Wow, this is unreal. Everyone here has an opion, but no one has anything to say about going from a firm to a bank. I must say thanks to the PM I received. Is it because banks are boring and not worthy of a post? Come on give me something.

I went from a bank platform to a firm and then to an independent office.  It's been over 6 years since I worked at a bank, but here goes. My experience:  The broker dealer that my bank went through was not a part of the bank since it was a regional and not a national, like BofA or Citibank.  That meant that we operated somewhat like an independent with the bank having a final say on what products we were able to offer.  The product line was fairly substantial on the mutual fund and variable annuity side.  Very little was done or supported by the bank in the stock or individual bond lines.  We 'could' go there, but were not encouraged.  Fixed annuities were provided by the bank's internal insurance program. The tech platform sucked.  In exchange for a salary the commission pay out was very much reduced because not only did the broker/dealer take an override, so did the bank.  I think the payout was at best 20%.  If you are at a regional bank you may end up serving several branches and be required to travel and park yourself at a temporary desk in the lobby or use a corner of someone else's office.   Compliance supervision was a joke ( I think it has gotten better since then).  Sales practices were abominable. Churning and twisting the clients, especially the fixed annuities.  The Bank management really doesn't understand investing and some of the branch managers and even the tellers would actively try to undermine the broker.

On the upside you have access to the clients of the bank from referrals given to you by the bank employees.  There is "supposed" to be a Chinese wall between you the broker and the actual access to the bank clients information, meaning that you are not supposed to be given actual lists of clients or access to their information other than that which is leaked through the wall to you by the employees.  The clients are trusting, too much so. Most of them have the deer in the headlights look. You have a base salary and benefits.  This doesn't mean that you don't need to produce and prospect.  The bank managers really like it when you bring in new money

I left because I knew that I could offer better products, more services and ethical advice if I was no longer in a Bank platform.  That may be just my experience.  Other Banks may have much better programs.    I would never go back.

Wow, well this has not been my experience at all.  I must qualify what I say, however, in that I probably have it better than most.

I work in a large community bank channel.  We clear through a B/D that specializes in banks and credit unions.  We have access to any mutual fund I have had an interest in to this point, and I have access to all the major annuity carriers (and life, LTC, and disability as well).  We have all the major fee based accounts, and managed money (around 60 or so to choose from).

My payout tops out at 40%...but here is something to consider.  At Merrill Lynch, you would get paid around say 50% grid on a VA.  But the GDC would be 4.5%, even though the VA actually paid say 6%.  Merrill would take a haircut off the top, then you get a 50% payout on the 4.5%.

Ex:  4.5% of $100,000 is $4,500.  At 50% payout you get $2,250.

      6% of $100,000 is 6,000.  At a 35%(middle for me) payout you get $2,100.

So the grid is actually pretty close when you remove haircuts!  Plus when you consider the referrals, expenses covered by the bank such as 38.5 cents a mile, cell phone, laptop, and even an expense account, you really can't beat it (well, I can't anyway).  I MIGHT consider indy someday, but not anytime soon!!!

As far as what I sell other than CD’s…fixed and variable annuities, municipal and corporate bonds (mainly funds though), mutual funds, REITs, yada yada yada…basically everything I did at ML.  I don’t have access to there snazzy structured products, but I really only used one of them them once anyway.

LPL has a bank side and they have access to anything I do!

"LPL has a bank side and they have access to anything I do! "

I am currently working for a small regional B/D that I have access to any product out there. The problem is that they are now hair cutting our annuity payouts in the name of compliance. I have heard alot of good things about LPL's bank program.

Greenbacks, are you happy with LPL? What are the pro's and con's? I currently am getting about a 42%-43% payout over all, that's even after the banks part. My B/D takes 30%, bank 27%-28%, then me. I would keep the bank and just switch B/D's. I came from E.J. and would never go back to a wire house but I also want to make sure that I'm working for one of the B/D's.