Pros
Decent new hire training. You will meet good people (some not so good). CRM system is evolving. Receive performance based compensation enhancement of of commissions received if achieved company based minimums of new clients to help pay for insured business cost that is not covered by the company (rent, computer usage, phone usage, required hire of your own employee(s)). If you like to work 60-80 hours a week and don't mind not having a life at all outside of work, this may be the job for you.
Cons
True average first year compensation will be less than $35k if you remove top 5 performers from an average list of 80-100 first year hires. If you have a life outside of work and value spending time with your family this is not the job for you. You will be asked to call upon your family and friends to convert them to your first clients at a blistering pace. You will be bombarded with performance comps 5-6 times daily. They will tell you that they are the best company period and no other companies are close, which is entirely inaccurate. You will need to work 60-80 hours a week for roughly 5-7 years before you start to have a normal life. Unlike other companies, NM requires you to pay for your phone usage (which entails the cost of utilizing their proprietary CRM system at a clip of $40/month, then after your one year anniversary you will begin to be charged rent (depending on where you work upwards of $500 +/month and will be charged for the computer that you must use [your own computer is not allowed]). You must achieve new client minimums as well as first year commission minimums. If you do not achieve a required level of activity in at least one of your first 3 months, or you are terminated. If you do not achieve a minimum required total of new clients in your first 6 months... you are terminated and your clients are then either orphaned or handed over to a senior advisor. If you do not acquire your securities license as an advisor you are fined by your network office (which is not required nor accessed a fine by any other companies. If you do not achieve your securities license by your 2nd anniversary you will be terminated. Keep in mind you do not have to be securities licensed to sell life insurance, disability insurance or long term care insurance. You will also not receive credit if your client only chooses to place their assets under management or if they are not approved by Northwestern Mutual (which is the most difficult insurance company to be approved by). You will be led to believe that there is no other job on the planet that can achieve as much compensation as you can get with NM. You will be encouraged to dedicate 2/3rds of your weekends or days off to running your business. You will be making heavy amounts of cold calls (you will be told that if you prospect correctly, these calls will be T'd up calls, which really they are not) The attrition rate is 90+%, meaning 90+% of newly hired advisors will not make it to their first year anniversary and only 5% of advisors hired by NM will stay for more than 5 years. You will be required to hire an assistant to keep up with your work load. You will need to pay your assistant's salary, rent, phone usage fee and computer cost. If you do not pay for an assistant, you will be assessed a fee from your network office upwards to $3k-$4k/month to use the in-house staff to help manage your book of business. Limited support from in-house resources. Monthly and weekly reviews celebrating company top performers. Emphasis on company top performers commissions earned vs celebration of actually helping clients that need the help. Encouraged to only seek out high networth clientele. "Cool kids club" mentality runs rampant.