Recent College Grad, Should I Work for New York Life?

[Bob Klee]

My $.02 is that P&C is Way easier to sell when you are wet behind the ears & right out of college.

Everyone needs home & auto insurance. You have to Sell Life insurance! People don't walk in your agency or call your office asking you to write a life policy on them. Same with Financial planning. Forget LUTCF, think CFP! That is the designation investors look for if you want to have a future in financial planning.

LM is a good company. I've had a few of their agents over the years in LUTC classes. Not a bad way to start as you don't have to have your own capital like you would with Allstate for instance.

Do ask for new agents you can talk to: less than 12 months & 13-24 months. Best way to get the Real deal.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[xrac]

Bob Klee, the last designation I desire is a CFP. They have raised their fees, they have instituted B.S. compliance of their own, and they are trying to push everyone into fee only compensation. CFP's are a dime a dozen and most of them do not know how to sell. Rick at Topgunproducers says CFP stands for Can't ??????? Produce.

 

[CamaroRacing12]

well i got a in eprson interview with liberty mutual monday morning then my "pre-requisite" classes start with NYL monday evening

 

[Franz Kafka]

Now the position is 100% commission (which to be honest worries me) but the commission structure seems great. It seems like a good job but just a risky thing because i wont make any money until i make my first sale which could be months from now.

"All financial planners/advisors/consultants/whatever are SALESMEN who run their OWN BUSINESSES. Most start-up businesses fail but some succeed."

Repeat that a hundred times and see if you still want to do it.

 

[CamaroRacing12]

here is the info i got from the phone interview with liberty mutual:

-Personal Market position auto/life/home

-13 week paid training program, no selling, property, casulty, and life licenses paid for by them

-1 week in Phenoix for training and 1 week in Orlando for training

-40% inside 60% outside prospecting new leads

-Mileage reinbursment

-Sales only no service

-401k and they match up to 7%

-about $40k base while training and then its cut to $20k base once the 13 weeks is up OTE first year is $60k

-25% provided leads 75% prospected leads

-Oh and the office I would be working out of is like 15 min from my house


Now here is what i got about NYL:

-Financial Planner position (mostly life/Retirement)

-be selling right away (few weeks) with ongoing training for 3 years (unpaid)

-100% commission from the get go, so no paid training or base pay.

-I pay for my own tests and if i pass they reinburse me but he was saying i need to purchuse $120 study materials from them? but then said he could try to get old ones for free? dn that seemed sketchy

-The office is about an hour away from me and i would be going there everyday (without pay until i make my first sale)

-But the commission structure seemed great for ur first 3 years, bonuses left and right from commission. said if i make about $50k in commission my first year i'd make about $100k


So those are the two big insurance positon options for me right now on the table. To be honest Liberty Mutual does sound a lot better with the base pay and the 13 week training before selling etc etc. but maybe you guys know something about that situation that i dont?

 

[BNTRS]

A newly minted college grad rarely has the contacts and social stature to be a going concern in the financial planning arena. I've lost business because I didn't look old enough. If you're going to hang with NYL, you'll need to be prepared to spend some serious marketing money, it can work out, but it's certainly scary for a while.

Keep in mind one of my favorite de-motivational posters:

"Before you attempt to beat the odds, be sure you could survive the odds beating you."

Sure you could potentially earn a lot of money at NYL. I could also have the dozen or so NQDC prospects that stalled over the past year call me tomorrow and make this month a really good one, but that's unlikely.

Ask yourself this question, how comfortable are you in talking to your friends about their personal finances vs. asking them if they want to buy home and auto insurance from you?

Success at NYL is most often had by middle-age men who have worked in some sort of professional career setting and for some reason make a big career change to insurance and financial planning (and a lot of them fail, too). If the manager at NYL tells you otherwise he or she is lying.

Liberty Mutual is more a starting out in the business company, much more so than NYL. It's a much better training wheels situation. No one said you have to stay once you've reached the useful limit there.

 

[Bob Klee]

xrac,
I don't know about CFP requirements/credibility today. I earned my certificate in Financial Planning from Belmont University after a years worth of classes back in 2005 just as HTQ was starting to be more than a 2 person operation. So for "fun" I sat for the CFP since I'd just finished my year of studying for it & I didn't pass the test. That was the toughest test [2 days] I've ever sat for! Passing the 6/63, any state ins. license exam....grade school level of difficulty by comparison.

IMO, all the other alphabet designations we can earn, while we may consider them better, the consumer does not. Have you seen an ad in Fortune/Forbes telling the public to look for an agent with LUCTF, CIC, CLU, "ABC" when buying life/investments, etc.? No you haven't. But we do see full page ads saying to look for a planner with the CFP designation! So, no matter what those of us IN the industry think, to me, for a newbie, wet behind the ears future Financial planner, CFP gives him instant credibility to the Public! They vote with their $$.

I have friends with nice size financial practices that don't have a CFP & some that do. The older guys scoff at it because it does not mean superior knowledge to them either. Plus they get all the business they can handle by referral these days anyway.

Obviously those that have earned their CFP know how to pass a difficult test! Other than that, I don't know since I don't play in that space anymore.

But I did earn my LUTCF!!

 

[Franz Kafka]

But we do see full page ads saying to look for a planner with the CFP designation! So, no matter what those of us IN the industry think, to me, for a newbie, wet behind the ears future Financial planner, CFP gives him instant credibility to the Public! They vote with their $$.

That's your pure assumption. That simply isn't the case in real life. JMO

 

[CamaroRacing12]

i posted a reply under the "Go Advanced" tab and it hasent come up yet? this post detailed the differences between what New York Life and Liberty Mutual had to offer me.

NYL seems like a great company. But liberty mutual seems like a good company too and they offer a $40k base pay while training. and its a full 13 week training process with no selling until after training is complete. when training is complete base pay gets cut in about half and commission starts with sales. i would be selling auto/home/life only.

 

[jcarring99]

Where do you get your leads at liberty mutual? Is it company leads or is it self generated leads?