Basically I’d like to know if anyone has worked for or dealt with Western-Southern Life: What was your opinion? Should I consider working for them?



The rest is the long version of my situation… (reading it is probably optional):

I posted here a few weeks ago and got some very sound advice, which I followed as best as I could.

Basically it my actionable advice boiled down to:
-Do not join up with Ameriprise
-Apply to Raymond James
-Apply to MassMutual, Northwestern Mutual, NY Life, and Guardian.

Unfortunately, given my recent move to my Raleigh NC, and a only mediocre personality test scores, RJ and NWM rejceted me flat out. I am still talking with MassMutual, but I am not hopeful. NYL and Guardian have not gotten back with me.

The recruiter at NWM said she believes that once I get integrated into the community over the next 6 months to few years that I could have a decent shot with Northwestern. So she said she will call me back in 6-12 months to see where I am at and if I want to re-apply.

Concurent with all of these developments I have been talking with Western-Southern life. I have met 3 of the managers at the Raleigh office and they seem like really good guys.

More importantly I have told them of my lack of natural market in the area and they still are interested in hiring me. They believe that with the prospecting systems they have (cold calling, qualified lead lists, events, etc) and my past sales experience I have a good shot, though a hard one to be sure.

I am pleased to hear this as I want to get my foot in the door in the industry, and they offer a $450 a week base “Salary” (I am not sure if it is forgiven or comes out of commission… I intend to clarify next time I meet with them).

So given all that, is starting with WS a wise choice? They seem kind of “Ameriprise-ish” in their prospecting methods, but with my lack of personal market I am not sure that is really “Bad”. All their insurance ratings are very good… A++, Superior, etc.

But do they offer quality products? Specifically, I intend to focus on the young professional market just out of college/grad school/trade school… do they have products that fit that market?

Would I be to limited with them? I know they have a 2 year “Don’t compete” clause in their contract… should I reject on that alone?

I know many of these questions are questions to ask the managers… and I will, I have a list of 16 specific questions I want to ask them sitting in front of me… but I want to get some objective opinions from here on the Rep boards too.

Thanks for the advice.