The independent contract that they have is a stepping stone to coming on board as a captive rep full time. It is only valid for 6 months...but in some cases you might be able to push it to 9 months. The whole point of it is if you are coming to the company from another career and you can't give up your other source of income to jump in head first. The way the W and S contract is set up you can't have any outside positions in or out of the insurance agency. I have hired people before under the independent contract that I thought had potential. but could only keep them under that contract for 6 months and then they had to make the decision to join full time or lose the contract.