5yrs wasted at this terrible company - Financial Advisor Equitable Advisors Employee Review

1.0
Apr 29, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Please read my full review as I spent 5 years at this company and qualified for many trips including National Leaders Forum. - Flexibility is incredible, but I worked 75hrs/wk to earn it - Commission structure is very high in the industry.. why? Because you're selling high cost annuities that are absolutely terrible for the client. - Training is incredible, at least in the office I was in. They taught me how to grind and how to sell, our processes were flawless.

Cons

- Annuities are absolutely horrible products. We were literally taught to never say the word annuity because clients know this. All in just for investment side not even the actual benefit base annuity side is close to 2.5%. Compare that to a traditional index fund of .04%. And the mutual funds inside are bad. You should never be invested in a MF as it is since they are inefficient, 80% of the time never out pace the market, and you have no control over capital gains tax or investments inside. You will literally have trouble sleeping at night selling this to your friends and family knowing the returns are god awful and they're stuck in it for 7yrs. - Turnover is awful. No one makes it. Why? Because you're constantly selling products with an up front commission. So you will continuously grind to sell more, but you're not actually creating a business for yourself with a recurring revenue. Once you start having to pay for everything, you'll start to stress even more, and you'll constantly want that up front giant commission check with bonus to stay afloat. - Managers drink the koolaid and will tell you how amazing annuities are. But they get HUGE incentives for you to sell Retirement Cornerstone. And if they believe in annuities so much, why do they tell you that you'll roll it into a brokerage account the day it comes out of surrender? Because then you'll continue to get paid on the account. - You are not a fiduciary. Not in the least bit. You are heavily incentivized to sell insurance and annuity products from axa. That is a conflict of interest, and a product to sell. Go work for an RIA where the fees are transparent, and you're using low cost index funds and ETFs that actually make sense for the client. - There was at one point so many negative reviews coming in on Glassdoor, all the managers in our office forced us to write a positive review. Why? Because they only care about one thing. New hires. If you're breathing, they'll hire you because there is nothing to lose. You pay for everything. And they get giant commission checks for you going on contract and fast starting. Managers don't care about anything else but how many hires they get in a year. They kept asking our team to go out and find people to hire for them. It's ridiculous. I get that you could make a lot of money here, I made more than any 22yr old should. But it's not worth it when you start to realize how much of a scumbag you are and being a dressed up car salesman. Please don't do this to your friends and family. Don't do this to yourself. You'll regret it like 90% of others who fail out.

Explore other reviews about Equitable Advisors

5.0
Apr 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Compensation structure, product availability, brokerage system, overall tools, open structure to do best for your clients

Cons

Support staff are more hands off, not a lot of in house support staff members.

1.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good place for career changers to get financial licenses (they will license anybody)

Cons

Very bad pay model for new hires- will tell you 6% commissions on certain products but then you have to kick up 10% to your manager and the other half of what's left to whoever is working w you because they make you go out in pairs...and mostly seem want to get ahold of all your friends and family for sales you can't participate on without the 66....but you have no time to study that bc you are too busy selling for the products that don't require it to make quota, as your clock starts when you pass the 7, so pretty much they just want your people. It's very eat what you kill, and then only after it's been picked over.... which is fine if you're young with no obligations, but not great if you have a family. If you were an existing advisor and had your own book/contacts it could work. Otherwise get your licenses, learn a little, but don't be afraid to move on to other opportunities.

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