Northwestern Mutual reviews

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.

If you don't set meetings at a high pace (40 calls a day, 25 meetings a week, minimum!) you won't see any money at all. Bonuses are tied directly to onboarding new clients at a pace. Don't expect to see any real earnings for the first six months. Potentially zero income due to the lag-time on clients signing new policies. Zero work/life balance: 10-12 hour days and nights full of studying are expected for the first several years. The commission system incentivizes selling high-cost policies to high-earning clients. Choose your own morality on that subject. The turnover rate is 90% in the first year. If you sit down with a recruiter, ask them about it and see if their answer satisfies you. You will be expected to arrive with 200-250 names of people you know, to use as a client/reference base. You will need to be comfortable with monetizing and commoditizing your friendships (I was not).