Swiss Gold Global Review: Silver, gold & “premium education”

Swiss Gold Global operate in the precious metals MLM niche and are based out of Zurich, Switzerland.

The company also provides a “precious metal management” address in Dubai on their website.

Heading up Swiss Gold Global is Founder and CEO, Bill Rowell.

Bill Rowell is an Australian entrepreneur with a history of business success and a passion to expand the lives of others.

In 2008 he founded Joseph Wealth Systems a Swiss Company with the objective of putting Gold the money of Kings into the hands of Ordinary People.

Today the Company is called Royal Golden Enterprise GmbH and New Golden Life DMCC trading as Swiss Gold Global and continuing to provide global Wealth Solutions for all people.

Rowell (right) was on Joseph Wealth Systems’ Board of Directors, along with Philip Judge (President), Simon Heapes and Mike Turton (CEO).

A 2009 article from MLM The Whole Truth quotes Phillip Judge, claiming:

JWS’s [sic] is not concerned with waging, fighting and winning a monetary, legal or moral crusade with the US or any other government, but rather it maintains the clear mandate to put superior, non-confiscateable, gold ownership back into the hands of ordinary people.

Whether this was a reflection of compliance issues between government regulators and Joseph Wealth Systems or not is unclear.

In any event, Joseph Wealth Systems went on to become Younique Wealth in 2009. Rowell served as the company’s European Operations Mangaer.

Rowell seems to have gone off and done his own thing with Swiss Gold Global at some point.

Read on for a full review of the Swiss Gold Global MLM opportunity.

The Swiss Gold Global Product Line

Swiss Gold Global market gold and silver to retail customers.

For $150 and then $50 a month (Premium Membership), retail customers can also access a “premium education plan”.

Premium Swiss Gold Global members receive 25% of their initial membership fee in Silver.

The Swiss Gold Global Compensation Plan

 

Update February 10th, 2017 – Swiss Gold Global changed their original compensation plan in late 2016.

BehindMLM published an updated review of Swiss Gold Global on February 9th, 2017. /end update

 

The Swiss Gold Global compensation plan primarily revolves around selling Premium memberships and recruiting affiliates.

Commissions on gold and silver purchases are also paid out.

Swiss Gold Global Affiliate Ranks

There are ten affiliate ranks within the Swiss Gold Global compensation plan.

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

• Affiliate – generate 500 PSR or 50 PV a month
• Manager – maintain 500 PSR or 50 PV a month and recruit and maintain at least two active affiliates (250 GV after the first month)
• Team Leader – recruit and maintain at least three active affiliates, two of which must be affiliates and one a Manager and have a downline generating at least 750 GV a month (750 GV after the first month)
• Director – recruit and maintain at least four active affiliates, two of which must be affiliates, one a Manager and one a Team Leader and have a downline generating at least 3750 GV a month (1500 GV after the first month)
• Executive Director – recruit and maintain five active affiliates, three of which must be affiliates, one a Director and one an Executive Director and have a downline generating at least 15,000 GV a month (7500 GV after the first month)
• Ambassador – maintain recruited five active affiliates, one of which must be a Director and one an Executive Director and have a downline generating at least 15,000 GV a month (7500 GV after the first month)
• Senior Ambassador – maintain five recruited active affiliates, one of which must be an Executive Director and one an Ambassador and have a downline generating at least 30,000 GV a month (25,000 GV after the first month)
• National Ambassador – maintain five recruited active affiliates, two of which must be Ambassador or higher and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (75,000 GV after the first month)
• Gold Ambassador – maintain five recruited active affiliates, three of which must be Ambassador or higher and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (75,000 GV after the first month
• Platinum Ambassador – maintain five recruited active affiliates, four of which must be Ambassador or higher and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (75,000 GV after the first month)

PSR stands for “Personal Shared Volume” and is sales volume generated by the sale of gold and silver.

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s own purchases (includes monthly affiliate membership fees)

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by an affiliate’s downline.

Note that no more than 60% of GV requirements at the Team Leader to Director ranks can be sourced from a single unilevel leg.

From Executive Director this percentage is reduced to 40%.

Commission Qualification (Active)

In order to receive commissions, a Swiss Gold Global affiliate must be “active”.

Being active in Swiss Gold Global requires both weekly and monthly qualification criteria to be met:

• weekly criteria – generate and maintain 500 PSR or 50 PV for five consecutive weeks
• monthly criteria – generate and maintain 500 PSR or 50 PV

Retail Commissions

When retail customers purchase Premium Membership for $150 and then $50 a month, the affiliate who sold them the membership is paid a 10% commission.

A residual 10% commission is also paid when personally recruited affiliates sell membership to retail customers.

Direct Recruitment Commissions

Swiss Gold Global affiliates are paid $55 each time they recruit a new affiliate.

A residual direct recruitment commission is also paid out at a rate of 10%, down two levels of recruitment.

Note that these are monthly commissions, paid out when recruited affiliates pay their Swiss Gold Global affiliate fee each month.

Residual Recruitment Commissions

Residual recruitment commissions in Swiss Gold Global are 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 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.

Swiss Gold Global cap payable unilevel levels at seven.

Commissions are paid at a rate of 5% of membership fees affiliates recruited into a unilevel team pay.

