I Am Thinking About Becoming Allstate Agent

[Bertolinoins]

WOW, P&C GURU needs to change their name to ALLSTATE CEO

He is right is that if you put your head down and work hard and smart... You will be successful in almost any situation including allstate. That being said... he doesn't make it sound very appealing. Spending time fighting internal battles or calling your clients to ask for a positive review does not sound like a very profitable activity to me. On the independent side you have companies doing everything in their power to help you write more business with them... Captives don't seem to feel that way about their employer.

 

[VolAgent]

He is right is that if you put your head down and work hard and smart... You will be successful in almost any situation including allstate. That being said... he doesn't make it sound very appealing. Spending time fighting internal battles or calling your clients to ask for a positive review does not sound like a very profitable activity to me. On the independent side you have companies doing everything in their power to help you write more business with them... Captives don't seem to feel that way about their employer.

Ultimately it always comes down to control and power. When you are captive, the company has control and can force you to do as they wish. When you are independent, you have the control. While it may be hard to get P&C appointments, once you have them, you can send or not send business to the company at your discretion. The companies realize this and know they must behave in a way to continue to receive business.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

"He is right is that if you put your head down and work hard and smart..."

I'm not too sure how much more wrong that statement can be. If Allstate decides to pull out of a particular market in a particular state I can't imagine you can work your way out of that situation.

If one of their lines becomes uncompetitive that's also not only hard to work around but morally tough. I'm not sure I could wake up every day and sell an overpriced product because "I have to."

 

[xrac]

"He is right is that if you put your head down and work hard and smart........"

Who wants to work for an outfit that keeps changing the rules of the game? Who wants to be somewhere where you have to keep your head down? Personally I think anyone is nuts to start with Allstate with the current situation especially as a scratch agent.

 

[Insurance1guru]

P&C Guru is already an Allstate agent and he has the attitude one must have if they are already an Allstate agent. Let me ask you this before you decide to go with Allstate. Do you love your spouse? Do you like your current financial situation/debt/savings? If the answer is yes to these then run as fast as you can away from Allstate because if you sign on with Allstate you will put all that in jeopardy. Allstate does not give a damn about you, your family or your future. Only to suck the life out of you and your finances. They will terminate your a** in a minute and leave you worthless and still owing the bank and the landlord.

 

[P&CGuru]

P&C Guru is already an Allstate agent and he has the attitude one must have if they are already an Allstate agent. Let me ask you this before you decide to go with Allstate. Do you love your spouse? Do you like your current financial situation/debt/savings? If the answer is yes to these then run as fast as you can away from Allstate because if you sign on with Allstate you will put all that in jeopardy. Allstate does not give a damn about you, your family or your future. Only to suck the life out of you and your finances. They will terminate your a** in a minute and leave you worthless and still owing the bank and the landlord.

Agreed, Allstate doesn't give a damn about me and I know it but the truth is Allstate isn't any different than most if not all corporations, they are just more candid about it than others. I know several independent agents in my area that started scratch or bought small books and they don't make anywhere near to what I make. If you are smart and you take advantages of the Allstate compensation structure which could mean opening additional offices or buying books to consolidate into your existing office, then an Allstate Agency could be very very lucrative. But if your gonna complain about having to meet life insurance goals, P&C goals etc FORGET ABOUT IT Ultimately I have a 5-7 year plan to use Allstate as a vehicle to achieve financial freedom to some extent so I take that calculated risk hoping that Allstate doesn't turn into Gieco within that time period and does to me what they did to the Canadian Agents. But then again, the days of the P&C PERSONAL LINES INSURANCE MAN as a whole are numbered regardless if you are captive or independent, the truth of the matter is that the commoditization of our line of business will only spread more and soon enough what happened to the travel agency business will happen to ours. Based on that opinion, Allstate gives me the best chance to earn to most money in the next 5 years so I'll be the company boy and sing the company slogan with a big smile on my face and a nice stash of money stashed somewhere safe for when it all goes POOOOF.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

He is right is that if you put your head down and work hard and smart... You will be successful in almost any situation including allstate. That being said... he doesn't make it sound very appealing. Spending time fighting internal battles or calling your clients to ask for a positive review does not sound like a very profitable activity to me. On the independent side you have companies doing everything in their power to help you write more business with them... Captives don't seem to feel that way about their employer.

