Ross,

B24 …thank you for the Readers Digest response to Ross. I also was puzzled as to " work/life balance needs " on list. But then that’s just me.

I guess I was right when I saw most folks here seem to be harsh.  Never painted houses, never will, but anyway.  Let me shorten it up.

Honestly i don't like any of those options.

Are you implying those are not good companies to work for?  Which do you suggest?

Ross ,

Sounds good.  Thank you very much for the insight.

There are some contradictions here.  One, you say you don't mind working long hours, but have qualms about door knocking and that cold calling you 'guess your OK with.' The long hours will be entirely door knocking and cold calling. .... Two, you seem a bit sensitive for someone who is going to have to have 25 or 30 conversations daily with the public, most of them negative.

Alrighty then.

I hear Ameriprise is hiring.

Is that a joke?  Or is Ameriprise actually a good company to work for?  100% comm.?  1099?

Yes.  I managed a route sales team.  I also traveled in personal vehicle and made sales calls within assigned territory.

[quote=Ferris Bueller]

Your writing style is very familiar.  I think your username was parachute/flamingo...

With Bankers' Life, you will be a captive agent with a company that has unacceptably poor 3rd party ratings.  Can you make money with them?  Sure.  Can you do what is best for your clients?  No.  In competetive situations, you will lose 100% of the time to a quality agent.

You are getting beat up on because there is much in your post that would lead one to believe that you won't succeed in this business. 

RickRoss,



There is a lot of information on the insurance forum website insurance-forums.net. There you will find hundreds of comments on State Farm (and yes, prepare to be poor, poor for 5 years and have money to invest), Metlife (whom I believe still has a signing bonus but is straight commish), and AFLAC are on that forum too…You might want to look into New York Life, they have a good training program as well.

If you want P&C and have some money to invest, look into Allstate…but go to the insurance forum for comments.

This is a good forum if your interest is with EDJ or other investment companies.

p.s. Ameriprise comment was a joke…Ameriprise is a joke.

Okay, so I’ve been directed elsewhere for my questions, but I want to ask this anyway.

1:  If you  “smell b.s., but for some reason, I’m still curious and want to go.”  I would suggest a good therapist or perhaps some pill.  They should cure your strange problem but I hear they can cause suicidal tendencies.

2:  If there were 20+ agents in an office and it was located on the moon I would say it is very high and it would matter a lot.

if those were my ONLY options, i would choose to interview more extensively with Met and EDJ, and choose from them.  I have worked at both.
depending on the agency, Met can be a great place to work.  they have a 3 year "salary"program for new producers.  they have an excellent brand name, and finding insurance prospects is very easy compared to investment people.  but the key is your office.  if the management is bad, it will be a bad agency.  Met has many fee based products to choose from and has chosen to ATTEMPT to be a “full service” entity.  but again, alot depends on the vision/direction of the man/woman above.  you will have product requirements from within the enterprise, which simply means your contract will demand you sell $X of insurance products (life, di,ltc)
i would look at the office setting.  does it look like a place you would want to bring your hnw clients?  do they even try to do financial planning?  or are they simply trying to sell insurance?

ed jones is a great brand name as well.  your payout will be brutal, but you will have many many more resources on the investment side of the business, which YOU will pay for by a reduced commission, this is both good and bad.  i know alot of reps pummel EDJ for their low payout, but what you get early on is a big plus.  it begins to look worse and worse the further along in your career you get.  your insurance payout will be garbage, so you will likely choose to not even pursue much insurance early on, especially if you are unfamiliar with those topics.  their training will be good-when it comes to workload and prospecting.  they will essentially MAKE you do what is necessary to survive, which is PROSPECT.  do not look for a ton of investment training per se, especially when early on it will not dictate too much whether you succeed or fail.  jones will set you up with an office and assistant, which can be huge for a newbie.
don’t kid yourself though, the 2 cultures are completely different.  try to find out, best you can, the atmosphere of the Met agency you would be working in, and then i would explain to Jones you feel it is way too difficult to start from zero, and see what they say.  biggest mistake prospective hires, or interview candidates, make is to not ask enough questions.  good lord, it is your freaking career!  if they cannot answer your questions move on.  and if you don’t have the stones to bring up some of these things, how the hell will you ask someone ELSE to invest $500,000 with you?  you will never get it (answers/orders) without asking.

I took the time to write down the reasons I should / shouldn't go into this Final Interview tomorrow.

To make a long story short, no pun intended, the list of WHY I SHOULD go to the interview is almost laughable. Point blank, if I get an offer I know (for many, many reasons, which I won't delve into here), I won't take the job.

The main reason I am even considering going to the interview is b/c I have some questions that I'm curious to see how they'd answer. Also, since I put some many hours into researching Bankers, I almost feel I should "go one more step." I'm interested to see how far I'll make it and how many more lies they will tell to get me to sign the contracts. Kind of sick, huh?

I guess I'll make my final decision in the morning.
Hopefully I get a few more posts before then with some feedback. Thanks, guys!