Pros
Autonomy, great people to work with, virtually unlimited support, partnership. Seriously got upset when I didn't bring my wife and kid to the Holiday party. Seriously could not have better training. No proprietary products which means you'll never have to compromise your integrity by being forced to sell a product. They are great for the family once you've made it. Until then, get used to reintroducing yourself to your kids on Sundays.
Cons
Door to Door Sales! If you don't like going door to door and pedaling financial products, don't even consider this. STRESS!!!! After your salary goes away every month starts at 0 unless you inherit a book. 70 hours a week is a light week starting out. Senior management figured out that the more people you pack into one place, the more their partnership bonuses pay. That makes it harder for new people to succeed in their markets because we're all tripping all over each other. Imagine door knocking an entire neighborhood 2 weeks after someone else just did it. I'm the 7th advisor to take over my book of business. Every neighborhood around my office has been knocked by every advisor before me. I was promised 2 years in my area without anyone else being put on top of me. Within 1 year 2 people started on the same street within a mile of my office. There are 13 offices here in a town of 40k people. In case you don't know...that's too many. Within 5 miles of my office there are 6 offices, including 1 million dollar producer. The ups and downs will get to you in this business, and the best advice I have for anyone is "embrace the suck". Seriously, "embrace the suck". If you make it, you're set for life. Otherwise, no. New hires can't afford to do what the vets are doing to be successful. The only way to make this model sustainable is to develop a continuous revenue stream so that you're not having to ring the cash register every month for 20 years of your career. The problem with that is, you can't afford to put people in fee based accounts and keep your job. Senior partners have 50k/month coming in from advisory solutions, but advisory solutions doesn't pay up front, so new advisors can't afford to do it and make their numbers. For the lucky few in great situations that aren't overcrowded, it works. For most, realize that last month they had a net reduction of advisors by 55. It's okay because they'll put 56 through next month.