User:JZindler/sandbox-secondary-legalshield-requests

Hi there! I have a COI: LegalShield is a client of my employer, Porter Novelli. Requesting some edits to this article, which I've broken out by section below. Since LegalShield is an older organization, lots of these sources are archival and not available freely online; happy to provide PDFs if helpful. My goal is to help this article provide a more complete reflection of the company's history/offerings as depicted in independent, reliable sources over the years.

Sportsman's Motor Club

 * After "After researching the industry of European legal expense plans, he established the Sportsman's Motor Club to reimburse members for legal fees relating to vehicle accidents", add:
 * Before founding Sportsman's Motor Club, Stonecipher was a schoolteacher.

Pre-Paid Legal Services

 * After "Initially, members could choose their own lawyer and seek reimbursement from Pre-Paid, but by the 1980s, the company directed members needing legal help to pre-selected firms", add:
 * From 1977 to 1982, the company's value grew $206,068 in assets to $3.83 million. In 1982, the company's primary avenue for revenue generation was selling its services to companies, who then offered legal insurance to employees as part of their benefits packages, with a cost of $7.50 per month for each employee. Group sales to unions, businesses, and teachers drove the company's early growth, and in 1980, school boards made up 80% of the company's clientele. In February 1981, the company sold a 50% stake in the company to ARAG SE, a West German insurance company, for $5 million. Later that year, Pre-Paid Legal Services announced it would acquire Georgia-based National Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.


 * After "Within a few years, sales doubled from $4 million to $8 million, and Pre-Paid Legal acquired TVC in 1985.", add:
 * The company began offering coverage for IRS audits in 1983.


 * After "Between 1982 and 1986, the company grew rapidly, doubling its business every year with sales ultimately increasing from $2.5 million to $42.2 million.", add:
 * In 1986, PPLSI had signed up more than 110,000 sales associates working as independent contractors.


 * Begin a new paragraph between current paragraphs one and two, adding:
 * In 1987, short sellers bet heavily on Pre-Paid Legal's stock price decreasing. Stonecipher alleged that the short sellers had deliberately spread misleading rumors about the company's prospects to help drive down its stock price, and Pre-Paid filed a complaint with the SEC requesting an investigation into the matter. Short sellers targeted the company's stock again in 2006, and in early 2011, company leadership accused Barry Minkow and his company, Fraud Discovery Institute, of making false statements about Pre-Paid Legal in order to increase profits from short selling the company's stock. The conflicts with short sellers concluded in June 2011, when the company again became privately held.


 * After "From 1996 to 2001, the company quadrupled its customer base to 1.2 million people and repurchased $90 million of company stock without taking on debt.", add:
 * In the 1990s, the company partnered with former NFL athletes Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton on marketing initiatives, with Tarkenton joining the board of directors. In 1995, Pre-Paid Legal Services began offering the Small Business Legal Plan targeted at businesses with 15 or fewer employees. These plans covered certain legal correspondence and document review services, among other benefits. Also in 1995, the company updated its commission schedule for sales associates, offering a smaller share of initial profits but a greater share of ongoing profits. In 1996, the company promoted 14 of its top distributors to the new role of regional vice president, charged with training sales associates in their areas. More than 110,000 active sales associates were working for the company in 1996. By 1997, Pre-Paid Legal Services was also offering plans in Spanish.


 * Recommend creating a new paragraph beginning with the sentence "In 1998 Pre-Paid acquired The People's Network, a marketing company based in Dallas.". Adjust this first sentence to include further details as follows:
 * In 1998, PPLSI purchased The People's Network (TPN), a Dallas-based marketing company that ran a full-time satellite channel through PrimeStar, called the Success Channel. Also included in the acquisition was TPN's 30,000 network sales force members.


 * After "That same year, Equities magazine ranked Pre-Paid Legal as the #1 fastest-growing AMEX company in America.", add:
 * By 1999, the company had 500 employees and one million members. In 2000, Forbes named the company to its list of the 200 best small companies in America for the fifth time.


 * After "In 2000 Pre-Paid Legal was criticised by CBC's Marketplace for operating as a multi-level marketing model and encouraging sales associates to buy training material.", add:
 * As part of its quality assurance process, Pre-Paid monitored how long it took firms to return clients' calls, notifying and eventually dropping affiliations with firms that provided poorly rated or slow service. In late 2001, PPLSI sold Duncan, Oklahoma-based subsidiary Universal Fidelity Life Insurance in order to secure funds to buy back some of its own stocks. The sale completed in January 2002.

LegalShield

 * After "The deal closed on June 30, 2011, and the company once again became privately held.", add:
 * After the MidOcean Partners sale closed, MidOcean announced organizational changes. In addition to rebranding, the company shifted focus from promotional activity to retention and took steps to standardize compensation and training.


 * Adjust "In July 2014, Jeff Bell replaced Mason as CEO, and Mason became chairman of the board" to read:
 * In July 2014, Jeff Bell, an Oklahoma native, joined LegalShield after serving as head of global marketing for Xbox, and Mason became chairman of the board.


 * After "In July 2014, Jeff Bell, an Oklahoma native, joined LegalShield after serving as head of global marketing for Xbox, and Mason became chairman of the board.", add:
 * In 2016, the company released Snap, a new feature in its app to make it easier for customers to share images of traffic tickets with their law firms and get assistance with resolving them. In 2017, LegalShield plans became available in all 50 U.S. states with the company’s debut in Alaska.


 * After "Stone Point Capital, another private equity firm, purchased a majority stake in LegalShield from MidOcean Partners in 2018", add:
 * After the sale to Stone Point, MidOcean retained a minority stake in LegalShield.


 * Recommend starting a new paragraph after "The venture was a failure, and was discontinued in February 2021", and add:
 * During the COVID-19 pandemic, LegalShield created a coronavirus resource center to coach clients on their legal rights on topics including employment, travel and childcare. The company also established a resource center for small businesses coping with the legal and financial impacts of the pandemic.

IDShield

 * After "In 2003, PPLSI introduced its Identity Theft Shield product (later rebranded as IDShield), initially provided in partnership with Kroll Inc.", add:
 * Early iterations of Identity Theft Shield offered monitoring of credit reports and assistance with clearing records after an identity is stolen. In 2017, an IDShield customer would be charged a one-time fee of $899 to initiate an identity protection investigation and a monthly rate of approximately $10–$20 for insurance in case of future issues.

Controversies

 * After "Pre-Paid denied violating the law, but agreed to adjust its marketing messaging and pay $7,000, including $2,000 refunded to participants who alleged the company had misled them.", add:
 * In 1999, Equities magazine noted, "Many investors and stock analysts continue to support the company's methods of recording sales commissions (largely as assets rather than immediate expenses) because of its wide base of financial experience in a groundbreaking insurance arena."

IDShield

 * After "IDShield also offers a mobile app for communicating with the investigator and receiving status updates.", add:
 * IDShield can also help customers reduce the number of phone and email solicitations they receive, limiting opportunities for fraudsters to steal sensitive information. IDShield also offers customers social media monitoring and access to a password manager.


 * After "The publication praised the service’s private investigator offering and family plans but noted that IDShield does not provide credit simulation to play out the impacts of different financial scenarios.", add:
 * NerdWallet also reviewed IDShield positively in August 2020, describing it as a good option for customers looking for personalized identity protection help.

Thanks for your help and feedback! JZindler (talk) 20:26, 18 March 2022 (UTC)