NuVerus launched in 2009 and operate in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.

The company is based out of Texas in the US and headed up by Founder and CEO, Michael Jareou.

Jareou’s NuVerus corporate bio credits him as a multi-millionaire by the age of 26.

(Jareou) started Digital Security Network,(DSN) and because of his excellent business capabilities, DSN became one of the biggest electronic security companies in the USA .

He then sold DSN, to Ameritech, a Fortune 100 company.

He then founded the Physicians Wellness Group (PWG), which in short time grew to be a multi-million dollar network marketing and distribution company.

His ingenuity started the popular “As Seen On TV” retail stores that we have all seen.

He is known world-wide as a savvy businessman.

Interestingly I wasn’t able to find any third-party information on Physicians Wellness Group.

There is mention of the company on the NuVerus website however, which suggests it has been merged at some point.

From the company’s “doctor program” description, Physicians Wellness Group appears to be a marketing arm of NuVerus that targets medical professionals.

The Physicians Wellness Group (PWG)offers a unique business opportunity to participate in the exploding and high growth Wellness Industry and an emerging company that fills a huge demand.

Our product are available through liscensed [sic[ physician practices and exclusively made to meet the need of there patients [sic].

PWG has committed all of its resources toward the development of a world wide billion dollar company with its adaptive and growth-oriented infrastructure, first-class turkey marketing program, high-quality technology products and tradition of excellence.

We are looking for a limited number of entrepreneurs, business professionals, health care professionals, and doctors to join us.

As far as I can tell, NuVerus is Jareou’s first sizable MLM venture as a corporate executive.

Today NuVerus has offices in Nigeria, South Africa, Japan, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Trinidad & Tobago.

Currently NuVerus appears to be primarily active in Nigeria and Bangladesh. Alexa estimates the two countries make up almost 90% of traffic to the NuVerus website.

Read on for a full review of the NuVerus MLM opportunity.

NuVerus Products

NuVerus market a range of health and nutritional supplements.

The company’s flagship product is NuVerus Plus.

NuVerus Plus is a new kind of SuperFood geared toward today’s lifestyles.

NuVerus Plus not only tastes great and provides pure energy, it also contains powerful antioxidants that help protect the body from harmful free radicals.

Its key ingredient is Nigella Sativa, more commonly known as Black Seed.

You might know Nigella Sativa by its actual more commonly used names of “black caraway, black cumin, fennel flower, nigella, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander and kalonji”.

NuVerus Plus retails at $59.99 for a 32 oz bottle. Two bottles retail at $114.99 and four at $169.99.

Other products marketed by NuVerus include:

  • NuVerus Energy – “a new kind of Antioxidant SuperFood Energy Drink”, retails at $107.95 for thirty 2.5 oz bottles (one month supply)
  • NuVerus Trim – “designed to deliver specific Super Foods that are
    proven to control and suppress your appetite”, retails at $60 for a “30-60 day supply”
  • NuVerus Omega – “the Only DHA enhanced SuperFood supplement you will ever need for healthier brain, eyes and body”, retails at $49.99 for an 8 oz bottle
  • NuVerus NuBlend – “an innovative blend of our signature SuperFood Black Seed, with additional powerful SuperFoods including Green Coffee Bean and White Chia, blended with protein, prebiotics, and fiber”, retails at $89.99 for a canister of 30 servings

The NuVerus Compensation Plan

The NuVerus compensation plan is a combination of retail and recruitment commissions.

The NuVerus compensation plan differs from your typical MLM compensation plan, in that while both unilevel and binary residual commissions are offered, an affiliate is only paid out on whichever compensation model generates the highest commissions for that week.

NuVerus Affiliate Ranks

There are twenty-one affiliate ranks within the NuVerus compensation plan.

