Can anyone explain North West mutual to me? What is their true business model? Sounds like a pyramid scheme similar to Primerica.

Nm leadership here. Each office is different with their expectations, but the message is NOT “whole life is for everyone.” The message is to help young advisors come in and learn how to develop relationships and build a clientele. No one is handing over their multi-million dollar portfolio to a brand new advisor, But they may trust them with helping with their risk based planning. The young advisor can, and is encouraged to, leverage more senior advisors for the clients/prospects that have higher level needs. The sooner the advisor can start gathering assets, the more likely they are to be successful long term...

RE: The pyramid scheme analogy: as a leader in the organization, I am incentivized to find talent. I am also incentivized to retain good talent. I have no interest in bringing someone on so they can call on their friends and family. Personally, I don’t give a shit who they call, I do however give a shit if they are calling NO-ONE. Would you hire an advisor in your office, pay their overhead, spend 2-3 hours a week with them training and mentoring, letting them use your staff, etc etc.... for them to not call anyone and not produce? I run my own practice within NM, and quite frankly I am taking time out of my personal production to help them learn the business. Yes I get compensated on metrics that are tied to their production, but I don’t think that is uncommon in the industry nor do I feel it is unfair to anyone. I have a vested interest in my clients portfolio going up, I also have a vested interest in my young advisor building a sustainable business and becoming successful in a very challenging field where a lot of other advisors fail. On their fifth year, they are no longer in my unit and all production based compensation stops for me. I.e: I trained them, helped them, mentored them, and they are now running full speed on their own. They don’t need me anymore, so I don’t need to be compensated on their production. Truth be told, I would make more money if I stepped out of leadership and redirected that energy towards gathering assets, but I know what this company and career did for me and my life, and I like to see people have similar/more successes

Get college kids to sign their families up for life insurance. Kids wash out of the business, NWM retains the policies. Rinse & repeat.

Being a 160 year old insurance company, yes, we sell insurance. Surprisingly not just whole life, but long term care, term, di, group, etc too! That will always be mother mutual’s core focus and business. However we are the 5th largest independent broker dealer for our brokerage platform. We also own a federal saving bank for advisory relationships also. We offer PCS and trust services... so in short my business model is that the majority of us are FAs that do planning with our clients and are positioned well to fill most of their needs with quality products. I don’t drink the kool-aid as much as most but you can’t judge all of us the same.

In a nutshell: Forget Roth IRAs. 20somethings need Whole Life.

Whole life is their only true product. It’s the answer for almost everything and their WL policies isn’t even the best in the industry...

Since when is EJ independent ?

Definitely wouldn’t say they’re a laughing stock at all. Like any company, they’ll have good/bad apples. They’re a good organization- deeply rooted in core products (which is fine - it’s the equivalent of ribbing Morgan/ML Advisors because they only sell investments.) They do focus on promoting core products to NWM (as they are a mutually held company) and I don’t see anything wrong with it unless it’s the ‘swiss-army knife’ approach of everyone’s financial picture. I don’t think the NWM Advisors above use WL in that way. In no way, shape or form - is NWM like Primerica.

Financial advisor 1 ... that was the most objective, grown up, beautifully spoken reply that I have ever read. U truly, my friend, are a quality person in this industry. So, inspiring, that people like u exist. Thank you ... made my whole day!

@Arvest - thank you! You, too, made my day/weekend by saying that. Funny thing, we all compete against one another, but it should be with our clients best interests at heart. Happy Memorial Day weekend my friend!

Northwest Mutual wouldn’t hire me because I couldn’t write 200 names of people I knew when I moved down here from MI. I HAD a 50M$ office at EJ and they wouldn’t transfer me to be with my dying father. So, idk, but I was pretty disappointed that NWM would decide I wasn’t a quality asset to their company because I didn’t have PEOPLE ... I know how to network, get assets, and build a business. I don’t need PERSONAL contacts to be successful

NM 1 and 2 are spot on. The first few posts are uneducated. NM is a $250 billion dollar company, 5th largest Indy broker dealer, advisory, private client and trust services. Definitely a major player on the street, not even comparable to Primerica! Also, give me any company and I’ll run you a competitive report to show what percent NM gives back in dividends compared to the competitor. NM gives back more dividends then the top 3 competitors combined. Often under illustrated, never outperformed with the cash valued life insurance!

The only thing I disagree with is the “majority” of NW mutual being Advisors. I obviously don’t work there but I’d guess most are insurance salesmen that mature into advisors eventually. I interviewed there and had the same experience about having to write down 200 names. I thought that was a weird requirement. That said, the biggest knock I hear on NW mutual is that they are super aggressive. Oh well. Most people could serve to be a little more direct when asking for business.

Like any investment, life insurance is AN option not THE option. I’m sick of posters on Fishbowl ripping certain firms. Companies represented here are a direct reflection of their associates.

So NWM, good for you defending your turf.

My experience with NWM is mostly positive. But honestly I’m always a little leery when profits from brokerage activity flow back up to a parent entity that just happens to be an insurance company.

Stay independent (like Edward Jones) and we can all swim in the same pond together and be successful. To each their own.

Privately held. We don’t have to answer to shareholders

I'm sure NWM has good people and does good work for a lot of people. There are ups and downs with every company. Name 1 firm with more than 10 advisors who doesn't have a weak link. That being said I have yet to meet a NWM client who wasn't over insured in expensive products. I'm not saying it is policy, I'm saying that locally the agents don't do much else. Good for me though!

EJ2 independent and privately held are wildly different things, and Jones is no longer free of shareholders. The older GPs and LPs are driving your company into the ground. The rinse and repeat process is alive and well at Jones. Just keep throwing spaghetti at the wall. Ted Jones would be sick if he weren’t already dead, knowing what the greedy fat cats at the top are doing with the private partnership and “Bridge Builder"

IAR1 you have no idea what you are talking about. Sure there’s control at the top. There is in every organization. But to be free of outside shareholders who have no clue what’s in the best interest of the organization is what I’m referring to.

Posters on this app that have such bitterness towards Jones are usually jealous or had a bad experience/run in with the firm over something in the past. Don’t be a hater.

Regarding B.B. funds - the SEC and other regulators have already given it their approval since it makes zero revenue for the company (at the expense of shareholders). I was a critic at first but can see how ultra low expense ratios and hiring the right outside managers (some of these who are not even in the retail mutual fund space like Lazard) who have to earn their keep, actually makes sense. The performance for most funds (albeit over a limited track period) is actually ahead of its average peer category fund.

If B.B. is so great why should clients have to liquidate their holdings if they decide to
Leave Edward Jones? I think any proprietary product is a bad idea if it forces negative tax consequences in NQ accounts

NM creeps me out. They are the laughing stock of clients with real assets.

VP1, the portfolios aren’t completely bridgebuilder funds. There are others, mainly ETFs. I am having a hard to time believing that any true advisory account could easily switch to another company’s platform without negative tax consequences. The allocations would be different, the fund families would different. I don’t see how providing low cost active management to our clients is a detriment to anyone besides our competitors.