COUNTRY Financial Reviews

Pros

Country is a great place work with good benefits and pension. Supervisor is always there to help and coach you. Room to move up within company if you want to work hard.

Cons

Could use some better technology, and some of the training class they make you take are a little over kill.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Good training and great working environment.

Cons

mediocre pay and week brand presence

Advice to Senior Management

Better positioning in the market.

Pros

Conservative, laid back, very good work/personal life balance

Cons

Management is sometimes oblivious to change.

Advice to Senior Management

Too stuck in old ways

Pros

Country is actually a good company to work for if you never had any insurance and financial experience. I considered their training to be superb and their intentions to be the "best provider of financial security in America" genuine.

Cons

However, not in Southern Nevada. Country is a very conservative company that is not willing to make hard decision in order to grow. Their products are no different than what can be obtained from other major insurance carriers at a fraction of the cost. This makes selling insurance and financial services extremely difficult with them. No name recognition and rates that are so out of reach of most people, it does not matter how hard their financial representatives try. Their affiliation with the Farm Bureau is detrimental to both the financial representatives and clients. The client has to maintain a membership with the Nevada Farm Bureau in order to be eligible for insurance with them. If the client forgets to pay their $15 membership, Country will cancel the policies. This affects the client with the Nevada DMV which in turn will fine the client for the lapse in coverage. Ultimately, representatives miss their benchmarks due to lack of production because they are unable to write new business and are too busy fixing mistakes from previously fired representatives. Retention rate after one year is most likely less than 10%.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Get rid of the Farm Bureau membership requirement. It creates tension between the client and the representative.
2. Be realistic when hiring new Financial Representatives. Promising future representatives to make at least $100,000 in income per year after three years is unrealistic.
3. Take advice from experienced representatives. They have been around long enough to know that you are just going to be here for the next 11 months before you fail for neglecting to ask for advice. It's sad to see new managers fail because they come in with grandiose ideas when they don't even know the local market.
4. Stop bringing managers from rurual mid-western America. Building a clientele is very different in a transient urban community like Southern Nevada compared to Southern Illinois.
5. Invest in new technology, the 1970's have long passed. DOS based systems are no longer adequate or productive.
6. Good luck!

Pros

Numerous Products
Great Company financially
Fair to everyone
Lots of support
Great job security for those who produce also great vacations for great producers

Cons

Being good at most things doesn't work here...you have to be good at everything or you'll lose your job. Too many products means the company does nothing really great but everything just okay. Pay is one of the worst in the industry. Too many secrets at this company. Their advertising budget is non-existant. if you work in a state that require Farm Bureau membership it's the worst thing about being an agent.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't rely on your agents to do all the marketing and advertising...Spend more money on getting more awareness of your brand.

Pros

36000 yearly salary, good training program in Bloomington,IL. Good products and many options to suit many clients needs. Everyone has to have insurance

Cons

primary focus is on life insurance. You could be the leading producer of property and casualty, but if you are not producing life insurance you could be fired, and you are not given any leeway on benchmarks. must purchase around $500 in leads a month through the company to write enough business to survive. company makes you take your 6 and 63, but you dont actually sell financial, when you have financials you have to get Country Trust bank involved to sell them.

Advice to Senior Management

Take focus exclusively off of life, get managers more involved in the success of reps. change benchmarks to be more reasonable

Pros

It's a good opportunity to grow a book of business including auto, home, life, annuities business and commercial insurance. Compensation is fair.

Cons

Because it's a captive agency, you are limited on your clientele as far as who is a good fit for writing business.

Advice to Senior Management

Screen candidates thoroughly. Give the newer reps opportunity to develop more with the local chamber of commerce. More advertising would help.

Pros

They are accommodating to re-locating, the environment is great to work in, people tend to stay with the company for a long time.

Cons

They are currently on a hiring freeze, many employees would like to have the opportunity to explore other fields

Pros

The pay was great for a while. I also had a good manager and great AOA (assistant).

Cons

The job really took all of the life out of me. I also think it is close to impossible to achieve what they want you to do in 5 years. If you do not believe and love life insurance you are in for a hard road.

Advice to Senior Management

Lower Life Insurance Requirements. Its obvious that is how the company makes money but it is not what makes the reps money long-term.

Pros

COUNTRY Financial is an insurance company that offers multiple lines of business to it's clients. Financial Representatives are taught to build personal relationships with clients to truly assess their needs before recommending a product. We often hear the stories of the people COUNTRY has helped and those of people whom refused to address the needs. These stories motivate me every day to make sure we are helping anyone that needs it. A family can be changed in an instant if they ignore the needs in their household. I am backed by a great company when we say that we can help. Having a company that makes me feel this way is a big reason why I am more than satisfied to work here. When you then consider the competative salary and generous benefits, this is a place i can see staying with for the long haul.

Cons

We are not a very well known company and that is frustrating at times when talking to others about what I do. The pay could be a little higher, but I am not disgruntled by it. Other workers in some of the service and call center areas complain about other items, but I think that has more to do with their responsibilities than the company.

Advice to Senior Management

John Blackburn is a leader that you can stand behind. He started as a Financial Representative for the company and leads by example to do the right thing. He is available to the employees of the company and is down to earth in his dealings. I can approach him just to say hello and he does not take offense like other CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies would.