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

  • Associate – recruit at least one affiliate
  • Director – recruit at least two affiliates
  • Director 500 – generate 500 GV a month
  • Director 1000 – generate 1000 GV a month
  • Director 2000 –  generate 2000 GV a month
  • Executive – generate 3000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least 3 Directors
  • Senior Executive – generate 5000 GV a month and maintain at least 3 personally recruited Directors
  • Regional Executive – generate 7000 GV a month and maintain at least 3 personally recruited Directors
  • Bronze Elite Executive – generate 10,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least 4 Directors and 1 Executive or higher
  • Silver Elite Executive – generate 15,000 GV a month and maintain at least 4 personally recruited Directors and 1 Executive or higher
  • Gold Elite Executive – generate 20,000 GV a month and maintain at least 4 personally recruited Directors and 1 Executive or higher
  • Platinum Elite Executive – generate 25,000 GV a month and maintain at least 4 personally recruited Directors and 1 Executive or higher
  • Emerald Executive – generate 50,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least 5 Directors and 2 Elite ranked affiliates or higher (any Elite rank)
  • Double Emerald Executive – generate 100,000 GV a month and maintain at least 5 personally recruited Directors and 2 Elite ranked affiliates or higher (any Elite rank)
  • Triple Emerald Executive – generate 150,000 GV a month and maintain at least 5 personally recruited Directors and 2 Elite ranked affiliates or higher (any Elite rank)
  • Diamond Executive – generate 250,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least 6 Directors and 2 Emerald ranked affiliates or higher (any Emerald rank)
  • Double Diamond Executive – generate 500,000 GV a month and maintain at least 6 personally recruited Directors and 2 Emerald ranked affiliates or higher (any Emerald rank)
  • Triple Diamond Executive – generate 750,000 GV a month and maintain at least 6 personally recruited Directors and 2 Emerald ranked affiliates or higher (any Emerald rank)
  • Presidential Executive – generate 1,000,000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least 7 Directors and 2 Diamond ranked affiliates or higher (any Diamond rank)
  • 1-Star Presidential Executive – generate 2,000,000 GV a month and maintain at least 7 personally recruit Directors, 1 Diamond ranked affiliate or higher (any Diamond rank) and 1 Presidential ranked affiliate or higher (any Presidential rank)
  • 2-Star Presidential Executive – generate 3,000,000 GV a month and maintain at least 7 personally recruited Directors and 2 Presidential ranked affiliates or higher (any Presidential rank)

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate and their downline (affiliate purchases and retail sales).

Retail and Recruitment Commissions

NuVerus affiliates are paid the same commission rate on retail customers and newly recruited affiliates who buy in with a Fast Start Product Package.

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by which Fast Start Product Package a NuVerus affiliate themselves purchased when they signed up.

  • “Kit only” affiliates (no Fast Start Product Package) earn a 5% recruitment commission rate
  • Basic Package affiliates earn a 10% recruitment commission rate
  • Business Package affiliates earn a 15% recruitment commission rate
  • Professional Package affiliates earn a 20% recruitment commission rate

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.

NuVerus cap payable unilevel levels at six, with commissions paid out as a percentage of sales volume (including retail) generated across these six levels as follows:

  • level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 10%
  • level s – 4%
  • level 3 – 3%
  • level 4 – 2%
  • levels 5 and 6 – 1%

Note that NuVerus affiliates are either paid residual unilevel or binary commissions (see below), based on which generates a higher commission amount for the week.

Residual Commissions (binary)

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

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each week NuVerus tally up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid a percentage commission on matched volume, based on how much they paid when they signed up as an affiliate.

  • “Kit only” affiliates receive a 5% binary commission rate
  • Basic Package affiliates receive a 10% binary commission rate
  • Business Package affiliates receive a 15% binary commission rate
  • Professional Package affiliates receive a 20% binary commission rate

Matched volume is then flushed, with leftover volume on the stronger binary side carried over the following week.

Note that the NuVerus compensation plan states the 15% and 20% binary commission rate paid to Business and Professional Package affiliates is for six months only.

