Arego Life Review: Modulating serotonin = happiness on demand?
Arego Life operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.
The company is based out of Utah and headed up by co-founders Don Coplin, Jim Douville and Adam Baadsgaard.
In his Arego Life corporate bio, Don Coplin is cited as a “retired dentist” and “avid researcher and formulator”.
Prior to co-founding Arego Life, Jim Douville promoted Nerium International and then Rain International.
Douville appears to have left Rain International sometime in late 2017 or early 2018. I wasn’t able to establish why.
Adam Baadsgard also came over from Rain International. He was promoting the company as a Black Diamond up until late 2017.
Arego Life was founded a few months later in March 2018.
Read on for a full review of the Arego Life MLM opportunity.
Arego Life’s Products
Arego’s flagship product is Adapt X.1, which they market as a “patented adaptogen youth formula”.
Arego Life’s ADAPT X.1 includes patented Adaptenol which helps naturally balance each of the 14 serotonin neuro-pathways.
Arego Life claim taking Adapt X.1 “can lead to”
- improved sleep
- mood management
- boost immune function
- skin health
- relation
- fat metabolismArego Life’s Adapt X.1 produictffffffffffff and
- anti-aging benefits
In support of these claims Arego Life cites a number of patents held by Seroctin Research & Technology, Inc.
There’s also a study of a sleep aid supplement marketed by Savanna Health.
On his LinkedIn profile, Don Coplin cites himself as a Manager of Savanna Health since 2012.
I wasn’t able to work out the specifics but presumably there’s a link (business or personal) between Savanna Health and Seroctin Research & Technology Inc.
Adapt X.1 retails at $70 for a 1 oz. bottle. Preferred retail customers on monthly autoship pay
There are 220 sprays per bottle of Adapt X.1, with consumers directed to take 6 to 10 sprays a day.
This amounts to one bottle of Adapt X.1 lasting roughly twenty-two to thirty-six days.
Arego Life’s Compensation Plan
Arego Life mixes a healthy retail focus with residual commissions paid out via unilevel and matrix teams.
There are also several performance-based bonuses available.
Arego Life Affiliate Ranks
There are twelve affiliate ranks within Arego Life’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Advisor – generate $1000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Manager – qualify for residual matrix commissions, generate $2500 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Regional Director – maintain residual matrix commission qualification and generate $5000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Regional Executive – maintain residual matrix commission qualification and generate $10,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Regional Partner – maintain residual matrix commission qualification and generate $20,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- National Director – maintain residual matrix commission qualification and generate $40,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- National Executive – maintain residual matrix commission qualification and generate $80,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- National Partner – maintain residual matrix commission qualification, recruit and maintain at least two National Directors or three Regional Partners, and generate $150,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Global Director – maintain residual matrix commission qualification, maintain at least two personally recruited National Directors or three Regional Partners, and generate $300,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Global Executive – maintain residual matrix commission qualification, maintain at least two personally recruited National Directors or three Regional Partners, and generate $500,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Global Partner – maintain residual matrix commission qualification, maintain at least two personally recruited National Directors or three Regional Partners, and generate $1,000,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
- Beachcomber – maintain residual matrix commission qualification, maintain at least two personally recruited National Directors or three Regional Partners, and generate $2,000,000 in accumulated unilevel team volume
Note that required no more than 60% of required unilevel team volume can be counted from any one unilevel team leg.
MLM Commission Qualification
To qualify for residual unilevel commissions, an Arego Life affiliate must recruit at least one affiliate and generate $55 PV a month.
To qualify for residual matrix placement, an Arego Life affiliate must enroll at least three customers a month (minimum 1 bottle of Adapt X.1 purchase).
Initial residual matrix commission qualification is a one-time requirement.
After initially qualified, an Arego Life affiliate qualifies for residual matrix commission recruiting and maintaining three affiliates who are residual unilevel commission qualified (see above).
As with placement qualification, residual matrix commission qualification is one-time.
Retail Commissions
Arego Life affiliates earn a 25% commission on bottles of Adapt X.1 sold to retail customers.
