Every commission based sales position (insurance, solar, real estate, tech, medical devices, etc.) has some extremely high earners. I'm curious, what do the top top insurance agents make (that you've heard of or know personally)? Any taking home 1-2M off personal production? Obviously agency owners can make this kind of money with a big enough team/overrides. Also, MDRT used to be for 1mil commission if I understand correctly but now I don't fully understand what the COT/TOT means exactly in personal income - any explanation of this?
Top 1% Life Agents Income
- Thread starter Jack12345
- Start date
I think Tahoe Ray makes something like that...
policywunk
Guru
- 542
As of May 1st I am working on my second million for 2022- I gave up on the first million.
- Thread starter
- #4
Personal lines or commercial? And p/c, health life?
policywunk
Guru
- 542
Medicare and FE but I was joking about hitting those milestones.I have a nice book of business but not that nice.lol
- 10,329
It really depends on the "type" of agent. The top 1% of independent life agents, based on their own personal product, excluding renewals, are $1m+ net. Some even as high as $5m in some years possibly.
Some carriers post leaderboards. Many of the leader who are indy will be on other boards for other carriers. So you can get a sense that way.
The issue is what constitutes "personal production". Many big hitters get brought joint cases from other agents that are essentially slam dunk large cases. Does that count? Or does the agent have to be on the app 100%?
There are some agents who run setups where all they do is joint work with cases brought to them by other agents.
Then there is the renewal issue. Do renewals count? Some products pay more in renewals than others. Some pay more in first year comp than others.
Very hard to compare all that from an apples to apples standpoint.
Some carriers post leaderboards. Many of the leader who are indy will be on other boards for other carriers. So you can get a sense that way.
The issue is what constitutes "personal production". Many big hitters get brought joint cases from other agents that are essentially slam dunk large cases. Does that count? Or does the agent have to be on the app 100%?
There are some agents who run setups where all they do is joint work with cases brought to them by other agents.
Then there is the renewal issue. Do renewals count? Some products pay more in renewals than others. Some pay more in first year comp than others.
Very hard to compare all that from an apples to apples standpoint.
- Thread starter
- #7
The question was more trying to gauge top income potential as opposed to specifics of joint vs. individual or FYC vs. renewals. Just what the real upper limit is for insurance agents. So to rephrase, top income including renewals/FYC regardless of joint/100% on app - just not counting downline overrides. Got some friends in tech sales now starting to get some nice commission checks and was looking to compare the two.
- 10,329
Very hard to compare the two. They are completely different career choices.
As an independent agent, you are a business owner. You are building a book of business that pays you renewals on each policy for the next 20+ years. And that renewal stream just grows larger and larger each year. One that can even be considered an asset and sold to a younger agent for a substantial amount of money with certain products.
Tech sales, you are an employee who is at the mercy of the company they work for.
With enough time, right tech setup, right product/uw/placement knowledge, and deep enough marketing budget.... you could do $1m by year 3-5. You wont even get the knowledge needed to produce that much until year 3... and then it will be because of sheer marketing volume.
If you want a higher income year 1-4, go into tech sales.
If you want a higher income in years 5-70.... go into insurance.
Haha. Nope.
Frankly, I don't think a lot of people realize how hard it is to actually make 1m in a year. In any profession.
I have friends that are in a lot more high-profile jobs than what we do who don't sniff 1m either.
The amount that you have to work as an agent, unless you have a ton of employees, would just be soul-sucking. I know a few agents who have done it. They worked more hours than there would seem to be in a day.
I think any agent with the right strategy, training, experience, savings, etc. can absolutely crush it. It is just so much harder than most (marketers) would have you believe to clear that kind of dough.
I knew of a two man team a few years back that were cranking out close to that amount. We used the same BGA, and they were blowing his mind. They were hitting $800K+ for the years he had them. I don't know if they ever hit 1M.
Naturally, with that kind of rolling average, you're not going to keep them for long, they went direct. We referred to them as the kids from Connecticut.
I believe what you say is true, but if you're in an extremely high income/net worth area and are writing the kinds of cases he told me about: $75K, $120K, the story changes.
