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Kestra Financial

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High Turnover due to Stubborn and Short-Sighted Upper Management - Concierge Specialist Kestra Financial Employee Review

1.0
Aug 9, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free food on occasion Friendly coworkers

Cons

This job was fine at first and slowly morphed into a truly unbearable situation in less than a year and a half. Kestra is recruiting new advisors at an impressive rate. Rather than staff for that growth, they are trying to squeeze more and more productivity out of their existing employees by using some truly insane methods. The executives overseeing the operations department started watching our every move and decided we were taking too long to answer calls. Their brilliant solution was to start forcing us to take calls when we were not ready because they assumed we were slacking off rather than working on legitimately important issues between calls. God forbid we had something important to work on for an advisor we just spoke to. Screw that. Just take the next call. I recently heard from current employees that the new brilliant idea is to not let phone reps put the advisors on hold when a question or issue needs to be worked on. The phone rep is supposed to tell the advisor they will call them back and take the next call. The calls are coming in left and right so when is there possibly going to be time to research these issues and call people back? The advisors are going to be irate when the ball gets dropped. I know many are irate already due to being sold the world when they came to Kestra and we couldn't live up to unrealistic expectations. Oh - and did I mention that we were expected to respond to emails (on average 10-12 a day) within 24 hours without being given any time to work on them? The CEO has been asked about what he plans to do about the low ratings on Glassdoor. He blew that off and said it's only disgruntled employees writing these reviews and he doesn't want them working at Kestra anyway. My question to him would be, how did we become disgruntled? I left on good terms and in good standing with Kestra. But they really couldn't understand (and still don't) how miserable they make their employees by treating them as cogs instead of humans. No job I've had has been perfect but I've never been motivated to write a review like this until now. Why? Maybe because management at Kestra pretends to listen and pretends to care but in reality, they look at their employees as numbers in an equation. Executives are making their employee's working lives hell (specifically in the operations department but probably company-wide) because they refuse to try to understand the implications of their terrible policies. I could go on. I want to rant about the embarrassingly bad technology at Kestra but you can read other reviews to learn about that. Long story short, stay away from this company.

Explore other reviews about Kestra Financial

5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a solid place to work if you want to get into tech or wealth management in Austin. They are hiring a lot right now to build out the tech platform that the financial advisors use. You get to see how the wealth management industry works from the inside and work on technology that directly impacts advisors, which gives you good experience. Everyone I work with is professional and handles their business.

Cons

It is financial services, so there is standard corporate red tape and compliance rules you have to deal with.

1.0
Apr 9, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I did not find any meaningful advantages working at this company. It feels quite average - nothing that stands out positively compared to others in the industry - while the downsides are significant and consistent.

Cons

The corporate culture here strongly rewards blind loyalty over actual results and performance. If you value your time, self-respect, and real opportunities for professional growth, this may not be the right place for you. Many of the positive reviews appear to have been submitted under pressure from management. They tend to be vague and generic ("great team," "keep up the good work"). In contrast, the negative reviews consistently describe the same serious issues, with details that are too specific and repetitive to be fabricated. Key concerns include: 1. Lack of proper onboarding and training. 2. Outdated technologies and processes (with only a few minor exceptions). 3. Middle management that blindly follows directives from above without understanding or being able to explain the "why" to their teams. 4. Extremely rigid office policy: 4 days in the office per week with very limited remote flexibility. Working from home is generally not allowed even if you're sick or need to visit family in another city for a couple of weeks. 5. On top of that, the company uses ActivTrak software to monitor employee activity. This, combined with the strict in-office requirements, creates a toxic micromanagement environment - your manager (and the software) decide whether you're being "productive," regardless of your actual output or results. Overall, the combination of these factors creates a frustrating environment for anyone who wants autonomy and trust in how they deliver their work.

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