How many unilevel levels a Swiss Gold Global affiliate can earn on is determined by their rank:

• Affiliate – 5% on levels 1 and 2
• Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 3
• Team Leader – 5% on levels 1 to 4
• Director – 5% on levels 1 to 5
• Executive Director – 5% on levels 1 to 7

Note that residual recruitment commissions are paid monthly, when recruited affiliates in a unilevel team pay their monthly Swiss Gold Global affiliate fee.

Gold and Silver Commissions

When retail customers and recruited affiliates purchase gold and silver, the Swiss Gold Global affiliate who recruited them is paid a commission.

• if the purchasing affiliate is a retail customer, the recruiting affiliate is paid 2%
• if the purchasing affiliate is a paid Swiss Gold Global affiliate, the affiliate is paid 1%

Check Match Bonus

The Check Match bonus allows a Swiss Gold Global affiliate to earn a matching percentage of commissions paid to personally recruited Ambassador or higher ranked affiliates.

How much of a matching percentage is paid out is determined by a Swiss Gold Global affiliate’s rank:

• Ambassador – 10% match
• Senior Ambassador – 15% match
• National Ambassador – 20% match

Rank Achievement Bonus

Upon qualifying at the Team Leader and higher ranks for two consecutive months, Swiss Gold Global affiliates receive the following rank achievement bonuses:

• Team Leader – $100
• Director – $200
• Executive Director $300
• Ambassador – $500
• Senior Ambassador – $750
• National Ambassador – $1000
• Gold Ambassador – $2000

Build to Bedrock Bonus

The Build to Bedrock Bonus pays Swiss Gold affiliates when affiliates they’ve recruited in their first 30 days also recruit affiliates in their first 30 days.

You earn an additional $200 when three qualifying Independent Affiliates that you sponsored each enroll a minimum of one Member.

Recruit three affiliates in your first 30 days, they each recruit one affiliate in their first thirty days and you receive $200.

Ambassador Leadership Bonus

Ambassador and higher ranked Swiss Gold Global affiliates qualify for a 2% bonus on sales volume generated by their downline.

The Ambassador Leadership Bonus is paid down each unilevel leg until an Ambassador or higher ranked affiliate is found in that leg.

If no Ambassador or higher ranked affiliate exists, 2% is paid out on the whole leg.

Generation Bonus

The Generation Bonus is paid out when an Ambassador or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.

The Generation Bonus is 3% on volume generated after the ranked Ambassador affiliate is found.

The Generation Bonus pays 3% down on up to three generations of Ambassador or higher ranked affiliates in a unilevel leg.

Global Bonus Pool

The Global Bonus Pool is made up of 1% of Swiss Gold Global’s company-wide sales volume.

This 1% is split again into four bonus pools, with Senior Ambassador and higher ranked affiliates able to qualify for a share in each pool:

• Senor Ambassadors (must have at least one Ambassador or higher ranked personally recruited affiliate) – receive one share in a 20% pool
• National Ambassador (must have at least two Ambassador or higher ranked personally recruited affiliates) – receive one share in a 20% pool
• Gold Ambassador (must have at least three Ambassador or higher ranked personally recruited affiliates) – receive one share in a 20% pool
• Platinum Ambassador (must have at least four Ambassador or higher ranked personally recruited affiliates) receive one share in a 40% pool

Note that shares are paid out once a year and pro-rata, presumably based on an affiliate’s GV.

Joining Swiss Gold Global

Affiliate membership with Swiss Gold Global $199 and then $50 a month.

Conclusion

The legitimacy of Swiss Gold Global hinges on how many retail customers they have paying $50 a month versus recruited affiliates paying the same.

I was initially impressed to see 500 PSR required to be commission qualified, as this would see each Swiss Gold Global affiliate required to be selling 500 PSR in gold or silver each month (preferably to retail customers).

Unfortunately this is completely undercut by affiliates being able to qualify with just 50 PV a month, which is the cost of ongoing Swiss Gold Global affiliate membership.

What this means is 100% of Swiss Gold Global affiliates are self-qualifying for commissions each month, making the PSR option entirely irrelevant.

As to the Swiss Gold Global products themselves, Premium Members and affiliates receive access to the same “premium education program”.

This program is primarily geared towards internet marketing, which makes sense for affiliates but no so much retail customers. This makes the appeal of the program at a retail level questionable.

Gold and silver prices are provided on the Swiss Gold Global website and can be compared to local and online vendors.

Getting back to the MLM opportunity, the quickest method to establish legitimacy would be to ask a prospective upline how many current active premium memberships they have. Compare that to how many active affiliate’s they’ve recruited and go from there.

Personally I’d be surprised if there was any significant number of premium memberships being paid for.

What I suspect instead is most of the commissionable sales volume is generated by Swiss Gold Global affiliates paying $50 or more a month.

The commissions offered on Swiss Gold Global affiliate recruitment is chain-recruitment and in no way excusable.

Approach with caution.

 

Update February 10th, 2017 – Swiss Gold Global changed their original compensation plan in late 2016.

BehindMLM published an updated review of Swiss Gold Global on February 9th, 2017.

 

Update 14th April 2019 – As of late 2018 Swiss Gold Global has rebooted as Utopian Global.