Happy Sunday!
When I was in college, many of my peers went to intern for Northwestern Mutual. On the surface, it looked like a “real” internship. In practice, it was more about selling insurance to friends and family (by the way later in life I did realize how important learning sales was, but that’s not the topic for today).
The problem wasn’t the product itself (insurance is inherently valuable to many) - it was who was being sold and who was doing the selling. Grandma wanted to help, but she didn’t understand what she was buying, and the new intern didn’t understand what they were selling.
That dynamic - a well-meaning but inexperienced seller pushing complex financial products to a trusting circle - is now creeping into today’s real estate syndication world in two ways.
Today I’d like to discuss both and why I think they’re concerning: