financial representative

client services specialist

finance manager

staff manager

operations supervisor

Western & Southern Life

I feel that this company could do so much better.  Most of your days as a Financial/Sales rep will be TRYING to get more appointments and meeting those you have.  you are "encouraged" to get 12 appointments for each following week, of which 3-4 should be new sales.  When you are not going to businesses or people's homes door-to-door to sell your products (which I can tell you, people hate). Also, you WILL take part in twice-a-week call sessions (where you will call people at their home between 5:30 and 8pm (yeah, even current clients hate that).  Before I left, they had us cold-calling businesses in the local area as well, during working hours (working people HATE that too).  
Oh, and 80% of the time, when you meet clients or potential clients, you will meet them at their work or their homes.  So, have a good car, a GPS device and keep track of your mileage.  

You get caught in the numbers game.  300 calls to get 12 appointments EACH week, to get 2-4 new sales EACH week.   If you are not a good salesman (or more analytical, like me) this can be soul-draining.   

if you are new to insurance/financial services you get 1.5 months of training, where you will get paid $550/week.  Afterwards, you get paid 100% commission.  Hopefully in training period you build up enough in commission funds to get you through sales droughts. (most of your commission goes into a fund where you are occasionally paid from it).    

you will have to be licensed to sell insurance to get this job, and they are not cheap.  hopefully, your W&S branch will give you a good discount for materials and the exams.

As an agent, you are responsible for a list of current clients.  Yes your duties include fulfilling client requests (loans, option changes, etc).  But really, you are supposed to use your current clients to scrap new sales.  CC fulfillment take up about 10% of your time, unless management changes your duties.  In my office, ALL Current client requests was delegates to our receptionist (at least 4000 clients) and all agents would instead focus 100% on sales.

The thing is, W&S is stuck in the 1880's in terms of marketing itself.  They rely on word of mouth and door-to-door sales for marketing their products.  No local print, TV or radio media. (CEO even said in a company wide email that they would NOT add new media as the company has done fine on what they do now).  Most people thought it was a railroad company instead of Insurance.  I had the option of advertising myself in our local paper, but they would not pay for it.  I would have to pay MYSELF for any non-mail ads.  

They do have a website that briefly describes their products, but it directs it to sales reps instead of offering a buy-your-own.  I did see one W&S TV commercial in 2014, during the Rose parade.  Haven't seen once since.  

 I can say about my branch/district was that my managers were great.  District manager was a minister and was a great all-around guy.    Helped me out whenever he could, as he thought I would do great with a business degree.  Regional manager went to my college, so he could see relate to where I was in life.  When I decided to quit, both tried to keep me, but they volunteered as references for me in my job hunt. ( seeker beware: your managers may vary).  

I have a degree in Finance and was planning  to use this job to get FINRA Certifications.  Reps are "encouraged" to earn their 6 & 66 so they can sell Mutual funds and other investment products. (those reps get paid really well).  Some even get Series 7 and later move on to become stockbrokers.  The thing is, you have to get through sales for several months to get sponsorship.  If you can do that, can be a good place to get certifications.  

I left when I realized I was not a salesman and it was too much work for too little reward.  Two weeks after I left my office closed and clients are now serviced by a branch 1 hour away.

They have fairly-good products, but if they have better coverage with media ads they'd be so much more efficient in generating revenue.

This company offers some of the highest commission rates in the industry, especially for first and second year employees. However, you are pretty much just asked to read some training modules, you're handed a laptop (which you are charged about $60.00 per month for), and told to "Go sell!". As a Sales Rep (or Financial Rep as they are called now) you do receive paid training at about $525 per week for 7 weeks, but I was told that starting in 2014, new customers would not receive any training pay until training was complete so you would essentially be without a paycheck for the first 2 months. After that the company adds a few thousand dollars to your commission bank (the reserve fund that holds the commissions you have earned.) Each week you earn 10% of what is inside your Commission Bank, and are paid on on Bi-Weekly basis. So lets say you have 5,000 in your commission bank on week 8 after your training. You would earn $500 for week 8, bringing your commission bank down to $4,500, and $450 for week nine. These two are added together and you would gross $950 for that bi-weekly pay period. But because it drains so rapidly you MUST keep selling or your paychecks will run out really fast. First year reps get at most 112% Commission on Whole Life products and 56% on Term Products and there are some bonuses you can earn. You also get paid $50 for each policy placed (meaning you deliver a policy you wrote to the owner and have them sign off that they received it.) The commission is based off how much the policy costs per year. If a Whole Life Policy costs the client $1,000 per year, then $1,120 would be added to your commission bank. 

