Customer ReviewsforNorthwestern Mutual

Predatory life insurance tactics to get young individuals to sign up.

Some words to describe my experience are bamboozled, fraudulent, thieving, corksniffers. I hope they all get uncontrollable ********.

Northwestern Mutual (NWM) used to have somewhat decent customer service. We have been customers for almost 40 years. Currently, their Client Services are exceptionally poor with a few exceptions. I would not trust NWM with your money. Whatever the financial results of this company may appear to be, they are not a customer oriented company. I was trying to fix a problem with our billing. On the first call the "second tier" client services representative pretended to not understand me, at least 3 times, then lied to me and told me I didn't understand what I was talking about. I tried again, hoping to find a more helpful representative, and the second representative also lied to me and tried to tell me there was no solution. I was on the verge of filing a complaint with our state attorney general about NWM billing practices when my husband and I figured out what NWM's core billing issue was, and we figured out a workaround that was accomplished with the help of a first tier representative. I would not trust these people.

We began working with financial advisor Jacob ******* and things started off well. We had a plan to begin term life insurance, begin a money market and explore whole life insurance in the future. He never took the steps to help set up a money marker and then asked if we could begin the underwriting process for whole life, saying we'd have 6-8 weeks to decide if we'd like to proceed. About a week after agreeing to this, we were charged the full yearly price of whole life insurance without any discussion or authorization on our part. We asked for a refund, he apologized and said he'd make sure it happened in 2-3 business days. 7 business days later and no refund, I called Northwestern Mutual and they informed me he never requested a refund and they'd cancel the policy to ensure a refund. Beware of working with financial advisors like Jacob who appear honest and trustworthy but will make unauthorized payments of multiple thousands of dollars. This process felt shady and dishonest.

Don't give them your money. They're eager to meet with you and get your money but when you want it back, they're non-existent. I have been trying to get the cash value of my whole life policy back for two plus months. To get a response back it takes two or three emails/messages.

The most awful, deceptive practice that takes advantage of young families. We were not properly informed of their "loans" and ended up deeply in debt to them. Mr. Larry ******* was highly deceptive in his practices and I would not recommend them.

All was well until it wasn’t - or until I wanted to access my funds. It took weeks and weeks of emailing, phone calls, yelling at my advisor and his assistant and even needing me to speak with the Compliance Officer Kelly **** - she is the only person I have spoken with who actually cares about me/my situation (and if she doesn’t she is great at pretending). My main issue started APRIL 16 2024 and as of JUNE 6th 2024 is still not resolved. The agent who looked into my complaint told me it would be 2-4 weeks until resolution and would let me know if it was longer. (That was April 16) I heard back on May 29th that it was approved! I’m getting some money back! Or so I think… still no check or deposit by the 6th. After replying to the agent who “investigated” Christa ****** - she noted that she hadn’t actually sent the check until today (June 6th) because she was unsure if I wanted to have a conversation about it? But never reached out to me asking to have that conversation. I spoke with her Supervisor Jake who did also seem apologetic. He and Kelly were great. My advisor, Cullen and Christa- not so much. After speaking with Jake, Christa’s supervisor- he said that he will be issuing the check tomorrow morning (an additional day lag! Imagine that! Even though Christa requested it to be “expedited”). I should hopefully see the check early next week. If you can avoid doing any business whether it be insurance or investments with NM I would advise to do so. It is very evident that there is little to no customer service training that goes into their jobs and it is all about $$. I get it, it’s wealth management. But at the end of the day there needs to be a level of compassion that was no where to be found when dealing with people’s finances.

If you have a policy loan with Northwestern Mutual you are being JAMMED. They cash your loan-payment check immediately, then wait 5 weeks to credit the payment to your loan. They did this to me THREE payments in a row. Only when I called and threatened to go to the state insurance commission did they agree to correct it. Watch out, they're doing it to you too. The Loan History on the website makes it difficult to catch. You have to demand a ledger of loan activity to see how the scam works. Then they claim it was an "oversight" and that the "wrong team" processed the payments. (Yeah, three payments in a row.) Every time you make a loan payment, as soon as it clears your bank, call Northwestern and demand that it be applied to your loan immediately, otherwise they won't. I still may go to the state insurance commission. This is just so wrong.

I thought I was adding money to an already existing plan only to find out that they had opened a new policy. This is not what I had agreed to. I would highly suggest people never work with this company and I am still trying to figure out how they have an A+ rating with the BBB.