I'll break you in gently, since someone here is bound to snap at you.  At the top of the page is a search engine for the board.  If you have specific questions it always pays to check there first.

Good luck.

New York Life discourages their sales force from obtaining a Series 7 license.  They flog the typical insurance company fare–VAs and some mutual funds.

They are an excellent company.  However, the local agency is more important than the company.  The problem with them is that you can’t take your insurance clients with you when you leave and it’s probably not in their best interest to make a switch.

NYLIFE Securities.  Yes they do have a b/d side of things.  I think I’ve heard that they don’t let every agent have access to the b/d though.  That could be completely inaccurate though.  Good training, but its a captive company like AXA, Met, Northwestern Mut. etc.  Not a bad place to start if it is a strong local branch and you have someone directly over you that will invest time in you. 

Northwestern Mutual agents are not captive.

It depends on your definition of “captive”.  NML agents can sell other products, but only if NML products are not appropriate for the situation.  If they don’t sell enough or they leave on their own volition, there is no way for them to service their clients.

Exactly.  A lot of insurance companies allow you to sell outside of thier products if needed, but that doesn't mean they are independent. 

I would like to see an open book of NWMutual accounts and see what percentage of business is not in a NWM product.  This makes them no different than all of the others and not much different than a lot of wirehouses.  To me, if you work for a company that manufactures an investment or insurance product, you are not independent.  That

Oops, it posted before I was done.

That is not to say that individuals working for those companies can not act in an independent manner, it just doesn't happen too often.   

[quote=baylorjoyce1]

Oops, it posted before I was done.

That is not to say that individuals working for those companies can not act in an independent manner, it just doesn't happen too often.   

[/quote]

Wrong.  Learn a little about the subjects you speak on.  Maybe in the past this was more of a problem (especially at Morgan where I used to work) but there were still a lot of guys who avoided proprietary product.  Things are much different now.  Sometimes the products were pretty good.  I can honestly say that my proprietary Morgan Stanley mutual fund wrap accounts were better performing than the non proprietary version, primarily becuase they had some very nice institutional funds and were also lower cost.

When you say they don't act in an independent manner, what does that mean anyway?

becuase

Dude,

Congrats on avoiding proprietary product.  I said that they are able to act in a independent manner.  I agree that many avoid proprietary, but I am equally aware that proprietary is often used.  

I obviously believe that I am "independent", but just b/c that is the case does not mean that all independents do whats best for their clients.  We get different payouts on various products just like a wirehouse, so we can have a conflict of interest as well.

I apologize if I offended your or Morgan, but it was not my intent to point fingers and tell anyone that the wirehouses are wrong. 

But I don't think my thought that it doesn't happen too often is that far out there. 

btw, I changed my screenname.  my old e-mail account had gotten so flooded with junkmail (gotta love hotmail) for having the acct for 8 years.  say goodbye baylorjoyce1 and welcome ribsnwhiskey.