If I had to choose between the firms you mentioned in your post:



#1 Ameriprise…Eee Gad! I can’t believe I ranked them #1. Their proprietary funds are absolutely garbage, and so are their VAs, and other insurance products. Oh, and they strongly encourage the sale of their own line products. At least they did until the SEC jumped their stuff. But you can do just about anything you want their, just good luck getting around selling “their” stuff in the early years.



#2 NWMF: Strong Insurance company, but hear it is rough goings early for new guys. Poor investments side/brokerage side of the business. It is insurance company first then do investments second. Again, they want you to sell their line of products, at least the insurance products are far superior to AMP.



#3 First Investors…everything is proprietary, poor name recognition, don’t know anything else other than the funds have performed almost as bad as AMP.

I am sure you can get interviewed by Jones if you have got interviews with all these outfits. Look into it.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. By the way, I should clarify, its not ING but IMG a subsidiary of Securian which I am not very familiar with either. 

Oh by the way I have looked into EJ but got turned off by the whole door knocking thing. I live in TX and the idea of going door to door in 100+ degree heat in a suit doesnt seem all that appealing.  Does EJ make you do this or is it just suggested?

Jones does make you do this. If I were you I would look at a bank that will train you. You don’t have to prospect there.

trisyn, if you are already in that mentality it’s probably best not to
even become a FA. This is no walk in the park…(probably walking in the
park doesn’t seem all that appealing either for you)

on a side question: if there are more than one, for example, Smith Barneys in your town, could a potential FA apply to both Smith Barney branches?