The End of the Insurance Agent

[johnnyhodges]

Remember the LP, 8 Track, Cassette, CD, music deliver has evolved into something different for the end user.

The generation of people that don't trust / use a computer is getting older / dying. The generation that use some type of web devices for most transactions is here. The mouse click (which is being replaced by the touchscreen) is the desired way many people do every type of shopping. The best face to face closer you know will have to change or die. Carriers are spending lots o'cash seeing to it that prospects buy direct online. Appointments (with carriers) will be much harder to get and soon whole communities won't have a neighborhood agency, it will be done online. What the companies say is support and help with telephone and online apps that they filter through us know is just practice till they get the process down pact, then they will go even harder at those internet prospects and drop us like a bag of hot rocks. Web sales have to increase for the agent /agency that survive, but before long we will end up cannibalizing each other and the carriers win.

 

[unic.consulting]

Not true. Insurance is a business that requires active work. Yes, we will lose more and more of the people who decide they want insurance and get it, but the average person isn't proactive when it comes to insurance. It's why the mandate was added to the Health Insurance law. If you're not required to get insurance, most people won't think about it. When I worked for a major company, we were handed a list of options of insurances and benefits we could have and we picked the ones we wanted.

Yes, the days of sitting back in your office and waiting for people to come or call for insurance may be numbered, but we still need to educate people on the need for insurance and help them through a process that is often more difficult than an online quote. Find the people that you can encourage and educate, and you will do fine. Otherwise, feel free to leave insurance and the rest of us will pick up the slack.

 

[KidsGotHeart]

Yawn, then get out the business.

 

[DHK]

Yep... and legalzoom is putting all the attorneys out of business too.

Self-help is still no-help and no professional advice.

 

[sman]

Remember the LP, 8 Track, Cassette, CD, music deliver has evolved into something different for the end user.

The generation of people that don't trust / use a computer is getting older / dying. The generation that use some type of web devices for most transactions is here. The mouse click (which is being replaced by the touchscreen) is the desired way many people do every type of shopping. The best face to face closer you know will have to change or die. Carriers are spending lots o'cash seeing to it that prospects buy direct online. Appointments (with carriers) will be much harder to get and soon whole communities won't have a neighborhood agency, it will be done online. What the companies say is support and help with telephone and online apps that they filter through us know is just practice till they get the process down pact, then they will go even harder at those internet prospects and drop us like a bag of hot rocks. Web sales have to increase for the agent /agency that survive, but before long we will end up cannibalizing each other and the carriers win.

Aren't you the same guy who said in another thread that you have limited knowledge? And now you have so much knowledge that you are predicting the end of the insurance agent. Nice.

 

[Cash]

I am not trying to be rude so don't take this the wrong way

but

If you as an agent don't know the difference between Par and Non Par WL, UL, SIWL, GIWL, UL, FU life, and when to use them in a simple, everyday type circumstance, then how are most people?

The yellow pages and the telephone have been around for years and some people bought out of the yellow pages and most didn't. The internet has been around for years and some buy over the internet and most don't.

Not to mention a lot of the insurance being sold offline (with the help of a telephone) is being done by agents. The insurance companies have a really hard time getting leads that they don't pay Google for and those leads are expensive.

I laid my eyes on an internal document of a subsidiary of a big life insurer and they were paying more money per policy from direct marketing than by paying agents commissions.

 

[WinoBlues]

You are correct. I would get out now.

............

 

[GreenSky]

You are correct. I would get out now.

............

Is that why you got out of insurance to become a full time final expense agent?

Rick

 

[WinoBlues]

Is that why you got out of insurance to become a full time final expense agent?

Rick

Let it be known Wino did not say that. Please do not put me on the hit list.

 

[EugeneM]

Aside from what was said about the consumer I really feel that Carriers need agents - I dont see them wanting to distribute their products directly, its not how they are structured. They are probably a lot more profitable not dealing with the crap on a consumer level. They like dealing with business in bulk - its a lot more manageable. The carriers will always try to have a space for the agent so they dont have to deal with it