Ventajas
- First Command as a company is dedicated to their mission of "Coaching those who serve in their pursuit of financial security". - They are working on rebranding themselves to get back more to their roots - Most of the advisors truly care about their clients and put the client’s needs first - The Home Office support team is on par with the best in the industry - They will pay for you to get your FINRA licenses - For the most part, you control your calendar, so you are able to work in family events/dr appointments (double-edge sword; more below) - Descent chances for transition bonuses if you can meet their expectations, during the W-2 employment phase. Fairly good pay and compensation structure once you are independent as long as you can be a high producer. - Many great opportunities to advance if you want, but they will not pressure you to do so.
Desventajas
- There is a BAD "Frat-Boy" mentality and favoritism among the District Advisors, which can make for an unhealthy work environment. - The District Advisor (DA) can make or break your career. If you end up having any type of personality conflict with them, they can disengage from your business which can make it very hard to succeed. - The pay & compensation structure while you are a W-2 employee (a 9 month observation period) is somewhat low for the industry, especially considering they will NOT pay you any commissions on products sold during this time, however, the bonuses can help. - Current restrictions to soliciting on military bases makes it very difficult to meet clients that fall within your target market while new minimum income restrictions to work with non-military eliminate many well qualified people that could use the expertise. - Much of the leadership is out of touch with the current demands on the military (again, target market) and they expect that the clients can just take off work to meet with you whenever. While this might have been true in the 90’s and early 2000’s, the reality is that our military men and women are taxed on their time already. - With your core market being military and having frequent moves, you end up losing the clients you've built strong relationships with due to overly strict territorial boundaries. To make matters worse, since you've already serviced most of their needs, there is not much incentive for their randomly assigned new advisor to take the time to give them the same service you gave them. This ends up to an inconsistent experience for many clients. - If you're fortunate enough to make it through the hourly/salary phase and become an Independent Contractor (IC), be prepared to spend several thousand dollars right out of the gate for overpriced laptops, home office support fees, office bills, and many other on-going "business expenses". - Their idea of work/life balance is allowing you to pick which 60 hours you work each week, even once you launch your own business as an IC.
