Mass Mutual Information

[LGilmore]

"that you can do better being an independent agent. "

That's because most here are independent.

How you do is going to depend on you, not if you're captured or indy. It's going to depend on what work environment you like and thrive in. As I said before look closely at the local aspect of the company, that is where your support and atomsphere comes from... You can be successful at a 2nd tier company or a failure at a top tier depending on who you are working with... and your attitude about it.

My biggest mistake coming into this business 20 years ago was not realizing how the people around me were going to impact me. I thought I was coming in to have my own business, but was confused by having to meet with a manager once a week and explain my week for his approval or disaproval.

I got further confused by being told what to sell based on management overrides compared to what the client actually needed. My mistake was not looking closely enough at the local setup and seeing how comfortable I was going to be in it.

It doesn't mean they were wrong and I was right. It meant I really didn't fit into the captured agent environment. As far as insurance education, it was top notch. The office help was top notch too.

What I couldn't get over was coming into this business being told "it's your business" and having to explain "my business" to some guy I wouldn't normally ever talk to (always felt like I needed a shower after meeting with this guy and no, he was not around when I came on board.) to this day, that rubs me wrong. If it's my business and my risk...f off me having to explain to anybody "why?" who isn't my wife or kids.... outside of them, I need no one's "blessing". A decade later you can still tell from my writting that I loathe "supervision".

 

[sams66]

LGilmore, thanks for the post. much appreciated. I will update after the MM meeting.

have a great weekend.

Sam

 

[Reuben]

LGilmore, thanks for the post. much appreciated. I will update after the MM meeting.

have a great weekend.

Sam

So, what happend?

 

[MattyPlanner]

Having an intimate knowledge of Mass Mutual, I wouldn't recommend going captive with them (not that I would recommend going captive with any company, lol).

They have heavy proprietary production requirements (you don't get paid on ANY business until you write $25k of MM insurance and at least $5k on A shares of MM-owned proprietary funds). They call this your "5 & 25". After that, you are "allowed" to write through other carriers, but you have to justify it (and "the premium for the client is lower" doesn't fly).


Actually 5 & 25 means....5 lives and 2500 of commissions...then you get contracted with benefits and such

 

[maksim]

+1 on the requirements...

however all else that slush said above holds true for me, and hence why I left.

 

[NMFNMDRT]

Just FYI...you are vested with Northwestern after 5 years, so your renewals will follow you beyond that point. Anyway, you are looking at two fine companies and it boils down to management. With either company you will get appointments with people based off the name alone.

 

[firemanory]

I worked at both. My NML office was super nickel and dime, although they provided great management team to fall back on. Training was second to none, but after almost 5 years of spending all my money on expenses, I needed a change. Mass was a great place to fall back to and have been very accomodating. I am now looking to go independent so I can run things the way I want to. I will still be writing Mass business because they are still a great company to have insurance with.

 

[CFP83]

Just FYI...you are vested with Northwestern after 5 years, so your renewals will follow you beyond that point. Anyway, you are looking at two fine companies and it boils down to management. With either company you will get appointments with people based off the name alone.

NMFNMDRT, that is incorrect. At NML your vesting schedule BEGINS at year 5 and goes through year 15. Year 15 is when you are fully vested and all your renewals leave with you. I recently left NMFN after year 5 and I only have about 15% vesting in my renewals.

I too was MDRT at NMFN, every year I was a full-time rep in the business. It's a great company, one of the finest in the world and a great place to really learn this business. I actually was a friendship lunch speaker about a year ago before I left, and won the "Mountain-top award" in my fast-track class several years ago.

NMFN is a great company to work for and provides worldclass training. With that said, it is not the most supporting culture to be an "objective advisor". As a younger agent, I was never encouraged to shop around when my client got an absurdly high rating....obviously most other companies wouldn't do this either. However, the Mass's and NML's spend and lot of time and money to make sure everyone knows that their rep's are business-owners and not captive. They do not "walk their talk" though because there is not much support given as to becoming a better objective, client focused advisor. They want to make sure everyone knows that their advisors are independent but they really don't support these advisors independence. "Going outside" which at NML was what it was called whenever a rep placed business with another company had this strange feeling to it....almost a guilty feeling. I seen time and time again when people were turned down by NML that the reps would just move on and not even try to shop it with anyone else.

I said all that to summarize why I left that world behind and to ad some value here to this post. The above things made me realize after 5 years and a lot of success at NML, that if I truly cared about my clients the way I told them I did, then I had to do what was in their best interest. NML is one of the finest companies in the world regardless of industry, however in our line of work as our clients trusted advisors we need as many tools as possible to be in a position to give THE BEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION EVERY SINGLE TIME. I felt like I was trying to do every single job with a hammer and a screwdriver.

After leaving and now having my own financial planning firm I realize just how much I didn't know about the world of life insurance and the other companies out there. If it was not Northwestern it wasn't the best solution. I can say with all assurity that 95% or more of Mass and NML agents can not even describe how and index universal life contract works. The companies discredit everything outside of whole life so much that when their reps run across these things they often times simply trash talk these products WITHOUT EVEN UNDERSTANDING THEM. I am a major whole life proponent, however I use that example just to prove a point. There are business planning situations where and IUL will be the better answer for that companies non qualified deferred comp plan because of the great flexibility and potential higher returns than whole-life. However the NML and Mass reps don't even understand these products because their companies do not offer them.

 

[rened]

Hi Sams66,
Which agency are you interested in joining? Each agency is a little different, but MassMutual offers terrific benefits and some agencies even offer a training salary depending on the position (some restrictions apply).
Rene D
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You are not captive with MassMutual.
Rene D

 

[pcbinsurance]

Rene:

This thread is over 5 years old and the thread starter hasn't posted on here in over 4 years.