Thinking of getting my P&C License

Dan OBrien

Expert
34
So I have been a licensed life agent for almost a year now. It has been rough, but I really want to stay in the insurance agency. Life insurance is pretty boring to me, and nobody really wants to talk about death. What really interests me is auto and home insurance, especially since everyone needs it. My friend is working at an agency in a brick and mortar setting selling auto and home insurance.

Can anyone give me insight on the advantages/disadvantages of switching primarily to p&c insurance? My end goal is to eventually open up my own agency with residuals. What is the turnover rate for p&c agents compared to life agents? What is a realistic amount of money I could make? Thanks!
 
It's a longer ramp up for p&c than for life.

Keep in mind, p&c is a different sale than life, too. I would not do very well with life sales. I did ok with personal lines, not great. Once I nailed down a system, I am absolutely killing in commercial p&c. I am frankly at the point I have more business coming in than I want, and I do 0 advertising.

You could fail like most, or make a crap-tonne of money like some. Your income potential is somewhere between those two, but expect to make next to nothing your first few years or so.

If you want to sell home and auto, don't get your hopes up too high for a long term career. Personal insurance is heavily commoditized with a new online option coming available every few months or so. The auto insurance industry will pretty much collapse within the next decade or so as cars start driving themselves, redistributing the risk and reducing claims and cost. Personal insurance isn't going anywhere, but the personal insurance agencies are basically going to go through what the newspapers and retail stores have gone through in the last decade, for more or less similar technology reasons.
 
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When someone contacts you about life insurance they usually ask,"What info do you need?" and that is about the extent of the conversation. when someone contacts you about home or auto they ask, "Can you beat so and so?" life customers either stay with you forever or let their policy age out or lapse, home and auto customers are looking for a better price monthly. Home and life renewals are good and you can get about 10% of the premium. Life sales are what put a roof over your head because you can make 100% of the premium as a commission for the same amount of work
 
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