Thrivent reviews

I've been a life long Thrivent member, and I will say that their products are decent; however you can get a better rate with Northwestern, New Your Life, Pacific Life or Mass. As far as work environment, Thrivent was a horrible experience for me professionally. I've never been so discontent in my professional life. The organization claims that it is a Christian work place with Christian morals and values, but upper management/field leadership should not trusted. I worked for the company for about 5 years. I was never an advisor but had many friends and family that were/are. It was very upsetting to me to see such good and honest people treated so poorly. Compensation changes happened at least twice a year to squeeze commissions from the advisor's pockets. Also, as apart of the staff that supported the region's leadership team, I cannot tell you how many times I had to report/handle/endure the field leadership lie, cut corners, not abide by territory lines etc. It felt as though there was always drama or a scandal in the regional financial office. Plus, over a 5 year period I reported to three different Managing Partners, had countless Partners come and go as well as Marketing Specialist etc. This review makes me really sad to write because it truthfully once was a great place to be. If you are looking to become a financial services professional, I suggest you look to Northwestern, New York Life, Mass Mutual or another mutually owned organization. You will be trained, treated better, and paid more as an advisor and actually "own" your business. I did not realize how toxic the work environment was until I joined a competitor and was treated the way Thrivent claims to treat their employees. Hope this helps someone avoid a mistake.

This organization talks a lot about changing, moving forward, improving process, increasing speed to delivery, executing with excellence, but is absolutely unable to deliver on any of it. The culture is 100% consensus driven with no decision makers willing to take accountability for even the smallest decision. The result is that ideas and projects get bogged down in over analysis and take literally years to deliver. There is also an overriding belief that new technology is going to fix cultural problems. Lots of great people are hired externally to move things forward, but typically leave within 2 years because they can't affect change and aren't building their resumes. This leaves behind the employees who are comfortably ensconced in their 25+ year careers who are resistant to change. The culture has also been veering off into a more conservative Christian direction in policy and marketing since opening their membership from Lutherans to all Christians. An unfortunate policy was put in place regarding gift (donation) matching described issues regarding gays, guns and abortion as too controversial, divisive and distracting to the Christian membership and prevented employees from getting donations matched to organizations that affect change related to these issues. So, what started out as a pretty homogenized white middle class culture got even less diverse when several talented employees left when the aforementioned policy was implemented.