Agel Review: Gelceutical nutrient gels & autoship

Agel launched in 2005 and are based out of the US state of Utah.

The company was initially founded by Glen Jensen, who was kicked out in 2010

Why depends on who you talk to.

Jensen himself (right) maintains he was the victim of a “hostile takeover“:

A Venture Capital company took a minority share in 2005 to finance the amazing growth. In June 2007 I paid them 100% back.

However Agel continued to grow fast from $8 million per month in August to $12.5 million in September 2007, basically growing from $100 million to $150 million a year with all signs of even higher growth figures.

So I teamed back up again with the Venture Capital (VC) Company. They wanted me to slow down the growth of Agel, which in my opinion, was a very bad decision.

The problem with these Venture capitalists is that they have minimal understanding of the Network Marketing Industry and did not understand how precious momentum is.

They insisted on, and demanded control. Until that point, I was in control, but now the VC controlled 2 of 3 Board seats and my ownership units were dropped below 50%.

In late 2010 the VC insisted on closing 12 countries with $47 million in revenue. I could not accept this, so the VC decided to replace me.

We are still in a legal battle over this decision.

Well-known MLM attorney Kevin Thompson, reported that Jensen violated his employment agreement:

On December 22, 2010, Agel filed a lawsuit against its CEO, Glen Jensen. Basically, the lawsuit alleges that Jensen violated the employment agreement by allegedly leveraging his position with Agel to build a competing company.

The lawsuit levies some serious allegations. According to Agel, they’re arguing that Glen was looking to split the company and take some key leaders to another opportunity.

Agel explicitly accused Jensen of lying to the company, conspiring against the company, abusing his authority as CEO and misusing company funds.

The specifics of litigation between Jensen and Agel is unclear, save to say that from 2010 onwards, Jensen has publicly had nothing to do with Agel.

In place of Jensen two CEO’s run Agel, Jeff Higginson and Jeremiah Bradley (both credited as “co-CEO” respectively).

Bradley (right) appears to have been with Agel for his entire professional career, with his Agel corporate bio stating:

Jeremiah Bradley started with Agel Enterprises from the beginning after finishing his college degree in International Studies at Brigham Young University.

Higginson (right) meanwhile worked as an auto salesman before getting involved in Agel. Prior to his appointment of co-CEO, Higginson was Agel’s Executive Vice-President of Global Sales.

Both have been involved in Agel since its inception back in 2005.

In 2013 Agel was acquired by CVSL for an undisclosed amount, with Agel continuing to function as a stand-alone company.

Read on for a full review of the Agel MLM business opportunity.

The Agel Product Line

Agel operate in the health and wellness niche, with an emphasis on “suspension gels”.

Dubbed “gelceuticals”, Agel claim it’s gel products are ‘just the way Mother Nature intended!‘;

Imagine you were able to perfectly blend up a handful of berries… what would you get?

Not a pill. Not a juice either… You would get a gel.

It is a revolutionary mixture of plant-based fibers that allow nutrients to stay hydrated and suspended in a readily digestible gel form.

Being hydrated means that as soon as the nutrients enter your body they are ready for absorption. No more waiting.

The suspended nature of gel means that the nutrients are evenly distributed throughout. You always know what you’re getting and how much, because it is always the same.

To make it even simpler, Agel put the Suspension Gel Technology into easy-to-use, portable, single-serving packets.

Nutrients that are ready for your system are highly bioavailable.

All in all Agel market sixteen gelceutical products:

• ABC – “children’s essentials”
• BRN – “helps your body burn fat!”
• GSH – “Glutathione resides in every cell in your body”
• SEE – “Support eye health and normal eye function”
• PRO – “life sustaining nutrients”
• Ω3 (Omega 3) – “a healthy heart and mind
• VLT – “the green energy you need”
• OHM – “rich in resources for increased mental energy”
• FIT – “eat less, move more and lose weight
• UMI – “improve your immune system”
• MIN – “the right vitamins and minerals in the right amount”
• EXO – “lose free radicals and gain better health”
• HRT – “fuel and protect your heart”
• FLX – “four supplements for healthy joints”
• GLO – “beauty from the inside out”
• GRN – “cleanse, detoxify and support your digestive system”

Other products marketed by Agel include:

• REM – a “melatonin sleep aid supplement” in gel strip form
• Caspi – “combines the regenerative power of stem cell extract from exquisite Siberian sturgeon caviar with the natural beauty of 24 karat gold”
• FLXRUB – “soothing topical gels to ease every day aches and pains”

Unfortunately retail pricing for Agel’s products is not provided on the company website. A link to “purchase online” is evident on each Agel product page, however an Agel affiliate referral code is required to continue (pricing is not disclosed beforehand).

