Northwestern
Mutual

Northwestern Mutual of South Central Texas provides comprehensive wealth management and risk products across the Austin and San Antonio regions. With approximately 80 financial advisors managing over $2 billion in assets and generating roughly $10 million in annual premium coverage, the firm serves a rapidly expanding market. Led by a 20-person team, Northwestern Mutual of South Central Texas operates six offices across Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio, with plans to add two to three additional locations in the coming years.

When Northwestern Mutual opened its Alamo Heights office in San Antonio in 2023, the team anticipated steady growth with the possibility of adding a few new advisors per year. Instead, recruiting dramatically outpaced expectations. The office featured an open bullpen with 18 desks, three enclosed conference rooms, and one focus room. As more advisors joined the team, the limited private spaces quickly became a bottleneck.

"There just wasn't any space for people to go to have a private conversation with clients," said Greyson Wolf Dixon, Chief Financial Officer at Northwestern Mutual of South Central Texas. "And obviously that's a big indicator of trying to create successful advisors—keeping client privilege."

The open floor plan, while collaborative, created persistent background noise. Advisors making calls and conducting Zoom meetings found that clients could hear disruptions in the background, which felt unprofessional. Conference rooms were constantly booked, leaving advisors without options for the private, focused conversations essential to their work.

The situation was similar at the San Marcos office, where rapid advisor growth left the team scrambling for available workspace. Northwestern Mutual needed a solution that could add private spaces quickly, without requiring costly construction or sacrificing valuable square footage.

Northwestern Mutual began searching for booths to solve its shortage of private space. Greyson initially explored several options, including purchasing booths based on a colleague's recommendation. However, those first booths failed to deliver on their most critical feature.

"The [first] booths were so unbelievably bad from a sound buffering standpoint that we might as well not even have had booths," Greyson recalled. "So we returned those."

He then evaluated other manufacturers. While some offered quality products, they were nearly double the cost of Pillar Booth without proportional value. After reviewing the specifications and price point, the decision became clear.

Pillar Booth offered the combination Northwestern Mutual needed: superior soundproofing, comfortable design, effective ventilation, and competitive pricing. The booths could be installed quickly without disrupting operations, and they maximized space utilization by fitting three booths in the footprint of a single private office.

For the Alamo Heights office, Northwestern Mutual installed multiple Pillar Booths in the open bullpen area. Following the success there, they ordered three more booths for the San Marcos office, converting an unused advisor office into a high-efficiency private workspace.