working as an insurance agent

[badass98vert]

im thinking about getting into this field of work and was wanting to hear from ppl that do this. i was actually looking at working for farmers but i really dont know as much as i would like to. the commission sales thing worries me a little but is it a good thing with a company like that? any input on this would be great.

 

[Sonic605hp]

I worked for AON Corp. for 4 years as both a rep and a sales manager. I would NEVER go back; the insurance industry is super shady and a lot of people get ripped off and there are a ton of liars.....I now work in the copier/printer industry and never looked back.

 

[VENOM1]

If you have never worked in a commission position before I would suggest getting into a brokers office. Majority of the larger brokers will offer you great hands on training along with a guaranteed income for a set amount of time. The insurance business is a great business to be in. There is a TON of money to be made, but as stated earlier there are low life's, as in any sales job that can give it a bad name. Furthermore residual income is THE BEST income there is to offer.

I sold insurance under a broker for about 2 years. The firm that I worked for put me on a set minimum salary for 90 days to ensure that I could get up and running. Honestly, to start making decent money 90 days isn't enough time. Make sure that you have a good amount of reserve income before making this leap. Also, if you do go to work for a broker remember that majority of the time always keep a portion of your renewals. If you have any other questions PM me and your convenience.

 

[Hmbre97]

Life is not easy for an agent in this day and time. The internet is starting to take that over as the agent is nothing but a middle man anyway. IMO, I would not choose that as a career path. If you do, be an independent agent so you're not locked into selling only one product.

<------Works for an insurance company

 

[1995COBRA-R]

There are two basic types of insurance agents. While many are licensed in both areas, some are not.

Property and Causality agents offer a product everyone must have. They protect your home, car, and business from loss. I always thought I was the guy that should sell it to them. If you work hard and are good around clients, you can make a lot of money. Most good agents close 30% of their proposals.

Life and Health agents offer something that is a discretionary product. A client does have to buy life insurance to protect his family. Nonetheless, someone that can move these products can earn 110% commissions. A successful agent will close 10% of their proposals.

I enjoyed my career as an agent. I never had a boss. No one ever told me what to do. I never did the same thing every day. I bought a new car every year and wrote it off my taxes. The only downside of being a good insurance agent is the horrific tax rates on earned income.

 

[Bad Fish]

Warning, I’m going to vent a little here.

Just got my walking papers from Farmers a month ago. DO NOT get into the insurance industry right now. These big companies don't give a crap about anything except the bottom line. This means you have to hit your sales numbers each and every quarter or you are gone. No if's, and's, or but's about it. See ya later, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

You're probably talking to a District Manager, I'll tell you right now, whatever line of BS they are shoveling down your throat is just a ploy to put an ass in a seat. You’ve probably heard, “the best small business opportunity in America today”. Don’t fall for it. One of the ways DM'S get paid is on their recruitment numbers. The DM I worked for, his paycheck was down $14k in the first quarter of this year. Not good. Reserve and Career Agent were/are droping off like flies.

Here's another asinine thing about Farmers, everyone's sales goals are exactly the same. Example: I worked in a town of 7,500 people, the Ford dealer closed, the Chrysler/Dodge dealer is closing as we speak, the mine laid off 150 people, real estate offices closed, and there were already 2 other Farmers agents, 2 State Farm, 1 Farm Bureau, 1 Allstate, etc..........If nobody buys cars or houses the only way to hit your sales numbers is by grabbing clients from other companies, BUT, this can only be done if your rates are lower than what they are currently paying. This is a vicious cycle that is no fun at all. Now here’s the real big business kicker - MY SALES GOALS WERE THE EXACT SAME AS AN AGENT IN ANY MAJOR METROPOLITON AREA! That’s right, quarterly sales goals for new agents are identical no matter where you live.

Bottom line, if people are not buying houses or cars, you are dead meat. I haven't even mentioned the whole Life Ins. sales numbers, it's a freaking joke in this economy. And no, I did not make any money in the year I was at Farmers, I lost a lot of money.

I could go on and on and on and on and on……………………………………

 

[Jefe]

I'm a Farmers Insurance Agent and have been for about 5 years now. Like Bad Fish said going "career agent" is a bad idea right now if you are relying upon this job to provide for you starting within the first month or two. I was very fortunate to have my father in the business for 20 years and I am all set up to take over his book of business when he retires. With the latest economic changes, his retirement might be moved back but all depends on how much production we go after over the next few years.

Dont mistake this though, you can make $10k/month your first month and so on if you go after the production AGGRESSIVELY. There are 2 agents in my city who are making well over $20k/mo on Commercial Insurance sales alone. I worked for the largest Commercial producers in the Western Zone in San Diego back in 2005 and they were bringing in tens of thousands of dollars every week in commission from commercial alone. The money is up for grabs, you just need to work hard for it.

Farmers changed their requirements for career agents a couple years ago as it was much easier to get into the business and stay afloat but lately Farmers is trying to steer away from the small agents who don't produce every month and have a bad loss ratio. They are currently weeding out the bad agents here in AZ and they are splitting the policies up to the "good" agents. Since 2006 we have probably been given over 1200 policies for free because an agent was terminated and the client wanted to stay with Farmers

If you haven't noticed I spend the majority of my day on this site when Im not answering calls or doing service work. I have a lot of free time, weekends off. My Dad has been living off of his existing book(About 3500 policies in force) for years now and we haven't really gone after production as hard as we could be. My paycheck could easily double if I actually went after commercial production.