The downside is lack of support from the company. The turnover rate is very high and most clients go through at least 2 different agents each year handling their account. So the "book of business" they promise you has probably already been filtered through and called through 2-3 times by previous reps this year. Sometimes you will receive a home office lead, but even those aren't that great. You can make it at the company for a while by reselling better policies to current clients but you have to be careful about that as well because of chargebacks. If a client on your account lapses or replaces a policy you could have the placement credit (for replacements) or the ENTIRE commission (for new sells) deducted from your bank. All advertising falls on the back of the employee. All W&S provides is business cards. No television exposure or radio ads. If you want to do an event to generate names you are responsible for all costs associated. Even "free giveaways" for clients must be bought by the employee. So you might earn money but if you plan on doing events you turn right around and give it back to W&S.

Company will give you a 7 week salary in which you are trained and get an idea of how to do the job. Training will be every week for as long as you are at the job. The trick is to have a list of people you know in your immediate warm market to call and set appointments for referrals or even better sell them a product. It will take you a few months to get your bearings and to exhaust your warm market. Once warm market is done, you will have to become creative with prospecting, visiting businesses to sell/build relationships, attend networking groups to build professional relationships, do events(cost money), seminars ( cost money),etc. It is advantageous for the new employee to schedule and close as much business as possible during their 7 week salary period as the commissions closed during this period will not be paid until after the 7 weeks. You will need to be a master of forming your own structured schedule, tracking case/lead metrics, following up with every client, and organizing your "business" to make sure you can keep yourself accountable. It is easier if you have some other means of financial support from a loved one or family while you try to get your business off to a good running start. Management will be able to help you run these appointments and close them without taking your commission. Underwriting is a little more slower and conservative at this company. The way the company offers some products and how commissions get paid to you can be confusing as the company has a handful of core products, but other products are through selling agreements with other companies. This company is definitely one of the best places to start or work if you are used to commission job structures, enjoy the constant chase for the next lead, and love no limits in earnings or scheduling . It is better to start here if you have existing networks and relationships that you can pull into the job and start closing business quickly, because the company does not have an existing book of business and they will give you some cold leads and some warm leads ( you need to supplement these with your own leads to get the volume necessary for success). If you are young it is a great place to learn a lot about the business and get started but you will have to work extra hard to build your business.  Western southern has a wonderful management at the agency level that truly cares and would help as much as possible, while being fair with compensation. They have decent products and a very financially stable history of performance.

Work here for 6 months, then come back and see if any of this is false. 

How this is a Fortune 500 company I'll never understand. Management is disjointed, and the home office has horrible communication with the field unless you count their "Connect" emails sent to the field with mostly meaningless info. Local agency management was ok, but the company in general makes promises and dangles the carrot for advancement in front of you, all the while keeping you engaged with vague promises they never deliver on. I was told for over a year that I was going to advance and never did, despite several commendations for production in both my agency as well as in my agency's division.

Don't fall for their bait-and-switch compensation plan, and don't expect to get paid what you earn in commissions on securities business. They have Minimum Performance Standards, which are attainable only if you are willing to do nothing but life insurance business. Bringing in significant investment business will not be enough to reach those standards. Their payouts on securities business are extremely low, and while they provide a company laptop and cover many of the fees associated with doing securities business, it's all a sham. The brokerage side of Western & Southern is a joke, and the knowledge level of most home office employees in that department makes it painfully obvious that they've never work selling in the industry, and generally speaking have little idea of the day-to-day of being a registered representative. 

