts the company was forced to scrap, two people familiar with the matter said.

Citigroup paid 1,900 agents of its Primerica Financial Services Inc. unit $5,000 each for missing a three-day stay at a Bahamas resort, the people said, speaking anonymously because the amounts aren’t public. Some 2,000 Smith Barney brokerage advisers got debit cards valued at $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000 for various canceled getaways.


Hello, Regulators and Taxpayers

Primerica is a not even part of the main Citigroup it is a separate company that sells "Financial Planning Services" at least that is what they told me when I went to work there after college. Great sales training btw and one of the things I always remember them saying is that PFS was part of the umbrella of companies and it was something that was pointed out yet mentioned too often.

What is my point. That Primerica's annual conference is paid for out of the profits of Primerica not Citigroup. Another BTW each "broker" is an independent agent and more then likely wrote off the trip for this gig in years past. Not this year thou baby, for just being some how related to Citigroup banking operations these independent agents are getting thousand of tax payers dollars each.

I call on these agents of Primerica to give back each and every dime of that money. If they don't I call on the customers of these agents to not renew those policies when they come to collect those checks this year cuz it is pretty plain to see that the government is going to do nothing to stop this and will likely just give them more money.

How much BS are we going to put up with.....




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2 comments:

Conrad said...

Clueless,

Primerica is owned by Citigroup but runs completely independently. Primerica made over $300 million in profits in the last quarter and all that goes up to Citigroup. Citigroup (outside of the original purchase of Primerica) has never sent a penny down to Primerica. It is probably Citigroup's only profitable asset. The awards weekends, which happen twice a year, are part of the operating expenses of Primerica, and are figured into the cost of doing business. They're used as an incentive to create more business for Primerica so they can in turn send more profits up to Citigroup. Without them, there would be less incentive and therefore less profits for Citigroup, and by extension more bailout funds required to offset the losses by Citigroup's other divisions.

The American public has been duped about award trips. For the most part they are awards for the divisions that produce wealth for the companies in question. Without them, those companies would produce less wealth and be in even more dire situations. For example, if a company needs to sell 1000 widgets per office to maintain profitability they will try to sell in excess of 1000 units. If all the offices are only selling 700, the company fearing substantial losses, may offer incentives to get the volume up. As part of the cost of doing business they may offer incentives for those offices that sell in excess of 1200 widgets (ex- a paid trip). The cost to the company is nothing because the cost of the trip is figured into the profit made by the excess sale of 200 widgets they would not have made without the incentive!
So, in effect, the elimination of incentives can only hurt a company's bottom line because they cost nothing. What's more, the elimination of these trips also hurt the employees of the cab companies driving them to the airport, the vendors at the airports, the airlines that wont have those fares, the hotels and all their support staffs (housecleaning, bell hops, front desk, reservations, etc.). What about the giveaways (awards, cups, t-shirts, etc.). All the ancillary businesses around the hotels or the site-seeing tours that usually accompany these trips?

CAPITALISM WORKS OFF THE PROFIT INCENTIVE. REMOVE THOSE INCENTIVES AND WE'LL ALL BE STANDING IN LINE TO GET STIMULUS FUNDS INSTEAD OF EARNING THEM THE WAY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS INTENDED!

SonofNels said...

I am not sure what Conrad is trying to say. If we dont let insurance salespeople go on a trip for selling insurance which they seem to be doing hence the trip then Citigroup cant survive.

Look without taxpayers bailouts Citigroup would have failed. End of Story then are in a business model that is broke and it is not going to get any better for them.

Like I said I worked for Primerica and I know exactly what that trip is about --if you sell you go if you dont you wont go. Maybe some more exec's at Citigroup need some of that training that Primerica is famous for in the industry.