Northwestern Mutual - Theodore Financial Group Company Website
Location(s):
Denver,
CO
Phone:
(312) 888-8888
Industry:
Finance / Banking / Accounting
Size:
50-99
Discover your potential
Since 1857, Northwestern Mutual has been helping people protect against financial risk and achieve financial security. Theodore Financial Group has been part of that tradition since 1971.
Scott P Theodore, CLU, ChFC, CFP®, Managing Partner
The ambition of Managing Partner, Scott Theodore is to make a positive impact on all associates and their clientele by creating an environment of desire, confidence, consistency, and positive results. Education, motivation, and empowerment are the tools by which this office enables its associates to envision and fulfill a successful future to better serve its clients.
The mission of Theodore Financial Group is to provide its clients with expert guidance and innovative solutions that are right for each client. Whether focused on personal finances, business needs or both, they help clients understand their financial goals and ensure they are providing them with the right guidance and products to meet their needs.
Northwestern Mutual Financial Network brings together the skills of representatives, the expertise of advisors and the technical know-how of a number of financial specialists to provide solutions for clients' financial goals and help you gain access to the products and services of a wide variety of organizations—each of which has a comprehensive understanding of a specific aspect of financial services.
And through The Network and Theodore Financial Group, here are just a few of the products and services available to your clients:
Our Expertise
Just as your clients trust and rely on you to provide needs analysis and innovative solutions, you can trust and rely on Theodore Financial Group and the Network to provide sound products and services for your clients.
You might conclude that no one person can be an expert in all financial matters. We agree. That's why we provide you and your clients with access to a nationwide network of representatives, advisors and specialists who will work with you to provide a full range of services.
At Theodore Financial Group, our expertise includes:
Personal Needs Analysis
Business Needs Analysis
Investment Services
Estate Analysis
Disability Income Insurance
Employee and Executive Benefits
Advanced Planning
Long-Term Care
Diversity
At Theodore Financial Group, we are committed to reflecting our community and seek talented individuals who share our core values. As part of our overall growth strategy, we are committed to building and fostering a diverse organization of network representatives and specialists. We do so without regard to gender, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age.
We take pride in our unique strengths and the expertise we share with our clients. Our entire community can benefit from our expertise and can be rewarded with the advantages of the careers we offer. We will continue to be committed to reaching all segments of our community in which we live and conduct business.
Meet Managing Partner, Scott Theodore
Scott Theodore, a petroleum engineer by degree, had relocated from his native Ohio to build his future in the oil business. Everything looked promising until there was a downsizing. At the time, a career in the insurance and financial industry wasn't even remotely on his radar.
Fortunately, former Managing Partner, Mike McKeever was the teacher, and the student was ready. "Mike saw that while I probably wouldn't lead the network office in production, my future was in leadership."
Scott credits his parents, both educators, for his drive to excel. Among the evidence of that drive, Theodore completed a half-year of college during high school and earned two college degrees in four years. "Before I attended college, I always thought I'd be an educator and a coach like my father, but school led me down a technical path. In January 1991, Mike put me in a leadership role, coaching new representatives. I realized I had come full circle."
Scott Theodore's accelerated career trajectory took him to field director in 1992. Two years later, he spun out a scratch district network office with four representatives, which he grew to 18 financial representatives.
The heart of the matter
Monica Covert-Kerber, the Denver network office's director of recruiting, said, "Scott
Theodore is the kind of person who inspires you to think bigger and better and even move
quicker when you are around him. He's truly contagious."
Theodore explained, "I believe in people and challenge them to create a vision of what they can become. My strength is in getting to the heart of the matter."
To that end, he often shares with new representatives the story of his most memorable client, Tom Mazza. "I had been friends with Tom for 15 years. He approached me at a holiday party about becoming a life insurance client. His passion was skiing, and he was also a hobbyist instructor. In March 2001, while skiing, he lost control, hit a tree and was killed. When I sat down with his widow, Peggy, what she said rings in my head every day: 'I can't thank Tom enough for caring as much as he did that the girls and I were provided for.' It just made me realize how important and significant the work is that we do."
Scott Theodore also teaches his representatives about life balance. "My philosophy is 'Quality time at work, quantity time with my family.' I preach that."
Scott strongly believes that a key ingredient in life balance is giving back to his community,and he serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Youth, a non-profit organization providing health care for indigent and uninsured children in Colorado. He also finds time to coach soccer and baseball, and he sings in his church choir.
An Opportunity to Succeed
Successful financial representatives with Theodore Financial Group experience tremendous pride and satisfaction in building a practice from the ground up. Their success is not a factor of luck or chance; it's the result of a productive work ethic, strong relationship skills and a level of professionalism second to none. A mission of doing what's right for our clients is the thread that weaves together our organization.
