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Kestra Financial

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Extremely Distrustful and Toxic Culture — Leadership Needs Serious Reflection - Anonymous employee Kestra Financial Employee Review

1.0
Oct 19, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are very few pros to working at this company. Among them are some genuinely kind and supportive co-workers who try to make the best of a difficult environment. Depending on the department, you may find a handful of managers who truly care about their teams—but they are the exception, not the rule.

Cons

Micromanagement is extreme. The company installs ActiveTrak on all employee laptops and monitors every minute of activity. If you step away from your computer—even while still working—you’re likely to receive an email asking you to explain your time or apply PTO. Not all work happens on a laptop, but this nuance seems completely ignored. This culture of surveillance fosters deep distrust and damages morale. Burnout is normalized and even celebrated. Employees are expected to work around the clock, and anyone who tries to maintain a healthy work-life balance (a reasonable 40–45 hours per week) is labeled “not a team player.” Those who overextend themselves are praised, which only reinforces the toxic cycle. The workload continually increases without appropriate recognition or compensation. When employees begin to struggle under the unsustainable pressure, management often targets them—hyper-focusing on minor mistakes while disregarding years of positive contributions. It’s a demoralizing and hostile environment where bullying and belittlement are far too common. HR, rather than being a neutral advocate, operates solely in the company’s interest. The department has one of the highest turnover rates, and its leadership is widely viewed as manipulative, unempathetic, and a major contributor to the toxic culture. Unfortunately, the C-suite appears indifferent or unaware of the deep issues within their organization.

Explore other reviews about Kestra Financial

5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a solid place to work if you want to get into tech or wealth management in Austin. They are hiring a lot right now to build out the tech platform that the financial advisors use. You get to see how the wealth management industry works from the inside and work on technology that directly impacts advisors, which gives you good experience. Everyone I work with is professional and handles their business.

Cons

It is financial services, so there is standard corporate red tape and compliance rules you have to deal with.

2.0
Jul 14, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-can be a good environment to move up and take advantage of growth -company is doing well financially and growing pretty quickly -some good leaders that try to compensate for clear company-level faults -being closer to executive level (both pro and a con)

Cons

-HR department is nonexistent and terrible, some of the lower level employees try and compensate for it but the department as a whole is toxic. Never a good sign for a company to have such a bad HR team -Activetrak on computers to track everyone’s activity (both in office and at home) which is being actively monitored by the HR team -culture that spends millions on extravagant advisor experiences and shows off pictures at town halls, but gives home office employees bare minimum and will ostracize them for taking more than one cupcake -a lot of turnover so really hard to accomplish anything

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