I figure life insurance will be the best way to get hands on sales experience as well as beginning to build my book of contacts.

  I think that you are correct about this.  For instance, if your goal is to work at a wirehouse, you have very little chance to succeed at one right now even if you could get the job.  You need some years on you and some sales experience.   Life insurance will give you what you need.   What's your defininition of "financial advisor"?   When you start at NYL, you'll be an insurance salesman.   At a wirehouse, you'll be an asset gatherer.    My concern is if I will survive as an insurance agent?   The newby's in your office will probably be trained to try to keep 3 appointments a day.  Keep 5 instead.  Do everything joint work.   Do this and 6 figures is possible in your first year.    How easy is it to sell the product as opposed to investment management?   It's harder, but often more lucrative.  It also doesn't have to be an either/or.   Investments are very easy once you start selling insurance.  Investments don't cost anything.  All that the person is doing is moving money from their left pocket to their right pocket.  With insurance, it's an expense or at the very least, it is money that won't be accessible for a very long time.   Do not take a job with NYL without checking out Mass Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, and Guardian.    

1) It makes no sense to choose a commission job based upon first year salary.   2) NYL is not giving you $36K + commissions.   In order to get that full salary, you'll probably need to earn around 50K in commissions.   3) The top insurance companies all follow the New York state insurance laws.  This limits how much money they can give you that you don't earn.   Basically, this means that all of the companies that I mentioned will pay almost exactly the same if you sell the same amount. 

[quote=anonymous]

1) It makes no sense to choose a commission job based upon first year salary.   2) NYL is not giving you $36K + commissions.   In order to get that full salary, you'll probably need to earn around 50K in commissions.   3) The top insurance companies all follow the New York state insurance laws.  This limits how much money they can give you that you don't earn.   Basically, this means that all of the companies that I mentioned will pay almost exactly the same if you sell the same amount.  [/quote]   The firm I work for also offered $36k base plus commissions and you are exactly right. If I don't produce a certain amount of business (P/C and Life) each month I could loose up to $1,000 off of my pay. They were very misleading about the compensation.

I have a friend that is working with New York Life and he loves it… He is doing very well but selling Insurance is a hard job when you are starting from scratch. He works late nights and seems to always be in his car headed to some clients home. That is one facet of the company plan that I didn’t feel comfortable with…  

  Miss J