North Star Resource Group Reviews

Current Employee – been working at North Star Resource Group full-time

Pros – Great culture and co-workers.
Independence of owning your own business, flexible schedule.
Freedom to build your practice however you envision it.

Cons – Takes a lot of hard work and long hours to build successful practice.
Very unstable compensation for the first few years
If you need someone to watch over you and tell you what to do then this career is not for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your staff more - we've got great administrative support but they aren't compensated as well as they should be.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group

Pros – - Flexible Schedule for support staff
- Received time off when I wanted/needed it
- Fun enviorment
- 1/3 of the Financial Advisors are fun, and bonus their support staff since the company decided to stop giving raises 5 years ago

Cons – - Management sucks
- 5 year "raise freeze" for the staff even though the company was hitting "record high" numbers
- No training program for new employees
- There has not been a real Human Resouces contact for over 6 years
- Management does not communicate with their staff on important matters

Advice to Senior Management – If you want your employess to stay, and your advisors to be appy, try paying your staff more. They have given you many years of dedicated service, what have you given them?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at North Star Resource Group full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – You have the opportunity to run your own business and have true job security
Flexible work environment and schedule
Incredible upside income potential which is limited only by your own motiviation
Great culture and very supportive management

Cons – It's very difficult to get started and it can take years to build a successful practice.
Very long hours and low pay during the first few years (up to 3 years)
You constantly face rejection and skepticism as not everyone appreciates the work that you do.
You can't just try this career on for size. It's just too tough and you will fail. It requires a great deal of persistence and vision to succeed in this business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at North Star Resource Group as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Great company culture within small business
Mentorship affective in helping to learn the business
Great sales experience and great jump start on filling your funnel to build clientele at an early stage
Sky is the limit

Cons – Cold calling is main part of the job and can become tedious at times
Have to face rejection every day
Small hourly wage, but pay is based on performance
Long work weeks are a norm, most full time employees work 70-80 hrs per week in the earlier stages of their practice

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group for less than a year

Pros – Supportive staff and basic training programs

Cons – Very dated and high pressure to sell.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide a base salary for recent grads to get a start.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group full-time

Pros – The day I left that place.

Cons – Ponzi scheme structure. You bring two friends in, they each bring in two friends, etc. I feel horrible for their clients. Always getting slammed into highly commissionable life insurance products that don't make sense for their situation.

Advice to Senior Management – Look in the mirror and slap yourself.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group as an intern for less than a year

Pros – A lot of access to Sr. Management. You get a good luck at what a full-time position at the company is really like. It is very possible to get a job offer after the internship program is finished.

Cons – Not a lot of variety in the internship program. It mostly entails doing the same thing (data entry) day-after-day.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at North Star Resource Group

Pros – They work with you. The portland branch is growing and presents great opportunities for the broad minded. The people are friendly and great to work with.

Cons – Communication between the branch offices is not always great. I believe this is mostly because NorthStar is a fairly large comany.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire another staff member. The staff needs a little help, even if it is just one person at part time.

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group

Pros – Great training/mentorship program for financial advisors
Fun people with "work hard to play harder" mentality
Opportunity to travel
They "recycle" employees to an extent
Tons of perks and incentives for advisors
Great benefits package

Cons – Advisor positions are commission based and your licensing comes out of pocket so don't expect to make a penny the first few months
Traveling, supplies, and hiring assistants also come out of pocket if you are an advisor
Lack of communication between offices
Lack of training and advancement opportunities for employees who are not advisors

Advice to Senior Management – Management does a great job of communicating with the employees and giving credit where it's due.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at North Star Resource Group

Pros – Unlimited salary, Flexible schedule, Good coworkers

Cons – The recruiters make it sound like unlimited salary is in your near future but you will absolutely not get paid more than $400-$500 for about six months. You are required to purchase your own training tools for $600 a pop and if you aren't making any commissions, they require you to pay that when you leave! Seriously- no salary, no benefits, no leadership. And when you do sell products or make commissions, they absolutely require you to cut in your "mentor" even though they do nothing. Their "mentors" are only still producing there because they take 50% of commissions from their new employees and can "mentor" up to 15 people at a time!

Advice to Senior Management – If you want to continue to survive as an organization, you need to find some way to allow your people to make some kind of money! It was hard to sell life insurance to someone when I couldn't even afford to buy produce at the grocery store that week!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend