Pros
Lots of training and learning opportunities for new financial advisers. The people and home office have good values. If you can learn to sell expensive insurance products, you can sell anything. Great sales internship program. I do not regret starting my career at NM.
Cons
The technology platform for clients as well as the adviser is archaic. Not a competitive platform to compete for high net worth (HNW) clients. Wealthy clients tended to outgrow the investment capabilities of the NM platform. Many HNW clients' CPAs, attorneys, and mortgage brokers will advise their clients that NM's insurance products are unnecessarily expensive. As an adviser at NM, I was always faced with the uphill battle of trying to change the perceptions of thousands of other professionals who are also advising my clients and prospective clients. Very slow moving company. Worked here until 2015. Investment production payout starts at 35%. In each of my 5 years at NM, a portion of the top 20 insurance producers left each year for Mass mutual, and the top investment producers left to join RIAs, independent broker dealers, or LPL financial. During my time, there was never even 1 adviser at NM with over $5Million of investment production. Home office management does not do much. Management tends to just give lip service to those asking for change and progress within the company. Milwaukee and Northwestern Mutual do not seem to attract the country's brightest minds.