I apologize, you dont need life & health for td(you do need series 7, and 66). All the rest of previous post is VERY accurate.
That is horrible. Way better off to just manage the money on your own. STAY AWAY FROM DISCOUNT BROKERS. They are basically sweatshops.
Lasner, I worked at both Merrill and Morgan as a retail broker. To make more money in retail you need to stay with a full service wirehouse. In my opinion Merrill Lynch is the leader in retail. It's a tough business, so you need every edge possible. Merrill has the brand recognition and support you need to gather assets. It's going to be tough, but not impossible, to explain the 66 failure. The best thing to do is set an interview with Merrill, address the 66 issue, and immediately move on to the sales skills you have. If that doesn't work out and you want to go to a discount broker then I think you should go to Schwab. I know a few people who work there and they seem to be happy. Good luck. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me. Uptik A little confession: At Morgan I actually missed the series 31 by one question. When I got back to the office the manager just laughed and told me to reschedule. The standing rule was that you needed to pass every test. Why did he let me slide? Well, I had the highest phone test score ever in that office. It's a sales business. If you can sell and work your ass off for 3-5yrs you can have a nice career. Some great advice my MErrill manager gave me: "You're new. so you don't have any chips. Once you prove yourself, get some decent assets, you'll have chips. Then you can play the game. Then you get to call the shots". It's true. One of the funniest things was a confrontation between a top office producer and the branch manager. Manager was giving the guy shit about something. The producer says, "You're wasting my time. Go back in your office and surf the web or something, Overhead!" Lol . He called the guy "Overhead".
Do you have rich uncles or connections to people with money? Can you honestly raise 2 mill a month on average? If not, you won't keep this job for long.
You call only existing TD clients, they give you all the leads(big deal). They want you to get new money out of existing customers (believe it or not, its not that hard to bring in 2mill a month) when your making 150 calls a day. The problem here besides the LACK of compensation, is that you are not allowed to give advice. If a client agree's to come in and meet you, you are encouraged to refer them to an outside independent advisor(that is in TD'S list of approved advisors).