Any Insurance agents: How to get started

[cwenbass]

As I think about transitioning out of my teaching career when I am able to. I know I will still have to work but this job getting harder and harder. I have a few years left before I can retire, but am interested in transitioning to something else in between now and when I can step down from teaching. I think being an insurance agent might work for me. I do however have no interest in making cold calls. I would like to be more of the "I have a question so I will call my insurance company" kind of person who can go over your policy or make policy adjustments, etc. I have NO IDEA where I would look into this, the feasibility, cost, training, training time, etc. Any insight would be mostly appreciated.

[BruceP]

I think I would start by dropping by a couple of insurance offices and ask lots of questions. Most states offer insurance classes that finish with a state licensing exam. Usually separate classes for property/casualty and life/health. Must have license to sell. Sometimes local agencies will sponsor someone and help them prepare for the courses with the understanding that the individual will work for them for a specific time.

[RFSims]

I entered the insurance business at age 42. 1993-2007. Previously I worked for ALCOA. Left because a disability. IMO only 1 in a 1,000 people could make it today. You say you don’t want to cold call. How are you going to get with people to go over their policies? Really only one way and that is to cold call. Problem with cold calling is it is very difficult what with do-not-call list and simply more and more people have dropped their land line and use a cellphone.
In the property and casualty side very few people care about their policies. The trigger to make people change insurance and agents is LOWER premiums.
My son is a teacher and coach, his wife is a teacher, granddaughter is a teacher, dance coach. As hard as teaching is today, making it in the insurance business is much harder, especially if one is an independent agent.
Should you decide to persue in the insurance business, I wish you all the luck in the world.

[Jeff Hahn]

My sister left her job as a partner in a CPA firm and bought an Allstate insurance agency in the Dayton, Ohio area from a man who was retiring. The agency had been around for many years. She wanted more independence than she had. She had to take a state insurance exam to obtain her license. Things went well for a couple years. Then, Dayton got hit with a huge storm. Lots of wind and rain, plus high winds and a couple small tornados. Of course, her clients turned in lots of claims. She told me that she was completely and thoroughly embarrassed by the way that Allstate handled those claims. They denied, delayed, and stonewalled as much as possible. Bottom line is that she lost so many clients that she ended up closing her agency. Of course, she still had her business loan to pay off, which took several years after she went back into doing CPA related stuff.

If you go into insurance, I would suggest being an independent agent representing several insurance companies, rather than putting all your eggs into one company basket.

[cwenbass]

I am really thinking of it more as customer service, but I think you need to be considered am agent to do anything related to insurance at all.

I entered the insurance business at age 42. 1993-2007. Previously I worked for ALCOA. Left because a disability. IMO only 1 in a 1,000 people could make it today. You say you don’t want to cold call. How are you going to get with people to go over their policies? Really only one way and that is to cold call. Problem with cold calling is it is very difficult what with do-not-call list and simply more and more people have dropped their land line and use a cellphone.
In the property and casualty side very few people care about their policies. The trigger to make people change insurance and agents is LOWER premiums.
My son is a teacher and coach, his wife is a teacher, granddaughter is a teacher, dance coach. As hard as teaching is today, making it in the insurance business is much harder, especially if one is an independent agent.
Should you decide to persue in the insurance business, I wish you all the luck in the world.

[mean_dean]

Good friend of mine that worked for the Broncos for over 20 years found himself in 2023 looking for new work. He got his license and certification from the state of CO and now sells insurance. He does work for an independent agency and plans on possibly branching out on his own at some point in the future.

[Garfish]

If you were in the service, use your points to go with the post office

[eriedude]

There's other jobs in the insurance business that don't require cold selling. My daughter services business insurance policies for an independent agency. You still need your license to do it. She does very well. Much better than her dad ever did, lol.

[smalljawguy]

I am really thinking of it more as customer service, but I think you need to be considered am agent to do anything related to insurance at all.

If you want to work for a company as a customer service representative, you can do that wi
thout being licensed. Only a few states require customer service reps to be licensed. WV, FL and CA come to mind. I work for an insurance company with call centers and we have 100's of reps that aren't licensed. And our reps and internal sales reps do not ever cold call but sales reps.are required to be licensed. CSR starting pay is $23 per hour. Some of our better sales.reps.are clearing $100k every year

[n2ratfishin]

The motivation originally for the Mrs and I was being tired of getting varied answers to the same health insurance questions. We would ask four people and get four answers. I see that on this site as well. The health industry is FUBAR. It is sooooooooooo regulated!

We each took a week off and attended a test prep class. The health and life test is no joke for newbs! I know plenty that simply studied on their own and passed. Once we had passed our life and health tests we opened our own C Corp. Tho we have owned a biz before and the Mrs has a MBA and DBA we still made a few mistakes that cost us money. You have to be real careful of everything you post, send, etc...I am talking all the way down to font sizes on mailers. The regulations are INSANE, especially since the big companies simply move advertising off shore. We decided to concentrate on the Medicare space since that is where our families had the most experience. My mom had about 27 agents all across the country before she got sick and passed. My FIL was a Humana exec before retiring.

Once you are licensed, if you decide to go into health and life you'll figure out you're just getting started. There are annual federal exams like AHIP https://www.ahip.org/login. I bet I studied a month for that test the first time out. Then you have to test with each carrier you are going to represent and get licensing in every state you want to sell. You'll need a FMO (A FMO, or Field Marketing Organization, is a company that connects independent insurance agents with various insurance carriers, providing support, training, and access to a wide range of insurance products. They help agents earn higher commissions and streamline the sales process by offering resources and tools.) the FMO & Uncle Sam decides max commission in the Medicare and Affordable Care Act spaces. Then you negotiate as close to the max commission as you can with the FMO you choose. It is a dammed maze! All the while you are out beating the bushes for leads.

Here are the commission schedules over the past three years.

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/health-...r-compensation

An independent Medicare agent can earn a good living if they keep their book of biz about 200 people. You'll likely need to replace about 10% of people a year to stay there.

This is the reason most new agents decide to work in house vs trying to branch out on their own.

People who want government ran health insurance don't seem to acknowledge the government regulates the industry. We pay Medi taxes then the government pays an insurance company to administer the program. About as close as we have to government ran healthcare is the military and VA systems. The rest is simply government regulated. There has to be a better way.

Property and Causality is another side of insurance. Maybe someone will shed some light on that side?

[geodebasser]

I actually got out of teaching young to pursue a career in commercial lines insurance. Not many people can do it but for the few that can, it can be a lucrative business. Teachers are usually good communicators which helps. The key factors are being more knowledgeable than your competitors, being able to handle rejection to get to the win, lots of energy to work as many hours as it takes, a good business plan based on the goals you set for yourself and the ability to establish relationships and trust. Also realize there is a good amount of liability that you take on. It’s not unusual for an agent to get sued. You have to have good E&O Insurance.
If you had rather be an account manager or personal service rep where you just take care of the customers after the agent puts them on the books, don’t expect to get paid as much as an agent.
There are more females than males that are personal service reps for some reason.
If you have any questions you may write me a personal on here. I have been in it forty years as a direct producer and independent. I could answer any questions you might have,