25% is paid out on a retail customers first order. 25% continues to be paid out on residual retail orders, provided the customer is ordering at least $110 worth of Adapt X.1.
New Customer Pool
Arego Life take 25% of all retail customer volume and place it into the New Customer Pool.
Arego Life affiliates earn shares in the New Customer Pool by enrolling new retail customers each month.
- enroll a new retail customer within seven days of signing up = 4 shares per new customer
- enroll a new retail customer within eight to thirty days of signing up = 3 shares per new customer
- enroll a new retail customer within thirty-one to sixty days of signing up = 2 shares per new customer
- enroll a new retail customer over sixty days of signing up = 1 share per new customer
New Customer Pool shares are awarded each month and expire the month they are paid out on.
A new Arego Life customer is a retail customer who places their first order in any given month.
Self-Purchase Commissions
Arego Life affiliates are paid a 25% commission on their own Adapt X.1 orders.
Recruitment Commissions
Arego Life affiliates are paid a 25% on the first order placed by personally recruited affiliates.
Residual Commissions (unilevel)
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 recruit new affiliates, 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.
Arego Life caps payable unilevel team levels at ten.
Residual commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these ten levels as follows:
- level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 3%
- levels 2 and 3 – 3%
- levels 4 to 6 – 4%
- levels 7 and 8 – 5%
- level 9 – 2%
- level 10 – 1%
Residual Commissions (matrix)
Arego Life pays residual matrix commissions out via a 3×13 matrix.
A 3×13 matrix places an Arego Life affiliate at the top of a matrix, with three positions directly under them (level 1):
These three positions form the first level of the matrix.
The second level of the matrix is generated by splitting these first three positions into another three positions each (9 positions).
Levels three to thirteen of the matrix are generated in the same manner, with each new level housing three times as many positions as the previou matrix level.
Residual commissions are paid out at a rate of 40% of 25% of residual retail customer order volume generated by matrix team members.
Residual retail customer orders are counted from the second order placed by retail customers.
Recruited affiliate volume (internal purchases) are also paid out on, if the total PV generated by a placed matrix affiliate exceeds $110 PV for that month.
Check Match Bonus
Arego Life pays a Check Match Bonus on residual matrix commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates.
The Check Match Bonus is calculated as a 100% match on the 40% of 25% paid residual matrix commission volume.
Early Movers Bonus
If a new Arego Life affiliate qualifies as Manager within 60 days of signing up, they receive an iPador $300 cash Early Movers Bonus.
Company Founders Pool
Arego Life takes 20% of 25% sales volume generated by the sale or purchase of Adapt X.1, and places it into the Company Founders Pool.
Arego Life fail to provide specific details of the Company Founders Pool in their compensation plan documentation.
20% (of the 25% – $2.80 per $55 bottle) will be paid into a matrix similar to the ACC, that is company-wide, which primarily benefits those who helped build Arego Life in its beginning stages and who continue to engage and build long term.
The above description, taken verbatim from Arego Life’s compensation documentation, suggests the Company Founders Pool is a recruitment-based bonus.
Lifestyle Bonus
The Lifestyle Bonus is a monthly payment that starts at the Regional Director rank.
- Regional Directors receive a $100 monthly Lifestyle Bonus
- Regional Executives receive a $200 monthly Lifestyle Bonus
- Regional Partners receive a $400 monthly Lifestyle Bonus
- National Directors receive an $800 monthly Lifestyle Bonus
- National Executives and higher receive a $1000 monthly Lifestyle Bonus
Global Bonus Pools
Arego Life places up to 5% of monthly company wide-sales volume into three rank-based Global Bonus Pools.
- National Partners and higher receive a pro rata share in a 1% Alps Pool
- Global Directors and higher receive a pro rata share in a 1% Alps Pool
- Global Executives and higher receive a pro rata share in a 1% Denali Pool
- Global Directors and higher receive a pro rata share in a 1% Denalis Pool
- Beachcomers receive a pro rata share in a 1% Everest Infinity Pool
Pro rata shares are calculated across eight unilevel team levels for National Partners and Global Directors.
Global Executive and Global Director pro rata shares are calculated across fifteen unilevel team levels.
