I was taught that Northwestern Mutual’s products were the best in the business. Overall Northwestern Mutual is a great place to work. The cons of pros Like a lot of financial firms, Northwestern Mutual is criticized for its aggressive sales tactics. You know I’ve kind of thought the same but then I keep running into docs who don’t buy term life insurance when it is obviously needed. I’m not at all saying they are right….I’m just telling you their point of view. The comparison to an Ally savings account (which I personally absolutely love) is not even remotely comparable. If so it explains a lot of the conversations I’ve had with representatives of certain companies. It’s nice to have clients who can just answer the phone randomly during the day and talk for 15 minutes when I call. But it’s not just to protect young doctors. It was pro bono because I spent hours meeting with clients, created financial plans for them, and ended up determining that they had no need for commission based product. I said 2 or 3 three dishonest agents. They’d get mad and say they are selling it anyhow. We do not have finance professionals. My career as a “financial advisor” was off to a good start. A recent survey we did found that 35% of people are worried that “RMDs will throw them into a higher tax bracket.” With the knowledge we have, and the wording of the question, we will now go create products and messages around those products that will communicate how our products will help them from getting hit with a huge tax bill because RMDs forced them into a higher marginal bracket. Couldn’t agree more. If I don’t know who it is, I don’t call them back. In other trainings, I was taught to avoid saying “whole life insurance” and say “permanent life insurance” because it didn’t have the same stigma that “whole life insurance” did. Fixed annuities (including Index Annuities) are not stock/equity replacements. Very illuminating post. It pretty much matches up to what I’d expect: overall good people trying to make a living selling a bad product. 276 reviews from Northwestern Mutual employees about working as a Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual. Again, I want to reiterate that I apologize that you had a negative experience. I was the sole breadwinner for our growing family and as I wrestled with financial concerns, I came across Dave Ramsey. I worked on an annuity sales desk for years. He is an actual financial advisor with knowledge and integrity who has a good business model with reasonable rates. I was intrigued by his no-nonsense approach to financial planning, the simplicity of his steps, and the almost religious intensity he uses to get listeners pumped up to take responsibility for their lives. As I’m in marketing, I am asked how marketing contributed to the business. had a lot of helpful advisors that could help you with any question, Great Place to work if you have a great foundation and work ethic. I could talk about having my moms assets there with a mentor advisor and how he tried to screw her over multiple times once I left and our relationship deteriorated. That ought to do the trick. “permanent” life insurance). You are supposed to be a “financial guy” and yet you can’t even get training that allows you to sell much of anything. Everyone should own whole life policies”. However, they were so similar and we had so many other great guest posts to run this quarter, that I decided to combine them. We did not sell insurance and annuities. But I would also like it to be known that after reading your comments, I find a lot more appreciation for the Northwestern office I work for because we do things right. say women are treated fairly and equally to men. I haven’t had much success with doctors with my business. I worked for an amazing firm that didn’t sell bogus annuities either (I’m looking at you Athene types). My secretary screens all my calls. The WebMD point is one I’ve thought about myself before. Initially, I felt irritated at Dr. Dahle’s antagonism of financial advisors like me. You have a good thing going here. The culture is great, but they don't help you as a first time intern very much. Do any of the “revelations” in this post surprise you? He joked back, yes it has been more than two years now. More and more people are aware of their. If you get the right mentor and you work hard it could be a great career for you. My company has a slogan that centers around the idea of helping people prepare for retirement with a guarantee of income. Let me take away your food and shelter for you and your family and we will find out what you would be willing to do to “put bread on the table”. I don’t doubt doctors aren’t the easiest group to serve. Now I simply gather information about a client, show them the plan we created for them with the products we suggest, and then the ball is in their court. Doctors can’t do that. I am at least a decade out of date, so maybe things have changed, but I concur with WCI – historically, the big mutual insurers (Northwestern, MassMutual, etc) were not competitive on Term Life policies. During our conversation, he brought up the fact that he had met with a Northwestern Mutual advisor and hadn’t had the best experience. Do you think it’s a coincidence that most people (though maybe not most who read this blog) buy more things at the store than they intended? Medicine isn’t a bastion of morality in this regard. [I think] Northwestern is scum…stay far far away! I read a bunch of different posts and wanted to collate my thoughts into one comment and chose, somewhat randomly, to post it here because this is the last article I read. After graduation, my family and I accepted an opportunity with Teach For America and moved to Dallas, Texas, where I worked as a high school teacher serving at-risk youth. It just happens to a certain percentage of comments, especially long ones. He MAY have made that in market but he did make it in annuities and will still have it if the economy falls again. Marketing does the same to keep them engaged with the business, with the assumption that keeping them engaged passively influences their behavior to push our products as opposed to competitors’ products. There are many different ways to address that illiteracy, and in a capitalistic society, the finance and insurance industry has found a profitable way to tackle a need that people want to address in order to fulfill a more stable, more secure and guaranteed, retirement. Instead, they are an alternative to fixed income. Sounds like someone touched a nerve. The sales training, which I’ve witnessed, really ingrains this message. So if you aren’t constantly convincing your friends and family to increase their monthly insurance premiums, then you’re out of luck. I would not hesitate to recommend anyone to his company at SkyviewPlanning.com. Certainly it’s not right for enough people that there should be more than one agent in a city selling it. Thanks for both of you sharing the insider views of company tactics pushing to sell a particular product, often not in the best interest of the client. has worked out quite well Outstanding post, and kudos to the authors who wrote them for sharing their experiences and perspectives. The management in my particular location/agency was absolutely heinous. . And that was hard to swallow. If we can offer everything, we reasoned, but choose to recommend Northwestern Mutual, that means that we are offering the best product out there. You guys make all life agents appear to be greedy dishonest men. Companies work very hard to create a culture around their brand and products. Click to learn more! Your email address will not be published. So you can keep focusing on what matters most. Part of being in the FIRE community means you’ve mastered differentiating wants versus needs. I have an interview with Northwestern Mutual as a Financial Advisor. I have been helping my friends and family with financial planning as a whole, not just life insurance. My experience has been prospecting them is more trouble than its worth. Learn more about Northwestern Mutual's Ryan Smith, Wealth Management Advisor in Atlanta, GA 30326 I stuck with it for longer than I should have because I thought I’d made commitments, and other Catholic-guilt related reasons, but I finally got out, and I can finally be proud of what I do helping folks. Excellent demonstration of why this website exists and needs to exist. T the easiest group to serve call compliance on them to only sell whole life insurance company with investment. 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