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Working at Northwestern Mutual

Zippia Score 4.5

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Northwestern Mutual Overview

Industry
Financial Services
Revenue
$31.1B
Headquarters
Milwaukee, WI
Employees
6,701
Founded In
1857
Website
Organization Type
Private
Social Media

Northwestern Mutual is a finance company focusing on financial security, insurance, and wealth management. Founded over 160 years ago, it provides a holistic planning approach that combines personalized digital experiences and industry-leading products to help clients plan for what matters most. Northwestern Mutual provides millions of clients with life, disability income, long-term care insurance, annuities, brokerage, and advisory services. The company manages billions of dollars of investments owned by its clients and held or managed through its wealth management and investment services businesses.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Northwestern Mutual is led by CEO John E. Schlifske. The company is a key player in the finance industry with 6,701 employees and an annual revenue of $31.1 billion. With a diverse workforce of 37.6% female and 36.1% ethnic minorities, Northwestern Mutual has a strong employee retention rate, with staff members staying for an average of 3.1 years. However, it is worth noting that the company has a noticeable lack of political diversity among employees.

Northwestern Mutual's Mission Statement

To improve the lives of children and families in need through financial support and volunteerism to build stronger communities.

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3.7/5

Northwestern Mutual employee reviews

Based on 22 ratings

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Job openings at Northwestern Mutual
573 Positions
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Average salary at Northwestern Mutual
$49,484 yearly
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Northwestern Mutual employee reviews

Northwestern Mutual employee reviews
3.7/5

Based On 22 Ratings

Work At Northwestern Mutual? Share your experience.
Employee Reviews
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5.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2024
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great product and opportunity

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

It's a difficult business to develop in early years

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Getting paid

What do you like best about Northwestern Mutual's CEO and the leadership team?

The focus on customers

How would you improve Northwestern Mutual's culture?

Continue focus on customer and keep the mutuality of products

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A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2024
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Educational, professional and motivational environment

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

Individualistic work.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Financial cover for certifications.

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2023
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

the freedom to make my own schedule.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

No salary

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

ability to earn uncapped commission

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2023
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

It was a very positive working environment with great benefits. Management was very supportive and I wish I was still working there.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

HR challenges with a disability I had.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Benefits and the best lunch!

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2023
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

I loved how fast-paced it was.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

It was very result-oriented and thats what the managers cared about.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

My favorite part of the business was the commission structure.

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2023
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Competitive, but patient growth mindset. Great mentoring with great people. Opportunity to help those that are uneducated in finances or less fortunate.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

Not everyone was working towards their personal goals while trying to help customers. Recommended financial plans and insurance plans weren't always in the best interest for the customers.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

The office was accessible. No one was above anyone, and everyone was typically open and willing to help younger employees that didn't necessarily have the same amount of experience like myself. Training was a huge component and helped many.

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2021
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

self starting. independence.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

paid based on commission only - no salary or bonus structure. sales structured towards insurance, rather than full comprehensive service

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

unlimited potential salary

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2021
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great mentoring and leadership. Phenomenal training program.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Complete autonomy

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1.0
A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

2001-2008, after that year it all went downhill.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

The process by which they review employees is extremely flawed. Just look at anyone who post something constructive about them. It will be followed by one of their puppets replying in a condescending way. If you challenge your team leads, you will literally be “shushed”. However, if you like to be in control, take pride in your monkey mind, will take papers out of a filing cabinet just to put them back in the same way to stay “busy”.....you might fit right in and make good money!

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

The people at the Starbucks there were nice. It was nice visiting them, kind of like a dose of human during the day. The free lunch isn’t worth it. For real, people are so paranoid of being late from lunch, if you’re in line for food, there will usually be someone behind you having a panic attack that you’re not moving fast enough. I’m grateful I’m gone.

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Fast pace, friendly co-workers, positive feedback

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

Little room for advancement, becoming bored after 5 years

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Ability to work remotely

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Work life balance is fully up to you. Job relatively straight forward, nothing too complicated.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

Very sales oriented and repetitive. Not much change in the day to day work.

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

I love how diverse Northwestern Mutual is. There are also many opportunities to move up in different areas of the company.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

I feel that there is sometimes a divide between leadership and the rest of the employees.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

My favorite perk was the free lunch everyday and access to the parking structure.

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great environment. My mentor, the Network Office Director, is one of the nicest men I have ever met, and I truly enjoyed working with him. I can’t speak to other offices, but the one I was in, was great.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

The job is sold as a financial advisor role, which is what I ultimately wanted. But, after going through training, I realized my performance would be measured by insurance sales. I can understand them wanting reps to sell insurance, as that is how the company started, but I brought over quite a bit in Assets, and pressure was still applied because I didn’t have enough ‘lives’. I understand how a real financial plan includes risk management, or insurance, but at the end of the day, NM reps, especially those who have been there for less than 3 years, are insurance salesmen. That’s how performance is measured.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

The freedom. I really appreciated being able to make my own schedule. It was tough to give up, but I was so stressed and anxious on a daily basis, it just wasn’t worth it.

