Pros
State Farm is a very financially stable, conservative mutual company that treats their policyholders very well - too well in most instances. There is certainly respect among other insurers for the tradition and history of State Farm. My co-workers (i.e. not management) are very good, supportive, honest people who really want to take great care of each-other and the policyholders. The benefits are great for us old-timers, but not so great for the new generation.
Kontras
State Farm is not what it once was, for the employees and agents that is. It is still great for the policyholders. My heart really goes out to the agents who are independent contractors and once had great careers. There was once trust and respect between the corporation and its agents, but now the new agents really have it tough. They seem to fail quite frequently in comparison to the old days (10 years ago). I have heard that their commissions are much less than they used to be and many very successful older agents would not reccomend their children follow in their footsteps. This is a complete shame because we were once a great company who never had to really recruit to get new agents. Now we are recruiting like crazy when unemployment is on the rise. That just doesn't make any sense. The upper management seems to despise the old agents who "had it too good and just sit on their butts now and don't expand their business," so they over reacted and have made it such that the new agents have to go into debt and don't make nearly what the older agents did. Maybe if they are lucky, they can get out of debt and make half as much as the older agents. This is just a shame and will lead to the ultimate downfall of the company if they do not change their ways. We have never been the cheepest insurance, but "you get what you pay for." Too bad the corporation doesn't seem to apply the same logic to their agents anymore.