MassMutual Careers and Employment

I started at MassMutual Capital District out of college and worked here for about 2 years. This is an insurance sales position that pays on commissions only. If you don't grind and put yourself out there, you won't make any money. As far as life insurance sales gigs go, this MM agency is going to better than the Northwestern Mutuals and NY Lifes of the world culture-wise. The GA is fantastic. He has an open door policy and is very willing to help you. Understanding and supportive in every way. As with every start to an insurance sales career (and an aspiring financial advising/planning career), you need to build a solid network, have confidence in your client-facing skills, and get a little lucky. Already knowing high-net-worth people who actually will benefit from large and expensive whole life insurance policies is very helpful almost to the point of being crucial. Making significant income is going to be difficult otherwise. You'll also have to fight moral dilemmas as you work and learn more about the industry. While whole life is what will get you paid the most as a new producer, it is mainly suited for high-income individuals and families, and better in smaller doses (if any) for everyone else. MM has excellent, but pricey disability and long-term-care products too that you can be confident in promoting. A savvy prospect will easily find other carriers for these at lower premiums. While you'll have access to other carriers, you will get paid significantly less and will not earn the bonuses MM gives its new reps, which are very generous. A conflict of interest that can't be ignored if you want to succeed. The initial sales training under the management team during 2018 was excellent and focused not only on closing transactions, but also developing client relationships and finding referral sources. There are weekly training sessions, and MMs knowledgable wholesalers frequently come in to educate us. You'll do your first couple of cases with an experienced and successful producer, with whom you'll split the commissions. This agency has many great and competent senior producers to choose from, which is a big strength. After 1 or 2 deals, you want to get out on your own as soon as possible and avoid leaving any more money on the table. Focus on hitting your numbers because those benchmarks will be your main point of stress early on--even if you have to write policies on yourself. (Which most people do anyway, even the senior producers). The management team under the GA changed in 2019. It was a negative shift in culture and more focused on transactions, prospecting numbers, and micromanagement. The agency adopted a wirehouse and boiler room mentality from then on. The conference room where weekly meetings are held turned more into an interrogation room every Monday and Friday. Many agents were treated with contempt in a group setting and feedback from managers was consistently condescending, with some agents getting openly laughed at. By hitting your numbers you can avoid being on the bad end of this, but even then I was not always comfortable. When you miss your numbers you'll hear about it, and if you hit your numbers, you'll be probed and questioned because it's frequently assumed that you're lying about something. For my situation, had one of the significant policies I produced at that time been a MassMutual product and not a different carrier that was better for the client, I'm sure I would have been treated differently. In short, the fun of working there just got taken away. Turnover is extremely high. In my two years at the agency, there must have been over a dozen new reps that did not last more than the first 3 months, sometimes the first week. That's going be the case anywhere. It's notable however that the more successful producers in their first two years, including one that ended up qualifying for an incentive conference in 2020, were all hired and trained initially by the old management team. I cannot imagine that that has changed since I left in January this year. The cubicle floor became empty, and the energy was lost. When I announced in advance to the sales managers that I would be starting a new position in 2020, I might as well have been dead. I never heard from them again. Unfortunate, but not surprising. Again, their boss, the GA, is excellent and was very supportive of me. Hopefully some new hires in that area can right the ship. Overall, I was able to scratch myself over the six-figure mark including bonuses in about 2 years of work. I took me about 4 months initially to get my first case closed, but I think anybody is capable of doing better than that. Work here to get valuable sales and client-facing experience, and then move on to a more stable position if possible. I got my 6, 63, and 65 while I was here, and I was able to leverage this experience to work with an independent RIA where I could act as a fiduciary, rid myself of quotas, be more holistic, and be in line with what younger generations are looking for in an advisor. I would not continue a financial planning practice under a life insurance company's umbrella, and I would not start out at this agency in the state that I left it. I had some great months here, and I had some months where I earned nothing or very little. C'est la vie in this industry. Finding the right manager and mentor is the most important aspect for a young guy starting out, and I could not see that coming from here in the long-term. Whatever hand you end up getting dealt, you can work hard here and make the most of it.

I blame more of the industry than I do MassMutual. If you don’t call enough people and generate leads off the people in your project 200 it can be a difficult start .

I learned a lot from my employer and am glad she gave me the opportunity. The position required being a office assistant and I learned a lot through selling life insurance.

MassMutual sold their retirement plan business. But when i worked there it was a good place to work. Pay was decent, especially for my location, but the benefits were great. So was the flexibility. I dont like the way every corporate job is going full throttle on metrics and they were no different but it was casual and once you knew all about qualified retirement plans it was like just conversing with employees about their retirement plans. If not for the pointless (well deemed important by some higher ups) metrics it'd been off the charts good.

Good make sure you have experience with life insurance before applying. You’re basically teaching yourself everything. Manager is nice calls are slow pay is ok