\n<\/p>\n
N<\/span>orthwestern Mutual likes to think of itself as a storied American institution offering specialized financial advice. The 168-year-old financial giant, ranked 109 on the Fortune 500, and regularly anointed one of the World\u2019s Most Admired Companies by the magazine, describes its financial advisers as \u201cexpert listeners\u201d or a \u201ctrusted partner who helps you continue to reach goal after goal\u201d.<\/p>\n It also tops Forbes\u2019s list of Best Employers for New Grads, a title that makes it attractive to hundreds of college students desperate for an internship that could launch them into a career in financial services. Each year they file into Northwestern\u2019s glassy offices across the country for a three-month internship that they hope could change their lives. There, they are slotted in beside thousands of full-time \u201cfinancial representatives\u201d, many of them recent graduates themselves.<\/p>\n In the corridors of US colleges and business schools, Northwestern recruiters push the dream of a blue chip career in finance. Posters appear with slogans like: The Career You Want at a Company You\u2019ll Love. Recruiters in polo shirts sit at tables asking students if they would like to be financial advisers. Job ads for these positions, posted on sites like LinkedIn, describe \u201cperformance-based pay\u201d and \u201cuncapped earnings for the entrepreneurial\u201d, phrases that shimmer with vague promises of potential wealth.<\/p>\n When Jeremy Biar, a senior at Texas A&M University, spotted one of these booths, one with a big laminated placard that read Northwestern Mutual, <\/em>he was relieved. He had yet to organise a summer internship and was glad when the recruiters began courting him.<\/p>\n After expressing his interest, Jeremy attended an event organised by Northwestern at a nearby Hilton hotel. Inside a carpeted conference room, 50 or so students huddled around cocktail tables, nibbling hors doeuvres, lining up for headshots. Speakers extolled the joys of being a financial adviser at such a coveted firm.<\/p>\n \u201cThey get you into the funnel of \u2018let me sell you the dream,\u2019\u201d Jeremy says.<\/p>\n But when it came to the interview for his internship, the questions felt more like a fraternity recruitment. How big was his family? What did his parents do? Where did he go to high school? He was sent away with \u201cmarket information surveys\u201d to complete. The worksheets, seen by <\/em>the Guardian, required Jeremy to interview 10 friends or family members about their finances \u2013 listing their names, occupations, phone numbers, and asking each of them to refer him to 10 more people he could contact about their financial planning.<\/p>\n It all struck Jeremy as odd, was that how blue-chip financial services firms operated? He wasn\u2019t sure, it was his first-ever job interview. So he completed the surveys and was offered a spot interning at Northwestern\u2019s office in College Station, Texas, with 20 or so other students.<\/p>\n <\/span>An undated photo of a Northwestern Mutual office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.<\/span> Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n On his first day, dressed in a navy blue suit and tie, he felt \u201chopeful and full of vision\u201d.<\/p>\n The training began immediately, but there were no crash courses in mutual funds or market trends. Instead, the new recruits were told to take out their phones, open their contacts, and upload at least 200 names into company software.<\/p>\n Then start calling.<\/p>\n The goal: 40 dials a day, documents seen by the Guardian show. Friends, cousins, ex-roommates, teammates, anyone who might answer. Jeremy was told to leave 20 missed calls at a time so it looked \u201curgent\u201d. When someone finally picked up, there was a script to follow: a cheerful announcement of his new role, followed by an invitation to meet and discuss their financial future.<\/p>\n If the person on the phone agrees to meet, their financials are input into Northwestern\u2019s software, which spits out a financial plan. Invariably, it will recommend the most expensive life insurance product, known as \u201cwhole life\u201d, according to internal documents and interviews with workers. A more senior adviser typically joins the call and gets half the commission. Reps have quotas for these meetings, according to 14 sources, and an internal document from the New York office, that requests five new bookings per week.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe they\u2019re recruiting people to succeed in a careerDavid*<\/p>\n The Guardian spoke with 21 current and former Northwestern workers (plus five who interviewed to be and didn\u2019t end up taking the role) across nine states, who told strikingly similar stories.<\/p>\n Recruitment, they said, is a decoy for harvesting contacts. Reps are not being groomed as future financial advisers, they claim, but pushed to sell life insurance to friends and family.