Hello.  I am currently a commercial lender, heavily considering getting into the financial advisory industry.  Along those lines I have been trying to engineer the best way possible to get into the industry.

One thing I have done is started a conversation with a small business that provides payroll and commercial insurance solutions, but does not have a registered rep to handle the 401k plans yet.  When a client has a need for this now they are sending it to an unrelated advisor.  This business does not have the ability to stake me a salary that I want and does not want to give me equity, this would be commissions only. Unfortunately I can't make that happen.

I have since reached out to a guy that owns a number of small companies including a small RIA that may be willing to stake me with a salary. This individual wants me to try and see if I might be able to work out an arrangement with the first business I spoke with to handle 401k for them with me working under his RIA. This way I at least have a salary, but still would not get any equity here either.

I think the payroll company may be willing to listen to my idea, but I can't help but ask myself, why don't I try harder to find a way to get a RIA myself, then get the same arrangement with the payroll/insurance company. I could then consider giving some equity in the new company to the payroll/insurance company in exchange for a small salary that I would be very uncomfortable with but at least on a delayed path to bankruptcy.

At this point can anyone out there give me their opinion on some of these ideas?  Is working an angle like this better than just trying to join up with a regional, wirehouse or bank investment division?  Thanks