Business Spotlight: 'Quiet' Northwestern Mutual breaks silence

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It's 7:30 a.m. and David Yaktine, CLU, is in high gear. During the next hour and a half, he'll be leading a training session for the 13 financial representatives who work at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Springfield. |ret||ret||tab|

Training has taken on new importance these days since the company began expanding the products and services it offers. The company changed its name this summer from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. to Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. |ret||ret||tab|

"The company always has been committed to putting the needs of the policyholder first," Yaktine said. "Most of our policyholders are fairly financially sophisticated. Changing the company's name reflects that we're able to respond to their wide range of needs. Our financial representatives can help clients with all of their business and personal planning needs, such as retirement, estate liquidity, employee and executive benefit plans, business succession, annuities, disability insurance, long-term care and investments. Life insurance, however, will continue to be our core product."|ret||ret||tab|

Founded in 1857, Northwestern Mutual is the fifth-largest life insurance company in the United States with more than $78 billion in assets. Clients are served through a network of more than 7,000 representatives in 350 offices nationwide. |ret||ret||tab|

For years, Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Duff & Phelps and A.M. Best have given Northwestern Mutual a triple-A rating, the highest in the industry. Fortune Magazine has named Northwestern Mutual as the "most admired" life insurance company for the past 17 years. |ret||ret||tab|

Although Northwestern Mutual has a stellar reputation, the company doesn't advertise much. The company's approach to attracting and retaining clients is fairly low-key, according to Yaktine. While the company has had an office in Springfield for many years, it was largely overlooked and seemed to live up to Northwestern Mutual's motto of being "The Quiet Company." |ret||ret||tab|

Things have been changing at Northwestern Mutual's Springfield office during the past year and a half, however. On Jan. 1, 1999, Dan Ertz, general agent for Northwestern Mutual in Kansas City, moved the district agency from Primrose Avenue to 4136 S. McCann and appointed Yaktine to serve as field director so he could oversee operations in the Springfield office and southwest Missouri. Yaktine seized the opportunity and immediately began adding more representatives. |ret||ret||tab|

"I was perfectly satisfied with my career, but I recognized the agency's potential and accepted a new challenge to help it reach that potential," Yaktine said. |ret||ret||tab|

Within 18 months, the office grew from three to 14 full-time agents, and a college intern was hired. Northwestern Mutual went from being one of the smaller insurance agencies in Springfield to being the ninth-largest. |ret||ret||tab|

The growth at the Springfield office reflects the company's long-term expansion strategy. In 1982, Northwestern Mutual acquired Robert W. Baird and Co. Inc., a stock firm. By the mid-1980s, the company was selling variable life products whose cash value more closely reflected the performance of the stock market, and in 1997, Northwestern Mutual introduced the Mason Street family of mutual funds. |ret||ret||tab|

In 1998, Northwestern Mutual rolled out a new long-term care product, and last year, the company acquired the Frank Russell Co., an investment management and advisory firm. Northwestern Mutual also announced its intention to establish a trust company later this year. |ret||ret||tab|

In addition to expanding the products and services it offered, Northwestern Mutual also began looking to increase its market share. The company already had a good market share in most major U.S. cities. If the company were to expand, it would have to increase its presence in less-populated but growing cities, such as Springfield. |ret||ret||tab|

In April 2000, Northwestern Mutual named Yaktine to serve as the company's district agent. As district agent, Yaktine faces all of the challenges that confront any small business owner. He is responsible for recruiting and training new agents, meeting staff payroll, finding office space and all of the other costs and duties associated with running a growing business. In addition, also serves as a financial representative to his own clients. |ret||ret||tab|

"There's a lot that goes into running your own business, but it's worth it," Yaktine said. "It sounds sort of clich, but in many ways I feel like I'm living the American dream." |ret||ret||tab|

A first-generation American, Yaktine's parents immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in search of a better life and settled in St. Joseph. In 1980, Yaktine moved to Springfield, and in 1984, he graduated from Southwest Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree in finance. |ret||ret||tab|

Yaktine, who has been with Northwestern Mutual for 12 years, credits his long-term associate agents for providing the support and recruiting assistance needed to help expand the office. |ret||ret||tab|

"Of all the things that I do, recruiting new representatives is probably the toughest," Yaktine said. "We have excellent relationships with SMSU and Drury University, which helped attract the two MBAs who work here. Overall though, I'd say our financial representatives have fairly diverse backgrounds, and many of the new people I've added are career changers who want to control their own destinies."|ret||ret||tab|

Yaktine said he plans to add six more financial representatives within the next three years. He's also in the process of looking for office space to house the growing agency, and by Jan. 1, 2001, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network will move to a new location in Springfield. [[In-content Ad]]