A Big Career Misstep - Wealth Management Advisor TIAA Employee Review

1.0
Nov 15, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The benefits were great, but it takes 3 years to vest in them and I was so unhappy there it was worth it to leave 26 thousand in unvested benefits on the table.

Cons

Let me make it clear. This is a terrible organization. They do not tell you the truth in the interview process, so let me tell you the truth. You will not be advising anyone. You will be gathering statements, doing a LOT of Data entry and then you will be manipulating the fears and insecurities of college professors so they will open an individually managed account that has most of the same funds as their employer plan, but another 125bps layer of fees for TIAA. If you don't sell enough of the managed accounts, it won't matter if you are at your asset growth goal or if you've done the right thing by the client, you'll be put on a performance improvement plan and either forced to resign voluntarily or terminated for some fictitious reason that will follow you on your U5 forever. That IS the way they roll in IAS. There were 70 advisors in my region when I started. 18 months later, 8 had been terminated and 34 resigned under pressure or out of sheer frustration. They also pay their discretionary bonus and earned commissions only once a year. They hold discretionary bonuses over your head for everything. For example if you don't transfer all of your personal accounts including your spouses individual accounts, guess what? No bonus. If you aren't the bosses favorite and the division is below revenue goal by summertime and you have a large earned commision...they are not above auditing all your data entries and finding any reason to terminate you and keep those big commissions. Believe it. That IS how they roll in Wealth Management. Its a miserable work environment.

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Pros

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Cons

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Pros

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