What type of insurance agent
should I be?
It totally depends on what you
are interested in. If you like dealing with investments, estate planning,
family continuation, or business
continuation, that'll be Life insurance. Health insurance interests include Medicare
Supplement and Long Term Care needs as well as helping people get the type of
insurance they need to meet their medical requirements. Property and Casualty
would be for the agent who likes to deal more with tangibles such as covering
people's home, business, auto, or boats. It also covers liability issues to
protect people against lawsuits that might come their way. Be the best agent
you can be!
What are the advantages to
selling life and health insurance over property and casualty insurance?
The advantages to selling any
type of insurance lies within the indvidual agent. What are you comfortable
with and what do you most believe in?
What type of insurance is best
to sell when you are just starting out?
Again, that depends on where your
interests lie. Often a new agent is well advised to start with a company that
has a training program. It's good to have a mentor whom you respect and can
learn the ropes from. There are both Property/Casualty and Life/Health
companies that have such programs.
Some agencies also have training
programs that encourage new agents to learn from more experienced agents. Often
the new agent will share commissions with the experienced agent on these joint
sales calls.
Does it make a difference (in
terms of income and career expectations) what type of insurance I sell?
Yes. As far as income, larger
first year commissions often come from Life or Health Insurance sales.
Selling auto or home insurance
(Casualty and Property, respectively) yields lower first year commissions, but
agents often sell more of these types of policies. Second year and other future
commissions are generally higher with the Property and Casualty customers.
Career Expectations- It is
generally considered that P & C (property and Casulaty) agencies require more
maintenance, in that customers have more changes with buying and selling
property and claims must be handled. For this reason agents find they need
staff earlier on and on a consistent basis or the agent will get bogged down
with the daily business and will be unable to maintain client relationships and
build a bigger agency.
Life and Health agents do tend to
narrow their focus, as well, as some will stay with the sale of individual
policies, some will move into group sales, some will move into estate
planniing, and some will gravitate into securities. Many Life agents will
develop agencies in which they have specialists to help in the various areas
their clients need help; the agent uncovers the need and then works with the
agency specialists to bring more focus on the particulars.
If I want to be a life
insurance agent, should I sell health insurance too?
You can sell Life insurance by
itself, or along with Health insurance. Often agents will have both licenses
because opportunities come up and you don't want to leave an opportunity
staring you in the face. Even if you end up referring the Health business to
another agent, you can still split commissions or get a referral fee if you
also have a Health license.
What
insurance company should I work for?
You should work for
an insurance company with which you feel comfortable- both in the types of policies
sold as well as with the training, coaching, mentoring, and other assistance
available through the company. Also, does
it have standards with which you can identify and fit in?
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