Beachcomber pro rata shares are calculated across all unilevel team levels.
Joining Arego Life
Basic Arego Life affiliate membership costs $49.95.
New Arego Life affiliates can also opt to sign up with a $149.95 Executive Kit.
As far as I can tell the only difference between the two options is the Executive Kit comes with two bottles of Adapt X.1.
Conclusion
On the surface Arego Life presents itself as having a strong retail focus;
…but it’s not without its quirks.
Arego Life’s Adapt X.1 product appears to be backed by a number of studies and tests. At least on the surface.
If you look at what the provided studies and tests cover though, you won’t find Adapt X.1 itself.
From what I gather, Don Coplin’s formulation work over the years.
In some instanced you’ll find provided patents dating back to 2009, branded as Arego Life.
That’s not to say the granted Seroctin Research & Technology patent doesn’t apply to Adapt X.1, just that Arego Life don’t specifically link provided patents and studies specifically to Adapt X.1.
From a marketing perspective I found slapping Arego Life’s logo on studies and patents dating back ten to fifteen years disingenuous.
Especially when one of the first things visitors to Arego Life’s website see is an advertised September 2019 launch conference.
I’m also not really sure what to compare Adapt X.1 to – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Adapt X.1 first and foremost is marketed as a serotonin modulation supplement, which Arego Life claims “boosts happiness and promotes well-being”.
How quantifiable is any of that though? I mean if I’m feeling miserable, do I spray some Adapt X.1 in my mouth and pull a mood 360?
Heck, might I feel just as happy munching down on a chocolate bar? And it’d be a hell of a lot cheaper too…
I’m not questioning the patent/study side of what supposedly has gone into Adapt X.1, I’m just skeptical of a supplement that claims it’ll make me “happier”.
That might be a marketing challenge for Arego Life affiliates to keep in mind.
On the compensation plan side of things, while commissions are strong on initial retail orders, repeat orders have to be $110 or more.
Why?
I can’t see any practical purpose for this, other than encouraging retail customers to buy more than they’ll need. Certainly if I was a new Arego Life retail customer I’m not going to need more than one bottle for evaluation?
Another thing that didn’t make sense was paying a commission on an affiliate’s own purchases.
Offer a wholesale discount but paying a commission to an affiliate on their own order is a bit silly.
Yet another thing I didn’t understand is why are residual matrix commission qualifiers one-time?
Arego Life refer to their residual matrix commissions as the “Arego Customer Co-op”.
Therefore it follows that if there aren’t any customers, nothing should be paid out.
Instead you’ve got one-time qualifiers (which alone are great themselves), that can be ignored once qualified for.
Then so long as everyone under you in the matrix is ordering over $110 (and collecting a commission for doing so), Arego Life affiliates get paid.
The ACC Commission will pay out 25% of downline volume from customer orders (excluding first orders) and any MP orders that are above the MP’s first $110 PV for the month.
I don’t get why this is even possible in a “customer co-op”.
And just so there’s no confusion over what Arego Life classify as a customer, that much they’ve gotten right:
Customer – One who has purchased product(s) through an MP’s business center. A customer are not eligible for commissions.
A customer may upgrade to MP but cannot count volume twice.
“MP” stands for “Marketing Partner and is
An individual, couple, or an entity that has a current independent marketing partner agreement in effect with the company.
There’s no cross-over, which is great – but also a missed opportunity as far as residual matrix commissions go.
Why not get rid of the recruitment qualification aspect and just keep it at three customers (min one bottle of Adapt X.1) to qualify each month?
That’d certainly better live up to the Arego Customer Coop name.
The rest of Arego Life’s compensation plan is reasonably balanced. Rank qualification is accumulated, which is appreciated over monthly requirements.
It can lead to dropoff though (expecting to get paid for nothing), so keep an eye out for that.
One last improvement is that while it’s reasonable to account for each Arego Life affiliate purchasing a bottle of Adapt X.1 each month, there should be a retail match.
This is for unilevel residual commissions, which are otherwise a straight $55 PV qualifier.
Depending on the backend math, Arego Life might even be able to keep the rest of the comp plan as is. Well, that and the residual matrix commission qualifier change discussed above.
