WMI expanding into nutrition, insurance & finance
Wealth Masters International (WMI) have thus far existed with the sole purpose of providing ‘access to world-class education, tools, experts, experiences and opportunities that empower individuals to create success on their own terms and achieve true freedom in all areas of their lives‘.
Up until now however, this has been achieved through education via self help courses and conferences. If one wished to put into practice the lessons they’d learnt through the various WMI programs, they had to either branch out into one of the affiliate programs WMI approved to advertise at one of their events, or apply what they’d learnt to market the WMI business opportunity itself to other people.
All this is about to change with the announcement that WMI are now planning to branch out into the nutrition, insurance and finance industries.
WMI Health and Nutrition is set to launch in the first quarter of 2011 and will focus on bringing a retail opportunity for WMI members to market ‘the world’s most advanced anti-aging technologies‘.
I assume we’re going to see the traditional product lines you get from health and nutrition MLMs; creams, powders, drinks etc. etc.
Opes Partners will be the financial and insurance arm of WMI which will launch in January 2011 and is being touted as ‘the future of wall street‘.
With the ongoing, self-induced implosion of Wall Street, clients are hungry for a financial services company committed to integrity and cutting edge innovation…with the clients best interests at heart at all times.
-Kip Herriage, CEO and Co-Founder of WMI
Opes Partners appears to be more of a standalone subsidiary then WMI Health and Nutrition, in that there appears to already be an existing customer base that are going to be integrated within WMI itself.
Specifics of what each program will offer WMI members is sketchy at this point but no doubt more information will be released for analysis closer to both launch dates.
Traditionally WMI have provided education to their members and stood back and allowed members to invest their knowledge how they see fit in various business opportunities out there. The introduction of two new enterprises by WMI no doubt wishes to further capitalise by introducing a MLM marketing strategy to the nutrition, finance and insurance sectors.
In this sense it explains why, rather then simply introduce WMI Health and Nutrition and Opes Partners to their existing product lines, WMI have chosen to launch them as separate subsidiaries.
This allows WMI to maintain its current model of providing education whilst offering affiliate programs for it’s members to capitalise on. WMI Health and Nutrition and Opes Partners will both be directly competing against other third party affiliate programs WMI has traditionally provided to its members.
The only difference of course being that WMI will be able to take a greater cut of the profits made due to them owning the affilliate programs. How this impacts the third party affiliates remains to be seen, but there’s definitely the possibility of an unfair marketing advantage if WMI heavily promote the Opes and Health and Nutrition opportunities internally.
Presumably the choice by WMI to target the nutrition, finance and insurance sectors came about after research into what their members have been most successful in, via the various affiliate programs currently recommended by WMI. I have a feeling that, should they be successful, WMI Health and Nutrition and Opes Partners are simply the beginning of what will be a series of in-house affiliate programs offered, with the eventual aim to completely cut or severely limit the third party opportunities available.
Smart move by WMI to maximise the profits the company earns from its members, after they’ve already capitalised on their ‘education’. In this sense it’s a bit of a hybrid offering and it will be interesting to see how it works.
On a broader note the introduction of the two subsidiaries could also be seen as a move away from the stigma of WMI members simply ignoring affiliate programs offered and instead focusing on re-selling the education package via MLM.
If WMI are directly seen as providing affiliate opportunities for its members to retail, then this no doubt will go some way to appeasing authorities and regulators who might be looking into the company. Currently the only internal products retailable are solely educational and for the most part wouldn’t be sold without the WMI MLM business opportunity attached to them.
2011 should be an interesting year for WMI and I’m curious to see if their affiliate subsidary model will work. I’ll obviously be having a closer look at WMI Health and Nutrition and Opes Partners too as we approach their respective launch dates, so look out for that.
Maybe this is what Per Gunnar Hoem mentioned in September as the “secret” that would revolutionize the entire network marketing business.
The introduction of these new services seems to be a last desperate action. The leaders have realized that the market for WMI is about to collapse, and most of the new members (about 100 a month) buy only mPower, which is not enough to keep the business alive. Before the bitter end WMI tries to such out the last blood of its existing members by promising an income boost if they do another investment into these new services.
Citing Michael Hamburger:
“Existing WMI Members and Consultants will have an immediate opportunity to participate in the new subsidiaries, with details to follow in the near future.”
When WMI speaks about opportunities there is always a cost involved. The latest advertisements for WMI is that they will show you the opportunity to earn big money for free (you pay only shipping). What you receive is information about how much you must invest to get the chance to earn the big money. What Hamburger appearantly recommends is to pay immediately and get details about what you paid for later. For several years CarbonCopyPro has announced “In the near future, stock options will be made available to our members”. In the MLM-business “near future” too often means never.
In addition, WMI might predict a ban in Norway, and by releasing 2 new companies they can move their Norwegian distributors to a new and (so far) legal company for a “small fee”. Then they again are at least one year ahead of the authorities. The distributors will be forced to either realize the loss of their investment in WMI, or pay the fee to keep the illusion about big money alive in the new companies.
Thanks for the info about the new plans.
It is perhaps time for a tougher tactics in Norway. Many of the top earners in Norway seems to evade taxation. They receive income from the WMI transferred to a debit card, and some are using this method for failing to provide income for taxation.
Tax policy can be far more efficient than the pyramid rules. It is perhaps time that we involve such rules in Norway.
Their handling of tax can be a local phenomenon in Norway, but much of the training offered in WMI is just about how to reduce taxes. I’m guessing that the same methods may be used in other countries too, using a debet card to avoid some of the income taxes.
WMI is well represented in the United States, Norway, Canada and Australia. All these countries were in the World Tour 2010. They have had less success in the rest of Europe, although they expand in many countries.
The concept is probably more disguised in other countries than it has been in Norway – with massive promotion of CarbonCopyPro as a “home business” at the end of 2009. WMI is also marketed as “home business” and “income opportunity”, but they avoid using as many ads on the internet that CarbonCopyPro used.
I’m not too sure about revolutionizing the entire network marketing business, but this does appear to be a genuine attempt by WMI to diversify into actual renewable products on a retail level.
As I noted in my evaluation of WMI’s products;
Whether the creation of WMI nutrition and Opes Partners has to do with regulators cracking down on WMI for their members simply promoting the opportunity under WMI, or if the new companies weigh their commissions towards recruitment rather then retail sales obviously remains to be seen, but for now I’ll give WMI the benefit of the doubt.
You nailed it. Those are also products that are relatively easy to sell to those sold on WMI. Who doesn’t want to better health? Or insurance? Or financial whatever after the “ongoing, self-induced implosion of Wall Street”?
Note to Kip: Wall Street’s doing fine, the government bailed them out and they’re making money hand over foot.