Mass Mutual , Guardian Life

[insurancemet]

Hello, I am so grateful to all the agents that have responded to my forum. I could not decide whether to sign up with MOO or Monumental. I've read both positive and some negative.
Now I decided to research just 2 more companies. Mass, I've played phone tags with them so much that it just stopped but I found another agency close to me that also trains for Mass Mutual Texas.
also Guardian Texas....Anyone have experience with these 2 companies and give me a comparison as far as their products/training.
I believe I read here that Guardian is noncaptive and so is Mass Mutual. I've read so much, it would be nice if someone can repeat here if they know whether an agent would own the book of business and if one can sell other lines as well. Thanks.

 

[VolAgent]

Its about time you listened to everyone's advice.

I am with Mass and I love it. I never talked to Guardian, so I am not too familiar with them. Mass has a broad product line, with strong products in life, disability, annuity and LTC. They also have good mutual funds in addition to the funds available through Oppenheimer. Now, a lot of your experience will depend on your GA and sales manager. Now, you will have to do your Project 200 and 5/2500 to get your full-time contract. But once that is done they have several financing plans to choose from, with good benefits and bonuses.

I know Guardian is very strong in disability, and I am sure they have other good products.

The one thing to keep in mind with the career systems is the differences in compensations. Generally your commission percentage is lower, but it is made up through bonuses, benefits, retirement, and FICA taxes. It is not so much your GA or sales manager, as GAs, IMOs, FMO, etc. all eat up commission money too. The career systems just structure their systems with bonuses to drive you to produce the products they want.

 

[xrac]

In my opinion MM and Guardian are my two preferences of the old line career companies. Guardian has good Life, the best Disability and some good voluntary products. Guardian's biggest draw back is their broker dealer (Park Avenue Securities) sucks. As long as you maintain a certain level of production you can pretty much sell any insurance product you want. However, certain financial products may be restricted because of the broker dealer. I think Guardian will not let Field Reps sell indexed annuities which will probably change if the FINRA regulation of these products stick. They both support LEAP. You can't go wrong with either one if you have the right GA and a mentor. If all things were equal I would go with MM.

 

[insurancemet]

Thanks, do you know if both companies are noncaptive, do they let you take your book of business with you or does that stay with them?..With MOo, even though noncaptive, the book of business belongs to them as I understand now.
The other thing that got my attention is the Efinancial, do you think it is workable to go with either Guardian or MM and later be involve at the same time with something like EFinancial, would they allow this?

 

[VolAgent]

I'd say it depends on the GA. That said, I don't believe you understand where MM and Guardian are strong. Efinancial would probably be a waste of your time with either one. They are not about how much cheap term you can write, its all about the client/agent relationship and strength of the company. With MM and Guardian, you are ideally quoting the price of the insurance just so they know how much to make the check out for, it should already be a done deal. Efinancial appears to be about seeing if your quote is cheaper than someone else's.

At Mass the book of business is yours, you just need the client's permission to take a copy of the file with you. And really, if you've done the client right, they'll stay with you regardless of what the company says.

 

[xrac]

I'd say it depends on the GA. That said, I don't believe you understand where MM and Guardian are strong. Efinancial would probably be a waste of your time with either one. They are not about how much cheap term you can write, its all about the client/agent relationship and strength of the company. With MM and Guardian, you are ideally quoting the price of the insurance just so they know how much to make the check out for, it should already be a done deal. Efinancial appears to be about seeing if your quote is cheaper than someone else's.

At Mass the book of business is yours, you just need the client's permission to take a copy of the file with you. And really, if you've done the client right, they'll stay with you regardless of what the company says.

With either one you could also sell through Efinancial if you want to and have a need to. Although probably both MM & Guardian (I know Guardian does) have affiliated brokerages where you can pick up products they don't offer and still receive production credit on your career contract. If you go with MM or Guardian you won't want to sell anyone elses life insurance except in some rare cases.

If you go with either MM or Guardian forget the other stuff and go all out for them and let them train you.

 

[insurancemet]

Thank you for all the info.

 

[VolAgent]

Yes, MM uses ASH and you some credit towards your contract that way. It won't really help her on her contract for the first few years though. But as xrac said, let them train you their way. All the big carriers have a good training program, and if you are willing to do exactly what they ask and how they ask, you should succeed. Where most fail is that they won't actually do what is asked of them.

That said, do remember that you are interview your future manager as much as the person is interviewing you. Make sure you can work with this person for at least the next 3 years.

 

[[email protected]]

There is no real comparison - MM has over 81 billion in invested assets versus Guardian's less then 27 billion of ia.
Plus Guardian has been using profits from their group business to subsidize their life dividends and Mass does not do group so thee is no subsidizing...according to LIMRA,for 2008, MM is the third highest seller of whole life and theri legacy product is dynamite

There is the tip of the ice berg - best of my knowledge, MM requires a minimum college bachelors degree and do not know about Guardian -

Good luck,

MaryAnn
MSFS, ChFC, CLU

 

[insurancemet]

Thanks, I guess I won't qualify for MM then. I only have an AA degree. Well, I will go ahead and still send my resume. But if I don't get in, you would agree that going with Guardian is better than MOO ? Also for future reference, can independent agents contract/sell MM and Guardian?