The Agel Compensation Plan

The Agel compensation plan pays retail commissions on the sale of Agel products to retail customers.

Residual commissions are paid out through a binary team, with a matching bonus on team sales volume paid out via a unilevel.

Additional performance-based bonuses are also available, culminating with a $40,000 a month cash payout for Royal Diamond ranked affiliates.

Agel Affiliate Ranks

There are eighteen affiliate ranks within the Agel compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

• Team Member – sign up as an Agel affiliate
• Supervisor – have a downline generating at least 1000 GV a month
• Manager – have a downline generating at least 2000 GV a month
• Senior Manager – have a downline generating at least 4000 GV a month
• Director – have a downline generating at least 10,000 GV a month
• Regional Director – have a downline generating at least 20,000 GV a month
• Senior Director – have a downline generating at least 40,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least one Director ranked affiliate
• Corporate Director – have a downline generating at least 60,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least two Director ranked affiliates
• 1 Star Diamond – have a downline generating at least 80,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least three Director ranked affiliates
• 2 Star Diamond – have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least four Director ranked affiliates
• 3 Star Diamond – have a downline generating at least 120,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least five Director ranked affiliates
• 4 Star Diamond – have a downline generating at least 150,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least six Director ranked affiliates
• 5 Star Diamond – have a downline generating at least 200,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least seven Director ranked affiliates
• Executive Diamond – have a downline generating at least 250,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least eight Director ranked affiliates
• Ambassador Diamond – have a downline generating at least 500,000 GV a month, recruit and maintain at least eight Director ranked affiliates and have two power legs
• Presidential Diamond – have a downline generating at least 750,000 GV a month, recruit and maintain at least eight Director ranked affiliates and have four power legs
• Crown Diamond – have a downline generating at least 1,000,000 GV a month, recruit and maintain at least eight Director ranked affiliates and have six power legs
• Royal Diamond – have a downline generating at least 2,000,000 GV a month, recruit and maintain at least eight Director ranked affiliates and have eight power legs

Note that GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliates downline.

A “power leg” is defined as any given unilevel leg that has a Senior Director or higher ranked affiliate at the top of it, and generates at least 40,000 GV a month in lesser binary leg volume throughout.

Retail Commissions

Retail commissions in Agel are paid out on orders placed by non-affiliates (retail customers).

The exact commission paid out is the difference between the wholesale and retail cost of the product.

Seeing as Agel do not disclose retail pricing on their website, we are unable to provide you with any examples.

Preferred customer orders also pay retail commissions, with volume from monthly orders paid out residually.

Recruitment Commissions

When a new Agel affiliate signs up, they are given the option of doing so by purchasing an affiliate pack.

There are four Agel affiliate packs offered, with each paying the following commission to the recruiting affiliate:

• Bronze Pack ($340) – $40
• Silver Pack ($575) – $75
• Gold Kit ($1050) – $100
• Platinum Pack ($2800) – $500

Residual Commissions

Residual commissions in Agel are paid out via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

Sales volume is tracked on both sides of the binary, with Agel affiliates paid a percentage of the volume generated by their less binary leg each month:

• affiliates who sign up with an order of at least 210 PV are paid 7%
• affiliates who sign up with an order of at least 665 PV are paid 7%, with an extra 3% per month paid out after 12 months, provided an affiliate maintains a monthly 50 PV product order

Note that on the bonus 3% paid out, provided an affiliate’s direct upline also maintains a monthly 50 PV product order for 12 months, they too qualify for a 3% matching bonus on this volume.

Also note that all Agel affiliates are personally capped at earning $25,000 per month in binary earnings (per business center position).

Binary Matching Bonus

Agel affiliates who are at the Supervisor or higher rank, qualifies for a matching bonus on their downline’s binary earnings.

