We left USCCA for AOR! 

Uh oh, but why?

Not because they screwed us over. They didn’t.

That’s probably important to say right at the beginning because this isn’t going to be some “USCCA is terrible” hit piece.

For years, Relaxxd Fit Tactical had a relationship with USCCA. We promoted them, we were affiliates, we made money from referrals, we used their materials at events. I literally had a USCCA affiliate sticker on my car.

Jane and I also trusted them enough to have USCCA ourselves.

And there are things I still think USCCA does very well. Their training platform is good. They put out a ton of educational material. They have a massive community. For somebody who is newer to firearms and concealed carry, there is a lot there that can be useful.

We never had some terrible personal experience with them.

The reason Relaxxd Fit left was actually a lot simpler than that.

I stopped wanting USCCA for myself.

And once that happened, I couldn’t keep recommending it to you.

So what changed?

I started seeing more and more criticism of the different self-defense protection programs online.

Normally I take that stuff with a huge grain of salt because the gun world is full of people repeating something they heard from somebody who heard it from somebody else.

So instead of just believing the criticism, I started reading, which isn't my strong suit.

The agreements. The policies. How these programs actually work when something happens.

Aaand that’s where USCCA started losing me.

USCCA’s legal protection benefit is provided through a self-defense liability insurance policy purchased by USCCA. Members are additional insureds under that policy, which is currently issued by Universal Fire and Casualty Insurance Company. USCCA openly explains this on its own website.

That by itself doesn’t make USCCA bad.

I just realized I didn’t like that structure for me.

Their current policy gives the insurance company the right to assign the attorney defending you. You can request your own attorney, but that attorney has to meet the insurer’s experience requirements and agree to its rates, reporting requirements and billing guidelines. If you choose an attorney who isn’t approved or doesn’t meet those requirements, the current policy limits payment for that attorney to $100,000.

The policy also has notice and cooperation requirements and generally says you can’t voluntarily incur expenses without the insurer’s consent unless you’re willing to pay those expenses yourself.

And under the current policy, the insurer’s duty to defend can end following a conviction for certain crimes of violence arising from the incident. There are details and exceptions to that language, which is exactly why I’d tell anyone considering USCCA to read the actual policy instead of taking my word—or anybody else’s word—for it.

None of that means “USCCA won’t defend you.”

I’m not saying that.

I’m saying when I finally sat down and looked at how everything was structured, it wasn’t what I wanted anymore.

If I ever have to use my firearm to protect myself or my family, that could easily be the worst day of my life.

I know what I want in that situation.

I want lawyers.

I want to know who those lawyers are before anything ever happens.

And I want my relationship with them established before I’m standing there trying to figure everything out after a shooting.

That became a huge deal to me.

That’s what got me looking at Attorneys On Retainer

What caught my attention with Attorneys On Retainer wasn’t some giant number on a comparison chart.

It was that when you join AOR, you become a client of Attorneys For Freedom, the law firm backing the program. Their materials say members have 24/7/365 access to an AFF trial attorney, and that coverage decisions are determined by AFF attorneys rather than insurance adjusters.

That made more sense to me.

I also want to be fair about something else because I'm not interested in pretending AOR wins every category just because we chose them.

USCCA has some bigger numbers.

The current USCCA policy shows a $2 million per-insured annual aggregate and each-claim limit and up to $250,000 for bail bonds.

AOR currently lists $100,000 toward civil liability and up to $50,000 toward a secured or cash-only bail bond.

If your number-one concern is simply who has the biggest number in those columns, you should know that.

That just wasn't the deciding factor for me.

I cared more about how my legal defense was structured and who I would actually be dealing with if something happened.

Then I had to look at Relaxxd Fit Tactical

This is where it became a business decision too.

We were making money from USCCA.

The easiest thing in the world would have been to just keep doing it.

Put their stuff on the table at gun shows. Keep the affiliate links up. Collect the commissions. Move on.

But I kept coming back to one problem:

If I don't want it for myself and my family, why the hell would I sell it to you?

I couldn't get around that.

People trust us when we recommend something. Especially with the gun-law videos we're doing now, that matters even more to me.

I'm not going to carry one thing in my own wallet and then tell our customers to buy something else because there's an affiliate check attached to it.

So we left USCCA.

Then we chose Attorneys On Retainer for ourselves.

After that, we approached AOR about becoming an affiliate.

Not the other way around.

They didn't pay us to switch.

We didn't switch because somebody waved an affiliate code in front of us.

We decided what we wanted protecting our own family first.

Now I'm comfortable telling you about it.

Relaxxd Fit Tactical Is Now an AOR Armed Affiliate

Relaxxd Fit Tactical is officially an Armed Affiliate of Attorneys On Retainer.

That doesn't mean I'm going to tell everybody reading this that you need to cancel whatever you have and join AOR.

Do your homework!

Look at the agreements and not just the comparison charts.

Then decide what you want sitting behind you if you ever have to defend yourself.

For Jane and me, the answer was Attorneys On Retainer.

And if you come to the same conclusion, we now have a code that will save you some money.

Use Code RELAXXD at AOR

Use promo code RELAXXD when joining Attorneys On Retainer and you'll receive $25 off the individual one-time sign-up fee.

That's also our affiliate code, which means Relaxxd Fit Tactical receives compensation when somebody joins using it.

And yes, that means we can make some change recommending AOR now.

The difference is I actually want this one for me and mine.

— Sam
Relaxxd Fit Tactical

Affiliate Disclosure

I am an affiliate of AOR engaged in marketing and receive compensation when someone joins AOR using my promo code.

AOR is backed by Attorneys For Freedom, an independent AZ law firm exclusively representing clients in self-defense cases, offering representation in all 50 states and DC in collaboration with local co-counsel.