My friend just took a job with them but it seems like a pyramid scheme/scam to me. They called him in for an interview, told him he had the "highest score we've ever seen" on the on the "personality inventory" and gave him 10 forms for friends/family to fill out and told him to come back for the second interview. At the second "interview" they offered him a job and told him to fill out 30 new forms. When he came back they said that he needed 200 names of friends and family with emails and addresses (which he got off Facbebook). He's supposed to start after he finishes his degree in financial planning from App this summer. In addition, he is convinced that the CFP exam is a golden ticket to managing "multi-million dollar estates", which I am skeptical of to say the least. Mass Mutual is giving him a small salary plus a very confusing commission package.

does anyone have any thoughts/advice on this?

5/24/2011 1:19:16 PM

What agency is he working with?

5/24/2011 1:26:12 PM

one in Raleigh. not sure which one if there's multiples

5/24/2011 1:27:31 PM

Yeah there's agencies all over the place. Different ones do things differently.

5/24/2011 1:34:05 PM

highest score in "personality inventory"

oh, that's so fucking depressing

5/24/2011 1:35:00 PM

Check your PM

5/24/2011 1:39:08 PM

Sounds like horseshit. I walk out the door the moment they ask for 200 names and emails.

5/24/2011 1:44:10 PM

No reputable company would ask him to do this.

5/24/2011 1:46:08 PM

^

5/24/2011 1:56:24 PM

Sounds like garbage from the time they asked for 10 forms for friends/family

5/24/2011 2:04:06 PM

You're right. Disregard my previous post.

5/24/2011 2:16:10 PM

testimonial I found on the internet

Quote :

"May. 5th, 2009 03:50 pm admiral ackbar So i'm applying for a job at MassMutual Financial Architects here in Rochester, and I've done two interviews in their "hiring process" already, and today, during the third interview with them, as the guy i'm talking to is going over the kind of things I'd be doing as a beginning employee, how employees are paid, and all that, he casually informs me that everyone, before they're hired, needs to pay them fifteen hundred dollars up front. I tell them that i don't have money and ask if there's an alternative there (you know, one that involves them paying me for working for them), and i'm informed that part the company's screening process adheres to the notion that people who don't already have money won't be as good as employees as people who do, and if i really wanted to work there, even if i didn't have the money, i'd say "sure Bill, i'll see you in a week with the money" and go out and make it in time. And "blah blah blah this is a Darwinian industry, i've never broken that policy but i guess i'll talk to Heather and see if there's another solution blah blah don't let the door hit you." Oh, and they also charge you for using their office space at an increasing scale as your employment with them goes on. ~Because that's just how they roll~ This fucking company not only led me on for two interviews, but led me on for two months and had me do an assignment for them where i went out and surveyed people on their experiences with the financial services industry. "

5/24/2011 3:14:49 PM

It seems like there exists a real company called

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co or "MassMutual Life Insurance Co."


Then there exists


MassMutual Financial Group


which you can see they are easily confusing to throw people off when researching data on the internet and in sounding important/real.

[Edited on May 24, 2011 at 3:26 PM. Reason : .]

5/24/2011 3:25:19 PM

I've hated this commercial for a while now.

5/24/2011 3:35:46 PM

http://www.financialindustryscam.com/howworks.htm

5/24/2011 3:53:55 PM

Quote :

"No reputable company would ask him to do this."

that's what I said. not only did they ask him to do this, but they didn't pay him for the 10+ hours he spent doing it. They've fed him all this bs saying "work hard three years, live good the rest of your life", etc. he gets all upset when I try to tell him to at least keep his options open. He said himself the commission system is so confusing he doesn't know how it works but he's gonna get paid. I keep pointing out the extremely high turnover and he says "they just couldn't cut it" or something like that. Not only that but he's arrogant as hell about it saying that I can be his assistant one day he thinks that a 2.9 from App State and a CFP certificate is going to attract multi-million dollar accounts. He tried getting my friend who's family estate is worth over $50m to let him handle their finances haha I told him that people like that get tax specialist attorneys and people that are from top tier universities and have years of proven gains for their clients. You just can't tell some people.

5/24/2011 9:50:58 PM

Roommate got a call from some company that does very similar shit. Uses familiar financial institution names and throws in a "Group" or something so you think they're legit.

5/24/2011 10:41:42 PM

I have a friend who I believe works for this same company and seems to like it. Right now he deals mostly in selling Whole Life Insurance. I have talked with him about it but for me it really has no more of a tax advantage than an IRA does. Perhaps if I were married with kids I would see things differently.

From talking with him it seems like the company has a basic qualification process just like everywhere else. Life insurance is apparently the first step. From here he does what is necessary to become qualified to manage investment accounts.

Perhaps I'm naive but I did not really get a scam vibe from talking to him. I don't think it will hurt for your buddy to try it out for a while *IF* he doesn't have any other options. At the worst he just loses a few months off his life before looking for a different job.

5/24/2011 10:45:07 PM

Northwestern Mutual does the same thing. The majority of personal finance jobs includes a lot of insurance sales. It's not a scam, it's the norm. If your friend was really interested in managing "multi-million dollar estates" he'd look into smaller financial planning firms in the Triangle. Plenty to go around where he'd actually be working on clients rather than "cold calling" friends, and eventually could take his client base with him and start his own gig.

5/24/2011 11:28:59 PM

^this

5/25/2011 2:27:08 PM

i would so outside sales this shit if it was in chitchat

5/25/2011 3:30:35 PM

yes, that would be an epic outside sales opportunity

5/25/2011 7:21:59 PM