Equitable Advisors reviews

Primary focus is on sales and not on financial knowledge. Focuses on client acquisition through high single commission annuity products. Typically, not the best option for clients. Not a great model for building a book of business long term, as this model equates to minimal trail commissions. Work life balance is poor as you're expected to work 12 hours days, most of which is wasted time. The claim is that you're self-employed and that it's your book of business. You are not and it is not. You are an employee of Equitable and "your" book is really their book.

Many challenges. 1. They take half your commissions from the onset. They will give a little of that back in what is a complex formula called POP. Your manager gets 30%. This is why he or she hires you even if you don't have experience. 2. They charge you almost everything you use like office or cubicle, telephone, computer package, subscriptions, cloud storage for your files, financial planning software, errors and omission insurance, licenses for everything and anything else. Can be up to nearly $1000 per month after 3 years when you have to sign a agreement. 3. All the experienced advisors will use you to their benefit. They call it teaming. 4. If you had a career making decent money over 50k in another industry and want to try this, go-ahead. But after 2-3 years, you will lose your previous career, connections and will always be in this retail financial services industry. 5. There are two business units. Traditional and RBG. Don't ever do the RBG business unit. It's the ones you go talk to school teachers in their school locations. With Covid and uncertainty, it's a real challenge. They usually get new college grads to this unit. 6. You will lose friends and family. They will take your first meeting or two and then never talk to you since they think you want to sell them high cost Insurance and Annuities. 7. High margin products like insurance and annuities are how you make money. Not low margin products like advisory or investment accounts. 8. Compliance and regulatory challenges. You do your own paperwork and if something is wrong, Compliance will make you do it over and get new signatures. 9. Making meetings is difficult. Be aware of this. If you cannot make meetings by calling people, then this is not for you. You cannot really use social networks to make meetings.