All in all I feel Arego Life needs to do more to tie Adapt X.1 with to the patents and studies it provides.
Explain exactly how Adapt X.1 “increases happiness and well being”, and how that’s demonstrated in the patents and studies.
I know I’d certainly be asking an affiliate pitching me Adapt X.1 for this information, so it makes sense for Arego Life to address this on their website.
Good luck!
Update 2nd February 2020 – Citing widespread misleading marketing claims, a court in Germany has banned Arego Life’s Adapt X.1 supplement.
Was supposed to get this review out yesterday. Came down with something.
Behind on news but I’ll see how I go. Hopefully this is gone by the end of the week.
OZ,
Thanks for the review, hopefully I can clear up a few grey areas.
Ranks are not required for earnings in unilevel, just Lifestyle bonus and global bonus pools.
A MP is automatically qualified to get paid 10 levels in unilevel simply by either them or a customer (returning) ordering product, of course if they have not sponsored any marketing partners there won’t be any volume in their unilevel.
Recurring customer commissions are paid once a MP has sold 2 bottles of product. Since we cap unilevel volume at 2 bottles we consider all purchases after this to be customer.
This is why a MP is paid a commission on their own purchases beyond 2 bottles. We treat returning customer volume exactly like a MP purchase thus it can completely qualify them for all commissions.
So the 25% commission you noted for a MP’s own purchases does happen but only after 2 bottles has been generated (sold or purchased).
Many of us have been in companies where we liked the products and purchased more than was required to qualify, this usually causes a game to be played of signing up a customer and ordering your extra product to receive the customer commission which is usually higher.
We exclude new customer volume from the volume of a MP for commissionable purposes as 50% is already being paid out on the entire purchase for the new customer ($12.50 customer commission, $12.50 New Customer Pool, and $2.50 into ACC) , we do however add it back in for the rank portion of the plan.
The ACC, Arego Customer Coop, Personal Geneology is structured and placed like you noted, requiring Activation and Qualification.
The Qualification piece is in place to guard against the “free ride” that a matrix can at times provide while not becoming to restrictive because of the 1 time requirement. We fund the matrix with $2.50 from every new customer bottle along with $2.50 from each of the first 2 bottles generated by a MP.
On the volume above 2 bottles (the $110 referenced) we pay a 25% commission to the MP and push the remaining 25% into the matrix. We accomplish this by reducing the volume on each bottle by 5 (from 55 to 50) and then pay the 25%’s on the reduced volume bringing us back up to the 50% payout.
So every bottle company wide funds the matrix with either $2.50 or $15.00 ($12.50 + $2.50) with the ongoing requirement after you have Activated and Qualified that an MP must generate 5 bottle sold between their purchases and their returning customers.
We also pay the MP on their own position in matrix as we felt it unfair to large customer gatherers to simply push the volume up matrix. So this splits each positions volume by 14 levels (once 14 deep as it compresses dynamically until then).
This volume we take and pay 40% of into this matrix structure and then 40% is used to fund the 100% check match thus using up 80% of the total volume in the matrix.
The remaining 20% is what you are seeing as the Founders Pool.
This is a company wide matrix which fills as if every position was sponsored by the company. The volume again flows into each position in the matrix and pays 14 levels (dynamically compressed for a long time to come).
Since this matrix forces off the company and is not based on personal genealogy it naturally favors those that joined earliest.
We simply want to be transparent in both its existence and the fact that it will not benefit those getting in later nearly as much.
In regards to the product and its connection to the patents I’ve asked Dr Don Coplin (yes a dentist not a “real” doctor) for his thoughts.
Connecting Adapt
Dr Coplin is CEO and largest share holder of Seroctin Research and Technologies (SRT), he is also the largest share holder of Savanna Health.
Of course Don is also a primary shareholder and co-founder of Arego Life which has an exclusive license to market products for SRT.
In regards to the claims I have attached just one of the links to the actual patents. All 6 of the patents are Utility patents just like this one. patents.justia.com/patent/7794761
As you can see there is an incredible amount of information with links to supporting documentation.
