Pros
Many of the lower and mid manager level employees really seem to care about the company's clients.
Cons
Most of the upper management honestly are very much out for themselves and will do almost anything imaginable to cover themselves. People are put in management roles (often very high roles within the company) and they cannot manage people. There is a difference between being a project manager and a people manager. When senior leaders are made aware of a lack of management, they often turn their heads to the point that honestly First Command puts itself in a liablility for an employment lawsuit. Although I did not witness this firsthand, I heard numerous people stating that they had been asked by their managers to go on to Glassdoor and write positive things about First Command and working there. Many of them may have written more than one positive review. For this reason, I would not put a lot of weight into many of the comments on this site. I will state from an advisor and a home office perspective that it is very difficult to be successful with this company. Although I did not work directly with the advisors to discuss such matters, it was well known thoughout the company and even the competition and the military market that First Command was only interested in selling something they refer to as whole life insurance which apparently is a lot more expensive and makes First Command a lot more money. Even when advisors feel this is not the best choice for the client, they are compensated a lot less if they do not sell it. Advisors looking to go to work for this company need to be aware of this. This from what others said had been brought to management's attention that advisors did not understand why they were penalized for doing what was right for the client but management simply stated that it was the right thing regardless. Please keep in mind that I do not know much about the industry, but to me it seems a bit shady.
