Pros
1. Unlimited income potential 2. Industry leading training program 3. Company culture is the best I have ever experienced 4. Several different advancement opportunity tracks 5. The opportunity to operate your own practice as an entrepreneur with the backing of a Fortune 100 company 6. District agent contract is with New York Life is hands down the best employment contract in the entire industry
Cons
1. You HAVE TO PRODUCE! The compensation is commission dependent with no base salary. There is a production based bonus of up to 80% of commission plus addition to other production bonuses for the first 36 months with the company to supplement new agents while they build a book of business. That said, if you expect to get paid for showing up then perhaps this isn't the career for you. Building your financial services practice is no different than starting a business from the ground up! You need to be completely self motivated and have an alternate income (such as spouse income, investments, or pension from previous career) or 6 - 12 months of savings while you are building your practice. If you come into this expecting to be profitable from day one then you probably need to find a different career. 2. You must have a thick skin! If you can't deal with hearing the word "no" then this is probably not the career for you. You are going to hear it all the time. This is a sales position and "no" is simply part of the customer/client psychology. 3. You can't be a know it all. I've seen too many people fail in this career because they walked in thinking they had a better way and didn't follow through on what they were trained to do. You can't do that. I hate to say it but if you're going to be successful in a career with New York Life, you have to drink the Kool-aid. There's a reason this company has the top advisors and agents in the industry and completely dominates membership at MDRT. Its because the systems work...as long as you do!
