LegalShield Review – Company’s 40+ Year Secret Finally Exposed!

Let me guess, someone you know approached you and told you that you should protect yourself with LegalShield…

And, you can easily earn money from this company by spreading the word with other people you know. Not only you can earn money, you are doing a good deed too, as they say.

Well, fluff aside, in this LegalShield review, we will be discussing on the following topics:

What is LegalShield, their services, and business opportunity?
What makes LegalShield a “unique” MLM company?
Is LegalShield a scam or a good business option

What it takes to be successful with the company.

Let’s get started…

Review Summary

Founder: Harland Stonecipher

Price: $24.95/month – $145/month, plus add-ons

Recommended? No. Check this out instead.

LegalShield-Review-Bare-Naked-Scam

Income Opportunity Rating:

What is LegalShield?

LegalShield (previously known as Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.) is an American corporation that sells and provides pre-paid legal services through a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) program in the United States and Canada.

This company markets legal service plans that include attorney consultation, will preparation, traffic violation defense, automobile-related criminal charges defense, letter writing, document preparation and review, and general trial defense.

LegalShield Origins

The company was founded in Ada, Oklahoma on August 8, 1972, and recognized as the Sportsman’s Motor Club.

It was then later called as the Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. from 1976 up until its acquisition by MidOcean Partners in 2011.

On September 10, 2011, the company officially announced that it would change its name to “LegalShield” as an overall re-branding initiative following its acquisition by MidOcean Partners.

The Founder

LegalShield was founded by Harland Stonecipher, a life insurance salesman from Ada, Oklahoma.He served as the company’s founding president and chief executive officer from 1938 – 2014.

Harland passed away on November 10, 2014, due to heart failure.

Harland Stonecipher created LegalShield’s predecessor the Sportsman’s Motor Club after being involved in a car accident in 1969.

The story goes that although the other party was cited for fault, they filed a suit against Harland for the accident.

He was then required to hire a lawyer to defend himself in court and struggled to pay the associated legal fees.

He created the Sportsman’s Motor Club with the intention of assisting its members for such legal fees in the future.

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What Makes LegalShield Unique?

LegalShield is a unique company in the sense that it falls under a unique niche.

There are only a couple of companies out there that rivals LegalShield when it comes to the services they offer such as pre-paid legal services.

This company has been around for more than 40 years and the mere fact that they survive that long, uphold the quality of their services and provide an income opportunity on top of that…

LegalShield is one of the remaining sturdy pioneers of the industry and a company that cannot be taken lightly.

LegalShield’s membership plans are sold as employee benefits directly through a system of independent sales associates throughout the United States and Canada – under the LegalShield’s multi-level marketing (MLM) program.

Additionally, the company offers programs to protect their members from identity theft and other security services through its partnership with Kroll Inc.

Services Offered by LegalShield

The primary goal of LegalShield is to help individuals and small businesses obtain prepaid legal services thru a funnel of different membership plans. Their plans include:

Personal Plans

Consultation
Document Preparation

Auto Coverage
Family Law
IRS Support

Identity Theft Plans

ID Plan
ID Premium

Small Business Plans

LegalShield has a separate website called Launch for their business plans.

Some of the services covered on LegalShield business plan includes legal consultation regarding debt collection, trial defense services, landlord/tenant disputes, and contract review.

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LegalShield Pricing

LegalShield charges a fixed monthly fee for each of their legal services. Below are the cost and details of the different LegalShield membership plans including some of the popular add-on services.

Personal Plan – $24.95/month

This plan covers all the basic legal services you might need from consultations, document prep works, family matters, etc.

Identity Theft Plans

ID Plan – $14.95/month
ID Premium – $29.95/month

Small Business Plans

Small Business plans are completely customized based on your business’s needs.

Small Biz 10 (10 or fewer employees) – $39 per month

Unlimited phone consultations (one hr of legal work)
3 phone consultations per year on particular legal issues (half hour calls)

20 documents reviewed per year (up to six in one month, <16 pages)
20 calls or letters per year (up to six in one month)
5 debt collection letters per month

25 % off attorney’s hourly rate for additional work

Small Biz 50 (50 or fewer employees) – $89 per month

Unlimited phone consultations (one hr of legal work)

3 phone consultations per year on particular legal issues (half-hour calls)
30 documents reviewed per year (up to six in one month, <16 pages)
30 calls or letters per year (up to six in one month)

10 debt collection letters per month
25 % off attorney’s hourly rate for additional work

Small Biz 100 (100 or fewer employees) – $139 per month

Unlimited phone consultations (one hr of legal work)
3 phone consultations per year on particular legal issues (half hour calls)
40 documents reviewed per year (up to six in one month, <16 pages)

40 calls or letters per year (up to six in one month)
15 debt collection letters per month
25% off attorney’s hourly rate for additional work

Home Business Supplement – $9.95 (on top of the Personal Legal Plan)

Unlimited phone consultations (up to 1 hr of legal work)
2 phone consultations per year on particular legal issues (up to half-hour calls)

3 documents reviewed per month (<16 pages)
6 calls or letters per year (up to six in one month)
3 debt collection letters per month

IRS audit help

In addition, you can also subscribe to these add-on legal services…

Trial Defense Supplement – $9.95 (on top of the Personal Legal Plan)

Covers pre-trial and trial preparation work if you have to defend yourself or your business in court.

