Mutual of Omaha Misleading job advertising Hauppauge, New York

Early in 2012, having struggled to earn commissions with other life insurance companies, I was intrigued by an advertisement from Mutual of Omaha seeking licensed agents for sales jobs.  What caught my attention in particular was the statement that the company had a special program to help new agents make the transition to working on a commission basis.  What I reasonably assumed is that Mutual of Omaha would pay new agents a salary for a period of time, perhaps six months or a year, after which they would be sufficiently established to get by on straight commissions.  Arrangements of this sort are not uncommon in the financial services industry.

When I went for an interview at the Hauppauge office I found to my dismay that the transition program in question merely involves adding a bonus onto a new agent's commissions.  In other words, if you don't earn any commissions at first, you don't get the bonus and in fact don't earn any money at all. At least the manager who interviewed me was honest and said that new agents should have the financial resources to survive for a few months before they start bringing in commissions.

Needless to say, I didn't take the job.