Tranont Review – Is Tranont a Scam or MLM Pyramid Scheme?

What is Tranont?

Is Tranont MLM a scam?  Or, is Tranont a pyramid scheme?  Is Tranont legit?  In this Tranont Review, I hope to answer those questions for you, and more…

Tranont is a Multi Level Marketing company that offers a wide range of financial, legal and health products that are partnered with third party merchants. As part of their business model, they offer you the chance to join as an affiliate to help sell their products.

One division of the company sells health products and different drink mixes that claim to do a variety of things.

Another division of the company sells financial and wealth products like estate plans, tax products, credit products, protection against identity theft and more.

While they elect to call it becoming an associate, you’re actually becoming an MLM partner in their Multi Level Marketing business structure.

Usually, a company will focus on one product category.  Tranont is unique in that it attempts to mix health products with financial products under a single, but broad Multi-Level-Marketing structure.

This company is US based, founded by CEO is Lorne Berry. Mr Berry spent 10 years working with large real estate subdivisions in Utah before founding Tranont.  Despite the fact that Tranont offers financial services, Mr Berry filed for bankruptcy in 2013 for accumulating nearly $1,000,000 worth of personal debt.

Tranont at a Glance

Company: Tranont  – Lehi, Utah, USA

Founded:  The company was founded in 2014 by CEO Lorne Berry.

Price to join: $99 startup up fee + $125 a month fee + product plan ($349-$1499)

Do I recommend? No! The focus is on recruitment, not products

Is There a Better Opportunity to Make Money Online or from Home?

MLM Vs Affiliate Marketing

Every MLM company seems to have a unique variation on how they structure their business model and commission pay out. In very basic terms, an MLM business is structured so that you join a team to promote a product or service. The commissions earned as a result of your direct efforts are then divided among the team members.

Very often, this means buying into whatever service or product you sign up to promote. When someone recruits you to join their team, it’s usually followed by a sales pitch about buying their MLM’s product or service at a discount and signing up other individuals to do the same thing.  This is one of the many downsides of network marketing – another term for multi-level marketing. You end up recruiting people as the primary means of selling products – instead of just selling products.  Your commissions are increased the more people you recruit – not the more products you directly sell.

Affiliate marketing differs from multi-level marketing in a few important ways. First, you do not have to join a team or recruit other affiliate marketers to get paid commissions. Second, you can work as an affiliate for more than one company at a time.  Third, you directly receive 100% of the commissions you generate through your sales efforts.  You do not have to settle for just the crumbs.

 With affiliate marketing, you can choose any niche that interests you – like golf, for instance.  Then work directly with affiliate programs that sell related products like golf training guides, apparel, equipment etc.  You do the work – you reap the rewards, simple!

Tranont Review – Products

Tranont offers access to a range of financial, legal and health orientated services provided by third-party merchants. The product line of Tranont’s is rather vast. However, the main theme is that the company offers subscription services in partnership with many different companies.

Customers can buy subscription services for things including financial advisors, health coaches, legal experts, and more.  The Tranont website currently lists 7 main services:

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).

• Instant overview of all of your financial information
• Ability to create spending plans and budgets
• Real-time transaction updates
• Financial alerts and updates
• Ability to set and track financial goals
• Email notifications on the go
• Access using your tablet or smart device
• Personalized offers specifically tailored to you

Defend

Identity theft and cyber crime prevention (provided by Invisus).

• Defend your financial future.
• Protect your identity, your privacy and your money.
  Identity Theft Protection
• Complete personal and family identity theft monitoring and recovery services for all types of identity fraud – plus extra protection benifits not availible in other services.

TaxBot

Tax refund application (provided by TaxBot LLC).  Tracks Expenses & Simplifies Tax Time

Tranont Tax Bot is supposed to make it easy to keep track of business expenses, including mileage, from anywhere in the world using your smart phone or mobile device.  The mobile app integrates with your phone’s GPS capabilities to figure out where you are in the world and where you are traveling to. Your route is logged automatically once you activate the system.  At the end of a trip, the app will tabulate your mileage.  No odometer readings or anything else are required. Tranont Tax Bot automatically calculates everything for you.

With transaction tracking, the mileage logging feature, along with other out of the box reports, Tranont Tax Bot is supposed to help you track and organize all your expenses, ensuring that you get the maximum tax refund possible.

Tranont Legal

Tranont Legal is a service for Associates and their immediate family members provided through Tranont International, Inc., in partnership with Morrison Brown Sosnovitch, LLP.   Other qualified legal advisers are available, apparently, depending on your state or province, and the nature of your legal issue.  The website claims to make it easy for you to get quick and effective legal advice that is just a click away. The legal services include:

• Legal consultations and preliminary advice
• Letters and phone calls on your behalf
• Contract and document review

At an additional cost, you can have basic corporations created, full representation for all of your business needs and a variety of additional legal services for you and your family, including, plaintiff and defense litigation services and the drafting of wills and powers of attorney.

