Retiring From Amway and Willing Your Income to Your Heirs
The italicized, bold info that follows was taken from the Amway Business Compendium concerning retirement.
Many distributors use testimonials about other successful Direct Distributors who have supposedly "retired", when in truth these distributors have merely left their traditional employment situation to spend all their time on their Amway business...
It takes a lot of time and effort to build an Amway business to the point you can quit your job. If you are spending all of your days working at a job and then work most evenings on your Amway business, the resulting free time probably does feel like retirement. But the truth is they quit their 9 to 5 job for a 6PM to 2AM business.
Remember, too that all Amway bonuses are paid only to distributors. If you contemplate retirement, you must maintain Direct Distributor qualification to receive the Leadership Bonus on your sponsored Direct Distributors.
You can certainly help develop strong leadership skills in your downline directs so that you do not have to be involved in their business. But you must also maintain direct distributor status to receive bonuses. This would include maintaining the proper volume and of course, complying with the Retail Sales Rule (bwahahaha). You must either pay someone to run your business for you or maintain it yourself.
The Amway business is not an annuity or retirement fund! It is a business where bonuses are paid on volume. When the volume stops, so do the bonuses. If any of your distributors drop out of direct qualification or if your own personal volume goes down, you may have to step in to rebuild the business, regardless of your age.
It is certainly possible that during the lifetime of your distributorship, you could save and/or invest enough money to live the lifestyle you desire and not be dependent on your Amway income. But the same can be said for many businesses and occupations. The key is in planning ahead.
Why don't you ask your upline how many Diamonds have actually retired. I don't mean they just left their J-O-B, I mean retired from Amway. Ask how many Diamonds have an income so secure that they don't have to work their business. I've never heard of one. They are all constantly working their business.
The following is a paragraph from a bulletin on the Amway Business Network on Distributorship Inheritance dated 2/20/97.
The benefits of an Amway distributorship can be passed to the heirs of the original distributor only if someone has been prepared and authorized to assume the position of the original distributor. Amway has no legal right to continue paying Performance Bonuses, Leadership Bonuses, Pearl, Emerald, Diamond, or Executive Diamond Bonuses, or Profit-Sharing Bonuses (if and when declared by Amway), to anyone other than an Amway distributor. This means that at least one of the heirs or beneficiaries, or some legally authorized person acting for their benefit, must promptly qualify as an Amway distributor and operate the distributorship. Failure to qualify within sixty (60) days after the death and continue the business could, unfortunately, result in the forfeiture of both the business and any income which it might generate, which will be moved up to the next qualified sponsor. This rule is necessary in order to ensure that distributors in the personal group of the deceased distributor will continue to receive proper training, motivation and supply of products.
So your business can be willed to your heirs only if they become distributors. If your heirs decide not to become a distributor or they don't maintain direct distributor qualification, the income is passed up to the next qualified sponsor.
Doesn't this sound like any traditional business? If you own a furniture store, you can certainly will the business to your heirs. But if they decide not to work it, they won't derive any income from it. And if they do work your business, there is no guarantee that they would be as successful as you or generate the same income levels.
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