Tranont are based out of Utah in the US and operate in the service subscription MLM niche.

The company was founded in 2014 by CEO Lorne Berry.

As per his Tranont corporate bio, Berry (right) ‘spent 10 years working with large real estate subdivisions in Utah prior to founding Tranont‘.

He was an integral part of educating clients in real estate and market investments.

Among his significant former positions, he partnered in restaurants and also spent many years working in international business helping organizations expand into Asian markets.

While working in the education arena, training and working with individuals from many different walks of life, Mr. Berry saw a need in the marketplace.

He found that many individuals he worked with were struggling to get ahead and become financially independent in this complex financial landscape—from this idea was born Tranont.

As far as I can tell, Berry didn’t have an executive MLM history prior to launching Tranont.

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

Tranont Products

Tranonts offers access to a range of financial, legal and health orientated services provided by third-party merchants.

Offered services listed on the Tranont website include:

  • OneView – “an online application that integrates with over 16,000 financial institutions worldwide to give you access to all of your financial information in one single location” (provided by Financial Apps)
  • Defend – identity theft and cyber crime prevention (provided by Invisus)
  • TaxBot – tax refund application (provided by TaxBot LLC)
  • Legal – legal services via phone (provided by “partnered attorneys”)
  • Credit Services – credit score management (provided by ReCredit)
  • Tax Services – tax return advice and service (provider not named)
  • Mobile Healthcare – healthcare services discounts (provided by Acute Care Triage)

Tranont bundles access to OneView, Defend (individual plan), Legal (family plan), TaxBot, Credit Services, Tax Services and Mobile Healthcare for $125 a month (Core subscription).

Individual service subscriptions are also available for purchase by retail customers, with individual pricing provided on the Tranont website.

Additional services include:

  • merchant processing
  • satellite tv
  • virus & identity protection
  • business telephones
  • legal services
  • background check services
  • solar and
  • home automation & security

The Tranont Compensation Plan

The Tranont compensation plan documentation a poorly presented confusing mess.

I’ve done my best to make sense of it and supplemented the compensation plan with snippets from Tranont’s Policies and Procedures.

Unfortunately there are still a number of components within the Tranont compensation plan that make little to sense. I’ve indicated where this is the case below and tried to provide some possible explanations.

Tranont Affiliate Ranks

There are fourteen affiliate ranks within the Tranont compensation plan.

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

  • Associate – sign up as a Tranont affiliate and maintain commission qualification
  • Executive – maintain 100 PV a month, generate 300 GV in monthly downline volume and personally recruit at least three commission qualified affiliates
  • Financial Consultant – maintain 100 PV a month, generate 1200 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 65% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least three personally recruited commission qualified affiliates
  • 1 Star Financial Consultant – maintain 100 PV a month, generate 2500 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least three personally recruited commission qualified affiliates
  • 2 Star Financial Consultant – maintain 100 PV a month, generate 5000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least three personally recruited commission qualified affiliates
  • Senior Financial Consultant – maintain 110 PV a month, generate 7500 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least four commission qualified affiliates
  • 1 Star Senior Financial Consultant – maintain 120 PV a month, generate 10,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least four personally recruited commission qualified affiliates
  • 2 Star Senior Financial Consultant – maintain 130 PV a month, generate 20,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least four personally recruited commission qualified affiliates
  • 3 Star Senior Financial Consultant – maintain 140 PV a month, generate 40,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 45% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least five commission qualified affiliates
  • Regional Financial Specialist – maintain 150 PV a month, generate 80,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least six commission qualified affiliates
  • Vice President – maintain 160 PV a month, generate 120,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least seven commission qualified affiliates
  • Senior Vice President – maintain 170 PV a month, generate 200,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least eight commission qualified affiliates
  • President – maintain 180 PV a month, generate 400,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least nine commission qualified affiliates
  • CEO – generate 1,000,000 GV in monthly downline volume (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg) and personally recruit and maintain at least ten commission qualified affiliates

PV stands for Personal Volume and is sales volume generated by a retail subscription sales and a Tranont affiliate’s own service subscriptions.

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

The Tranont compensation plan states that PV excludes TranontLife volume.

There is no mention of TranontLife on the Tranont website. Further research reveals it to be an insurance product. Whether TranontLife is still offered or not is unclear.

I did find affiliate websites mentioning TranontLife in connection with “BaseShop commissions”. Separate BaseShop affiliate rank qualification criteria is provided in the Tranont compensation plan but no explanation is provided.

Commission Qualification

To qualify for commissions a Tranont affiliate must be “active”.

As per the Tranont Policies and Procedures, an active affiliate must be ‘current in Annual Renewal Fees and Subscription Fees with Tranont’.

Later in the same document it is stated:

A Tranont Associate is Active if they have 100 PV within a given month & pay your annual renewal fee of $49.

However this appears to be a moot point as Tranont affiliates are required to maintain a service subscription of $125, which generates 100 PV.

Retail Commissions

Tranont claim to make “between 10-35%” commission when retail customers pay for third-party merchant services.