Your right except the head down part, you gotta stay aware of what this company is doing so I always wait with anxiety for my copy of Exclusive Focus BTW I don't make calls to my customers, I hire high school kids from the marketing program at the local high school and have them use a triple dialer system to make the calls. We can bang out our entire book of business in 3 days. 2 kids at $9 per hour 6 hrs a day = $324 and we usually get a cross sell or two from those calls so we pretty much break even.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I have been in the P&C business (Claims-Management) for 15 years. I am very familiar with the P&C product. I am thinking about becoming and Allstate agent in the Florida market.

I wanted to get opinions from past or current Allstate agents. What is the culture like? I am a very inner-driven person; so how can that carry over into becoming an Allstate agent along with making $?

Any suggestions?

If you do decide to open an Allstate Agency my best advice to you is DONT, I REPEAT DONT go scratch. This is the worst mistake you can do and even if you are a star agency and light the numbers up after 3 years you will close down or sell. If you are thinking of going scratch atleast buy a small book under $800k in premium as this will still qualify you for the accelerated commissions. And if you are buying a larger book, buy a book over $3 million in premium. Either way good luck on your new venture wether its captive or independent I wish you well my friend

 

[Insurance1guru]

P&C Guru I have heard for years that investment advisorsand insurance agents will be replaced by online etc but the fact is they are all thriving with the right company. There will always be those that just insist on doing certian things like buy their own insurance, but many will always want an agent to help them with their insurance. You probably have good rates with Allstate in your area, but in many areas such as mine Allstate SUUCCKKS! Agents are being terminated faster than you could imagine. Thousands of termination letters going out across the country now. I would not wish Allstate on anybody looking at beginning an agency whether scratch or purchased book.

 

[fjman]

I will say from experience (I was on the financial product side for them), a lot of agencies are being told to shut down and some of these agent owners have been in biz 20 years with very solid books. Given the newer standards Allstate is putting on the agency owners, its making it harder to sell the books of biz and many are stuck taking the carriers buyout price.

I feel like they may be trying to get away from the typical agency system.

 

[P&CGuru]

P&C Guru I have heard for years that investment advisorsand insurance agents will be replaced by online etc but the fact is they are all thriving with the right company. There will always be those that just insist on doing certian things like buy their own insurance, but many will always want an agent to help them with their insurance. You probably have good rates with Allstate in your area, but in many areas such as mine Allstate SUUCCKKS! Agents are being terminated faster than you could imagine. Thousands of termination letters going out across the country now. I would not wish Allstate on anybody looking at beginning an agency whether scratch or purchased book.

Look i feel for the agents that have been in the biz 20 years plus and Allstate is giving them the boot but in all reality I know many of the agents being terminated in my region and they don't even try any longer to sell anything. Why is it that some agents write 100k a month and some write 3k. Allstate has made it clear that it wants to increase its market share and go after StateFarm for the number 1 position and the only way to do that is to increase their direct sales and give more resources to high producing agents . Cutting rates would help a great deal too but we all know how much Mr. Wilson loves profits and that fat check he gets.

 

[infoe]

Look i feel for the agents that have been in the biz 20 years plus and Allstate is giving them the boot but in all reality I know many of the agents being terminated in my region and they don't even try any longer to sell anything. Why is it that some agents write 100k a month and some write 3k. Allstate has made it clear that it wants to increase its market share and go after StateFarm for the number 1 position and the only way to do that is to increase their direct sales and give more resources to high producing agents . Cutting rates would help a great deal too but we all know how much Mr. Wilson loves profits and that fat check he gets.

Allstate has to catch Geico and Progressive before it can think of competing with State Farm. It actually has to GAIN policies not LOSE them to move up in the runnings, lol. That being said State Farm has both flo and lizard hot on their trail.