After the six month period the following rank-based binary commission rates are paid out:

  • Director 2000 – 10% capped at $250 a week
  • Director 1000 – 10% capped at $500 a week
  • Director 2000 – 10% capped at $1000 a week
  • Executive – 11% capped at $1500 a week
  • Senior Executive – 11% capped at $2000 a week
  • Regional Executive – 11% capped at $2500 a week
  • Bronze Elite Executive – 12% capped at $3000 a week
  • Silver Elite Executive – 12% capped at $4000 a week
  • Gold Elite Executive – 12% capped at $5000 a week
  • Platinum Elite Executive – 12% capped at $6000 a week
  • Emerald Executive – 13% capped at $8000 a week
  • Double Emerald Executive – 13% capped at $9000 a week
  • Triple Emerald Executive – 13% capped at $10,000 a week
  • Diamond Executive – 14% capped at $15,000 a week
  • Double Diamond Executive – 14% capped at $17,500 a week
  • Triple Diamond Executive – 14% capped at $20,000 a week
  • Presidential Executive – 15% capped at $25,000 a week
  • 1-Star Presidential Executive – 15% capped at $30,000 a week
  • 2-Star Presidential Executive – 15% capped at $35,000 a week

Matching Bonus

NuVerus pay a Matching Bonus on either residual unilevel or binary commissions earned by an affiliate’s downline.

Note that only NuVerus affiliates who bought in at the Business and Professional Package level qualify for the Matching Bonus.

The Matching Bonus is paid out via the same unilevel team residual unilevel commissions are paid out with, capped down seven levels of recruitment.

  • levels 1 to 4 – 10% match
  • levels 5 to 7 – 5% match

How many unilevel team levels the Matching Bonus is paid out is determined by rank:

  • Executive – level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • Regional Executive – levels 1 and 2
  • Bronze Elite Executive – levels 1 to 3
  • Platinum Elite Executive – levels 1 to 4
  • Emerald Executive – levels 1 to 5
  • Triple Emerald Executive – levels 1 to 6
  • Diamond Executive – levels 1 to 7

Joining NuVerus

NuVerus affiliate membership is $49.95 and the purchase of an “optional” Fast Start Product Package:

  • Basic –
  • Business –
  • Professional –

New NuVerus affiliates who just pay the $49.95 sign-up fee have their income potential severely restricted.

Conclusion

With respect to marketing their NuVerus Plus product, NuVerus claim

Black Seed is remarkable in that it is one of the few natural, herbal remedies that has been studied by the scientific community and found to have tremendous potential benefit.

This is in sharp contrast to the cited Nigella Sativa Wikipedia entry in the “products” section of this review, which states;

Preliminary studies have investigated claims from traditional medicine that N. sativa has efficacy as a therapy, mainly using the seed oil extract, volatile oil, and isolated constituent thymoquinone.

One meta-analysis of clinical trials found weak evidence that N. sativa has a short-term benefit on lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and another found limited evidence that various extracts of black seed can reduce triglycerides and LDL and total cholesterol, while raising HDL cholesterol.

Granted NuVerus Plus has other ingredients, but the key ingredient appears to have only limited verifiable health benefits.

To me that puts a big question mark on NuVerus’ asking price of $59.99 for a 32 oz bottle (946 ml).

If you’re intent on purchase juice for that much, I’d certainly be evaluating alternatives and seeing what you get nutrition-wise for the equivalent price.

With respect to retail customers, I can’t see NuVerus Plus being an easy sell. Not with pretty much everyone having a cell phone and being able to quickly look up what black seed is more commonly known as.

As for the rest of NuVerus’ product range, nothing in particular stood out as much as the black seed juice.

The range appears to have been designed to complement the flagship juice, however the retail viability comes back to how many people are going to be prepared to pay $59.99 for NuVerus Plus.

Moving onto NuVerus’ compensation plan, something you don’t typically see is residual retail commissions.

NuVerus pay residual retail commissions down six unilevel team levels, which I thought was a nice touch. Typically retail commissions are paid out residually but the direct commission is on personal customer orders only.

