the 403(b) market in my state is not even worth the time of day.  new rules have essentially made the pay around .2-.5% up front with worse trails and it isn’t like these people are the high net worth people everyone wants.  i have teacher clients, but would never try to start, or focus on, that market.  but that is just me.
the retirees are a different story, to a certain extent.  you can run some pension max concepts but still, not exactly the market we all want.

[quote=Jack the Bear] Hello,I have been interviewing several different places and have come across something a little different. I did a cursory search here and did not find anything similar so I hope this is not a dupe.I may be getting an offer from an independent bd to sell financial services to teachers and school administrators. This firm pretty much owns the local 403b market and one of my jobs would be to get people to enroll in the plan, and most of my days will be spent in the schools talking to teachers and administrators. I will have about 9-10 schools in my pool and have access to about 3,000 employees.I can also bring in my own business, and cull any business I can out of the teachers and administrators. There is no salary…100% commission.Has anyone gone this route? Anyone heard of similar shops? Thoughts?

[/quote]



So Valic?

i respect your position and situation ice-but you are not doing that in my resident state.  

i was not referring to fed regs per se, but the new agreements my state has with the 4 chosen vendors reps can use.  they slashed comp.

I could be an idiot, but I thought the school districts normally mandate the vendors?

You’re not an idiot - that’s what I thought too, which is why I’m so confused. 

Well, you could go work for VALIC, but remember, when you start, they will give you a book of business of people that don’t contribute to their accounts, don’t have any money, and will call you constantly for loans and distributions. Then, your manager will get you to sign up all of your friends and family members. You get looked down upon by brokers and advisors and make a below average living but gain experience. Now, you get fed up with the company and want to leave; but, you forgot you signed a contract with them and you can’t take your accounts with you because VALIC won’t sign the Protocal. So now your friends and family members are stuck at the company that you hate. If they do want to move over, they will have surrender charges, and then VALIC will sue you.



Advisors that leave VALIC discover that they make 2 to 3X more with other companies or firms. However, only select few companies will hire you because in the investment world, VALIC advisors have a huge black-eye. Meaning, you are viewed upon as a servicing agent and not a financial advisor. The reason being, they have no capabilities to provide actual advise. Furthermore, I hope you like paperwork. You will spend most of your time doing sales reports. You will spend approximately 20 hours a week doing paperwork and 10 hours a week doing reports requesting why you aren’t producing new sells.



I will say they have a great training program on how to sell, and sell hard. A lot of people go on to successful careers at car dealerships and time-shares.



Lastly, everybody has an attitude because they are at the bottom of the industry with regards to compensation. Seriously, people don’t like working there.



Other than that, it’s a great place to work.