http://thebarebulb.com/2014/01/08/an-odd-choice/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Belfort
An Odd Choice
The guy in the Mercedes full of cash is Jordan Belfort, the real-life “Wolf of Wall Street.” Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Belfort in the new movie based on his memoir of penny stocks, prostitutes, cocaine and crime.
Belfort defrauded the clients of his Stratton Oakmont brokerage house out of more than $110 million in the late 1990s. He made (stole) a lot of money for (from) a lot of people. He still owes those people almost $100 million in restitution.
Belfort was also one of the speakers at the most recent Thrivent Financial for Lutherans‘ National Sales Meeting.
No joke.
Belfort seems an odd choice of speaker to address Thrivent’s sales force. Thivent’s website says, “Thrivent Financial does what’s best for our members, supporting the values of faith, family, stewardship and service.” So was Belfort there to teach Thrivent’s salespeople how not to do their jobs?
That must be it.
***
GJ - It is well known that AAL/LB (Thrivent) converted whole life policies into Universal Life by giving half the cash value to the salesman as a commission. AAL/LB promised any interest the client or sucker wanted to predict. As everyone knows now, high investment rates are never sustained for long.
One LB salesman illustrated 12%, giving me a fortune at 65. His calculator printed it out. It had to be true. I protested that was impossible, because I knew a little about investments.
One AAL salesman told me that many of his friends retired with a fortune after doing this to their long-term clients. However Universal Life did not pan out and never paid those high rates. The policies tended to tank, requiring more money to keep up the same death benefit. (UL is defined as term insurance with a flexible side portion of cash.)
Those whole life policies had guaranteed values and prices, but the UL replacements promised nothing.
So I think this speaker was ideal for Thrivent - a grifter speaking to grifters.
