iNovaLife Review: Third-party services lead generation & recruitment
iNovaLife launched in 2014 and are based out of Québec in Canada.
Listed as Founder and Director of Finance on the iNovaLife website is Martin Giroux (below right).
As per Giroux’s iNovaLife corporate bio;
iNovaLife is my first exposure to the amazing world of Network Marketing. I decided I could never abandon this course.
Instead of giving up what has been a remarkable opportunity to grow as a person, and as a businessman, I brought my company to a phenomenal level of maturity.
The reason I have stayed the course is because I have the conviction that iNovaLife is going to occupy such an important role in improving the lives of so many Canadian families.
There is no doubt in my mind, that this program will allow many families who need help to significantly reduce essential expenses while helping them to dramatically improve their quality of life.
According to an article in Le Journal De L’assurance, the current incarnation of iNovaLife came about after a bankruptcy filing in 2014.
Read on for a full review of the iNovaLife MLM opportunity.
The iNovaLife Product Line
iNovaLife has no retailable products or services.
The company instead provides access to a price-comparison platform for the car insurance, home insurance, renovation, mortgage, credit card, security and micro-loans industries.
Price-comparisons are done by third-party “partners”, with iNovaLife themselves appearing to only host the platform.
iNovalife is the only large-scale website to offer you extensive multiple car insurance quotes from the largest Canadian comparison sites.
Access to the platform is free, with free users able to earn single-level commissions.
The iNovaLife Compensation Plan
The iNovaLife compensation plan pays affiliates for generating leads though their price-comparison platform.
The company also pays affiliates to recruit new affiliates, on top of additional performance based bonuses on offer.
Commission Qualification
Each service purchased through iNovaLife’s price-comparison platform generates “Nova Points”:
- insurance = 5 Nova Points
- bundle = 10 Nova Points
- commercial = 5 Nova Points
- renovation = 25 Nova Points
- mortgage = 5 Nova Points
- credit card = 10 Nova Points
- security = 15 Nova Points
- micro-loans = 15 Nova Points
To qualify for commissions an iNovaLife affiliate must generate 50 Nova Points a year.
iNovaLife Affiliate Ranks
There are eight ranks within the iNovaLife compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – pay $649 and maintain commission qualified status
- Bronze – recruit and maintain three affiliates who are each commission qualified
- Silver – recruit and maintain three Bronze ranked affiliates
- Royal – recruit and maintain three Silver ranked affiliates
- Gold – maintain three Silver ranked affiliates and recruit at least one Royal ranked affiliate
- Platinum – recruit and maintain three Royal affiliates and at least one Gold ranked affiliate
- Ruby – recruit and maintain three Gold affiliates and at least one Platinum ranked affiliate
- Diamond – recruit and maintain three Platinum affiliates and at least one Ruby ranked affiliate
Lead Generation Commissions
When iNovaLife affiliates or users apply for a quote through the price-comparison platform, a commission is generated.
This commission 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:
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.
iNovaLife cap payable unilevel levels at five, with commissions paid out as follows:
- insurance quote – $3.75 on level 1, $3.50 on level 2 and 75 cents on levels 3 to 5
- bundle (no explanation provided) – $7.50 on level 1, $3 on level 2 and $1.50 on levels 3 to 5
- commercial – $7.50 on level 1, $3 on level 2 and $1.50 on levels 3 to 5
- renovation – $20 on level 1, $8 on level 2 and $4 on levels 3 to 5
- mortgage – $6.25 on level 1, $2.50 on level 2 and $1.25 on levels 3 to 5
- credit cards – $5 on level 1, $2 on level 2 and $1 on levels 3 to 5
- security – $12.50 on level 1, $5 on level 2 and $2.50 on levels 3 to 5
- micro-loans – $25 on level 1, $10 on levels 2 and $5 on levels 3 to 5
Recruitment Commissions
iNovaLife affiliates are paid to recruit new affiliates, with monthly commissions based on how many commission qualified affiliates an iNovaLife affiliate has recruited
Bronze
Bronze ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $300 a month for two recruited affiliates
- $600 a month for four recruited affiliates
- $900 a month for six recruited affiliates
- $1500 a month for nine recruited affiliates
- $2000 a month for twelve recruited affiliates
- $2500 a month for fifteen recruited affiliates
Silver
Silver ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $400 for three recruited affiliates
- $700 for five recruited affiliates
- $1400 for ten recruited affiliates
- $2000 for fifteen recruited affiliates
- $3000 for twenty recruited affiliates
- $4000 for twenty-five recruited affiliates
- $5000 for thirty recruited affiliates
Royal
Royal ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $700 for five recruited affiliates
