Tranont launched in 2014 and marketed a range of third-party merchant service subscriptions.

A few weeks back a BehindMLM reader got in touch to advise that Tranont has added a range of nutritional supplements.

The compensation plan has also changed, so it’s time for an updated review.

The Company

BehindMLM published our initial Tranont review in May 2017.

Since then it doesn’t appear anything has changed on the corporate side of things.

Tranont is still based out of Utah and headed up by Founder and CEO, Lorne Berry.

Tranont Products

Tranont still markets third-party merchant subscription services as “Wealth Core”.

Offered services include:

  • credit services & education
  • tax services
  • legal services
  • id theft protection
  • access to TaxBot and
  • healthcare savings

A bundled Wealth Core subscription costs $125 a month. Individual services can also be purchased separately on a monthly subscription.

Front and center on the Tranont website however are their nutritional supplements:

  • Icaria Glow – collagen drink with “super antioxidant support”, retails at $89 for a 30 fl. oz. (887 ml) bottle (30 servings)
  • Life – an “enzyme blend” capsule supplement that ‘unlocks the nutrients in your food to contribute to better nutrition and overall health‘, retails at $45 for a bottle of 90 capsules (30 day supply)
  • Balance – “an exclusive combination of whole foods packed with phytonutrients; patented amino acid chelated minerals; and an antioxidant blend”, retails at $50 for a bottle of 90 capsules (30 day supply)
  • Vibe – vitamin B supplement, retails at $45 for a bottle of 90 capsules (30 days supply)
  • Restore – “support(s) healthy recovery, protein digestion, and a health immune system”, retails at $50 for a bottle of 90 capsules (30 day supply)

Balance Life and Vibe are also available in a monthly $140 bundle pack.

Tranont’s supplement line was added to the company in late 2017. Additional supplement lines were added throughout 2018.

Tranont also markets life insurance through “Tranont Life”. No specific information about Tranont Life is provided on the company’s website.

The Tranont Compensation Plan

Tranont has split sales of its nutritional supplements, third-party merchant subscriptions and life insurance into two compensation plans.

Tranont Affiliate Ranks (supplements + subscriptions)

There are ten affiliate ranks within Tranont’s supplement and subscription compensation plan.

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

  • Associate – sign up as a Tranont affiliate
  • Jade – generate and maintain 100 PV and 1500 GV a month (no more than 65% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and recruit and maintain three Associates
  • Pearl – maintain 100 PV a month, generate and maintain 5000 GV a month (no more than 50% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Ruby – generate and maintain 200 PV and 10,000 GV a month (no more than 45% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Sapphire – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 25,000 GV a month (no more than 45% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Emerald – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 50,000 GV a month (no more than 45% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Diamond – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 100,000 GV a month (no more than 40% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Black Diamond – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 200,000 GV a month (no more than 40% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Red Diamond – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 400,000 GV a month (no more than 40% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates
  • Blue Diamond – maintain 200 PV a month, generate and maintain 1,000,000 GV a month (no more than 40% of GV from any one recruitment leg) and maintain three personally recruited Associates

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated via retail sales and an affiliate’s own orders.

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is the sum total PV generated by an affiliate and their downline.

Note that required Associates must be commission qualified to count (generating at least 100 PV a month).

Tranont Affiliate Ranks (insurance)

Defining what exactly preferred contracts were is another thing Tranont failed to do.

Two years later the company still fails to define what a preferred contract is.

Based on the separation of volume bonus and preferred contract commissions however, I believe a preferred contract refers to the sale of a third-party insurance plan.

With that out of the way there are five affiliate ranks within Tranont’s insurance compensation plan.