<\/p>\n One graduate, George, recalls selling a life insurance policy to his teenage brother \u2013 then being scolded for not making it pricier. Sophomore Kyle* says he was urged to buy a policy himself just to meet quota. Max, a college junior, bought one, too \u2013 hoping it would boost his chances of winning a trip to New York. Another, Sarah*, drained her own savings to keep afloat as a rep for four months after college, long enough to sell a whole life insurance policy to her sister. Graduate Megan* was asked daily if she had sold to her parents yet. Refusing to, she would be asked in weekly meetings: do you not care about helping people?<\/p>\n \u201cI felt gaslit,\u201d she says, describing the culture as \u201ccultlike\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe they\u2019re recruiting people to succeed in a career,\u201d says David*, a Northwestern adviser of 15 years. He thinks they are instead using young students and graduates to get new sales leads: \u201cIt\u2019s gathering immense data and not paying for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Northwestern\u2019s talk of big earnings is what draws reps in. The top quartile earn nearly $200,000 annually during their first three years, their job ads claim.<\/p>\n But despite Northwestern\u2019s six-figure promises in their job ads, in reality, most reps earn little before dropping out, often leaving loved ones stuck with insurance policies they do not need.<\/p>\n Clint came across an ad while at business school in Michigan, where money had become a \u201ctoxic\u201d obsession, with such influencers as Grant Cardone and Andrew Tate glamorizing passive income over a traditional salary. Against that backdrop Northwestern\u2019s promise of hard work and high salaries felt like self-actualization.<\/p>\n \u201cI was excited at first. I felt like there was a potential career in personal finance in front of me,\u201d says Clint. \u201cBut the rose-tinted glasses quickly came off.\u201d<\/p>\n A Northwestern spokesperson told the Guardian: \u201cOur profession isn\u2019t always easy, as it requires a tremendous amount of hard work, grit and perseverance. Understandably, it isn\u2019t for everyone.\u201d But, for those with \u201cvision, drive and an entrepreneurial spirit\u201d it can pay off. Reps receive \u201caward-winning training\u201d and 94% say the internship \u201chelped them grow personally and professionally\u201d, according to an internal survey.<\/p>\n Whether the recruits were misled or simply naive is open to debate. But there is also real concern for potential clients of Northwestern, the ones promised financial advice from \u201cexpert listeners\u201d on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n <\/span>Jeremy Biar poses for a portrait on 6 August 2025, in Houston, Texas.<\/span> Photograph: Antranik Tavitian\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Should the largest life insurer in the US be sending students and recent graduates to sell complex financial products like they were boxes of Girl Scout cookies?<\/p>\n Jeremy, the Texas A&M graduate, stuck with his internship despite being asked to harass his friends and family. But over the course of the internship, the office grew quieter. Without warning, interns stopped coming in. After one month, about 80% had dropped out, says Jeremy. Those left standing would simply chalk it up to the others\u2019 inability to \u201cmake it\u201d as an adviser.<\/p>\n Even as numbers dwindle, Northwestern flames rivalry to keep reps dialling. \u201cIt felt like the survival of the fittest,\u201d says Jeremy. At weekly meetings, rooms erupt with heckles, as a leaderboard ranks reps by policies sold, meetings booked and calls made. \u201cPublic shamings,\u201d David calls them.<\/p>\n Those who failed to hit quota look dejected, recalls former adviser Cole*, who worked at Northwestern for four years. With their eyes turned to the table, they would commit to trying harder next week, he says. The top performers were rewarded with trips, dinners and baseball tickets, he adds. Reps were also pressed to \u201cprove conviction\u201d by buying policies themselves, four sources said.<\/p>\n Jeremy rapidly established himself as his class\u2019s alpha. He wasn\u2019t squeamish about hounding his contacts. He wasn\u2019t earning anything close to a living wage, but his dogged approach meant he was<\/em> able to sell life insurance to seven college friends \u2013 including one $6,000-a-year plan. And that put him in a league of his own.<\/p>\n By the end of the internship, he was the only one left standing and accepted an invitation to stay on as a full-time rep after graduation.<\/p>\n But surviving Northwestern came at a price.