The goal is not to simply sell products, but to discover clients' needs and help to meet them. That means taking the time to understand each person's financial situation, values and goals.
This career offers:
The ability to meet new people and positively impact families, businesses and communities as you help to achieve their goals and dreams
An entrepreneurial opportunity to own your own business
A high degree of support and training, plus ongoing curriculum for educational growth and personal development
The flexibility of a career that allows you to focus on things of importance to you
Earnings where you are directly rewarded for your efforts
A strong team culture and the opportunity to work with a variety of specialists and advisors
Exclusive access to a variety of world-class solutions and services, including life insurance from Northwestern Mutual
Leadership and development opportunities
Your Development
You'll have assistance in developing your business and marketing plans, extensive training and coaching from certified trainers.
New representatives receive initial industry and sales training as well as mentoring and joint work programs for hands-on experience. They have access to on-line education resources for polishing skills and keeping up to date on industry information as well as exposure to opportunities for ongoing career education and advanced professional designations to increase their knowledge and reputation.
Your Business
We know that building your own business is difficult without help. As a financial representative with Theodore Financial Group, you will be in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Theodore Financial Group will provide you with support in your training and development, so you don't have to do it alone.
We take pride in our unique strengths and the expertise we share with our clients. Our communities can benefit from our expertise and can be rewarded with the advantages of the careers offered through the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.
If you're ready to be your own boss, set your own hours and make a positive impact on people's lives everyday, then turn your dreams into reality and find out what a career as a Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Representative with Theodore Financial Group can do for you. Discover your potential when you join our team.
Monica V Covert Kerber, Director of Selection (left)--Monica is always interested in meeting with highly successful & career minded individuals.
Beth Townsend, Assistant Director of Selection (right)--Beth understands how frustrating the career search right out of college can be. Her goal is to stimulate personal excellence through the internship program.
The Benefits of Your Success
Your career as a financial representative is what you make of it. You have the freedom to balance your hard work and determination with your personal goals. In the beginning of your career, it takes a tremendous amount of time, energy and commitment to earn the flexibility and financial rewards you will enjoy later on. You can achieve financial independence and have a positive impact on your clients, your family and your own community.
Income
A financial representative's income potential is virtually unlimited. Earnings are directly related to sales results and client relationships. Financial representatives are compensated through commissions, renewals and bonuses.
Our top producer group, The Forum, had a median gross income of over $410,800 in 2004.
First-year, average gross income during 2002-2004 for financial representatives ranged from $38,900 to $83,900.
Benefit Package
Whether you are single or married with a family, Northwestern Mutual's benefit package will address the various stages of a full-time financial representative's life. These benefits include: Comprehensive Medical Coverage, Retirement, Flex Programs, Childcare/Eldercare, Maternity Leave, Group Life and Accidental Death Benefit, Disability Income Insurance. Your local network office can provide additional information.
Lifestyle
When you invest the time and hard work necessary to build a successful practice as a financial representative, you can enjoy the rare and envied reward of balancing work with your personal goals. You can arrange your schedule so you may have three or four appointments a day, and still have time to participate in your children's school programs, community involvement or leisure-time activities.
Build a business that allows you to schedule meetings to accommodate your clients' schedules and your own.
Impact
The goal of the Network is not to simply sell products, but to discover clients' needs and provide solutions to meet them. That means taking the time to understand each person's financial situation, values and goals. Every solution you implement may help secure the financial future of your clients, their families, their businesses and your community.
You can experience the rewards of a career in which you can have a daily, positive impact on people's lives, including your own.
Meet some of the members of our Team
Successful financial representatives with Theodore Financial Group experience tremendous pride and satisfaction in building a practice from the ground up. Their success is not a factor of luck or chance; it's the result of a productive work ethic, strong relationship skills and a level of professionalism second to none. A mission of doing what's right for our clients is the thread that weaves together our organization.
Career Opportunities
Through the Theodore Financial Group, our financial representatives have advancement opportunities into management and specialist opportunities. Learn more about some of our team members:
Ben Miller, Managing Director Ben Miller is the Managing Director of a local network office. In addition to maintaining a strong personal practice, he plays a key role in the career development of other Financial Representatives.
Benjamin Joseph Harvey, Field Director
As the Field Director, Ben Harvey assists in the recruitment and selection process of candidates in order to build a cohesive unit of productive full-time Financial Representatives.
Sharyl Lu Sullivan, Employee Benefit Specialist
As the Employee Benefit Specialist, Sharyl Sullivan prepares a comprehensive analysis of a client´s employee benefits program, and then offers solutions to meet the unique needs of that company.
