Nationwide reviews

If you over analyze and try to figure out what it takes to get promotions, you will continually be confused. Most of the time it is the buddy system, but occasionally it is actually due to your own hard work. Sometimes it is hard to work as a team, when some of the associates are trying too hard to move up, and as a result, they dump on their team members. If the culture could grow up and get away from the high school "in crowd" mentality, it would be a better place to work.

That said, Nationwide Financial Network, the retail distribution arm of Nationwide Financial, seems to constantly be in search of itself. The Exclusive Agency distribution channel is fairly stable, but continually underperforms, with a long-standing 5% penetration of its P&C households with financials despite constant efforts to improve. The Provident/Professional Consulting Group was a wreck from day one that only go worse over time, and its ultimate demise in 12/08 was long overdue. The new Nationwide Securities, LLC broker-deraler seems over-extended and somewhat inept, but mostly unnecessary. In an environment that would easily be serviced by a limited b/d, they expend an inordinate amount of energy and capital toward offering a full-service menu, when 99% of their business is basically "cheeseburgers." No serious General Agent will be content with them long-term, and the PPGA/Personal Producing GA channel's future is at best questionable. The technology simply stinks. It still takes a small forest of paper products to write a simple variable life app. And heaven forbid you have a switch, replacement or other additional form generator. If Raymond James can write Nationwide paper without touching an application, why can't a Nationwide Agent?