- $1500 for ten recruited affiliates
- $2500 for fifteen recruited affiliates
- $3500 for twenty recruited affiliates
- $4500 for twenty-five recruited affiliates
- $5500 for thirty recruited affiliates
- $8000 for forty recruited affiliates
- $10,000 for fifty recruited affiliates
Gold
Gold ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $2000 for ten recruited affiliates
- $3000 for fifteen recruited affiliates
- $4000 for twenty recruited affiliates
- $5000 for twenty-five recruited affiliates
- $6000 for thirty recruited affiliates
- $9000 for forty recruited affiliates
- $12,000 for fifty recruited affiliates
- $16,000 for one hundred recruited affiliates
- $20,000 for one hundred and fifty recruited affiliates
Platinum
Platinum ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $5000 for twenty recruited affiliates
- $6000 for twenty-five recruited affiliates
- $7000 for thirty recruited affiliates
- $10,000 for forty recruited affiliates
- $13,000 for fifty recruited affiliates
- $17,000 for one hundred recruited affiliates
- $22,000 for one hundred and fifty recruited affiliates
- $25,000 for two hundred recruited affiliates
- $30,000 for three hundred recruited affiliates
Ruby
Ruby ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $10,000 for thirty recruited affiliates
- $11,000 for forty recruited affiliates
- $12,000 for fifty recruited affiliates
- $18,000 for one hundred recruited affiliates
- $25,000 for one hundred and fifty recruited affiliates
- $35,000 for two hundred recruited affiliates
- $40,000 for three hundred recruited affiliates
- $50,000 for four hundred recruited affiliates
- $60,000 for five hundred recruited affiliates
Diamond
Diamond ranked iNovaLife affiliates earn
- $12,000 for forty recruited affiliates
- $15,000 for fifty recruited affiliates
- $20,000 for one hundred recruited affiliates
- $30,000 for one hundred and fifty recruited affiliates
- $40,000 for two hundred recruited affiliates
- $50,000 for three hundred recruited affiliates
- $60,000 for four hundred recruited affiliates
- $75,000 for five hundred recruited affiliates
- $150,000 for a thousand recruited affiliates
Leadership Bonus
The Leadership Bonus is a matching bonus paid on equally ranked downline affiliates.
The Leadership Bonus pays a match on up to four generations of recruitment as follows:
- Gold (match paid on Gold ranked affiliates) – 20% on level (personally recruited affiliates)
- Platinum (match paid on Platinum ranked affiliates) – 15% on level 1 and 5% on level 2
- Ruby (match paid on Ruby ranked affiliates) – 15% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 and 3
- Diamond (match paid on Diamond ranked affiliates) – 15% on level 1 and 5% on levels 2 to 4
Rank Advancement Bonus
iNovaLife pay affiliates a one-time Rank Advancement Bonus when they qualify at the Silver and higher ranks:
- qualify as a Silver affiliate = $1000
- qualify as a Royal affiliate = $1500
- qualify as a Gold affiliate = $3000
- qualify as a Platinum affiliate = $10,000
- qualify as a Ruby affiliate = $15,000
- qualify as a Diamond affiliate = $30,000
Car Bonus
Gold and higher ranked iNovaLife affiliates are rewarded with a monthly car bonus as follows:
- Gold ranked affiliates receive $500
- Platinum ranked affiliates receive $1000
- Ruby ranked affiliates receive $1500
- Diamond ranked affiliates receive $3000
Joining iNovaLife
Affiliate membership with iNovaLife is $649.
Conclusion
In an official iNovaLife corporate presentation, a spokesperson refers to the company as ‘a direct-selling company with nothing to sell‘.
This is a problem.
In iNovaLife there’s a clear disconnect between lead-generation commissions and the recruitment side of the business.
The lead-generation component of the compensation plan is fine, with even free affiliates able to earn single-level commissions.
The recruitment side of the opportunity however has some serious deficiencies.
Unless I’m missing something, iNovaLife are promising affiliates thousands of dollars a month for doing little more than recruiting affiliates who pay a $649 fee.
Commission qualification sees iNovaLife affiliates required to generate 50 Nova Points, however the company itself “suggests” affiliates self-purchase to qualify:
In a nutshell you’ve got iNovaLife affiliates paying a fee to sign up, spending the minimum to commission qualify and then focusing on others to do the same.
Recruit enough affiliates and iNovaLife will pay you thousands of dollars a month.
With nothing being marketed to or sold to retail customers, this drags iNovaLife into pyramid scheme territory.
As with all recruitment schemes, once new affiliates stop joining commissions paid out will grind to a halt and the company will collapse.
I’m also not seeing how each affiliate paying $649 one-time and monthly service fees can generate thousands of dollars a month to pay commissions out with. In this sense it appears iNovaLife are mathematically generating a serious liability each month commissions are paid.
Bottom line: An MLM opportunity not marketing or selling anything to retail customers?
Run for the hills…