Up to 30% of this commission amount is split between the company and its affiliates.

How much of a retail sales commission is earned is determined by the total number of active retail service subscriptions an affiliate has sold:

  • one to ten accounts = 10% retail commission
  • eleven to twenty accounts = 15% retail commission
  • twenty-one or more accounts = 30% retail commission

One service subscription equates to one account (one retail customer can generate multiple accounts).

Examples of retail commission amounts included in the Tranont Policies and Procedures include:

  • $125 Core subscription = $100
  • TaxBot = $9
  • Legal = $16 for individual plan, $18 for family plan and $35 for business plan
  • Defend = $5 to $30
  • Credit Services = $50
  • Direct TV & Dish = $50
  • Solar = $2000 (average)

Note that the above amounts aren’t commissions paid out, rather the applicable retail percentage is applied to the dollar value.

Volume Bonus (???)

Tranont’s compensation plan describes the Volume Bonus as follows:

The Tranont Compensation plan includes UNLIMITED Depth for the Tranont Volume bonus, which can provide you with a truly RESIDUAL INCOME.

This sounds like a unilevel commission, however it’s not explicitly clarified either on the Tranont website, compensation plan or in the Policies and Procedures documentation.

Adding to the confusion is the Tranont compensation plan only providing dollar amounts for the Volume Bonus.

  • Executive and Financial Consultant – $100
  • 1 Star Financial Consultant – $200
  • 2 Star Financial Consultant – $300
  • Senior Financial Consultant – $500
  • 1 Star Senior Financial Consultant – $1200
  • 2 Star Senior Financial Consultant – $3500
  • 3 Star Senior Financial Consultant – $5500
  • Regional Financial Specialist – $10,000
  • Vice President – $12,000
  • Senior Vice President – $15,000
  • President – $20,000
  • CEO – $25,000

Typically unilevel compensation documentation is provided in percentages (of generated sales volume).

The only explanation I can come up with for the dollar amounts, if the Volume Bonus is indeed a unilevel commission), is the above figures are earning caps per rank.

One other theory is that the dollar amounts are fixed monthly payments based on rank qualification.

Volume would be counted from the entire unilevel team and that fits Tranont’s Volume Bonus description and the name of the bonus.

Absent of clarification from Tranont (or an affiliate) though, I can’t be sure.

Preferred Contract (???)

The Tranont compensation plan mentions a preferred contract, yet fails to provide any definition for what a preferred contract is.

I did try to Google search what preferred contract is, but the only result for “preferred contract” and Tranont is the Tranont compensation plan itself.

While I’m not sure what the preferred contract pays out on, provided commission rates are as follows:ts earn up to 30% on retail subscriptions

  • Financial Consultants earn up to 40%
  • Senior Financial Consultants earn up to 50%
  • Vice Presidents and higher earn up to 77%

There is also a generation override attached to preferred contracts:

  • 15% override on the first generation
  • 8% override on the second generation
  • 4% override on the third generation
  • 2% override on the fourth and fifth generation
  • 1% override on the sixth generation

Note that neither the Tranont compensation plan or Policies and Procedures documentation defines what rank is required to define a generation.

An “additional percentage” is also available on 1st generation overrides for Senior VP (+1%), President (+2%) and CEO (+3%) ranked affiliates.

Jeep Bonus

From the Financial Consultant rank, Tranont affiliates qualify for a monthly $500 Jeep bonus.

The $500 Jeep Bonus must be put towards the purchase or lease of a Jeep Wrangler,
Wrangler Unlimited, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Patriot, Jeep Truck or Renegade (no older than three years).

Alternatively, a Tranont affiliate can opt to receive the Jeep Bonus as $250 in cash.

Life Bonus

The Life Bonus is a monthly bonus Tranont puts towards an affiliate’s life insurance policy:

  • Senior Financial Consultants receive a $100 Life Bonus
  • 1 Star Senior Financial Consultants receive a $200 Life Bonus
  • 2 Star Senior Financial Consultants receive a $300 Life Bonus
  • 3 Star Senior Financial Consultants and higher receive a $500 Life Bonus

Leadership Bonus Pools

Tranont affiliates can qualify for shares in two bonus pools.

Senior Financial Consultant to Regional Financial Specialist ranked affiliates receive shares in the Management Pool, made up of 4% of Tranont’s company sales volume.

Vice President and higher ranked affiliates receive shares in the Executive Pool, made up of 9% of Tranont’s company-wide sales volume.

  • Senior Financial Consultants receive 1 share in the 4% pool
  • 1 Star Senior Financial Consultants receive 2 shares in the 4% pool
  • 2 Star Senior Financial Consultants receive 3 shares in the 4% pool
  • 3 Star Senior Financial Consultants receive 4 shares in the 4% pool
  • Regional Financial Specialists receive 5 shares in the 4% pool
  • Vice Presidents receive 1 share in the 9% pool
  • Senior Vice Presidents receive 2 shares in the 9% pool
  • Presidents receive 3 shares in the 9% pool
  • CEOs receive 4 shares in the 9% pool

Although not explicitly clarified on the Tranont website, or in the compensation plan or Policies and Procedures documentation, I believe the Leadership Bonus Pool is paid out monthly.

