Positive experiences with Life Insurance brokerages????

[Left Sig]

[QUOTE=JackOSU;530737]

First off let the record show that I did not "insult" you as you have described. You gave your opinion and I gave mine.

Even if I was a State Farm employee I think you need to calm down with getting so offended about an insult that wasn't even made in the first place.

You called my reply "asinine", and most people would take that as an insult. Most people around where I live anyway. How about saying "I disagree for these reasons..."? Might get your point across better without sounding so combative. Flies and sugar instead of vinegar and all that. If you are in sales then you know that already.

I'm perfectly calm, and not nearly so offended as you imply.

Let's be honest, most insurance agents suck. The wash out rate is 80% in the first 5 years and 80% of the remaining 20% in the next five years. That means 4 in 100 agents are still in the industry after 10 years, which means 96 percent can't hack it. They leave because they can't make enough money, because they can't sell any product, because they can't develop enough customers or keep their existing customers happy. Therefore, they suck. At those percentages the odds that you will randomly find a good agent are pretty slim, and that's exactly what my experience has been.

I know this because earlier this year I was actively recruited to work for a successful insurance agency. The owner is still interested, but I don't think it's for me, because I would probably suck at it too. Enough that I should probably stick with the things that I am really good at.

I can't think of another profession that has such a high failure rate. And with all the testing and other stuff that goes into the selection process you'd think the success rate would be better. Oddly, one of the best performing financial planner / life insurance agents that I know did terrible on all the tests. But he's a good salesman and knows how to close a deal, and he knows his product.

If you are one of the good ones, more power to you, and I wish you the best of luck.

Maybe I'm a little too demanding. In my experience most real estate agents suck also.

[JackOSU]

[QUOTE=Left Sig;530771]

You called my reply "asinine", and most people would take that as an insult. Most people around where I live anyway. How about saying "I disagree for these reasons..."? Might get your point across better without sounding so combative. Flies and sugar instead of vinegar and all that. If you are in sales then you know that already.

I'm perfectly calm, and not nearly so offended as you imply.

Let's be honest, most insurance agents suck. The wash out rate is 80% in the first 5 years and 80% of the remaining 20% in the next five years. That means 4 in 100 agents are still in the industry after 10 years, which means 96 percent can't hack it. They leave because they can't make enough money, because they can't sell any product, because they can't develop enough customers or keep their existing customers happy. Therefore, they suck. At those percentages the odds that you will randomly find a good agent are pretty slim, and that's exactly what my experience has been.

I know this because earlier this year I was actively recruited to work for a successful insurance agency. The owner is still interested, but I don't think it's for me, because I would probably suck at it too. Enough that I should probably stick with the things that I am really good at.

If you are one of the good ones, more power to you, and I wish you the best of luck.

Maybe I'm a little too demanding. In my experience most real estate agents suck also.

Fair enough.

I think the biggest reason for the wash out is a culmination of things in the industry. The first and foremost is most think selling insurance is easy. It's really not. The amount of things one must master and learn is tremendously difficult or at least if you want to be worth a grain of salt. The environment based on state legislation and corporate policies is always ever changing so one must always be on top of their game. Just for your basic person working in the office to be proficient in just P&C it usually takes about 1-1.5 years to feel comfortable selling and servicing a part of an agent's book of business. If they then move in to Life and Health add another year or so to that.

Then if they want to even become serious about maybe becoming an agent one day themselves you have to work on your LUTC, CLU, LUTCf and Series 6 securities licensing. This adds another 2-3 years itself and then the implementation of said knowledge depends on the person. So if one wants to truly be dedicated you could look at 5 years or so just working for an agent before you would even have a chance in hell at interviewing, with success mind you, with a top notch company for agency. The company mentioned before has the highest standards in the industry for becoming just a training agent. In order to even get your contract with said company you have to implement your business model as described proficiently making numbers in your market place.

Secondly most of the statistics you have mentioned are with companies that themselves aren't worth a shit. Now that's not to say that there aren't individuals with those companies that couldn't be perfect in the right environment, but those numbers are very small. That is the reason most don't hack it. Even the potentially good ones don't have the backing of the companies they work for with any support and realistically they are just another number. The pay is shitty and they leave for better or worse. In the end the stats get somewhat chalked up like you said overall in the industry, but that still doesn't mean that there aren't some really good ones out there. I personally know a few that would put any financial advisor or solely life agent to shame with their knowledge. Knowledge is only part of the battle unfortunately. Management skills of staff and running a sound business is also just as hard in the industry itself at times.

The remaining who can hack it through just the training or even getting accepted for becoming a training agent have just hit the beginning depending on their background. If you have worked for an agent with the same company that you are now an agent with you have a hands up on those that may have been in management or the business world in general, but overall it's a survial of the fitest mentality. If you truly want to be an entrepenuer at all costs you will make it happen and to me it's more about the mindset and preparation of people in general. Most think you work 20 hours a week if you're an agent and drink coffee all day and then go play golf etc. This is why most who get into the field generally remain staff memebers and don't ever become agents and truly thinks it's a cake walk and they have the coasting mentality that too many people in general these days have. It seems no one wants to have to work hard for things anymore. Agents that actually wash out or the good ones at least is very very low. Most think that if you're licensed and work for a company you're an "agent". That is not true and it's amazing how many clients think that staff members are "agents".

When you start out as an agent you can put 80 hours a week easy into the job and must be balls to the wall for the first 5 years at least if you want to insulate your book of business properly in the beginning. This gives you the ability to expand your staff and continue the process or building. In the end the rewards are exponentially great, but for the reasons of hard work and dedication. As an agent you won't know everything, but if your goal isn't to help people and not worry about making money then you're in the wrong business. Things will take care of themselves financially for you if your methods are sound and genuine. Far too many sell products in the industry just to make a buck. This is not how it should be, but the market place these days is about the bottom dollar and trying to make insurance a comodity. They want price to be the only factor for gaining business and nothing more. This is the worst way to do business. Those that buy a policy solely on the price deserve what they get when things go wrong.

If you have the opportunity to work for a successful agent and if you really want to be in the business then I would suggest maybe rethinking it. You can succeed at it if you really want to. The rewards at the end in retirement are definately high and most importantly you will have made people's lives better. The first time you are able to deliver a check to someone's family because you were able to speak to them and have their best interests in mind with a life policy and did things the right way it's actually kind of tough especially if they have kids. You will probably get choked up during the service, which should always be attended if possible for your clients that pass away. All in all it's a very rewarding career although there are also several others out there as well. Good luck if you pursue it.

[signal4l]

Remember that the best policy is not necessarily the one that costs the least, it's the one that you can be sure will be paid when the time comes. Financial condition of the insurance company is a huge consideration now given what has happened to the financial industry. You don't want your carrier going belly up and then having to settle for whatever a state-level life insurance guaranty fund might provide.

AIG writes life and almost went out of business due to horrendously bad risk management in other parts of the company. Even though the life branch was reasonably well managed the whole thing would have collapsed without the massive taxpayer funded bailout. If AIG had been allowed to fail, where would their life customers be?

If your car insurance company fails, no big deal, just find another one. Life and disability are different because they are based on your age when the policy is written.

Buy your policy from an A+ rated company. Not much else you can do. Not many people predicted AIG's collapse