NuVerus pay both a direct residual retail commission and a standard residual commission either through the binary or unilevel teams.

As far as I can tell there’s no distinct advantage or disadvantage to paying on either a unilevel or binary team, as the highest comparative commission amount is paid out.

It’d be a different story if NuVerus paid the lowest comparative commission amount.

With the unilevel team capped at seven levels, I suspect that ultimately NuVerus affiliates with larger teams are going to find they’ll be earning on their binary team.

Unfortunately NuVerus’ compensation plan is not without major compliance issues.

For starters (no pun intended), here’s how NuVerus introduce their MLM opportunity;

Your choice of a one-time Basic, Business, or Professional package will set your commissions level.

You will earn 10%, 15%, or 20% based on the Fast Start Package you choose.

This is blatant “pay to play” and is a regulatory compliance red-flag.

In MLM commission rates should only ever be determined by sales performance, not how much an affiliate spends when they sign up.

From here the compensation plan deteriorates into pseudo-compliance.

While Fast Start Packages and autoship are indeed optional, NuVerus heavily push both onto prospective affiliates.

Enrollment Step 1: The only requirement to become a NuVerus Associate, eligible to earn to the minimum level of commissions
and bonuses, is to purchase an Associate Kit and complete an Associate application.

To earn higher levels of commissions, consider optional Enrollment Steps 2 and 3 below.

Enrollment Step 2: Purchase an optional Fast Start Package of NuVerus Products to ensure your Success.

Enrollment Step 3: Secure your business and stay on track with the optional Monthly Order Assurance Program.

Your monthly order ensures you are qualified with Personal Volume to qualify for the highest level of commissions.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with autoship, as it provides an affiliate and retail customers a convenient “set and forget” method of obtaining what they’d normally be ordering each month.

When an MLM company touts the primary benefit of autoship as qualification “for the highest level of commissions”, that’s a clear signal that autoship is being used to qualify for commissions.

This lends itself to affiliates signing up, placing an autoship order and then recruiting other affiliates who do the same.

And it’s not hard to imagine that happening widely across NuVerus, with the company itself marketing autoship like this:

When you begin building your NuVerus business, you will want to earn the highest commissions possible.

Your monthly order ensures you are qualified to earn commissions and bonuses.

This is a terrible way to pitch autoship to affiliates, practically guaranteeing autoship orders are used by affiliates to meet monthly volume quotas.

This comes at the expense of focusing on retail sales, resulting in the majority of sales volume generated by affiliate orders.

As per the FTC’s respective cases against Vemma and Herbalife, this classifies an MLM company as a pyramid scheme.

The good news is that as a prospective NuVerus affiliate, ascertaining whether your potential upline is focused on retail sales or affiliate autoship is straight-forward.

What you want to ask them is how much of their monthly GV is derived from their own personal retail sales (actual retail sales, not their own purchases).

Monthly GV requirements do increase exponentially at the higher NuVerus ranks, but it’s certainly not unfeasible to expect a 50/50 spread at the lower ranks.

From the Senior Executive rank and higher (5000 GV), I don’t think 500 GV in personal retail sales volume is unreasonable.

If possible ask how much of the remaining GV is attributable to retail sales. If that’s not possible then compare monthly earnings from the retail volume unilevel (7 levels deep) to their total monthly earnings.

If you meet any resistance in requesting this information as part of your due-diligence, it’s safe to assume retail sales aren’t a focus.

And if you’re being stone-walled before signing up, things are only probably going to get worse once you hand over your money.

Pay to play in their compensation plan is unfortunately something NuVerus themselves have to tackle, most like through a rewrite. While they’re at it, reducing the affiliate ranks wouldn’t hurt.

I can’t see any justification for twenty-one ranks, other than to micro-manage affiliate income to maximize company profits.

In summary NuVerus’ MLM opportunity presents with a flagship product of questionable value, and a compensation plan that while it does have some retail focus, seems to far too heavily tilted towards emphasizing autoship.

Approach with caution.