“One weekend can make you a millionaire!” boasts an advertisement for the Learning Annex’s Real Estate Wealth Expo. “Fifty-two different seminars will be offered, changing your financial future overnight.” The ads drop names like Donald Trump, Suze Orman and even Alan Greenspan, all of whom will disclose their secrets to financial success at this life-changing event. Wow, that sounds pretty amazing. You mean to tell me I can change my monetary situation overnight? After all this time, a single weekend holds the key to my future millions?
Where do I sign up?
But, as astute readers may already suspect, there is a bit more than meets the eye here. The Learning Annex’s Real Estate Wealth Expo gets would-be investors riled up over the possibility of changing their lives and attracting wealth, but many actual attendees have complained that the seminars are largely sales pitches for expensive real estate programs rather than the educational experience they expected.
Some lectures offered seem legitimate, but others border on gimmickry
The Wealth Expo works very hard to get folks excited about money by blasting rock music and employing eye-catching young people to give high fives and lead the so-called “money dance,” according to
Inc. magazine. Dozens of speakers lead seminars for aspiring investors, focusing on everything from flipping properties to Feng Shui to “Why God Wants You to be Rich.” Auditoriums fill to the gills with eager investors waiting to hear words of wisdom from the likes of Donald Trump, Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki on how to succeed in the investment world. Newspaper advertisements, infomercials and billboards for the Expo bear inspiring phrases like “Change your life.”
And it seems there are a lot of people out there looking for change. Approximately 75,000 people attended the March 2006 Expo in San Francisco and more than 60,000 turned up for the Toronto event in March 2007. In fact, “the Changing Your Life business is worth $18 billion a year, and [Bill Zanker, owner of The Learning Annex] plans to own it,” according to Inc.
The Learning Annex is not limited to real estate, either. The company started out as a general adult education facility, and continues to offer classes on a wide variety of topics both online and through its regional locations. The same website that promises “one weekend can make you a millionaire” also contains links to “free live psychic readings.”
So, the ultimate question: Is the Wealth Expo worth investors’ time and money? That depends on what they’re hoping to get from the experience.
“After the San Francisco Real Estate Wealth Expo I received some emails from persons who said they attended,” John T. Reed, a real estate investment coach and investigator of the industry, said on his website. “The general tone was that Trump, Orman and Robbins gave good speeches, but that the other speakers were all high-pressure salesmen pushing expensive stuff.”
Reviews found on a variety of consumer rating sites reflected this sentiment. The Better Business Bureau report for the New York office was unavailable at the time this article was written, but the Los Angeles office received a “B” grade, meaning that the company was generally considered to be trustworthy and resolved most complaints. The Los Angeles office is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, though this fact does not necessarily have negative connotations in and of itself. There are 38 complaints on RipOffReport.com, a website that allows people to report alleged “rip offs” perpetrated by businesses and individuals. Many of these reports cite an overabundance of sales pitches disguised as seminars, as well as The Learning Annex’s supposed resistance to following through on refunds.
“We paid money for the tickets and to fly to Boston to get nothing but sales pitches for the speakers’ products,” according to Jason from Texas, on RipOffReport. “I will add, however, that Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and Trump delivered. Yes they pitched their products, but they also taught at the same time.” There was a follow-up response from a representative of The Learning Annex, offering to refund the cost of the participant’s tickets if he was dissatisfied with the experience.
Some lecturers spend more time giving a sales pitch than answering questions
“The ‘expert’ spent approximately 98 [percent] of the time selling their courses...and 2 [percent] of time teaching,” according to Santos from Sacramento, CA on the same site. And a user on Wealth Junkies, a finance and investment website, agreed that, “the seminars were little more than a series of infomercials for the speakers’ personal books and ‘business systems’—most costing $1,000 or more.”
“[K]eynote speakers Donald Trump and Tony Robbins were great but the rest of the sessions were like sitting through [two] days of agonizing infomercials,” Jim C. wrote in a review of the 2006 San Francisco Wealth Expo on Yelp.com.
Voice mail and emails left for The Learning Annex were not returned.
So, what’s the verdict? Ultimately, it’s up to individual investors to decide whether or not they want to check out the Real Estate Wealth Expo for themselves. Just be sure to go in forewarned of what to expect. Buying expensive plane tickets to go to an out-of-state Expo, expecting to learn the secret to instant wealth, probably isn’t a worthwhile use of investors’ time and money. But if the Expo happens to be in the area, and tickets are available for a decent price—multiple former attendees suggested waiting to buy until shortly before the event, when ticket prices drop significantly—some investors may feel that it’s worth wading through the sales pitches just to see Donald Trump or other well-known investment gurus speak.
Going in with both eyes open is the key when considering opportunities like this. Don’t be taken in by promises made by billboards and newspaper advertisements. Take the time to read up on the event beforehand. Avoid dropping large amounts of money on dubious products promising wealth. Useful information may be gleaned even from less-than-optimal experiences, as long as investors fully understand what they’re getting themselves into.