Joining Tranont

Tranont affiliate membership is $49 a year plus the purchase of an affiliate plan:

  • Base Plan – $349 (Core subscription for 30 days)
  • Gold Plan – $599 (Core subscription plus legal entity creation)
  • Platinum Plan – $1499 (Core subscription plus legal entity creation, custom estate plan and a living trust)

Maintaining a Tranont affiliate membership costs $125 a month and an annual $49 fee also applies.

Conclusion

There’s a certain irony to Lorne Berry running a financial services MLM company.

In 2013 Berry and his wife filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Court filings reveal the couple had racked up $773,228 in debt, with an average monthly income between them of just over eight hundred dollars.

The Berrys were still paying their debt off as of March, 2015, when Lorne Berry’s father offered to bail them out for $40,960.

It’s pretty obvious that the Berrys’ Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing played a large role in the foundation of Tranont. The stated mission of the company is to:

Change the world’s economy one household at a time.

While it is tempting to weigh Lorne Berry’s financial problems against Tranont as a company, it’s important to note he filed for Chapter 13 back in 2013. Tranont was founded and launched in 2014, and since then Berry doesn’t appear to have run into any more financial troubles.

So why am I bringing it up?

I get that bankruptcy is embarrassing but I think bouncing back from it and creating a company to help others do the same, is a far more compelling back story than “I educated some people as part of my day job and decided to launch an MLM company”.

As is typical of third-party merchant service subscription MLM companies (Wake Up Now and 5Linx come to mind), Tranont’s compensation plan is overly complex.

Not helping is the fact that company’s own documentation is so poorly lacking. Seriously, it’s two pages long and mostly big tables full of numbers.

No explanation provided for most of the components which makes it even more difficult to comprehend.

I had great difficulty trying to make sense of Tranont’s compensation plan and (without boasting) I’m pretty familiar with the MLM industry. Given the supplied documentation, I have no idea how Tranont seriously expect their affiliates or the general public to make sense of how they are paid.

From what I was able to understand, MLM commission qualification is tied to an affiliate paying $125 a month. This will get them as far as Senior Financial Consultant, after which PV requirements climb to 180 at President (before mysteriously dropping to zero at CEO).

The problem as I see it is the Volume Bonus, which appears to be a fixed monthly commission. The Volume Bonus at each rank would more than cover an additional service purchase by an affiliate to generate extra PV required to rank.

Why is this significant?

Because Tranont’s compensation plan appears to be geared towards paying a month subscription fee and recruiting affiliates who do the same.

This is the bare minimum requirement to earn commissions, with retail subscription sales appearing to be entirely optional.

What this makes Tranont is thus a “pay to play” recruitment scheme.

Pay to play kicks in by way of an affiliate having to pay $125 to earn commissions.

Tranont themselves claim all affiliates must pay a

Monthly fee in the amount of $125.00 for access to the Tranont CORE products and the right to sale Tranont retail services.

Yet also claim

No Requirement to Purchase Products: A Person is not required to purchase any product in order to be a Tranont Associate.

This appears to be complete baloney, which you can verify yourself by trying to sign up as an affiliate on the Tranont website.

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.

Again, the company seems to be knee-deep in pseudo-compliance on this point:

While Associates are paid for product sales, an Associate receives no compensation for sponsoring other Associates.

This is false because affiliate plans generate sales volume which is paid out through the compensation plan.

I’ll reiterate that retail PV can be used to qualify for commissions on top of an affiliate’s own monthly spend. But with the affiliate monthly spend mandatory, this paves the way for pyramid recruitment.

Securities might also be a concern, if the Volume Bonus is indeed a monthly payout.

From a regulatory perspective, a Tranont affiliate pays $125 or more a month and, if they recruit enough affiliates who do the same, receive a fixed monthly ROI greater than their own fee payment.

At the time of publication neither Tranont or parent company iMoney Tools, LLC appears on the SEC’s Edgar database. This means Tranont is potentially offering unregistered securities in the US.

The good news is you can quickly verify whether or not your potential upline is running their Tranont business as a pyramid scheme.

What you want to obtain are the monthly points (PV) generated by their sale of retail service subscriptions. That is active service subscriptions sold to non-affiliates.

Retail PV If the affiliate doesn’t have enough retail PV to match their own $125 (or more) monthly spend and that of their personally recruited affiliates each month, that downline is operating as a pyramid scheme.

I previously referenced WakeUpNow and 5Linx, who both offered similar service-based business models. Both these opportunities were affiliate-heavy with complicated compensation plans that didn’t focus retail sales.

Tranont doesn’t appear to be any different.

 

Update 2nd February 2019 – Since publication of this review Tranont has added a nutritional supplement line and changed their compensation plan.

BehindMLM published an updated Tranont review on February 2nd, 2019.