Thinking about getting into the business.

[JoeWolf2020]

Hello, I am thinking about getting licensed and getting into the life insurance business. Not currently in sales, though I have been in Real Estate. My question what is the simplest insurance to start selling. I know no sale is easy, but I am a beginner who is looking for an insurance product that has the least amount of hurdles to get someone approved. (For example like in the Real Estate game you can make more money in Selling a house, but renting out a unit has less hurdles for the deal to close because your not dealing with banks or appraisals that could comes in high so the buyer can no longer buy, or the inspection comes back and family with two young kids finds out there is enough lead in the house to protect from a nuclear attack.)

I have been told Final Expense can be like that but it can also have more charge-backs as well. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Markthebroker]

You'll get some good advice on here, but be careful of anybody with "special offers, just for you" or people that only want to offer you advice via private message.

 

[Newby]

Hello, I am thinking about getting licensed and getting into the life insurance business. Not currently in sales, though I have been in Real Estate. My question what is the simplest insurance to start selling. I know no sale is easy, but I am a beginner who is looking for an insurance product that has the least amount of hurdles to get someone approved. (For example like in the Real Estate game you can make more money in Selling a house, but renting out a unit has less hurdles for the deal to close because your not dealing with banks or appraisals that could comes in high so the buyer can no longer buy, or the inspection comes back and family with two young kids finds out there is enough lead in the house to protect from a nuclear attack.)

I have been told Final Expense can be like that but it can also have more charge-backs as well. Any advice is appreciated.

If you do FE correctly you can keep chargebacks to a minimum. But you should always figure around 10% in to your business planning. But if your commission levels are 120% average and you have 15% of your business charge back it’s no different than being on 105% with no charge backs. It’s just part of the business. Nothing to be afraid of if you plan for it.

One of the great things I was happy about when I got into FE was that many chargebacks are still profitable. If you made a $100 per month sale you are advanced $1080 (75% advance). If it falls off after three months you have to pay back a $720 chargeback. You still made $360 that you get to keep.

There are more resources today for agents to learn how to do FE and avoid the traps and pitfalls than ever before. Here is some good reading for new agents from my website Getting Started with FE Sales

 

[JoeWolf2020]

You'll get some good advice on here, but be careful of anybody with "special offers, just for you" or people that only want to offer you advice via private message.

Yes I now about those types of recruiters. On another forum I posted on the only responses I got were "you don't want to sell that you want to come work for me selling this, there is no other platform like it and it you don't make $2 million dollars your first month (or some obsurd number like that) then I would be shocked"

 

[JoeWolf2020]

If you do FE correctly you can keep chargebacks to a minimum. But you should always figure around 10% in to your business planning. But if your commission levels are 120% average and you have 15% of your business charge back it’s no different than being on 105% with no charge backs. It’s just part of the business. Nothing to be afraid of if you plan for it.

One of the great things I was happy about when I got into FE was that many chargebacks are still profitable. If you made a $100 per month sale you are advanced $1080 (75% advance). If it falls off after three months you have to pay back a $720 chargeback. You still made $360 that you get to keep.

There are more resources today for agents to learn how to do FE and avoid the traps and pitfalls than ever before. Here is some good reading for new agents from my website Getting Started with FE Sales

Thank you. Yeah the other thing I am started to learn is it's not the product necessarily that make the difference but also the contract % that you are on. Terms like street level, and IMO's and uplines and downlines. On another forum I was told that just getting out of the gate nobody will even attempt to try to get me higher then 80% and maybe as low as 70%.

 

[shonceman]

Thank you. Yeah the other thing I am started to learn is it's not the product necessarily that make the difference but also the contract % that you are on. Terms like street level, and IMO's and uplines and downlines. On another forum I was told that just getting out of the gate nobody will even attempt to try to get me higher then 80% and maybe as low as 70%.

FE is definitely the easiest end of this business to get up and running quickly. @Newby would be a good guy to talk to about it. His is the only IMO I know of who publishes their street level commission rates on their website for anyone to see.

I’m a veteran independent producer. My contracts are spread around a bit, but I can also recommend two other forum members with whom I’m associated: @Todd King and @richwarren13

 

[Newby]

Thank you. Yeah the other thing I am started to learn is it's not the product necessarily that make the difference but also the contract % that you are on. Terms like street level, and IMO's and uplines and downlines. On another forum I was told that just getting out of the gate nobody will even attempt to try to get me higher then 80% and maybe as low as 70%.

That is not true. Most agencies that are not trying to pyramid recruit will start you at much higher unless they are providing you with free leads. Free leads are usually the most expensive leads you could ever buy. Because you give up WAY too much commission.

Street level has no real meaning. It’s a vague term designed to get agents to stop asking for specifics on their commission. At one agency street level is 80% and at another it’s 120%.

Numbers on a page is the only acceptable answer when you ask your starting commission levels. Insurance companies figure they will spend the first two years of premium in marketing costs. Or 200% of the annual premium. The majority of that goes to the selling agent because he puts out all the effort and expense to sell the policies.

 

[Newby]

FE is definitely the easiest end of this business to get up and running quickly. @Newby would be a good guy to talk to about it. His is the only IMO I know of who publishes their street level commission rates on their website for anyone to see.

I’m a veteran independent producer. My contracts are spread around a bit, but I can also recommend two other forum members with whom I’m associated: @Todd King and @richwarren13

Thank you for the mention. I agree that a Todd King is a good guy/agency also. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Rich Warren though. Is he new here?

 

[shonceman]

Thank you for the mention. I agree that a Todd King is a good guy/agency also. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Rich Warren though. Is he new here?

He doesn’t post much. But he’s a good guy and straight shooter. He’s head of Niche Market Insurers which recently joined up with Mike Passaglia’s Legacy Life brand (under OneLife/Heartland). I’ve got a couple of contracts with him. He’s in North Carolina now, but the agency was originally in upstate NY, so he has familiarity with marketing in the northeastern states. Since @JoeWolf2020 is from Massachusetts, I thought Rich’s agency might be a good fit.

 

[JoeWolf2020]

That is not true. Most agencies that are not trying to pyramid recruit will start you at much higher unless they are providing you with free leads. Free leads are usually the most expensive leads you could ever buy. Because you give up WAY too much commission.

Street level has no real meaning. It’s a vague term designed to get agents to stop asking for specifics on their commission. At one agency street level is 80% and at another it’s 120%.

Numbers on a page is the only acceptable answer when you ask your starting commission levels. Insurance companies figure they will spend the first two years of premium in marketing costs. Or 200% of the annual premium. The majority of that goes to the selling agent because he puts out all the effort and expense to sell the policies.

I guess next question would be how would I tell if an agency is "MLM" or not. Where I am there is a few agencies that are just always posting ads up on craigslist, or indeed, or something like that.