Pros
-Unlimited earning potential (if you have a "book of business" and are good at harassing people; friends and total strangers, into buying life insurance) -They'll provide study materials for you to get your security licenses, which will come in real handy when you decide that you want to get a job that actually pays you on a regular basis for all your hard work.
Cons
No base pay, you actually get charged for working there. My expenses on a monthly basis were; Phone-$40, Office Supplies-$50, Cubicle-$120... So you start off every month being minus $210. They wont mention any of this at any of the interviews you attend. They'll just tell you that you will have the "opportunity to make six figures in your first year" - They don't provide you with any leads, you have to go out and find your own clients. You can buy your own leads from a third party, which everyone tries at some point but they cost about $25 per lead, needless to say most of those don't pan out, and since you don't have budget you have to pay for that out of pocket as well. They won't compensate you for any of your expenses such as gas, metro cards, clients lunches and dinners, etc. For me personally that was about another $400 per month. Meanwhile at every meeting you will hear how New York Life has a $23 BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS, and yet there you are shelling out about $600 a month just to keep working there. -Underwriting works at their own pace, cases can often take months to be approved, a lot of the time you as the agent won't get paid until the case is approved. -If your client cancels their policy or dies within the first year of the sale, you will lose that commission immediately (Ex. you made a $2000 commission in April, the client cancelled in May, your ledger will be be minus $2000 in June, and then they will take out $210 for the office expenses so you're looking at a $2210 hole to start the next month. Until you made another sale of $2210 dollars, you will NOT get a paycheck.) -You are also expected to work EXCLUSIVELY for New York Life, if let's say you bartend or wait tables on the weekends they expect you to resign as soon as you become full time, even though they don't pay you a salary. I was working at a high end bar on the weekends where I met a good chunk of my client base, but I was told to quit immediately or my contract with New York Life would be voided. -If you don't want to harass your friends and family, and you don't have an existing book of business, you are told to purchase a New York Life Table Cloth, which cost $70, some pens which are $1 each, and a few New York Life Information signs which can cost you anywhere from $13-25, and go stand on a busy street and try to convince strangers to trust you with hundreds of dollars per month. When I asked one of the managers what I'm supposed to do in the winter when it's too cold to stand outside, he looked me square in the face and said "Put on a coat." -They say there is room for growth, but if you are an agent and you somehow manage to survive for two years, they'll make you a "partner", which really means it will be your job to find gullible kids straight out of college or desperate people looking for a job and con them into working for no base salary. -If you happen to have a slow month and you don't bring in enough business to produce a paycheck, not only will you be stressed about being broke, you will also find yourself in a room with you r boss who will lecture you about how you have to put more effort into your work and go out there and meet ten people a day. You will be told to attend networking events, most of which cost money, and yes you guessed it, that comes out of your pocket as well. -There are two hour sales meetings every Monday, and classes every Wednesday and Friday. My sales meeting included the managing partner of my office, who probably had about 5 espressos, come out and yell at everyone about how our office needs to sell 400 cases by the end of the month. He would tell us to go back into our book of business and call EVERYONE we know and see if there is anything we can sell them. Needless to say by the end of the meeting everyone was more depressed then they were when they walked in. -Keep in mind the retention rate for New York Life agents is 11%, that means 9 out of 10 people quit within a few months.If you work there you will notice a fresh batch of about 15-20 recruits get hired every month, and if you're there long enough you will see that only 1 or 2 will actually stay with the company. I was one of the 2 recruits who stayed from my class, to my own detriment, and that is why I am writing this lengthy review. -Last but not least, they will hire just about anyone. You feel like you made it, you work in a fancy office, and then you show up to a Monday morning meeting to find someone who is totally unqualified for the job talking about how they plan to make $20,000 in commissions this month. That same person stops showing up before the month is over. Their desk is cleaned out without a second thought because they were never really an employee there, they just rented a desk and a phone and tried to sell New York Life products. -If you are a goof person and you finally decide that you had enough, you tell you boss you are leaving, they won't even try to stop you. Why would they? They get to keep the commissions from your active cases when you are gone, and they got new victims waiting for your desk to be cleared out so they can sit there and pay $210 per month.
