Prudential Reviews

Where to begin... you get hired and start of in the CDP (career development program). You are Givin roughly 5 months to pass all licensing (life/health, series 6, and series 63) which you pay for out of pocket (roughly $1,000). Also a requirement to get out of CDP is to hit a certain level of production ($6,000 GDR/annual premiums AND 5 core products I.e. life policies and annuities). Wrote a huge life insurance case for $8,000 annual premium? Too bad, still need to write 4 more policies in order to get paid for it! Long story short, you'll go through the first 3-5 months without being paid and busting your ass between 40-70 hours per week with absolutely nothing to show for, including any company benefits. What happens if you don't meet the requirements within the given time frame? See you later, and no $$ for you! Also, the veterans in the office will prey on you and try to take you on "joint appointments"with your friends and family to get a portion of your commissions. They aren't stupid, they know that 9/10 newbies will be gone within a year and they want a piece of your pie. If/when you do graduate from the CDP program, you finally start getting paid, business cards, and begin to finally feel like a real employee. Keep in mind that you are not a financial advisor, you are a life insurance salesman first and might get lucky and write an annuity or some mutual funds in the process. BUT, anybody who has any money to invest has already done so with an actual advisor from Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, etc who can actually write the same exact Prudential annuities and mutual funds themselves. You will undoubtedly be given huge lists of "orphan"clients (Pru customers whose salesman had left the company so they don't have a servicing rep), which you will call on blindly. You will soon find that about 95% of them either -have been contacted within the last year and don't want to talk to anybody from Pru because they've been screwed by somebody in the past. -will reluctantly meet with you, which ends up in changing beneficiaries for their $5,000 30 year old policy I.e. No money for you and a lot of wasted gas and 2 hours of your time. -want to hear about how you can help them with retirement, only to find out they either have no money or somebody else has done a Pru annuity for them from a different company. So, you will probably get face to face with lots of people, and regardless of how great of a salesman you are, people will act interested and ultimately do nothing or go elsewhere for business. You will be expected to buy leads, marketing materials, and anything else that will help you to stay from scratch to hopefully survive in this company, and not get reimbursed for any of it. I would say I've spent about half of the money I've earned to just barely stay afloat and keep business coming in. People who need life insurance either can't afford it or are wayyyy too unhealthy to qualify for it. People who can afford it and are healthy enough already have it. People are scared to death of annuities, or they already have one with somebody else. People who are looking to save for retirement or their child's education either will or have already done so elsewhere. People look at Pru as a life insurance company, not a company that will lead them to retirement. Before you think to yourself "this guy is bitter/poor salesman/lazy/doesnt produce" let me just say that I've been here 2+years, hit every sales goal and bonus I've been challenged to hit, and networked like crazy working minimum 50 hours/week to barely make $30, 000 a year. Which, like I mentioned, I have spent roughly half of putting money back in to my practice to move forward. If you have sales experience, a boatload of patience, a family/friends with tons of money and trust you, and a good amount of money in savings before starting, then MAYBE take this job and pray to whatever god it is you pray to. If you don't have ALL of these things I mentioned, run far far away and don't fall into the traps and lies that management will surely feed you along the interview process. They get paid for hiring people and retaining people who produce at a certain level, so when you sign the contract it's money on their pocket. When you do write business, it will be picked through with a fine toothed comb. Cases will surely get rejected, which means money you thought you made will be taken right out of your draw account for the most ridiculous reasons you can imagine. It amazes me the opposing forces within the company of produce produce produce and "oh, sorry, we can't approve this case that you just worked your ass off for and in no way puts the client in a poor situating" So, in 2 words, GOOD LUCK!

To get hired with Pru you have 26 weeks to acquire your Life & Health, Series 6 & 63 licenses and you must sell $5000 of GDR (policy totals and at least 5 sales) before you are considered an employee and this will be at your own expense. There is an initial Intelligence Profile test which is extremely challenging and takes over an hour. Depending on how you score, they can apparently determine how well you'll do with passing your exams and succeeding in the business in general. I scored 87% which was considered high but many score in the 50%. Anything less than 50% is generally not acceptable. The exam process is brutal, with Life & Health being the 'easiest' to pass, and the 6 & 63 the toughest. Many people do not pass the first time, and they will only reimburse you the first one. You are responsible for paying for all exam materials and all other costs until you finish your requirements and at that point they reimburse you quickly. Many people do not make it through this process especially if they have financial pressure or work full time. It is extremely time consuming so be prepared to sacrifice a few months of your life. After filling out a detailed application listing every possible job and place you've lived and disclosing anything negative in your financial or personal history, they will do a thorough background check before the SEC does a criminal check and fingerprinting. To hold a securities license you must bare your soul. But the good news is, they understand life happens, so just be honest and communicate and hope for the best. While you're doing all of this they have what are called 'PLN's' which are endless and can feel overwhelming. They are basically online education about everything having to do with the highly scrutinized securities industry. Some are quick and easy to get through and many are not. You will read about products and ethics and on and on, finish with a short test and then it's filed in your information. It's a way for them to protect themselves and to provide intensive training. You won't learn much from them because you need to get through them so quickly and there are always hundreds more no matter how many you manage to do and time is always of the essence with Pru (good time management skills are imperative). After you've finished all of this and graduate to a full time employee, you are paid on commission. You start out with your $5000 GDR (usually 45% of GDR depending on the product you sold) and they put all commissions in a 'bucket' to be dispersed in equal amounts ($1200 every two weeks) unless you go over the $4800 minimum in you bucket. They give you quotas which are very high but do-able, and if you reach your quotas they have very generous bonuses. Pru will give you 'orphan ' leads in return for certain expecttions. These are people who haven't had an agent in years, have probably already been called, and are generally far away, but they are warm bodies with some potential for a sale. You are expected to make hundreds of phone calls every week and you should have 12 to 15 appointments per week. They also want you to brand yourself in your community so it means going to network meetings, church involvement, charity work, etc. They teach you to have an 'elevator speech' and so every person you meet is a potential 'client'. You need to be able to talk to strangers and try to sit down with them for coffee and put them in your ever growing pipeline for follow up. They are in the process of switching to SalesForce which is free, but any regular contact like newsletters, advertising, marketing, etc. is paid for by the agent. They have lead programs where you can buy leads from them but you may or may not ever get any leads. A good way to find people wanting to buy insurance right away is by purchasing leads from independent companies. The cheapest leads ($10) will be shared with 3 to 5 other agents so everyone is calling the client who just went online for a quote, or exclusive leads which are upwards of $25 per lead. They have a higher closing ratio and can get you to your bonus goals which theoretically pay you back your investment. In a nut shell, you need to determine if this kind of job is a good fit for you. It will be probably the hardest job entry you'll ever experience, but that alone can be rewarding. It's a good long term career, or a good stepping stone if you have the fortitude.