Pros
Lots of company events, outings.
Cons
Everyone who works for W&S knows the company (from the very top) is largely full of it. Big wigs feed employees with constant reminders of it's assets owned/managed, financial ratings, fortune 500 status; yet they cannot afford to provide salaries for their Financial Reps. They cannot afford to provide clients with credible leads. I was given a list of 75 cold leads, and I kid you not, 42 of them were disconnected phone numbers. Everyone just continues to play along. W&S has no "in's" with other companies. In other words, they do not work closely with any other company and its employees. This would provide a situation where FR's could reach out to the employees, with the understanding that their co-workers are invested with W&S, and start building a funnel of clients. This is something almost all good Mutual Holding companies have in place. Every day you are asked the same questions. "What are you doing this week?" "How are you acquiring clients?" For a company the size of W&S, questions of activity should never be asked. One would assume there are enough adequate resources funded by the company and questions of activity turn into questions of financial topics. A recycled book of business is not an adequate resource. Nor is it funded by the company. The 100% commission pay structure is extremely unsustainable for living , and does not bode well for personal budgeting. If you're looking to rent an apartment/house, good luck finding a rental company that will sign off on your 100% commission income. In today's age, rental companies are becoming more diligent in researching a potential tenant's income. They are requiring individuals to verify their income. The days of fibbing/estimating an amount and just writing it down are over. The commission structure could provide "competitive salary" or "unlimited income" if, again, there were enough adequate resources and tools funded by the company in place for employees. This is simply not the case with W&S. Life products are not competitively priced. Many many instances where I meet with clients, finally get down to the pricing and the response is "Well ________ is cheaper, so I think we're going to go with them" It pretty obvious why most tenured employees of W&S are anti-illustrations. 90% of the people you meet with have a list of concerns beforehand, and pricing is always near the top. Why we are heavily influenced to forgo providing illustrations to potential clients is beyond my comprehension. Why we are heavily influenced to only provide illustrations to potential clients in a follow-up meeting is very apparent. Activity, Activity, Activity. Just remember, you're still not getting paid to work on behalf of the company. For example, they just took away a program that allowed us to track our weekly commissions. I have no clue how to find it out anymore. No one has said anything. Nothing informative. Our customers are earning guaranteed minimums on their annuities, and FRs don't have answers for them. The idea of educating employees on the company's general/separate accounts seems like an inappropriate idea to the Board. Every question regarding company protocol/company operations is directed to someone else. I left the company a few weeks ago because I knew I could find somewhere better. I accepted a job with Morgan Stanley.