Business Formation Services – Starts at $145 plus state filing fees.

Registered Agent – $120 per year

A registered agent is a person or company who accepts official mail for your business. Most states mandate that you name a registered agent when launching your business.

Note: Prices may vary slightly based on your location.

You can learn more about the technicalities of the services offered by LegalShield on this Sample Contract they have provided.

Is LegalShield an MLM Company?

Yes.

LegalShield began using the “multi-level marketing” (MLM) business model otherwise known as network marketing way back in 1983.

Furthermore…

LegalShield was the first company in the United States to provide pre-paid legal plans and services for individuals.

What’s good about an MLM business model?

The MLM business model has a lot of merits and it open ups an infinite number of opportunities.

In the case of LegalShield, the MLM business model has helped them to be cheaper than their top competitions. It also allowed the company to offer better benefits and provides more exclusive perks for their members.

LegalShield targets the 90% of population in the US and Canada who do not have a personal legal-services plan so in paper; you have an untapped resource of potential customers!

This is another advantage of LegalShield being an MLM business.

If you introduce your friends and family to LegalShield’s services and they become members too, you will begin receiving a passive income. You will continue to earn a residual income as long as they remain active.

However, I will point out that one of the downsides of an MLM business model is that it has a very high failure rate of 95%. I will discuss more about this in a moment.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in learning more about how to make money with LegalShield, check out the video about LegalShield compensation plan below.

How To Realistically Generate A Full-time Income From Home Without Selling or Recruiting. Click Here!

LegalShield Compensation Plan

What I Like about LegalShield

On this part of my LegalShield review, allow me to highlight some of the things that I personally like about this MLM company.

Home Business Opportunity

LegalShield is among the few online legal services that also offers a home business opportunity. This company provides a unique and affordable way for entrepreneurs to protect themselves, their families, and their businesses by subscribing to a single plan.

Debt Collection Assistance

LegalShield was also the only one among the few legal services to offer specific debt collection assistance. How does this work?

Per your request, your lawyer (assigned to you by LegalShield once you become a member) will send a regular monthly debt collection letters to the companies and firms that haven’t paid you on time.

This service can be very helpful in ensuring that your customers pay you in time.

Trial Defense Services

On top of the first two things I mentioned earlier, LegalShield also one of the very few legal services that offer trial defense services and trial preparation work.

If somehow, someway you or your business is taken to court, this premium service can save you thousands of dollars.

Mobile App

LegalShield has an iOS and Android mobile app that can be helpful to entrepreneur and members who might be needed immediate legal assistance while they are away from home.

BBB Accredited with A+ Rating

The company is duly recognized by the BBB and has maintained its excellent rating for more than 4 decades. That is no mere easy feat to accomplish by any business or organization.

What I Don’t Like About LegalShield

No Trial Membership and No Money-Back Guarantee

While the top competitors offer a trial membership or money back guarantee, e.g., Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, LegalShield does not.

You can look at this on both positive and negative way though.

The veggies are the fact that you can’t have a trial membership or have the chance to get a refund once you subscribe to any of the LegalShield plans.

On the meaty section though, this could be an indication that the company prides itself for an excellent quality of services. The people behind the company finds no reason to provide their premium services for a trial period or return your initial investment for that matter.

I hereby suggest that…

You carefully read the details of the plan you are purchasing if you decide to become a member of LegalShield in the future.

On the brighter side of things, if you somehow subscribe to one of LegalShield plans and come up later with the conclusion that you no longer need their services…

You can always cancel your subscription by contacting customer support.

Website Not Optimized to be User-Friendly

The LegalShield’s official website isn’t the easiest to navigate and can be slow at times.

It is also not very well organized too that you often find yourself scrambling on random things before you actually get the information you are looking for.

Existing Limits to each Legal Plans

There are limits to the benefits that you get to enjoy with your monthly subscription to a specific LegalShield plan.

Some of the most common complaints by the LegalShield subscribers include limits on the lawyer’s time, page review limits for documents and some of the other features.

Plan Cancellation is a Hassle

There are some complaints about LegalShield taking a long time to take action on requests such as canceling one’s plan subscription.

