Allstate Financial Specialist - Thoughts on the Position?

[adam1314]

A recruiter from Allstate contacted me regarding their Financial Specilist position. My understanding of the position is that you would be a commission only agent with Allstate selling only Life and Investment products. Allstate gives you a small bonus to start (I guess to float you while you are training), then you are commission only. When you first start you are working with 4-5 other Allstate agents that will open their books to you to cross sell life insurance. Also the staff for the Allstate agents will help to set life insurance appointments for you. Both you and the Allstate agent get credit for the life sales that you would make. Allstate agents would want to have a Financial Specialist as they don't want to focus on Life insurance, but they need to hit certain Life insurance goals. Allstate pays for your office space and all your supplies.

I understand from following the forums for some time now that being an independent agent is the best way to go for most agents, but this opportunity looked pretty intriguing to me because it would cut down significantly the prospecting that you would need to do, and the out of pocket expenses.

Is there anyone on here that is a Financial Specialist now with Allstate or that has had experience looking into this opportunity? I'm also looking for thoughts from other seasoned and new agents.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[Norwayguy]

A recruiter from Allstate contacted me regarding their Financial Specilist position. My understanding of the position is that you would be a commission only agent with Allstate selling only Life and Investment products. Allstate gives you a small bonus to start (I guess to float you while you are training), then you are commission only. When you first start you are working with 4-5 other Allstate agents that will open their books to you to cross sell life insurance. Also the staff for the Allstate agents will help to set life insurance appointments for you. Both you and the Allstate agent get credit for the life sales that you would make. Allstate agents would want to have a Financial Specialist as they don't want to focus on Life insurance, but they need to hit certain Life insurance goals. Allstate pays for your office space and all your supplies.

I understand from following the forums for some time now that being an independent agent is the best way to go for most agents, but this opportunity looked pretty intriguing to me because it would cut down significantly the prospecting that you would need to do, and the out of pocket expenses.

Is there anyone on here that is a Financial Specialist now with Allstate or that has had experience looking into this opportunity? I'm also looking for thoughts from other seasoned and new agents.

Thanks,

Adam

I looked at it once, but the recruiter slipped up and stated once the agents became comfortable with me I would get referrals. Which started me asking questions about how many people had been through the position. He also encouraged my own prospecting which I expected but stated I should split my prospecting that did not involve an Allstate agent or his clients should still be split with a local agent as a good practice.

 

[adam1314]

I looked at it once, but the recruiter slipped up and stated once the agents became comfortable with me I would get referrals. Which started me asking questions about how many people had been through the position. He also encouraged my own prospecting which I expected but stated I should split my prospecting that did not involve an Allstate agent or his clients should still be split with a local agent as a good practice.

Thank you for your insight. That's a great point, I'm sure veteran Allstate agents aren't going to be comfortable letting someone they don't know go through their book to cross sell life. In the process of cross selling you could upset the client and loss the P&C part for the Allstate agent. I don't mind prospecting myself but when it is a pure commission job I would expect referrals or cross selling opportunities. That is the only reason I would go pure commission and be stuck selling one carriers products (and financial products only at that). They need to do something to drive business to me if I'm going to stick with one company at pure commission. Getting enough interested people to see on a consistent basis is my major worry.

 

[xrac]

The reviews I have heard about this position are not positive.

http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/ask-agents/curious-allstate-personal-financial-rep-t49438.html

 

[BURIAL INSURANCE MAN]

I was a life specialist when the program started. All I can tell you is that they kept changing the comp plan and Allstate agents in general were not easy to work with. I wrote a lot of apps mostly term and mostly what was referred to me by agents were cases that the agent did not want to work. Not a place I would want to work again.

 

[Norwayguy]

Also didn't Allstate just unload Lincoln Benefit Life?

 

[pcbinsurance]

Yes, over the summer they announced they are selling LBL.
I wonder which carrier(s) they will use now (other than Allstate Life & American Heritage)???

 

[adam1314]

The reviews I have heard about this position are not positive.

http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/ask-agents/curious-allstate-personal-financial-rep-t49438.html

Thanks for sharing this link, it doesn't look good.

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I was a life specialist when the program started. All I can tell you is that they kept changing the comp plan and Allstate agents in general were not easy to work with. I wrote a lot of apps mostly term and mostly what was referred to me by agents were cases that the agent did not want to work. Not a place I would want to work again.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this position. So it sounds like the only way this would be a successful venture is if the group of agents I would be working with would be invested in the program. I'm not seeing much positivity from anyone on this so it doesn't look very promising to me. I did see a couple of positive posts on other job review websites but they seem to be the exception and not the rule.

 

[Mehler91]

I think a big part of the success in that position is the level of comfort the agents have with the specialist. I have 3 Allstate agents here in town that funnel all of their business to me because they don't like the FPS and think he is unprofessional.

Farm Bureau has a similar role in their company but it is the same way. For the most part, the Estate Planning Specialists know less than the agents and just get in the way.

 

[capnjim01]

I have been with Allstate one year and have had good and bad experiences.

For the first part of the year I worked (relative term) with a couple of agencies who were either band new and had no idea what they were doing or didn't want to work and are what we refer to as plantation owners, expect you to do everything.

I now have a couple of agency partners(need one more) who keep me hopping, one of them is booking me 6 to 8 quality appointments a week. The other one I just started with and the first appointment they set was with a young guy who owns 6 SUBWAYS and he has almost know life insurance. This looks good and he is interested in insurance for himself and his partners.

The previous posters are right the P&C agents don't want to bother writing life and most of them don't even have the rates on their computers and couldn't write a policy if a client begged them. If the P&C guys don't hit there financial quota they don't get their bonus and that could equal 40% of their yearly renewal(40% of a million dollar agency is $40,000). so they really need you more than you need them.

Like any partnership if you can't get along then it won't work out. It took a while to find the right guys so if you do decide to go ahead and join Allstate make sure your FSC lets you meet and interview your potential partners before you leave for Chicago and you both understand what each persons role will be in the partnership. Be sure you both are clear on campaigns and processes. If your FSC can't explain that run fast. Make sure that you, your potential partner, and your FSC is in on each initial meeting.

One more thing. If a guy has a $1,000,000 agency then he has to write $10,000 in financial products and 12 policies a year. That's right a YEAR. One of mine who doesn't want to work or help me with referrals still needs $7500 to reach bonus. I received one referral from her since February I am to busy now to worry about her.

Good luck on your decision.