This matching bonus is paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Agel cap payable unilevel levels at seven, with how many levels the Binary Matching Bonus is paid out on determined by an affiliate’s rank:

• Supervisor – 10% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
• Manager – 15% on level 1
• Senior Manager – 20% on level 1
• Director – 25% on level 1
• Regional Director – 25% on level 1 and 7% on level 2
• Senior Director – 30% on level 1 and 7% on level 2
• Corporate Director – 30% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 and 3
• 1 Star Diamond – 35% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 and 3
• 2 Star Diamond – 40% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 and 3
• 3 Star Diamond – 40% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 4
• 4 Star Diamond – 40% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 5
• 5 Star Diamond – 45% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 5
• Executive Diamond – 45% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 6
• Ambassador Diamond – 50% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 6
• Presidential Diamond or higher – 50% on level 1 and 7% on levels 2 to 7

Car and Expense Bonus

Agel affiliates who qualify at the Senior Director or higher ranks, qualify for a monthly Car and Expense bonus.

The Car Bonus must be put towards the purchase or lease of a car, whereas the how the Expense Bonus is used is up to the affiliate receiving it.

How much of a Car and Expense Bonus is paid out each month is determined by an Agel affiliate’s rank:

• Senior Director – $250 Car and Expense Bonus ($500 total)
• Corporate Director – $500 Car and Expense Bonus ($1000 total)
• 1 Star Diamond – $750 Car and Expense Bonus ($1500 total)
• 2 Star Diamond – $1000 Car and Expense Bonus ($2000 total)
• 3 Star Diamond – $1250 Car and Expense Bonus ($2500 total)
• 4 Star Diamond – $1500 Car and Expense Bonus ($3000 total)
• 5 Star Diamond – $1750 Car and Expense Bonus ($3500 total)
• Executive Diamond – $2000 Car and Expense Bonus ($4000 total)
• Ambassador Diamond – $2250 Car and Expense Bonus ($4500 total)
• Presidential Diamond – $2500 Car and Expense Bonus ($5000 total)
• Crown Diamond – ($2750 Car and Expense Bonus ($5500 total)
• Royal Diamond – $3000 Car and Expense Bonus ($6000 total)

Executive Rank Qualification Pool

The Executive Rank Qualification Pool a bonus pool made up of 1% of Agel’s company-wide sales volume.

Note that only Agel affiliates who buy in at the Executive Pack level ($2800) can participate.

The pool is shared out to Agel affiliates who qualify at the Supervisor, Manager, Senior Manager, Director and Regional Director ranks.

How many shares an Agel affiliate gets in the Executive Rank Qualification Pool is determined by their rank:

• Supervisor = 2 shares
• Manager = 3 shares
• Senior Manager = 4 shares
• Director = 5 shares
• Regional Director = 6 shares

A separate pool also exists for Director and Regional Director affiliates, made up of 0.5% of Agel’s company-wide sales volume.

Director ranked affiliates receive 1 share in this pool and Regional Directors 2 shares.

Executive Bonus

The Executive Bonus is a bonus pool made up of 3% of Agel’s global sales volume.

Only Agel affiliates who have bought in at the Platinum Pack level ($2800) can participate.

Shares in the pool are acquired when an Agel affiliate generates 1000 more volume in their lesser binary leg over the previous month.

Eg. If an Agel affiliate’s lesser binary leg generated 5000 GV one month and 6000 GV the next, they’d qualify for one share.

If that same leg generated 8000 GV the following month, two shares would be awarded.

Note that shares are allocated up until an affiliate’s lesser binary leg generates 40,000 GV. Upwards of 40,000 GV no additional shares are awarded.

Mad Money Bonus

The Mad Money Bonus pays out Crown Diamond and Royal Diamond affiliates a monthly cash bonus.

Crown Diamond affiliates are paid $20,000 a month and Royal Diamond affiliates $40,000 a month.

Travel Award

Agel affiliates who rank at the 1 Star Diamond or higher rank, ‘will be invited to the annual leadership conference, which is held in an exotic location‘.

Joining Agel

Prospective Agel affiliates have to pay a $35 fee, which gives them a temporary position in Agel’s compensation plan:

What do I get for the $35 registration fee?

