I decided to start doing some research in earnest. I am not interested in working for a wirehouse, so I checked out which options were available in my area.

I have 3 new interviews with

AG Edwards (not strongly represented in my area)
Prudential
Beneficial Financial Group (interesting company. Smaller, no proprietary products and resembles an Indy. I am not sure about payouts, but I do know they are open to commission, fee-based, fee only, etc.

I will call LPL and RJ tomorrow regarding any firms in my area. I figure given the suggestion in my initial thread, why not see if I can get on with an Indy right out the gate. I can imagine I will have to cover my licensing cost, but it really isn’t that much of a deal if you are actually paying cost vs. the mark up some of these houses charge. I was told by Beneficial that I would need to cover the costs of my 6,7,63 and Insurance license, they also said it would run about $500. At Waddell & Reed they said my 7 would cost me $900 bucks. Now I could have misunderstood the manager at W&R, and the $900 was for the 7,63 and Insurance tests, but that still is a nice margin.