Dwayne A. Day, Investment Specialist
As the Investment Specialist, Dwayne Day provides expertise in helping individual and business clients with their wealth accumulation and wealth preservation needs.
James M. Eby, Long-Term Care Specialist
As the Long Term Care Specialist, James Eby helps individual and corporate clients understand their long-term care insurance needs.
Career Insights
Read what some of the members of Theodore Financial Group have to say about their careers:
Carl Polhemus has been a Financial Representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network since 1981. Read what Carl has to say about his career as a financial representative.
Before I became a Financial Representative, I was a scientist specializing in optical physics. But I wanted to run my own show, pay the price and reap the rewards. The greatest reward has been the clients and the freedom, while the greatest challenge is prospecting and using time wisely.
A Time I Made a Difference
Over time, though, I’ve learned that helping my clients brings me great satisfaction, like when I worked with Phil and Debbie in 1982 when I was a brand new representative. At the time, both had good jobs and no children. Then their lives changed dramatically with income struggles and twins on the way. At one point, they decided to surrender their whole life policies and replace them with inexpensive term insurance.
This upset both Phil and Debbie because it was the one move that could turn their earlier life insurance decision into a mistake. I looked carefully at the status of the policies and suggested to Phil that the policies could carry themselves for many months with no premium payments at all, not even the term cost. Furthermore, when their income situation improved, they could potentially get this plan back on its original track. Over the next couple of years, they were able to repay all the policy loans, and they did so. Phil and Debbie were surprised that their life insurance provided such flexibility and still allowed them to get it back on track as though they had never interrupted payments.
As their lives progressed, Phil bought disability insurance, another significant financial commitment. Phil and Debbie took comfort in the fact that their Northwestern Mutual insurance program assured the opportunity of a college education to their children no matter what happened, whether they lived, died, or became disabled.
Twenty years after I first met Phil and Debbie, I learned Phil had ALS. Northwestern began paying all of Phil’s life insurance premiums under the waiver-of-premium benefit. Phil’s disease progressed rapidly and he passed away shortly after I visited him in the hospice. When I met with Debbie the first time after Phil’s death, she told me when she sees the Northwestern Mutual sign on our building, she gets goose bumps. She said it feels like her company and it makes her proud. Northwestern Mutual helped Phil die with dignity, and now helps Debbie live with dignity.
Words of Wisdom
If you’re considering a career as a Financial Representative, be careful what you wish for, because you almost certainly will get it. For the right person, it’s the closest thing to heaven you can find on earth. At the Network, our culture, the company’s performance, the consistency and the core insurance products differentiate us from the others in the financial services business.
Eric McGough has been a Financial Representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network since 1990. Read Eric's insights about his career as a financial representative.
Before becoming a Financial Representative, I was an accountant for the Westin Hotel Corporation at their international headquarters. After about one year, I felt like I was just keeping score for the decisions that other people were making. I wanted to have more of an impact on people, so I started looking for a career where I could positively impact other people’s lives.
I love visiting with my clients and sharing their lives and their joys. I also enjoy the excitement of meeting new people who have been referred to me by my clients and figuring out how I can help them achieve the goals most meaningful to them. The career has its challenges, too, such as balancing all the hats you wear on a daily basis. Sometimes you’re the Financial Representative, other times the business owner, the psychologist, the employer, the office decorator, the janitor, and the list goes on.
Early in the career, the hardest thing was dealing with the frustration of trying and knowing you could help a prospect, but they don’t want your help or don’t trust you enough to take it. But it’s a good life! At first, it’s hard, it’s scary, and it’s thankless. And it becomes the greatest career in the world.
Making the Difference
I met with the adult child and her husband of a client of mine. They were having significant financial struggles and I walked them through their financial picture, discussed their future goals and dreams, and began a VERY small program to begin moving in that direction. I thought the meeting was fine or average, nothing special. My client said they were just ecstatic about how the meeting went. He said that for the first time in a long time, they had hope and promise in their future.
On a different note, I recently had the opportunity to drive down to Louisiana to help relocate several Katrina families around the country as well as bring 29 people back to Colorado with me. That’s currently occupying quite a bit of my time, as I’m leveraging the Network to help some of them find jobs and fill the needs of these families.
Internships
Whether you know where your college education is taking you or you're still keeping your options open, you owe it to yourself to see if Northwestern Mutual Financial Network's Internship program with the Theodore Financial Group is right for you.
As you learn by doing, you'll find that the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Internship Program is an intense and according to our alumni -- unparalleled learning experience. Expect the process to be rewarding, educational and an opportunity for you to narrow your career search.