Credit Services

Credit score management (provided by ReCredit).  Tranont Credit Services claim to provide an education in the complicated landscape of credit, improve scores and repair bad credit. In a partnership with Tranont Debt Freedom, they offer decades of experience in the credit arena. They can help you with:

• Comprehensive credit education
• Establishing credit for the first time
• Monitoring credit changes
• Managing credit
  • Real estate and other large transactions
  • Credit cards
  • Business loans
  • Personal loans
  • Student loans
• Maximizing credit scores and status
• Credit restoration strategies
• Legal recourse

Tax Services

Tax return advice and service – Tranont Tax Services claim to help you to navigate through the difficulty of taxes with their partner.  WH Partners LLP, are chartered public accountants who understand tax laws and can help you to receive the greatest return each year. All Tranont associates who are eligible* may receive:

Mobile Healthcare

Healthcare services Online (provided by Acute Care Triage).  Acute Care Triage is a web-based, 24/7 Nurse Triage System.  The website claims that 84% of urgent care – even doctor visits, can in fact be resolved online.  Seriously?  They believe this approach makes it easier, less time consuming, and healthcare less daunting. Visits are required for regular medicine refills, but most other things can be handled online – things like:

Tranont Life

Future Planning.  We bring together individuals, families, small business owners, and some of the largest insurance and financial services providers in America to make financial products and services more accessible to middle-income families.

Tranont Life, LLC is a marketing company whose affiliate companies and affiliated agents solicit and transact life insurance and other financial products and services in jurisdictions where those entities or individuals are appropriately licensed and appointed.  We help families attain financial protection and prepare for the future.  We emphasize a personalized approach to help families make informed financial decisions.  Our industry contacts and our experience enable us to provide excellent products that will fit your needs.

Tranont Financial Education

On-Demand Education and Financial Training Classes.  With Tranont Financial Education classes, at your fingertips you can learn about:

• Budgeting
• Creating wealth
• Credit score
• Financial services
• Inflation
• Interest rates, mortgages and credit cards
• Investment planning
• National economy
• World economy

Tranont provides these services individually or in bundles – 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.

Joining Tranont

Tranont affiliate membership is a $99 start-up fee, 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.  This is after spending $349-$1499 to purchase a Plan.

Tranont Review – Commissions for Retail Products

Tranont as a company earns “between 10-35%” for retail-based commissions from its various business partners. This commission is then divided between affiliates for Tranont and the company itself. The amount of the percentage that you actually earn as an affiliate depends on how many active subscription services you’ve sold.

If you have between 1 and 10 active accounts under you, you can expect to receive 10% of Tranont’s commission. The affiliate members with 11 to 20 customers receive 15% of Tranont’s commission. Members who have 21 or more active retail accounts can up to 30 of Tranont’s commission.  As best as I can decipher the information, you receive a percentage of Tranont’s commission – NOT a direct percentage of the actual sale.

The actual dollar amount that is given to you depends on what plan you and your downline affiliates buy. Getting them to purchase a more expensive plan will result in you earning a higher percentage commission.

Is Tranont Affiliate Marketing?

No, Tranont is not affiliate marketing. While both affiliate marketing and MLM opportunities promote products, with affiliate marketing you’re earning full commissions based on the products you sell. For instance, with affiliate marketing, when you promote a $100 product as an affiliate which has a 10% commission, you receive the entire $10 commission directly.

MLM works differently, and each company has its own approach for up-line and down-line payouts. In practice, the majority of any earnings goes to the partners at the top level.  The base level partners receive a smaller and smaller amount of commission the further down the line you go.

The retail sales portion of the payment structure at Tranont, on the surface appears to be affiliate marketing. But, Tranont receives the commissions, not the affiliates who do the work.  Tranont then distributes portions of these commissions as they see fit to their affiliates.

Tranont says they earn between 10-35% from merchants. So, for example, the sale of each $100 product results in a commission of $10-$35 that goes directly to Tranont. This is then distributed between affiliates based on how many service subscriptions the affiliate has sold. The affiliate that made the sale will likely only earn a fraction of this commission – even though he or she did the actual sales work.

To earn more commissions at Tranont, you are encouraged to recruit more MLM partners to do the same thing, hoping they will make more sales. This is because you will then make small commissions from the sales efforts of your direct recruits.

Affiliate marketing is a much more sustainable system.  Commissions come to you directly and rely on your own work ethic. Putting the same amount of work into an affiliate marketing vs MLM venture, you’d make much more money through your sales efforts with affiliate marketing.  Why?  Because  affiliate commissions come directly to you and are not broken up and shared with recruiters and those above you in the MLM structure.

Is there a better way to earn affiliate commissions?

Is Tranont A Pyramid Scheme?

Not all multilevel marketing plans are scams.  However, not all MLM plans are legitimate either.  According to the US Federal Trade Commission:  “If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may turn out to be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan.  If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s not. It’s a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and the vast majority of participants lose money.”

From their own published information, Tranont’s compensation plan appears to be geared towards paying a monthly 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.