We already are in the process of expanding and adding patents as new research continues to reveal more about what this family of adoptogenic polyphenols known as Adaptenols actually is and what they can do.
Sincerely,
Jim Douville
President and Co-Founder
Arego Life
Hi Jim, thanks for stopping by.
Not really following how an affiliate’s own orders beyond two bottles somehow turns into retail orders?
Why not just exclude affiliate purchases from qualification volume altogether? I mean clearly there’s an effort to encourage retail sales, why dilute that?
Isn’t that what compliance departments are for, to weed out fake customers and comp plan rigging?
How is generating retail customers a free ride though? I can sign up and enroll ten recurring retail customers. But then unless I recruit, I’m getting gimped out of residual retail commissions through the matrix.
The incentive to recruit should be deeper residual commissions through the matrix, you don’t need to artificially encourage this.
Scrapping the matrix residual recruitment requirement doesn’t gimp those focused on retail and rewards those that build on top of focusing on retail sales.
If you want to discourage lazy affiliates, make the retail customer requirements permanent (monthly). What am I missing?
Well that’s kinda the idea of residual commission. You earn your cut from direct customer sales and then on your downline via a a matrix/unilevel/binary etc.
Setting up a residual to compete with direct commissions only sets yourself up to weaken one or the other doesn’t it?
Like I said in the review, I don’t have a problem with the provided patents and studies – but you might want to disclose Coplin effectively owns all three companies (SRT, SH and AL).
If that’s disclosed on Arego Life’s website (there’s a marketing opp there in explaining the business relationship), then there’s no issue with using Arego Life logo on patents belonging to SRT.
Kind of gets to the point of splitting hairs with much of this.
If a MP purchases 6 bottles of product for their family each month (my family uses about 7), far above what it takes to qualify, why not reward the MP with what essentially functions as a discount on their personal purchases without affecting how the comp plan functions? We use daily pay for all the 25% commissions so it is back in their account next day.
Personally, I would love to see a true retail requirement for commissions. Not sure how any company could survive in this current space though.
With everyone flocking to (and singing the praises of) the scamming big pack fast buck companies, shiny penny in a pile of crap as I call them, how can a company survive long enough to make a difference?
Matrix is really where the hair splitting comes in.
On the one hand you say we shouldn’t pay them on their own customers it should all go up matrix, then you say we should pay them with the only requirement being that they have customers.
So in situation where you allow them to be paid simply off retail sales how do you handle overflow (potentially) into their matrix?
Say they can only go out and be paid on it if they recruit? Say maybe 3 MPs and require them to have 3 customers each? This is exactly how ours functions currently.
Always looking for a fair way to eliminate breakage while rewarding everyone’s efforts no matter how small or large.
PS
Great idea, we missed a marketing opp
Why not just give them a discount? This is pretty much what most MLM companies do (wholesale/retail pricing).
It might be splitting hairs from a financial standpoint but from a marketing perspective paying commissions on affiliate orders looks suss.
Order $x and get HYUUUUGE commissions! vs. Receive a discount on your personal orders!
Not saying that’s happening but you get the idea.
I write reviews with a deep focus on regulatory requirements. I can only work with what I’m given.
If an MLM company can’t survive with retail requirements, which is supposed to be their primary driver of revenue, surely we can both see the problem with that?
Personally I’m all for stronger regulatory enforcement, but like the compensation plans I review that’s out of my control.
No I didn’t. The person who enrolls a retail customer gets paid directly on their initial and repeat retail orders. That covers them.
I’ve pointed out this is gimped in your comp plan, wherein unless an affiliate recruits, they lose out on residual retail commissions paid through the matrix.
Why do you need to “handle it”? If everyone in the matrix has and maintains at least three genuine retail customers ordering each month, why shouldn’t they be paid on everyone placed in their matrix?
Like I said, the recruitment incentive is already there (you build a deeper matrix directly as opposed to indirectly).
By all means point this out if you feel it might be lost on some people, but you shouldn’t need to create emphasis on recruitment. Certainly not as a barrier to commission qualification, on commissions that are supposed to be retail customer focused (it’s literally in the name).