Is this useful?1 people found this review helpful
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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great company with great reputation. World class training, people, and culture.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

If you're someone looking for a strong team environment, Northwestern Mutual probably isn't the place for you.

Northwestern Mutual Benefits

Freedom to create my own schedule

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5.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2018
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

In the big picture, Keller Williams is a pretty different real estate company in the fact that, we, as individuals, are shareholders in the company. You don't get that at a lot of the other big places. It's really my personal business within the overall business. On the day to day, there's no better commission structure for real estate agents. You can cap - for instance once you hit a commission amount in a time period, you don't have to pay the broker anything above that until the end of that period. The brand helps you bring in more business that you could by yourself. It's a company that no one would want to leave- I've actually invited a lot of friends into Keller Williams as it's great no matter your situation.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

Because it's so national, there's a rah-rah cheer-leading push about it. Those are great if you are into it, but that's not my style. So there's no real glaring flaws as you can easily work around that.

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A reddit user wrote a review on Jul 2015
I turned them down after the 2nd interview, they asked me to get all my friends and family info so I can call them and essentially find people to sit down with me AND one of their representatives and pretty much sell them life insurance. Your job is cold calling and sales in hopes to sell life insurance policies. Other companies are aware of what this company does as well. Don't believe that "top 10 internship" stuff.

I did the same thing. They handed me like 30 pieces of paper and told me to talk to friends and family about insurance and I noped the *** out of there.

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The team at Northwestern Mutual

  • The founders of Northwestern Mutual are Juan C. Zarate and Nicholas E. Brathwaite.
  • The key people at Northwestern Mutual are John E. Schlifske, Juan C. Zarate and Nicholas E. Brathwaite.
Key People
John E. Schlifske
Juan C. Zarate
Nicholas E. Brathwaite

Northwestern Mutual Rankings

Northwestern Mutual is ranked #96 on the Best Fortune 500 Companies to Work For in America list. Zippia's Best Places to Work lists provide unbiased, data-based evaluations of companies. Rankings are based on government and proprietary data on salaries, company financial health, and employee diversity.

Read more about how we rank companies.

Northwestern Mutual salaries

The average a Northwestern Mutual salary in the United States is $49,484 per year. Northwestern Mutual employees in the top 10 percent can make over $86,000 per year, while Northwestern Mutual employees at the bottom 10 percent earn less than $28,000 per year.
Average Northwestern Mutual Salary
$49,484
yearly
$23.79 hourly
Updated March 14, 2024

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Northwestern Mutual diversity

9.6
Diversity Score
We calculated Northwestern Mutual’s diversity score by measuring multiple factors, including the ethnic background, gender identity, and language skills of Northwestern Mutual’s workforce.
Northwestern Mutual diversity summary. Zippia estimates Northwestern Mutual's demographics and statistics using a database of 30 million profiles. Zippia verifies estimates with BLS, Census, and current job openings data for accuracy. We calculated Northwestern Mutual's diversity score by measuring multiple factors, including the ethnic background, gender identity, and language skills of Northwestern Mutual's workforce.
  • Northwestern Mutual has 6,701 employees.
  • 38% of Northwestern Mutual employees are women, while 62% are men.
  • The most common ethnicity at Northwestern Mutual is White (64%).
  • 14% of Northwestern Mutual employees are Hispanic or Latino.
  • 10% of Northwestern Mutual employees are Black or African American.
  • The average employee at Northwestern Mutual makes $49,484 per year.
  • Northwestern Mutual employees are most likely to be members of the republican party.
  • Employees at Northwestern Mutual stay with the company for 3.1 years on average.

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Northwestern Mutual Office Locations

Northwestern Mutual is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI

Biggest Northwestern Mutual Locations

RankCityJob CountAvg. Salary
1Milwaukee, WI50$52,328
2New York, NY21$78,864
3Franklin, TN8$52,536
4Chicago, IL7$56,733
5Los Angeles, CA6$48,826
6Minneapolis, MN5$55,785
7Boston, MA3$60,690
8Portland, OR3$42,540
9Raleigh, NC3$61,710
10Albany, NY3$77,308

Videos About Working At Northwestern Mutual

Day In The Life – Full-time Representative
Day In The Life – Intern

Northwestern Mutual Financial Performance

9.8
Performance Score

Highest paying Northwestern Mutual competitors

Compare Northwestern Mutual salaries to competitors, including Morgan Stanley, MassMutual, and Edward Jones. Employees at Morgan Stanley earn the highest average yearly salary of $103,933. The salaries at MassMutual average $68,354 per year, and the salaries at Edward Jones come in at $67,600 per year.

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Northwestern Mutual FAQs

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Updated March 14, 2024

Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Northwestern Mutual, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Northwestern Mutual. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Northwestern Mutual. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Northwestern Mutual. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Northwestern Mutual and its employees or that of Zippia.

Northwestern Mutual may also be known as or be related to Northwestern Mutual, Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC, Northwestern Mutual Life Ins, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.