<\/p>\n You really have to choose your Northwestern career over the friendships that you used to haveJeremy Biar<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not making any money and you can\u2019t afford to live. You\u2019re either racking up debt, or you\u2019re living with parents,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get pretty desperate, pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Financial precarity coupled with a fierce sales culture left Jeremy feeling shameless. Every interaction a friend had with him carried the risk of a sales pitch. Friday night plans became less frequent. People at his church avoided eye contact. \u201cMost of your friends end up blocking your number,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Finding himself at the margins, Jeremy dug deeper into his echo chamber. \u201cTrust the training and direction of Northwestern,\u201d was his mantra. Topping the leaderboard became his north star; dial, book, sell, refer and it would all work out, he told himself.<\/p>\n \u201cYou turn into a stoic human being. You really have to choose your Northwestern career over the friendships that you used to have.\u201d<\/p>\n What exactly do Northwestern want young guns like Jeremy to sell? While working as a Northwestern looks similar to a lot of insurance sales gigs, the product reps are particularly complex: whole life insurance.<\/p>\n Whole life insurance offers lifelong coverage with fixed premiums (monthly payments). Policyholders also pay into a cash pot that generates tax-free interest (like a traditional investment account). This makes whole life policies expensive \u2013 you are paying for the policy and the pot. Monthly payments are about $440 for a healthy 30-year-old, according to industry averages.<\/p>\n But annual returns on the cash value are underwhelming. An investment in the S&P 500 in 1990 will have grown about 3,700% while the returns on the cash component in a Northwestern policy would only have returned 99% (based on cumulative premiums and a 5.5% dividend). The Northwestern policy would also include a death benefit, paid to the family when the holder died. But, even including the death benefit, a stock market investment would have grown ten times more than the returns on a whole life policy.<\/p>\n Worse, it\u2019s easy to lose money on these products. A Northwestern policy viewed by the Guardian <\/em>shows it takes 16 years before the cash pot is greater than the premiums paid. Cancel before then, and you will net a loss.<\/p>\n \u201cWhole life is not terrible for everybody; it\u2019s just terrible for mostly everybody,\u201d says Clark Howard, a bestselling personal finance expert.<\/p>\n One adviser, Ben*, who has been with the company for a decade, says whole life accounts for about 80% of Northwestern\u2019s premiums, citing internal data.<\/p>\n <\/span>A logo sign on the Northwestern Mutual Tower, headquarters of Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 22 June 2018. Insurers stand to make a lot of money from these policies because cancellation rates are high. A study by the American Economic Review found that a quarter of policies lapse within three years, reaching 40% within a decade. In those cases, the insurer owes no death benefit and has already invested the premiums. Should a customer keep the policy for life, the death benefit is substantially smaller than traditional, fixed-term life insurance.<\/p>\n \u201cI despise the life insurance industry,\u201d says Howard.<\/p>\n For agents, whole life pays a juicy first-year commission: typically 100% of the annual premium. Except, at Northwestern, reps only receive about half of this, with the rest paid out over a decade. Plus, if a customer cancels within that year, reps must pay back the commission, regardless of whether they still work there. For Jeremy, it was a high school friend. When they backed out, he had to pay $1,400 back to Northwestern. \u201cIt can screw a lot of students because the attrition rate is insane,\u201d says Clint.<\/p>\n The reps we spoke with claimed that the only part of financial planning they had learned about was insurance sales. A two-week training schedule from a New York office, seen by the Guardian, <\/em>shows just one 30-minute session on \u201csecurities\u201d.<\/p>\n Twenty sources said they were told to always recommend whole life insurance. Training materials seen by the Guardian tell them to make whole life the \u201cfoundation of every plan\u201d. This includes step-by-step pitches, one urging a hypothetical prospective client called \u201cBriana\u201d to commit $600 a month despite her debt and lack of dependents.<\/p>\n \u201c[Young kids] will believe everything they hear in training, specifically how whole life insurance is a good fit for everyone,\u201d says former rep Steve*. \u201cThey\u2019ll repeat it and try to sell it to everyone and anyone that they have a relationship with.\u201d It felt like \u201cbrainwashing tactics for the young and naive\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n It was really painful to know that the small amount of money I was saving, I\u2019d lostMichael Denning<\/p>\n They are also taught to pull on heartstrings with \u201cpersonal death claim experiences\u201d.<\/p>\n This summer, intern Katie* was encouraged to talk about her father: a Northwestern policyholder who died a few years ago. The office director took particular interest in her, she says, and offered her a leadership role in college recruitment.