If I was going to “MLM marketing speak” it; you sign up, enroll and maintain at least three retail customers. When you’ve got at least three you can focus on recruiting others and duplication (not a problem because of the ongoing retail customer requirement).
It’d even make the paying commissions on affiliate orders look less suspect if you really wanted to keep that as is. I doubt you’d see many affiliates purchasing more than their three retail customers a month.
In our training we actually call it this;
Activate (3 customers)
Team up (sponsor 3 mps)
Qualify (help those 3 mps get Activated with 3 customers each)
Fast Start (help those 3 mps Qualify)
Not a perfect world I know but, with allowing someone to be paid on sponsoring customers or Marketing Partners without even being active and the ability to completely be active with no autoship or personal order simply by maintaining retail customers, true dollar for dollar commission structure paying out over 50%, exclusive science backed and patented value based products, no big packs, no qualification unilevel paying to 10 levels, and 25% customer commissions paying daily, we at least feel like we are leading the way in the right direction.
Yeah, as I pointed out – in between these two is where affiliates lose commissions on retail sales they’ve generated and continue to generate.
If anything you’d want to be bending over backwards to encourage retail sales and do everything you can to detach retail commissions (direct or residual) from recruitment.
You can do that and still maintain increasing retail commissions via recruitment, as a matrix paying on retail volume would naturally do through recruitment anyway.
They don’t lose commissions on retail sales, not understanding where this comes from.
Except we are a unilevel with a matrix bonus, even our programmers failed to realize this at first.
If I enroll three retail customers but don’t recruit, I’m not getting residuals on my retail volume through the matrix.
Those commissions, earned on my own retail sales, are lost unless I recruit.
You are still able to get paid the customer commission, you don’t participate in the bonus pool we call the ACC. You don’t get paid on them in the unilevel either so where is the difference being established?
From what I’m hearing if we eliminate paying on your own volume in the matrix (ACC) your argument couldn’t (wouldn’t) exist?
Considering ACC stands for “Arego Customer Co-op”, don’t you think not getting paid on solid retail customer acquisition is a little strange? This was one of the main points in the review.
I know you get paid elsewhere on retail volume but explicitly having a residual called “customer co-op”, and then penalizing people who don’t recruit by withholding commissions tied to retail volume, like I said is strange.
I could generate $10,000 a month in retail customer orders, recruit two affiliates who each build downlines that generate $100,000s a month in retail customer orders… and I’d get paid $0 through the Arego Customer Co-op.
I suppose if you’re satisfied with the overall comp layout you could just the change the name. I was only pointing out the strangeness.
I still maintain the better option is to get rid of the recruitment requirement, and set the three ordering retail customer requirement to a rolling monthly commission.
I’m pretty sure you would be able to figure out how to recruit one more marketing partner and help them get 3 customers, since it is a one time requirement and you already have the needed volume each month, that one recruit and 3 customers would be worth a lot of residual income to you.
I have always related our co-op to a traditional one. I buy all my fertilizer for my yard at the co-op, it is owned by the farmers (members) who all participate in any potential profits from my purchase.
Since I’m not a member, I get nothing except the value generated by their purchasing power.
This I see as being no different, until you become a member (Arego Core Member, Activate, Qualify, maintain 5 bottles between you and your customers) you don’t participate.
If it removes confusion though, we can certainly rename it.
Thanks for what you do Oz, you are only making us be better!
All good, I’ll leave you with it.
I am following Arego a while. It seems that they are in trouble in the European market.
I saw this today: netcoo.com/direct-selling/landgericht-hamburg-verbietet-vertrieb-des-produkts-arego-life-adapt-x-1/
It looks like that advertising and selling is not longer allowed. I didn’t check the thruth of this article, but I am sure with a little bit of time you can figure it out.
There was another lawsuit in Germany, but this seems to be the distributors fault . Someone made healths claims.
However I appreciate the work of behindmlm. So far as I can tell your research is very good and it prevented me for joining companies which are not worth it.
Sincerely
Artemis Jücsel
Thanks for the heads up! Indeed it appears Arego Life’s ADAPT X.1 has been banned in Germany.