This makes Tranont a “pay to play” recruitment scheme – by virtue of an affiliate having to pay $125 each and every month to earn commissions.  According to Tranton’s website, the right to earn commissions is based entirely on:  “A monthly fee in the amount of $125.00 for access to the Tranont CORE products and the right to sell Tranont retail services.”

Tranont’s published information claims that there is no requirement for their affiliates to purchase products.  They clearly state that “A Person is not required to purchase any product in order to be a Tranont Associate”.

I tried to sign up as an affiliate on the Tranont website.  The website instructs you to pick one of three affiliate plan options and informs you of the ongoing $125 monthly subscription fee. There was no way for me to sign up without purchasing one of the three offered plans.

Forcing affiliates to purchase a product or service to earn commissions in MLM forces them to pay to play.  Paying affiliates to recruit others who do the same is chain-recruitment.  This strategy seems to be the core of Tranont’s MLM opportunity to make money and commissions.

The company website misleads and makes conflicting statements.  The website claims that while Associates are paid for product sales, an Associate receives no compensation for sponsoring other Associates.  But this is not exactly true in practice because affiliate plans generate sales volume which is paid out through the compensation plan.  It is apparently possible for retail PV to be used to qualify for commissions on top of an affiliate’s own monthly spend, but with the affiliate monthly spend mandatory, the direct path for compensation is through pyramid recruitment. 

You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, a pig is still a pig…

Tranont Review – Lawsuit

MICHAEL MASER, Plaintiff, v. JEREMY DEEBLE and TRANONT, INC., Defendants.

Maser, the plaintiff asserts claims against defendants Deeble and Tranont, Inc, for breach of contract, tortious interference with contract and business relationships, defamation, unfair and deceptive trade practices, intrusion upon seclusion, publicity to private life, and false light.

Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss was granted on the basis of jurisdiction without prejudice to Plaintiff refiling this action in the appropriate jurisdiction.

Tranont Review – From Users and Customers

It is difficult to find and verify reviews that are genuine and not biased, one way or the other.  Below are typical reviews that rate 5 stars and 1 star.  From what I could tell, the people willing to leave a review either love the company – or hate it.  There were typically no opinions that were warm or neutral.  Sentiments tended to be hot or cold with no in-between.

Tranont Review – Five Star *****

Absolutely amazing company that has helped repair my credit drastically and has taught me how to manage my finances more like an adult! They helped me with my taxes for both of my home based businesses, and provide the tools I need to run my businesses throughout the year! The health products have also made a huge difference in my day to day life! Can’t say enough good about Tranont! Excited to see what the future will bring! The education I continue to receive is priceless! Facebook – LL Cates

Tranont Review – One Star * 

Let me say that this company’s original vision was what attracted me. Financial Education is an important, and sadly, a vacant piece of today’s lifestyle. Within a years’ time we started to see that this company’s leaders were more about the money (the leader’s money…), than about anyone else’s! If you have the money to purchase products and pay for others’ monthly services….you can rank up! But mostly, it’s a few leaders riding on the backs of the masses who will never see the benefit they were promised. Oh…and the “health products?” If you can bear the 2, 3, 4 month delivery lead time, you might experience a brief benefit. But look closely at the “so called” testimonial pics. Most of them are a testament to the SnapChat filters that do so well in hiding all those chins. When you see them in person, or in a pic without a filter – you’ll see what I mean. And when someone claims they lost 40 lbs in 60 days…what they might mean is that they lost the same 2 pounds 20 times in 2 months.  J Montag, Facebook

Tranont Review – Five Star *****

What the….Health? Wealth? and Education?  Tranont is the most amazing company I have engaged in when it comes to networking. This company has encompassed health as well as wealth who else has done that? Nobody have given so much back to each individual that has come on board with this company that it has been mind-blowing!!! What have you not tried Tranont? What are you waiting for we’re changing one life at a time how about changing yours? R Beyreis, Facebook

Tranont Review – Final Thoughts

What I liked about Tranont was the extremely broad range of products that are available.  Although the products are diverse from each other – Health drinks vs Tax services vs Life insurance – they are provided in partnership with other experienced companies.  One would think that with so many products to choose from, the focus would be on product sales and not recruitment.

Sadly, that was not the case.  The deeper I was able to dig, the more it became apparent that recruitment was the focus for selling the products and services – even though the website propaganda claimed differently.  Affiliates are compelled to purchase a product or service to earn commissions – essentially forcing them to pay to play.  In my opinion, paying affiliates to recruit others who do the same is chain-recruitment.  This strategy seems to be the core of Tranont’s MLM opportunity to make money and commissions.

I have read defenses of Tranont’s business practices that offer Tranont is not a pyramid scheme because recruitment is not the ONLY means available to earn commissions.  But, during our Tranont review, it became aparent that recruitment is the PRIMARY means available.  If Tranont avoids the label “pyramid scheme” it is only by the barest of technicalities.

It’s too bad.  I really wanted to “like” this company…

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