Northwestern Mutual Reviews

Pros

It is a good learning experience if you are a self-motivated learner. Can push you to face your fears and push you to excel in different aspects of your life.

Cons

There is very little guidance, you have to really put in your own time and effort to be successful.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your interns a foundation they can work up from. In order to be successful people need a little direction and guidance.

Pros

Very enthusiastic staff and leadership, plenty of opportunity to make your own schedule and create your own work and client base

Cons

Very little support in finding clients, closing deals and reaching out to other professionals, intern program more of a scam to gain business from interns and their families

Advice to Senior Management

A good improvement would be to have potential client lists as many other insurance agencies have and offer more support in the details of actually closing a sale

Pros

Great grind. Great building connections.

Cons

Very little teaching from actual advisors. Unless you're sharing business with them, they wont tell you what to do. Not comprehensive. Production driven only. Activity is just a mechanism to justify lack of production.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow a place to bring cases and work on them without joint work being effectively required.

Pros

Positive reputation within the industry. Professional work environment. Lots of training. Comp will give you the use of laptop and cubicle space for first year without charge.

Cons

Tough to survive first year let alone five years. Very high turnover rate. Low pay. Incompetent mid management. People put into mid managment postions who shouldn't be managers. Sr management will stop supporting Rep if they don't produce within the first 6 months.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop exaggerating compensation plan to SELL the position in the interviewing process. Be more transparent about what it takes to succeed in the first few years.

Pros

work life baalance is great. you make your own hours four out of five days. can work from home if you choose to also

Cons

they make you think that you are going to make tons of money no matter what. if you dont have a huge book of business or large number of contacts on your own good luck, company gives you nothing and no support for finding new clients. if you cant do it on your own then you got nothing.

Advice to Senior Management

give more support to employees. some of the meetings are pointless. if the representative doesnt bring anything to the metting themselves the managers do nothing to make the meetings worth while or educational

Pros

They paid for my exam and classes for the life and health insurance license.

Cons

They expect you to call everyone you know, friends, family and sell them life insurance. Didn't want to be known as "that guy"

Advice to Senior Management

Offer a base salary

Pros

can great money especially in the first year.
learn personal financial skills and literacy.
flexibility

Cons

expensive overhead
push to sell to family first
high turn-over
no benefits
all commission
it's a life insurance co. they weigh insurance sales much heavier
cultivation of relationships seems to be always pretentious.

Advice to Senior Management

10-3-1 does not work any more

Pros

- Your own hours
- Sense of fulfillment when building clientele

Cons

- high stress when you are not making your minimum requirements
- if you dont make your minimums, your out, they dont care how hard you worked
- must have 200-300 quality people to contact (recently married and up in age)

Advice to Senior Management

- Take a good look at who you are letting go. The number of clients a person acquires in their first year is not necessarily the best indicator of success.

Pros

Good training, pay is fair, benefits are good. Most of the time the employees concerns are heard by mangement but often nothing changes.

Cons

Very conservative company, change is slow to be made. Status- quo seems to be the expected behavior or repsponse wanted by management.

Advice to Senior Management

The world has changed, peoples way of life has changed, the way we work has changed. It would be nice if NWM would change with the times.

Pros

They truly do have great products.. the whole life insurance policy earns about 6%. That is unreal.

Cons

No salary, a lot of rejections over the phone. You may spend a lot of time trying to book appointments and not land a single appointment. Unfortunately, you don't always get paid for your efforts.

Advice to Senior Management

Go after friends and family less, and see what the intern is most comfortable doing. Chances are if the comfort level is off, the appointment won't go as well as it could have gone had the intern been more at ease.