Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2008-12-16
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Lower payouts...branches supposed to provide volume
Pros: The reputation of the firm garnered in the recent financial crisis is priceless.  Not many clients are looking to do a whole lot after the last year, but it is much easier to attract assets to JPM than it is for others to take business from you.  The bank branch based financial advisors have many resources at hand others in the industry do not, such as an existing client base visiting the branches and the ability to call on this client base.
Cons: A financial advisor in the branch network is provided a lot of resources.  However, these do come at a cost.  While many full service investment firms pay out 40-50%+ of gross commissions, the average bank branch based advisor only gets about 25-30% of gross commissions, or even less in bad months.  If considering taking one of these positions, make sure you are getting a solid branch, hopefully with a decent size book of business to take over.  Otherwise, if you are not getting help from your branch, you might as well be on your own and keep more of your commissions.