They will tell you this is not a "sell to your family and friends" position, but will then expect you to hit up family and friends for "leads" on potential business (they refer to it as tapping into your "personal market"). When that dries up, they will expect you to work the book of business they give you when you start with them, in order to upsell existing policyholders, many of whom haven't been contacted in years, probably due to the extremely high turnover in the company. You will come across many, many current policyholders who are unhappy with Western & Southern. All their complaints are valid.

The company will allow you some latitude with working hours and being able to work remotely after your first 13 weeks, but that is the one small consolation to an otherwise horrible job. If you like working and keeping to yourself, you'll enjoy not having to really get to know any co-workers in your local office because most of them will be gone in under a year. In my time there, my local office had a 95% turnover in personnel. 

There is very little redemption to be found in working for Western and Southern Life other than headaches, false promises, and ultimately no reward for your hard work and efforts. Run far and run fast. 

It is a good dream for weeks 1-7 then after 8 the nightmare and realities begin. I didn't receive my exclusive field time and development because the office had more agents suffering then thriving. Later found they weren't suffering at all they just didn't try or care they had other income. Staff was fun and nice lots of laughs they were bad influences though. Most of them admitted to not setting 12 appointments or working no more then 25 hours a week if that but the manager made up numbers too sometimes.  The staff managers were nice and knowledgable but had a lot going on so the office wasn't ran effectively at times . To keep his job  he was spread other places and was even less available. A couple of times out in the field I ran accrossed things that I wasn't  trained on and I felt like I was setup to fail .Some district meetings with other managers showed that different managers bought about different results. I see people write about free lunch that is only the corporate office nothing is free. Starting from the things you need to start your career on. You don't get mileage, pay for a computer postage, and more. Couldn't even get a Kleenex or bandaid, and it was dirty.  If you talk about quitting intervention is coming with a half the day lockdown don't want to lose people empty office = empty pockets for managers. The management was unprofessional with an account of mine it costed a client money unnecessarily and after months of time just stopped calling. So they went else where and was done in one day.  You spend a lot of your time doing maintenance to old messed up accounts explaining they need more money. Also book of business is like the valley of dry bones picked clean over worked and by time you get there your calling  the paid up, broke, sick people clients and they feel harassed. Underwriting is a slow joke nobody gets. As if products aren't limited if declined the guaranteed alternative takes them from affordable to outrageous. A 1/4 of the insurance @ 3x the price.  The agency manager twofold mission is failing. This company has an high outrageous turnover rate for a reason save your time money and effort.

Pros
Great benefits. Seriously. They have free breakfast and lunch EVERY DAY!

Great career advancement opportunities.

Really good coworkers. You'll never be board.

Cons
Too little staff for the workload. Expectation that you'll complete 100%+ of your workload while acting as "back-up" to the extremely understaffed call center. You will spend more than 1/3 of your time answering calls from policy owners, agents, and various other third parties as the call center has a total of 6 associates to answer calls.

Management's attitude toward the impossible expectations is to make sure you know that overtime is available. The problem with overtime being available is that it is never not available.

The managers are good people stuck with upper management that cares nothing for their associates.

Advice to Management
Stop giving false service level statistics. Let your associates work without overtime.

Yes. This will create a backlog. But, that is the ONLY WAY you will ever be able to show upper management that more people are needed to provide the policy owners and agents the level of service they deserve.

Some advice for the parent company Western and Southern Financial Group:
All of the companies under your umbrella have their life insurance and annuity business separate with the exception of one.
All of the companies have MULTIPLE  teams to service policies/contracts with the exception of one.
Do the same for the Lafayette Life Insurance Company. It is unconscionable that you allow this asset to push 8 associates to service all policy/contract needs between issue and claim while all of your other asset companies have literally DOZENS of associates over multiple teams handling the same.