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

  • Agent – obtain a “personal life license” and complete “Tranont Life certification”
  • Director – recruit and maintain three Agents, generate 2000 Personal Points and 6000 Team Points (or alternatively 6000 Personal Points)
  • Senior Director – recruit and maintain ten Agents, generate 6000 Personal Points and 30,000 Team Points (or alternatively just 30,000 Personal Points)
  • Vice President – recruit and maintain twelve Agents, generate 10,000 Personal Points and 120,000 Team Points (or alternatively just 120,000 Personal Points)
  • President – recruit and maintain fifteen Agents, generate 20,000 Personal Points and 200,000 Team Points (or alternatively just 200,000 Personal Points)

Tranont’s compensation plan documentation doesn’t state how points are generated but I assume it’s through the sale of third-party insurance plans.

Required rank volume for subscription compensation ranks is counted over a rolling three-month period.

Commission Qualification

To qualify for commissions a Tranont affiliate must maintain 100 PV a month.

Retail Commissions (supplements and subscriptions)

Tranont pays a retail commission of up to 35% on the sale of supplements to retail customers.

Residual Commissions (supplements and subscriptions)

Tranont refers to residual commissions as a “volume bonus”, which 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 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.

In our initial review we couldn’t ascertain whether volume bonus dollar amounts were rank caps of guaranteed monthly payments.

Tranont has failed to clarify this in their current compensation plan documentation.

Nevertheless, here are the quoted volume bonus amounts based on rank:

  • Associate – not qualified
  • Jade – $250
  • Pearl – $500
  • Ruby – $1500
  • Sapphire – $4500
  • Emerald – $7000
  • Diamond – $14,000
  • Black Diamond – $20,000
  • Red Diamond – $35,000
  • Blue Diamond – $50,000

Preferred Contract Commissions (insurance)

Tranont affiliates earn commissions on personally sold preferred contracts as follows:

  • Agents earn up to 30%
  • Jades earn up to 35%
  • Pearls earn up to 40%
  • Rubies earn up to 45%
  • Sapphires earn up to 50%
  • Emeralds earn up to 55%
  • Diamonds earn up to 60%

Note that non-certified Agents are paid based on supplement rank.

There’s also something referred to as a “certified writing agent”, which bumps up subscription commissions as follows:

  • Agents earn up to 50%
  • Directors earn up to 60%
  • Senior Directors earn up to 70%
  • Vice Presidents earn up to 80%
  • Presidents earn up to 90%

Builder Core Bonus (supplements and subscriptions)

Tranont rewards affiliates who sign up with a Builder Pack and qualify at Pearl and higher within a specified time period.

  • qualify as a Pearl within 90 days and receive a $2000 Builder Core Bonus
  • qualify as a Ruby within 120 days of signing up and receive a $5000 Builder Core Bonus
  • qualify as a Sapphire within 6 months of signing up and receive a $10,000 Builder Core Bonus
  • qualify as an Emerald within 1 year of signing up and receive a $20,000 Builder Core Bonus

Leadership Bonus Pools (supplements and subscriptions)

Tranont takes 13% of company-wide revenue and places it into a 4% and 9% Leadership Bonus Pool.

Affiliates can qualify for shares in one of the two pools based on rank:

  • Emeralds receive 1 share in the 4% pool, capped at $1500
  • Diamonds receive 2 shares in the 4% pool, capped at $1500 per share ($3000 total)
  • Black Diamonds receive 1 share in the 9% pool, capped at $8000
  • Red Diamonds receive 2 shares in the 9% pool, capped at $25,000
  • Blue Diamonds receive 4 shares in the 9% pool, capped at $85,000

Note that Black Diamonds and higher retain their two shares in the 4% pool.

Bonus Pools (insurance)

The insurance component of Tranont’s compensation plan details five bonus pools.

  • Rubies earn one share in a 3% pool
  • Sapphires earn one share in a 5% pool
  • Emeralds earn one share in a 7% pool
  • Diamonds earn one share in a 10% pool

If a Tranont affiliate is a certified writing agent, at the Vice President and President subscription ranks they receive one share in a 5% pool.

Jeep Bonus (supplements and subscriptions)

Jeep Bonus payments in the supplements and subscriptions compensation plan begin at the Jade rank:

  • jades receive $350 a month
  • Pearls and higher receive $500 a month

Jeep Bonus (insurance)

To qualify for a $600 Jeep Bonus payments in the insurance compensation plan a Tranont affiliate must either

  1. generate and maintain 3000 Personal Paid Points and 15,000 Team Paid Points per month; or
  2. generate and maintain 12,000 Personal Paid Points per month.

It is unclear whether the $500 and $600 Jeep Bonuses stack.

That said I’d assume the $600 payment overrides the $500 payment if qualified for.

Joining Tranont

Tranont affiliate membership is $99 and then $25 a month.

There is also a $25 a month fee for “business tools and support”.

In order to be eligible to qualify for all offered commissions and bonuses, new Tranont affiliates must sign up with a Core Package.

The current Tranont membership application states that ‘all associates are automatically enrolled in a recurring monthly payment depending on their selected package‘.

The three Core Packages offered are:

  1. Health – $150 a month;
  2. Wealth – $125 a month; and
  3. Builder – $250 a month.

Core Packages are presented as a mandatory monthly autoship:

Tranont membership is an application purchase plus monthly subscription program.

Conclusion

Service-based MLM companies are notorious for having overtly complex compensation plans. Tranont does themselves no favors by essentially running two mostly separate compensation plans.

Having refreshed myself on Tranont’s compensation plan as of 2015, it still took me a while to get my head around the current two-plan model.

Tranont affiliates are going to be hard-pressed to explain the ins and outs of the current compensation plan, which can lead to people being signed up without fully understanding what they’re getting into.

This is bad for business because it can potentially set unrealistic expectations and/or misrepresentation of Tranont’s business opportunity.

I find it pretty slack on Tranont’s part that even after two years there’s no dedicated compensation plan section on their website.

This needs to happen sooner rather than later, along with clear explanations of terms in the compensation plan (volume bonus??? personal points???).

Personally I get the sense the subscriptions weren’t working out on their own, and so Tranont has added supplements.

Owing to the complexities of a service subscription compensation plan, I think they need to decide what kind of MLM company they want to be.

Two compensation plans that combines one already complicated plan is a nightmare to research, explain and market.

As to the supplement products, nothing really stood out. That’ s not to say they’re not effective, just that I very much got a “tacked on” feel going through them.

Out of curiosity I punched “collagen liquid supplement” into Google. The first result is a $35.94 16 fl. oz bottle from iHerb.

The iHerb product comes to $2.24 a fl. oz., versus Tranont’s Icaria Glow for $2.96 a fl. oz.

Glaring red flags in Tranont’s compensation plan are mandatory autoship, which takes care of monthly PV requirements.

This reduces Tranont to an autoship recruitment scheme, which without the supplements was a problem two years ago.

This is from our March 2017 Tranont review;

The website asks you to pick one of three affiliate plan options and informs you of the ongoing $125 monthly subscription fee.

There is no way to sign up without purchasing one of the three offered plans.

Forcing affiliates to purchase a product or service to earn commissions in MLM is pay to play.

Paying affiliates to recruit others who do the same is chain-recruitment, which seems to be the core of Tranont’s MLM opportunity.

There is no incentive or requirement to make retail sales in Tranont, which is entirely on the company.

I’m just speculating here, but I believe that if the third-party service subscriptions were retail viable, there’d have been no need for Tranont add supplements.

Certainly nutritional supplements are easier to market than complicated wealth plans, but the fact remains that with forced monthly autoship – retail is unlikely.

A Tranont affiliate can simply sign up, autoship their way through commission qualification and earn by recruiting others who do the same.

If that’s what the majority of Tranont affiliates are indeed doing, then the company is operating as a pyramid scheme.

The good news is on a micro level this is easy enough to verify. Simply as your potential upline what their retail monthly PV is and compare to their autoship PV.

If retail PV isn’t at least equal to their autoship PV, that affiliate’s Tranont business can be written off as a pyramid scheme.

Gut feeling? You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a Tranont affiliate with any sustained significant retail activity under them.

 

Update 15th April 2022 – Tranont has announced TranontCoin, marking a transition to cryptocurrency fraud.