My advice to you is stay away from the career agent path. It is going to take years for you to actually start making money and that's if you make the requirements every month. Last I heard the requirements were something like 20 new business personal lines and 6 life insurance policies per year. Once you start quoting and getting leads you will how easy that is to maintain, its just getting it going that's the hard part especially if Illinois rates are competitive. My Dad started in 1988 and it wasn't until 1993 or so that he was actually able to start saving paychecks. Your bills are going to eliminate your paycheck unless you work from home and don't hire staff(which wont work 99% of the time if you want to be successful).

There is a better option. Get licensed on your own, take the Prop/Casualty, Life/Health, and if you're so inclined take the series 6 to get your financial license. Farmers is making tons of money in Financial business right now. Go find an "older" agent by you who only has a couple secretaries or less and a good size book of business and start as a Producer for that agent. Work out a deal with them to produce under his/her agency and have them pay you commissions(plus salary would be nice) but let them see the value in your work and you might find that he/she wants to retire and sees you as asset and will put in a good word for you at the District. The rules right now are that Agencies can only be transferred to right of heir(mother, father, sister, brother) so you would not have the ability to just take over the agency but the District might see the value in allowing the policies to be sold to you(customers already know you, etc.) You would most likely have get a million dollar loan(depending on the size of the book) and pay for one years commission to the agent and then everything after that is yours.

What I would do for sure though is look up 5 or so agents in your area, go talk to them and see how rates are looking, see what they say about getting into it now. They should say what I said above, but I don't know how Illinois is in the grand scheme of things.

Do not mistake it though, Farmers is about to become the 2nd largest insurance company in America. Over the last 10 years they have bought 3 insurance companies and turned them into multi million dollar companies. They just bought Bristol West and they bought 21st Century Insurance from AIG a few weeks ago which is going to give us millions of new leads

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Bad Fish]

My advice to you is stay away from the career agent path. It is going to take years for you to actually start making money and that's if you make the requirements every month.

Exellent advice.

Last I heard the requirements were something like 20 new business personal lines and 6 life insurance policies per year.

When I signed my Reserve Agent agreement last year it was 40 Personal lines (auto/home) and 4 Life policies in 6 months. If you hit that, you then graduate to Career Agent status and your sales goals change to 40 Personal lines and 4 Life each quarter. This MUST be accomplished for 2 1/2 years or your ass is on the street. Life Ins. was the kicker for me, people around here don't have extra $$$ laying around each month for Life Ins. But all of this doesn't matter now because Farmers just changed their contract rules last month, you now have to hit 40 Personal and 4 Life every quarter for your entire career = forever.:lol1:

Your bills are going to eliminate your paycheck unless you work from home and don't hire staff(which wont work 99% of the time if you want to be successful).

In the latest contract, Farmers specifically does not allow agents to work out of their house.

 

[Jefe]

When I signed my Reserve Agent agreement last year it was 40 Personal lines (auto/home) and 4 Life policies in 6 months.
If you hit that, you then graduate to Career Agent status and your sales goals change to 40 Personal lines and 4 Life each quarter. This MUST be accomplished for 2 1/2 years or your ass is on the street.

Just to give you an idea, last month production for us was 36 personal lines policies and 1 life insurance policy. About 98% of that production came from existing clients. 4 life policies in 6 months should be a breeze if you write some families with one kid over 18 years old. The life discount on the auto/home policies will practically pay for the life policy. Although last month was the best month we have had since July 08. Production came to a stand still Oct 08 - Mar 09. we were writing about 8 home every month and we were only able to write 3 policies in about 5 months. It was bad....But things are looking much better. Summer months are always the best

Once you get past that 6 months you'll see the existing business pick up and you better stay on top of leads and getting new business because the requirements look like they get tougher. 16 life policies is a stretch IMO, 50% of the agents today dont write that much life insurance. We hardly write 16 life policies a year but there is an agent here who has written 125 policies this year already, so its definitely possible

In the latest contract, Farmers specifically does not allow agents to work out of their house.

Bastards!

 

[Bad Fish]

Production came to a stand still Oct 08 - Mar 09. we were writing about 8 home every month and we were only able to write 3 policies in about 5 months. It was bad....But things are looking much better. Summer months are always the best.

Same thing happend to me, that's why I'm no longer in the game. Oct - March I could have been in Cabo sipping Coronas and would have done about the same amount of business. Last summer was good though, no problem hitting my numbers, then when the stock market crashed in September everything changed. Hung on by a thread through winter, even made it to the University of Farmers, but it just wasn't enough.

BTW, how many people in your market?

 

[Jefe]

BTW, how many people in your market?

Technically AZ has 6.5 million people....1 million within 30 miles of our office. We write all over the state though.

 

[Jefe]

Just wrote an 09 Dodge Challenger for some 32 year old guy, random call in. $320/mo, he was excited how low the rate was :lol: There's $400 in my pocket every year just because of that 1 phone call. Waiting for the phone to ring doesn't always pay off but...it did today