 Western and Southern Life is a captured, commission/quota based company. Typical employee is there 2 years to 5 years, a lot of turnover. Management is management, some there to help you succeed.  A great job for extroverts and you really need to have great soft skills. Good work life balance, but you will be seeing clients after 5pm and some Saturdays. This is an individual sport, not team sport so need to be very motivated and a go getter. You are promised a 2yr base pay on a descending scale based on meeting your sales quota every 13 weeks, if you don't meet it you are either straight commission or terminated. You are also required to pass the SIE exam to keep your base pay. A typical day consists of a group meeting or a one on one with your manager. There is a lot of telemarketing calling existing clients for new business or referrals and new leads to generate appointments. Each week we guestimate our sales for the week on a  whiteboard and compare to what we actually did at end of week. Afternoons are spent going on appointments to clients, presentations to businesses and networking, etc. You will improve your time management, your organizational skills and your people skills. If you enjoy meeting people and like a little bit of freedom, this is for you. Hardest part of the job is finding consistent new leads and businesses. I would not recommend it for single people who are sole breadwinners for their family who are just starting out in this industry as it takes a while to build a customer base and your income can be inconsistent until then. 

Always reported to the office each day.  Launched at the computer to prepare reports and check on status of policies submitted and if there were any corrections that needed to be made based on not passing the screening process.  They sometimes needed more information.  I learned about life policies and the different variety available and determining which products best suited the customers needs.  I learned to do presentations and to do annual policy reviews; conduct field underwriting.  Co-workers were all great to work with.  Offering support in understanding the products and what features to focus on when confronted with customers that were in the market for they protection they offered with the benefits some had.  Hardest part of the job was getting customers or leads.  They didn't advertise and so no one was too familiar with the company even they had been around for so many years.  So we had to put out the expense to make them more known to our vicinity.  The most enjoyable part of the job was getting the appointment(s) and traveling to follow up with them and putting together what they were looking for in protection needs.

If you want to make 40k, if you hit all the minimum production standards, and be forced to cold call all day in an attempt to sell life insurance products from only one carrier, which is overpriced with horrible underwriting, this job is for you.

Despite their claims, the company will provide extraordinarily poor training where are you will be constantly forced to consume yourself with endless webinars and no real applicable sales training.

Ethics is also not the companies, strong suit. If you are a tobacco, user or a smoker, they will not hire you. Unless, of course you’re one of the good old boys. The current vice president of sales is a well known cigarette smoker.  A totally incompetent agency manager was recently promoted to divisional  vice president.  This very political person (how he got the promotion)openly vapes at company sponsored events.  This hypocrisy is just a sample of what you will experience as an employee of this company. 

Should you decide to interview with this company as a financial representative, do yourself a favor and ask the hiring manager what the turnover rate is within that agency and how the company as a whole measures. Nine out of 10 hires will leave within nine months.  They’re desperate for recruits as they just burn through people.

There were good and bad things, but what sticks out the most is the lack of support and guidance. As soon as you start you are expected to be making at least 12 appointments a week (reasonable) while also studying to take the SIE and Series 6 exams, because they want everyone to be financial advisors who also sell insurance. The pay is minimal and terminates if you do not pass said exams within a certain time frame. The only training is computer modules and a work book which your manager will glance at once a day. 

It wasn’t all bad. There were a couple of senior sales people who had been with the company for 20-30 years that were very helpful when they could be, which is the only reason I was able to have any success at all.  The ladies in the clerical department were probably the most knowledgeable about most of the policies and the DOS-like computer system that was used for accounts and billing. My manager had no idea how the computer system worked. 

The thing I hated the most was that my manager kept trying to get me too cold call ex coworkers, old friends, schoolmates, and relatives to solicit business. It felt invasive. Also the “leads” we got were mostly poor older folks who would only qualify for policies they can’t afford. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Financial representative 322 salaries reported	$63,781 per year
Client services specialist 22 salaries reported	$22.23 per hour
Finance manager 11 salaries reported	$116,818 per year
Staff manager 23 salaries reported	$69,931 per year
Operations supervisor 15 salaries reported	$26.84 per hour

Working at Western & Southern Life: Company Overview and Reviews

Western & Southern Life

Western & Southern Life Ratings

Popular jobs at Western & Southern Life

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected