The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company announced Wednesday that two of its local offices-The Columns Resource Group and The Bohannon Group-plan to add 265 financial representatives to their businesses in 2011.

The company said that it will boost its staff in order to keep up with a growing demand for products and services related to financial security guidance.

Plans include the addition of 90 financial representatives and 175 financial representative interns. The company said that the employment boost is part of its nationwide effort to recruit more than 2,000 new representatives and 2,500 interns during 2011.

“More people in Minneapolis are looking for financial guidance, and they're flocking to companies like Northwestern Mutual that have been consistently financially strong,” Mark Heurung, managing partner of The Columns Resource Group in Minneapolis, said in a statement. “We're hoping to add professionals to help keep pace with the strong demand among consumers for financial advice and financial security.”

The company says that its internship program puts interns “in the driver's seat,” offering opportunities for growth-and one in three interns that complete the program land a job as a full-time financial representative. In fact, roughly 45 percent of the company's senior field management were interns at the company.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Northwestern Mutual bills itself as the nation's largest direct provider of individual life insurance and has $157 billion in assets. It is the largest life insurance company in Minnesota based on its premiums written in the state, which totaled $242.8 million in 2009.