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe so that I could spew my own experience and try to get more people involved,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt a little used.\u201d<\/p>\n What did this focus on whole life insurance feel like for the people on the other end of the phone? At 23, Michael Denning was persuaded to buy a whole life policy from a frat friend, despite barely making ends meet at the time. \u201cI really trusted him as a person, and so I agreed to do that,\u201d Michael says. But a year on, he was struggling to afford the premiums, so sought out a qualified financial adviser. The advice: get out sooner rather than later. He lost about $2,400 in total.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really painful to know that the small amount of money I was saving, I\u2019d lost,\u201d he says. He has had no contact with his friend since, but holds no resentment. \u201cI don\u2019t believe he had any idea what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeremy says ex-reps often feel shame about pushing these policies. Friends stop replying, convinced they were misled. \u201cThey\u2019ll have close friends that won\u2019t respond due to Northwestern coaching,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n One reason Northwestern might push for whole life more than its rivals, is because it is a mutual company \u2013 customers own it, instead of external shareholders. This means policyholders receive a dividend in the form of an interest rate. Guaranteeing this dividend \u2013 and growing it \u2013 is a big reason why it boasts top ratings from credit agencies. These scores and its dividend are at the heart of Northwestern branding itself, \u201cthe strongest company in the industry\u201d.<\/p>\n Whole life policies are great for growing the dividend because Northwestern can invest the cash component. Almost 90% of this year\u2019s dividend will be generated via whole life.<\/p>\n In 2004, regulators fined Northwestern $1m after a trainer portrayed whole life \u201cin an unbalanced and inappropriate way\u201d for years without discipline. The reps the Guardian spoke to all worked at Northwestern in the years following this fine.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that life insurance provides the foundation for a comprehensive financial plan. That does not mean we recommend it to every client,\u201d a Northwestern spokesperson said.<\/p>\n It may seem like Northwestern is pushing wide-eyed students to engage in a business model that feels predatory, but in the eye of the law, it\u2019s legal.<\/p>\n This is partly because of the very careful way Northwestern combines its two main businesses: insurance and financial advice. Financial deregulation towards the end of the 20th century saw insurers and investment firms overlap their services. In 2000, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company rebranded as \u201cNorthwestern Mutual\u201d, and agents became \u201cfinancial advisers\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet, insurance premiums still generate more than 60% of revenue. Adviser David estimates a quarter of Northwestern\u2019s 8,000 advisers run viable financial planning businesses \u2013 the rest rely on insurance, dropping out in their first five years.<\/p>\n \u201cInsurance runs the show. Everything else is a facade,\u201d says former adviser Cole. \u201cTheir commercials and recruitment process pitch financial planning like crazy, but everything internally is based on insurance, and anyone who says otherwise is lying through their teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet reps often do not mention insurance when they call people up, presenting themselves as advisers. They say things like \u201cI\u2019d like to show you the type of work I do to help people achieve their goals,\u201d and \u201cI work with a lot of accountants and investment firms,\u201d according to a script seen by <\/em>the Guardian.<\/p>\n Northwestern can refer to its agents as \u201cadvisers\u201d because it\u2019s a marketing term that anyone can adopt; the title does not have a single legal definition in the US. But to actually sell investing advice requires certain securities licences, which legally mandate advisers to act in their client\u2019s best interests, known as \u201cfiduciary duty\u201d.<\/p>\n Only a fraction of Northwestern\u2019s 8,000 \u201cadvisers\u201d actually hold these licenses, filings show. Less than a third are licensed investment advisers, and only one in five holds the gold standard certified financial planner (CFP) credential.<\/p>\n One small office listed eight staff: there are four advisers, but only two are licensed to sell investment advice. The rest are reps billed as planners, but are only qualified to sell insurance.<\/p>\n <\/span>A Northwestern Mutual location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2018.