Equitable Advisors reviews

3.8

68% would recommend to a friend

(2,516 total reviews)
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Mark Pearson

84% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Equitable Advisors has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,516 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Equitable Advisors employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Jan 10, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Benefits are decent if you can stay around long enough to take advantage of them - The flexbility is incredible - Wealth building is among the best in the industry. Very comprehensive but does have long term vesting requirements.

Cons

There are numerous downsides to work in the AXA career system, let me debunk some of the myths you will hear recruiters talk about: - Your compensation is what you make of it..........flat out pitch to entice new recruits into the "exciting" world of financial based commission sales. Truth be told, you can earn a nice living for yourself if you make it long enough to see some of the "trails" and "residuals" hiring mangers will talk about. There is no way around it, you WILL NOT MAKE MONEY at AXA during your first 3-6 months. Should you stay the course and pass the Series 7 you will only be given 4-8 weeks of "training allowance" for your efforts. The "training allowance" came about as a result of AXA losing a lawsuit in CA because the majority of their new advisors were not earning a wage equivalent to minimum wage, you read that correctly, the majority of new associates have not been earning an amount equal to minimum wage. You pay over $1000 in licensing fees, burn through your contacts (nope, no leads provided either!!!), buy into the AXA system, and work 60-70 hour weeks trying to earn minimum wage at best. - No stability and home office or local levels. All hiring managers love to talk about stability and how AXA is so great. They are only telling you 1/2 truth, no, we did not take bail-out money. Why? Because we are headquartered in France and not eligible. What did we do instead? Took bail out money from AXA home office in France. Stability at the local level? Thats a joke. Wholesale district and branch manager turnover across the company. The majority of the talent at the agency and district level has fled for greener pastures over the past 12 months as a result of AXA's failure to adapt and change with the times. The only thing consistent at AXA is increasing expenses moved to the sales force, high associate turnover and non-competitive product offerings (detractors will argue that we have an open architecture...................) we do have the ability to sell outside of AXA if we are personally given permission from the agency manager, good luck!!! The agency managers are paid proprietary overrides at a rate nearly 10x what they receive for non-AXA business. Where is the incentive to approve your request? If they do approve the request, any non-AXA business you sell will not count towards benefits validation or wealth building. This is a publicly traded company and treated like one. In fact, they are currently in the process of transitioning a new CEO. The former CEO was excellent and did a wonderful job of navigating AXA through an incredibly difficult financial time, his reward? move over buster here comes the new guy, with new ideas, and new ties to improve the stock price.....how will he do it? Cut costs (i.e. cut salary and payouts) and drive proprietary business sales (making a difficult request even more challenging!!!) - AXA is one of many career agencies that introduce new advisors into the business. Do your homework and don't be afraid to interview with other firms, especially those who actually invest in new associates. I would recommend Guardian, MetLife or Mass. I know that I will get flack for mentioning these firms but I really don't care. Don't let any recruiters fool you or tell you differently, we all do effectively the same type of business, we just go at it different ways. You will sell life insurance and tons of it if you want to succeed at AXA. In closing, I have been a high level producer with AXA for some time and have made it through the challenges described above. My personal wealth is so tied into the AXA value prop that I have no choice but to stay. However, I have not, can not and will not ever refer anyone to work with the firm. I would challenge ANY hiring manager to argue or challenge the points outlined above. I have been pleased with my AXA experience but I doubt you will be so lucky.

1.0
Apr 4, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Met some great people, including in management.

Cons

They are not transparent, and borderline misleading. They do not disclose that you will not be paid, or that you will be forced to work overtime without pay. The career path goes as follows: The moment you accept an offer, you immediately begin studying to pass your State Insurance Exam, the SIE, the Series 7 and then the Series 66. This period is also called PEP (Preliminary Employment Period). You have to pay for the study materials out of pocket, and will only get reimbursed by the company months down the line. Each test will take between 1-2 months to complete, from starting on the study materials all the way to scheduling and taking the test. For the San Francisco Office, once you pass the SIE they ask you to start showing up to the office 3 times a week for their "trainings", which consists of learning their sales process, products they offer, and the occasional third party money manager trying to promote their products. They also have you start making phone calls to get business. Any business you schedule for the first 12 months must be run with one of their advisors with at least a few years' experience. The true on-boarding period begins once you pass your Series 7, which is also called PEP 2.0. They create a schedule for you to strictly follow, which includes going to the office, shadowing other professionals outside the office, taking the nearly hundred of internal compliance courses, and studying for the Series 66 licensing exam. For the San Francisco Office, it is during PEP 2.0 that they also require you to stay late on Mondays, and come into the office on Saturdays to make phone calls. You also have to go in for additional trainings, where they explain the on-boarding process. It is during one of these meetings that they reveal to you the pay structure. During PEP 2.0 (which lasts until after you pass the Series 66, finish the internal compliance courses, pass their test on the selling technique, and reach certain selling targets) you will only be paid around $700 TOTAL during this time. Note that it takes 4 months at the earliest to get through this stage. Additionally they do not provide a travel stipend, so you will undoubtedly have used up more than $700 on travel to the office and out of office meetings before you even receive a check from them. Reaching all the requirements to end PEP 2.0 is called Contracting. Once you contract, you get the choice of choosing between a payment structure of a small salary (around 24-27k a year) with commission, or commission plus bonuses. Once you contract is also when they reimburse you for all the study material and licensing costs. To recap, PEP and PEP 2.0 lasts for about 7-9 months, during which time you have to work overtime and only get paid $700. I personally spent over twice that amount on required travel during that time. Throughout my time at the company, management loved to talk about the “uncapped income potential” Equitable Advisors provides compared to the rest of the industry, as well as the high retention rate the office had. In my experience, both of these are complete lies. Within my first few weeks, I personally saw 3 people leave, and the rate stayed consistent throughout my whole time at the company. The biggest reason why Equitable Advisors is constantly hiring is because they are bleeding people. Compared to the competition, which will pay you a minimum of $75K immediately once you accept an offer, provide study material for FREE, give thousands in bonuses for each exam passed, and offer the same levels of commissions, Equitable Advisors is the closest thing to a scam in the financial services industry.

5.0
Aug 26, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great team and great culture. An abundance of resources and support, locally and nationally, to create a successful practice. The leaders of Equitable are world class and seek to improve individuals in all aspects of their life. Equitable has a growth mindset and highly encourages people to seek leadership positions.

Cons

Not sure if this is a con. Prepare to work long and hard. The employees are coached and pushed to be more.

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