This allows you to reserve a position in the tree. You will need to make sure and upgrade to one of the other enrollment levels before the end of the second calendar month after paying the $35 fee.

There are three Agel affiliate enrollment levels available:

• Personal Level – spend at least 210 PV on products
• Executive Level – spend at least 665 PV on products
• Professional Level – spend at least 3000 PV on products

To assist new affiliates with mandatory product purchase requirements, Agel offer the following affiliate packs:

• Bronze Pack ($340) – 185 PV
• Silver Pack ($575) – 350 PV
• Gold Kit ($1050) – 700 PV
• Platinum Pack ($2800) – 3000 PV

The primary difference between the three available affiliate levels is income potential through Agel’s compensation plan.

Conclusion

Back in 2005 you might have gotten away with not having an eCommerce platform readily displaying the prices of your products, but in 2015 there is no excuse.

At the very least I’d expect retail prices disclosed on a product page or in a catalogue, but for reasons unknown Agel has neither.

This is a pretty big red-flag, and raises the question of why Agel do not want the price of their products known.

As to the products themselves, the theory sounds alright… but how much Agel are charging with respect to similarly available products matters.

And without that crucial information it’s impossible to properly evaluate Agel’s product lineup further.

On the compensation plan side of things, Agel’s business model raises some serious red flags.

We’ll start with how prospective affiliate’s join the company.

A token $35 “registration fee” is paid, which reserves a position in Agel’s company-wide binary structure.

An affiliate is then required to make a product purchase, with the more spent equating to greater income potential through Agel’s compensation plan.

For starters, the bonus pools are not available unless an affiliate buys in at the Platinum Pack level for $2800.

It doesn’t matter how successful you might be as an Agel affiliate. Unless you forked over $2800 when you signed up, no bonus pool commissions for you.

Then there’s the dubious practice of offering multiple “income centers” to big spending affiliates.

Lowly Personal Level (~$400 to $575) affiliates are given one position in Agel’s compensation plan.

Spend over $1000 when you sign up though and Agel will give you three income centers.

This equates to tripling earning on sales volume generated by an affiliate’s downline, with two positions stacked under an affiliate’s initial primary position.

Again, not a reward for personal performance – just pay Agel $1000 or so and you get the three positions.

Furthermore, Agel themselves openly acknowledge that buying in at the Executive and Professional Levels ‘qualifies you for all ten ways to earn in the compensation plan‘.

This is blatant “pay to play” and should not be in any MLM compensation plan.

On top of pay to play concerns, the Agel affiliate packs are also commissionable – encouraging chain recruitment.

Retail customers aren’t going to be buying affiliate packs, so you’re pretty much looking at commissions paid on the recruitment of new affiliates, who likely spend large sums of money to qualify for higher income potential.

Lastly we have the role of affiliate autoship.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, autoship is a monthly standing order affiliates can set up.

Why?

Autoship allows team members to have product automatically shipped to them each month and their credit cards are charged accordingly.

Autoship eliminates the hassle of ordering each month so that team members can remain eligible to participate in the Agel pay plan.

According to Agel, because it’s the easiest way to remain commission qualified.

That Agel affiliates are required to purchase products to qualify for commissions is bad enough (affiliates who qualify via retail sales do not receive the 3% binary team volume bonus), but to do it via encouragement of autoship orders is a huge red flag.

Agel’s compensation plan strongly suggest that the bulk of affiliates are on a standing 50 PV or higher monthly autoship order, with commissions mostly paid out on their downline’s monthly purchases.

Retail seems like an afterthought, with potential customers not even shown the pricing of Agel products.

As a prospective Agel affiliate, I’d strongly suggest checking with your potential Agel upline as to how they qualify for commissions each moth (50 PV).

If it’s an autoship order of their own, ask them how much of their monthly commission check is derived from retail sales.

I’m tipping “yes” to the first question and near 0% on the second, but see how you go.

The bottom line with MLM compensation plans is that affiliates are likely to proceed with whatever’s easiest and pays the most.

In Agel, that’s paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for commission qualification, signing up for autoship and recruiting other affiliates who do the same.

Approach with caution.

 

Update 21st April 2022 – Agel collapsed in 2018 when parent company JRJR33 filed for bankruptcy.