<\/span> Photograph: Serhii Chrucky\/Alamy<\/p>\n By referring to its contractors as \u201cadvisers,\u201d when a client meets with a Northwestern rep, it seems as if they are credentialed to make a financial plan that will calculate the best route to retirement. In reality, they are an insurance agent making a sale.<\/p>\n Northwestern provided a list of the licenses reps must obtain in order to use the title adviser \u2013 but regulatory filings suggest many fall short.<\/p>\n But what if the client does get matched with one of the qualified advisers?<\/p>\n I decided to book a call with a Northwestern adviser to find out and did not reveal I was a journalist. His email signature contained the letters \u201cCFP\u201d \u2013 the gold standard of certification. I could not have hoped for a better match.<\/p>\n \u201cLate 20s,\u201d I said down the phone. \u201cNo dependents. Hovering just above the median New York City salary. A four-figure purse of savings which I\u2019d like to grow.\u201d By our second call, my financial plan flashed on the screen. Its \u201ctop recommendations\u201d were a Roth IRA, an investment account and whole life. The last would charge an annual premium of $1,476. \u201cI usually recommend it for our young clients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n There is no circumstance when a twentysomething without kids or a spouse should buy a whole life policyClark Howard<\/p>\n One page of the plan shows a bar graph denoting increasing degrees of retirement planning. The first three bars are grey. The final one throws whole life into the mix, and turns blue. \u201c100% need covered,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n James Dahle, author of the the White Coat Investor, a blog dedicated to helping doctors with their finances, considers the advice to be \u201cfinancial malpractice\u201d, having reviewed the graph.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no circumstance when a twentysomething without kids or a spouse should buy a whole life policy,\u201d adds Howard.<\/p>\n Howard says that if no one depends on my income, there is little need for a fast payout should I die. Plus, for a young person with limited savings but no financial obligations, any money leftover after paying into a Roth IRA should go into an investment account buying indexes.<\/p>\n But the person on the other end of the phone was not under legal obligation to act in my best interests, despite the call being about financial advice. \u201cThere\u2019s really zero chance that the average person is going to read through a 60-page packet and pick out where I am selling to them and where I\u2019m acting for them,\u201d says Brendan, a certified adviser who formerly interviewed at Northwestern. \u201cWe\u2019re being completely compliant, but it\u2019s problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n Northwestern is not the only life insurer that has remarketed itself as financial planning. Nor is it the only one where agents are encouraged to tap their contacts for sales, and burn out fast.<\/p>\n What distinguishes Northwestern, sources say, is how aggressively it recruits students and graduates, and how the job is presented as a pathway to becoming a financial adviser.<\/p>\n New leads are the lifeblood of life insurance \u2013 especially whole life, which has high cancellation rates. Northwestern must keep finding more people to buy something that is hard to sell. The company wants to recruit 5,000 reps and advisers this year, knowing that most will not stay long.<\/p>\n Northwestern says about half of full-time reps drop out in year one. However, 19 sources estimated that the majority exit before then, including three advisers who said turnover was upwards of 90%.<\/p>\n In the same way that Northwestern benefits from potential customers\u2019 understandable confusion about the difference between insurance and financial planning, it also benefits from confusion among potential employees and interns.<\/p>\n I have a real problem with the way that they market themselves to college students. I find it predatoryLuke Wonnacott<\/p>\n There are more than 900 job ads currently listed on LinkedIn to work at Northwestern as a rep, which are headed as \u201cFinancial Advisor\u201d. They gloss over insurance: of the 400-word job description in one ad, the word \u201cinsurance\u201d appears once. Of the 250 Northwestern subsidiaries listed on student job site Handshake, less than a third are listed as insurance companies.<\/p>\n Many life insurers use titles like \u201cFinancial Professional\u201d to recruit agents, but the quantity of these ads on job boards are a fraction of Northwestern\u2019s.<\/p>\n Finding life insurance agents willing to cough up their network is not easy. Northwestern knows this. That is where college students \u2013 hungry to break into a competitive field \u2013 come in. They provide access to college-educated parents, relatives and friends who would otherwise put the phone down.