Anonymous-  Thank you for your help. Still scared, but from looking at your post I am in complete control of what happens to me.  That I like, I am willing to bet on myself.  I can last through a slow beginning with my savings (at least 4 to 6 months) but then I need to be making some money as I will be the sole wage earner for the house.

what they dont tell you till you start is that they nickel and dime you on everything. phones, copies, even coffee.

registration fees, office space, any planning software, e&o, state licensing, then you cant call yoruself a financial planner, register with the corporate RIA, pay for registration in every state for that.

and oh yeah, cant mark your investment transactions as solicited, as you cannot solicite investments.

and oh yeah... whole life is the holy grail and will solve any problem...

Sorry you failed out, aeromaks.

Aeromaks, produce and you won't care about nickels and dimes. 

I didnt fail out. lol. please, the requirements at an insurance are low ball, I produced in a month what half my office did in a quarter.

I am a former UBS advisor, and worked at Amp before.

and you are right, its not the company, its the GA.

anom, and no, our GA doesnt want anything marked solicited for any investments.

do the products work, yes, but the platforms are highly developed and lacking. Ameriprise had a better training platform than here.

I came to this GA, after my insurance brokerage director recommended it to me. I did mass products when I was an advisor at UBS.

I am by all means making money here, producing well, qualified for rising leaders in 2 months... yet, all that still stands true.

My business was a good mix between fee based planning, fee based wrap accoutnts for investments. I did insurance for the protection planning.

Here, there is no retirement planning, pay for naviplan, pay for Leap, pay for licensing, my compliance doesnt want to read over the financial plans, the investment platform is basicly non existant and no where near what the wirehouses offer. the only way sales managers get comped is on insurance production, and the GA cares about pleasing MM. Investments are a secondary business.... kind of like financial plans were at wirehouses.

I am just kind of pissed that I was not informed of any of this before coming here. This is a rant of how the office is done, and how the GA is structured... not about the company products.

Just a little background about me, I started with Amp, was knocking the ball off of its cover, was recruited to UBS 2 years later, worked there for 2 years until the cuts came in. After that, passed up alot of other opportunities, wirehouses, banks, indy's, and came to the GA of the my insurance broker who I sold Mass products through when I was at UBS. during the 5 meetings I was in with the management of the GA, everything was promised, but when coming here, the little stuff that they dont tell you about comes out, and this is stuff that I even asked out.

for instance registration, I was told point blank, the GA would pick up the tab for license transfers, just to come over. they just did my transfer, and only picked up the home state, the other securities states, left me with a $600 bill.

Planning software, told me if I wanted to use it, would have to pay for it, an extra couple thousand.

so... its the little stuff. is it preventing me from being successful? absolutely not, but just wish they were more up front about it, and what their interestes are aligned with.

just to be clear, the only rant against MassMutual itself is just the lack of an investment platform, and not providing any planning software worth anything.

Sounds like you were the one who didn’t do their due diligence.  Seems to me all it would’ve taken was a few questions on your part, and the stuff “they didn’t tell you about” would’ve been answered.  And for the love of all that’s holy, what did you expect when you decided to become a career agent at Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company?  That they wouldn’t care about your insurance production?

Investments will always be a secondary business to a company like MM.  Their B/D operation is probably a break even proposition at best for them.  That doesn’t mean that investments have to be secondary to you.    MM’s B/D is independent.  Never expect an independent B/D to pay for much for you.  That is why you can get a payout of 80%+.

[quote=anonymous]Investments will always be a secondary business to a company like MM. Their B/D operation is probably a break even proposition at best for them. That doesn’t mean that investments have to be secondary to you. MM’s B/D is independent. Never expect an independent B/D to pay for much for you. That is why you can get a payout of 80%+.

[/quote]

thanks, and you are absolutely right. the other thing is, I am getting far better treatment otherwise vs the other people that are starting, or transfering to the firm. I was brought in onto a position to work with the new guys and help them with the cases in addition to running my own practice.

What really hit me was just the other stuff that I have to pay for. Now considering my production, I will not have to pay for office expenses, rent, telephones etc.... but it is just a novel concept to me. =P

You’re not listening to this guy (Aeromarks).  There are separate issues with the MML General Agent, but are legitimate issues with MML as a whole as well.  By their own admission at every MML conference I attended, the B/D was a tack-on service.  Customer service at the B/D is willing but undertrained and uninformed, and the mistakes they made with client accounts were just nonstop.  Poor platforms, planning software, etc.  For someone interested in truly offering a full menu of services, this is not the best fit.  It really IS all about the insurance (which, for the most part, is excellent).