This results in unnecessary monthly charges on some members who have already declared their intentions of discontinuing their subscriptions.

Poor Customer Service

Online reviews of LegalShield also contain a lot of complaints about poor customer services. As you can see in this review summary rating by one site. The company only manage to get 2.4 stars and only a 38% recommendation.

What Do other people say about LegalShield?

To provide you with a better idea about what kind of services you can expect from LegalShield, here are some reviews from the personal experiences of their members and subscribers.

While there are obviously excellent LegalShield reviews such as these:

And this…

There are also many people who voice out their dismay and disappointment regarding the services of LegalShield.

This one is just the tip of the iceberg. Although the company maintained an A+ Rating with BBB, over the years they have acquired 189 complaints (in BBB alone) as I am writing this LegalShield review.

Here’s a few more from a different site.

My Personal Take about LegalShield

While this company appears to offers a legitimate range of pre-paid legal services, there are a few things that you should keep in mind before joining LegalShield.

First, expect to get what you pay for.

Think of the fact that hiring a lawyer for a minor court case would require you no less than $2K depending on where you are. So considering this, you can expect a mediocre quality of legal services for your monthly payment of $20.

I am not saying it’s worthless because their services can be very useful in the “basic” side of legal things.

However, if you are expecting a more personalized, high quality and responsive legal services, then there’s a good chance that you will be disappointed.

Of course, this also depends on the plan that you are currently subscribed on. The more expensive your LegalShield plan is, the better the perks.

Second, LegalShield seems to have an abysmal reputation for customer services. Most often, we read of difficulties encountered when trying to cancel plans and other similar transactions.

This could also because some members did not properly read the details on their subscription plans, but still, it is something you should keep an eye on.

Finally, if you are planning to join LegalShield primarily because of the business opportunity the company offers, then I strongly advise that you make sure to familiarize yourself with the MLM business model.

You can start by learning 3 of the main reason why 95% of people who ventures into the MLM industry fails.

Why 95% of Network Marketers in the MLM industry Fails

There are quite many reasons why people fail in the MLM industry. However, the 3 things below are the most common obstacles you must overcome to get a fighting chance to succeed in network marketing.

1.Wrong Mindset

Many people rush into joining an MLM company thinking that this is a guaranteed way to earn easy money. About 95% of them.

The truth is, just like any business opportunity, you need a specific set of skills to succeed in this industry. More than anything, you need to be patient and hardworking.

Just because the MLM industry provides an excellent opportunity for anyone to succeed, it does not mean that it is easier.

That aside, I would also not put all the blame to the network marketers for arriving in this conclusion. Some of them just have fallen prey to malicious individuals who convinced them with sweet promises and deceit.

I advise you to be very careful when a fantastic business opportunity presents itself. When you think it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

And be careful with whom you associate in the MLM industry. Because although there are legit and honest coaches/mentors who could potentially guide you to success, there are more con artists who want nothing but to take advantage of you.

2.Lack of Skills

One of the most crucial requirements for you to succeed in the MLM industry is to master the set of skills that allows you to be an effective network marketer.

Mastering a set of skills such as the art of selling and effective prospecting will be your sword and shield as you wade into the battleground that is the MLM industry.

Alright, forgive my metaphor. I’m trying really hard here fellas (lol).

The point is, most people fail in network marketing merely because they lack the skills that it takes to succeed in the first place.

3.Lack of proper Training and Coaching

Having a coach or mentor is very important when it comes to network marketing. This is especially true if you have no prior experience in the MLM industry.

Most of the coaches and mentors that offer to help starting entrepreneurs are network marketers themselves and has seen all there is to see in the industry.

Their keen insights and advice can play a significant role so you will have a better understanding of the situation you are currently in and what are the necessary actions that you must take.

Coaches can also provide you with a clear direction on your journey and can monitor your progress to make sure that you don’t lose track of your goal.

Be advised; there are many cons and malicious individuals pretending to be MLM gurus and coaches out there so if you are planning to get one, make sure to verify their credentials.

My Sincere Advice To You

Unless you’re looking for help with the most basic of legal services, you may want to think twice about joining LegalShield.

Although the company has been in the industry for over 4 decades, there are some serious holes on their legal plans that you should be wary about. I suggest that you do more research about this company if there is something that you are searching for that I haven’t covered on this review.

Moreover, if you are interested in doing business with LegalShield under their MLM program, then this training program will provide you a better chance to succeed as a network marketer.

However…

If the hard facts about the MLM industry are too much for you to swallow, then I highly recommend that you check out this program instead.

This is the same program that has taught me and thousands of individuals to find success online. Here’s my success story with the program.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my LegalShield review. If you find this helpful, please do share it to your friends and family who might need to read this.

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If you have any thoughts or opinions on LegalShield, feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time.

Your pal,

Jay