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First Command Financial Services

Engaged Employer

First Command Financial Services reviews

4.4

87% would recommend to a friend

(575 total reviews)
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Mark Steffe

92% approve of CEO

88% positive business outlook

First Command Financial Services has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 575 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The First Command Financial Services employee rating is 22% above average for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

575 reviews
4.0
Jan 23, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible schedule: you own your time and are accountable to yourself and your business plan. Solid compensation structure: The compensation is set up in such a way that more is shared with the top advisors in a deferred compensation plan which is extremely competitive. When you factor in this compensation stream, the overall compensation far exceeds the industry standard. Of course, if you are not a top producer you might hold a grudge about this. Values based company: Does it's best to uphold a fiduciary standard. Definitely not perfect in this, but the company is striving to get better and better. This Includes having all plans reviewed by Home Office principles to try to keep recommendations following the companies values proposition

Cons

Advisors are independent contractors. The company offers a lot of training on financial planning and sales, but almost no training on running a business. Many advisors fail simply because they were not equipped to properly run a business. Little name recognition: company was stuck in the dark ages of just word of mouth for too long and has little presence in most modern marketing outlets. Company inbred for too long. By taking an isolationism view to outside hires the company fostered a way of thinking that was slow to change and did not take into account industry changes.

3.0
Jan 8, 2015

Great Company Culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company Values are excellent. It is your own business so you can determine how hard you want to work.

Cons

There are no benefits.

1.0
Jan 6, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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.

Viewing 508 - 510 of 575 Reviews

Glassdoor has 632 First Command Financial Services reviews submitted anonymously by First Command Financial Services employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if First Command Financial Services is right for you.