Our internships provide a great chance for students to combine what they've learned in the classroom with a real-life look into what they could truly make of themselves. You'll have the chance to work in a real-world business environment and earn performance-based compensation.
The ambition of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network Internship program has been less to sell our financial products than to develop people. As a Financial Representative College Intern, you will enjoy the benefit of working with Theodore Financial Group where you'll receive outstanding guidance, superior support and quality expertise.
As full-time college students, interns generally work 15 to 20 hours per week developing business- and client-building skills. In most ways, our interns follow the same process for establishing their careers as our Financial Representatives.
Our internship offers you invaluable business experience that you will take with you far into your career. But that's just the start of the impact this can have on your future and your present.
Consider these benefits:
Practical guidance in your career selection process
The chance to develop your networking and business relationship skills
Flexible work schedule
Securities license, state licenses for life, health and accident insurance opportunities and a head start program for a career as a full-time Financial Representative
Compensation in the same manner as a full-time Financial Representative.
Actual business experience for your resume.
Test drive the Financial Representative career.
Regardless of what you do after graduation, you'll have a foundation of skills and knowledge to build your career upon. One out of three former interns becomes a full-time Financial Representative upon graduation. These graduates have built a solid foundation for immediate and future career success.
The two-thirds who choose other career paths benefit as well. They launch their career with stronger business-building skills and a clearer sense of where they want their career to take them.
After completing the internship, the knowledge you have gained, coupled with the opportunity to work for Theodore Financial Group as a full-time Financial Representative, can lead you to a profitable and fulfilling future.
The Northwestern Mutual Advantage
Northwestern Mutual exists to help policyowners and clients protect against financial risk and achieve financial security. The company, with its subsidiaries and affiliates, offers insurance products, investment products and advisory services that address client needs for financial security and protection, capital accumulation, asset distribution and estate preservation.
With more than 350 offices across the United States, 3 million policyowners and clients, $18 billion in annual revenues and $133 billion in assets, you can count on Northwestern Mutual to help you build strong financial futures for your clients.
The company's tradition of "doing the right thing" has been honored and nurtured by successive generations within Northwestern Mutual and recognized in the industry and media.
World's Most Admired--Northwestern Mutual is the "World's Most Admired" company in its industry, according to FORTUNE magazine's annual survey of industry executives and analysts. For Northwestern Mutual, it is the seventh year as the top life/health insurance company in the magazine's global survey.
First in Customer Satisfaction-- For the third year in a row, Northwestern Mutual has earned the highest customer satisfaction score among U.S. life insurers, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) survey. Northwestern Mutual's industry leading score can be found in the ACSI's fourth quarter of 2005 consumer study, focusing on retail trade, e-commerce, banks and insurance.
America's Most Admired--According to the March 7, 2006, FORTUNE magazine survey, Northwestern Mutual has been named "America's Most Admired" life insurance company for 23 years.
One of America's Top Ten Internships for 2006--"Northwestern Mutual Financial Network has made our Top 10 list for ten consecutive years, proving its internship program to be consistently among the best." Internship Informants™, Vault, inc., 20006.
Selling Power's 50 Best Companies to Sell For--Northwestern Mutual was ranked as the 2nd best and 4th largest service company (November/December 2005).
Financial Ratings--The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (Northwestern Mutual), the nation's largest direct provider of individual life insurance, according to statistics compiled from A. M. Best data, has always received the best possible insurance financial strength ratings from the four major rating services: Standard & Poor's (AAA), Fitch Ratings (AAA), A. M. Best (A++) and Moody's (Aaa).
Top 100 Employers--Ranked 22nd in The Black Collegian's "Top 100 Employer and The Majors in Demand" for the Class of 2005.
Largest Direct Provider of Life Insurance--According to statistics compiled from A. M. Best data, Northwestern Mutual is the largest direct provider of life insurance.
Community Support--The Northwestern Mutual Foundation supports nearly 1,500 schools and nonprofit organizations each year. Last year, the Foundation contributed nearly $13 million ($12,534,005) in national and Milwaukee-area grants.
2006 Dividend--Northwestern Mutual's overall dividend payout to policyowners for 2006 is expected to be $4.27 billion, an increase of $360 million, the largest single increase in company history. This ongoing success, fostered by the company's tradition of "doing the right thing," has been honored and nurtured by successive generations within Northwestern Mutual.
Scott P Theodore, CLU, ChFC, CFP®, Managing Partner
You might conclude that no one person can be an expert in all financial matters. We agree. That's why we provide you and your clients with access to a nationwide network of representatives, advisors and specialists who will work with you to provide a full range of services. 
Meet some of the members of our Team
Internships