<\/p>\n The thinking is: \u201cLet me get a bunch of people that went to this relatively prestigious university, and let me meet the wealthiest people that [they] know,\u201d says Jeremy.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a real problem with the way that they market themselves to college students. I find it predatory,\u201d says Luke Wonnacott, who applied for the internship after passing a booth in the business school of Brigham Young University in the hopes of becoming a financial adviser. Yet when he was handed the surveys requesting contact details of his network at his interview, alarm bells went off. He did not come back.<\/p>\n <\/span>Luke Wonnacott poses for a portrait at Orem Community Park in Orem, Utah, on 12 August 2025. <\/span> Photograph: Niki Chan Wylie\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Luke and Jeremy both say they would not have spoken with recruiters if they knew it was insurance sales. The students attending Northwestern\u2019s swanky recruitment dinners are all thinking, \u201cI want to be a prestigious financial adviser,\u201d says Jeremy. \u201cThat\u2019s the pool of people they\u2019re recruiting.\u201d<\/p>\n Northwestern recruiters also dangle six-figure salaries.<\/p>\n Megan received a \u201crevenue projection\u201d during her interview, seen by the Guardian. It forecasts annual earnings of $120,000 in year one, age 24, climbing to $1m by age 32.<\/p>\n David says his office claims average earnings of $750,000. But internal sales data, seen by the Guardian, show the top 3% of advisers in his office have collected two-thirds of this year\u2019s premiums, as of August.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of people in their first five years earning a living wage is close to zero,\u201d says David. Jeremy estimates he made $5.50 an hour, below Texas\u2019s minimum wage at the time.<\/p>\n When a Northwestern rep sells a policy, about half of the commission is paid out over the next decade \u2013 only if they continue to work for Northwestern. However, during their first year, reps partake in a system called \u201cjoint work\u201d, where a more senior adviser joins their meetings to help close a deal, who they split the commission with. This is common practice in the life insurance industry but it means that Northwestern reps often see just over 25% during the first year. If reps leave, their residual commissions are absorbed by the corporate home office.<\/p>\n These contracts are designed \u201cto incentivize people to fail\u201d, says Ben.<\/p>\n During Clint\u2019s Zoom interview, when a girl asked about the pay structure, one of the financial planners told her to \u201cthink of it like a pyramid\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we advertise is representative of the average earnings for financial advisers who meet the expectations of the career,\u201d a Northwestern spokesperson said. First year average earnings are $61,000 but \u201cpremiums do not represent the full picture of compensation\u201d as reps can also earn \u201callowances and bonuses\u201d, they continued.<\/p>\n However, this figure only includes contractors who have been full-time for a consecutive calendar year (January \u2013 December), thus excluding those who may have worked partial years and those who began the year as interns.<\/p>\n One office\u2019s internal sales data shows that the average earnings during the first eight months of this year, among reps hired since 2024, was $20,000. Most reps we spoke to said they received a sign-up stipend of up to $2,000 \u2013 conditional on sharing contacts and booking meetings \u2013 and $1,000 for every 10 policies sold.<\/p>\n Intern Kyle says the company\u2019s commitment to \u201centrepreneurial spirit\u201d has kept him dialing, despite making less than half of Arizona\u2019s minimum wage. His parents moved to the US from Mexico without college degrees. They instilled in him the importance of getting an education to achieve something \u2013 learn a skill, perfect it, build a brand, but most importantly, make money. He chose finance because it sounded prestigious.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s hard work, but I\u2019m going to continue pushing it,\u201d says Kyle. \u201cI can make this work out.\u201d<\/p>\n Becoming a Northwestern success story requires grit and charisma, reps are told. In reality, many advisers struggle to run profitable businesses, so they sign \u201cleadership contracts\u201d after a few years. This means earning bonuses off the sales of reps they recruit.<\/p>\n Ben says it is often nicknamed \u201cthe darkside\u201d among advisers. Or as David calls it: \u201ca deal with the devil\u201d.<\/p>\n There is no sign Northwestern is reconsidering its business model. But some lawmakers are trying to force them to.<\/p>\n This blurred identity \u2013 financial planner or insurance agent? \u2013 is at the core of what experts call the industry\u2019s \u201ctwo-hat syndrome\u201d. Advisers must act in clients\u2019 best interests when selling investments, but that duty vanishes when selling insurance. \u201cPeople think they\u2019ve hired a fiduciary, when that\u2019s only partially true,\u201d says personal finance expert Howard. \u201cThat\u2019s a terrible problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Without stronger oversight, regulators say clients remain vulnerable. Northwestern and its affiliates have faced at least 41 regulatory actions, settling all but two of them, coughing up more than $19.5m.<\/p>\n The industry has fought to keep it that way. Since 1998, insurers have spent nearly $4bn lobbying, according to OpenSecrets. Northwestern alone spent almost $3m last year. \u201cThey have the best lobbyists in the world,\u201d says Georgetown professor James Angel. \u201cThey\u2019ve forestalled federal regulation for a century.\u201d<\/p>\n Even reps are expected to support lobbying efforts. They receive a minute-by-minute template for how to lobby their local legislator to keep life insurance tax-deferred, internal documents show. Some describe being auto-enrolled into donations for an insurance trade group without consent, according to two sources from different states, and emails seen by the Guardian.<\/p>\n The Department of Labor last year finalized a rule expanding fiduciary duty to cover anyone giving retirement advice for a fee, but it has stalled amid lawsuits from trade groups. The labor department has sought multiple extensions from the court this year, as it decides whether to continue defending the rule.<\/p>\n They have the best lobbyists in the world … They\u2019ve forestalled federal regulation for a centuryJames Angel<\/p>\n Corey Frayer, director of investor protection at the consumer federation of America, says it\u2019s \u201cplausible\u201d that the agency will drop it, as courts have \u201cshifted dramatically to the right\u201d, this year when it comes to financial deregulation.<\/p>\n For now, the main legal challenges to Northwestern come from their customers.<\/p>\n Susan*, a twentysomething with no kids, was contacted by a rep after someone referred her. In their meetings, the rep \u201caggressively\u201d pushed whole life, she says. \u201cI\u2019m always looking out for your best interest, and please remember, I\u2019m a fiduciary,\u201d she recalls him saying.<\/p>\n In under five years, she paid about $100,000 into insurance she later felt she was unsuitable for. Once the premiums became unaffordable, she lodged a complaint. It took her six months to recover the money.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel terrible that people\u2019s lives are ruined by this, people who don\u2019t have a support system and a lot of money,\u201d she says. \u201cThese people are wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n As a new college year begins, Northwestern offices welcome a new class of interns. But the former interns the Guardian <\/em>spoke to would recommend interested students think twice.<\/p>\n Jeremy, once the last intern standing, eventually broke too. He had sold more than 50 policies to clients which he knew often did not serve their best interest. Guilt caught up with him. Just over a year after that hopeful spring morning, he quit. He spent the next couple of years working in his church\u2019s ministry. After slowly rebuilding trust with his community, he eventually opened his own planning practice. He estimates whatever he earned at Northwestern, the company will have since made tenfold.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to be able to financially afford a career at Northwestern,\u201d he says, \u201cbut also emotionally, you might not be able to afford it either.\u201d<\/p>\n *Use of a pseudonym<\/p>\n This article was amended on 26 November 2025. In a previous version, one of the sums related to an investment in a Northwestern policy was incorrect. The math has also been clarified to reflect both components of the life insurance policy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Northwestern Mutual likes to think of itself as a storied American institution offering specialized financial advice. The 168-year-old financial giant, ranked 109 on the Fortune 500, and regularly anointed one of the World\u2019s Most Admired Companies by the magazine, describes its financial advisers as \u201cexpert listeners\u201d or a \u201ctrusted partner who helps you continue to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[9015,535,1049,1140,5064,13334,1545,4278,779,1199,12927,11721,9595,2882],"class_list":{"0":"post-35466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-blocking","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-dream","12":"tag-friends","13":"tag-grads","14":"tag-industry","15":"tag-insurance","16":"tag-job","17":"tag-left","18":"tag-mutual","19":"tag-northwestern","20":"tag-ruin","21":"tag-sold"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The golden goose of life insurance<\/h2>\n
<\/span> Photograph: Kristoffer Tripplaar\/Alamy<\/p>\n\u2018Insurance runs the show\u2019<\/h2>\n
Selling students a dream<\/h2>\n
\u2018Wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n