Pros
You get experience in different areas of financial planning with high net worth clients. Most other employees at Ayco hate their jobs, so you will have friends to wallow with in your sorrow.
Cons
Ayco has the most miserable, toxic work environment that I have experienced in my professional career. You will be worked to death so that, if by the grace of the gods, you will become the almighty account manager. You will be judged completely by how many hours your put in and not by the actual quality of your work. Be expected to work from 8 am - 8 pm Monday - Friday, as well as come in one day per weekend. 90% of the employees sit around complaining about how much they hate their job. They openly state that they are actively seeking other jobs. Raises? Bonuses? Not a chance. You are lucky to receive a $500 salary increase, even with a promotion. Bonuses generally range from $0 - 2,000. Ayco itself can have a fantastic monetary year, but salary and bonuses are completely dictated by Goldman Sachs. Ayco loves to blame not giving bonuses and salary increases on Goldman having a bad fourth quarter. Don't worry about the Goldman executives - Ayco services them as clients and they make millions every year, even when Goldman has a "bad" year. Upper level management will continuously lie to you to get you to work harder, only have to your hopes and dreams crushed shattered at the end of the year. Did I mention tax season? You get to do your full time job in addition to preparing a boat load of complex tax returns. Tax season breaks people because it so painfully miserable full of archaic processes and procedures. "Technology." Saying that Ayco has "technology" is offensive to the word. My computer in 1995 had a faster operating system. Ayco uses thousands of programs rather than one integrated system, such as a company like Merrill Lynch. Your computer will constantly crash and you get used to seeing "Not Responding" multiple times throughout the day. Management loves to talk about making process more "effecient" but they refuse to invest in modern technology. Compliance. Ayco likes to make things as difficult as possible for the employee from a compliance perspective. Minor things like changing a client's email address or phone number is a major chore. The holy grail aka Account Manager role. The account manager position is what everyone at Ayco strives to be. This is the position that generates all of the money and respect. If you are not on a career path to become account manager, then you might as well go ahead and find a new company to work for. Everyone knows that account managers make good money, but management loves to keep their little payment formula a secret. Let me enlighten you roughly on their compensation structure: Account managers make 1/3 of the counseling fee that Ayco charges clients. Ayco's counseling fee averages to be about $10,000 per client. If an account manager has 60 clients, then they are generating about $600,000. This makes them about $200,000. Next, Ayco's fees for assets under management depend upon the investment strategy. On average, account managers receive a $2,000 raise per every $1,000,000 in a managed strategy. If an advisor has $100,000,000 under management, then this will generate approximately $200,000 of income for the account manager. Lastly, account managers receive a percentage of premium for any life insurance, LTC, annuities, etc. that they sell. It's not usual huge numbers but can add up to another $25 - 50,000 for an average account manager. While the account manager role can be financially rewarding, it is a position that requires an immense amount of work and day trip travelling 2-3 days a week. It is grueling and pretty much kills your chance at spending any time with family. Ayco advisors are required to have a minimum of 4 meetings with clients per year, compared to most investment advisors who meet 1 - 2 times per year. Tax season also puts more stress on the advisors. Many of them burn out and move onto other companies, even if it means taking a pay decrease. The wealthiest clients are always tied up among a few advisors at every Ayco office. Literally there may be 3 advisors at an office that make as much as 12 other advisors combined. Management plays favorites with certain advisors and hands them the best of the best clients. This list could go on forever. Please do yourself a favor and take a job elsewhere. I don't want any more people to have to experience the depression that Ayco causes its employees. Ayco will forever be Goldman Sachs' ugly step child.