New Agent Looking for Input on Career Path

[FLagent00]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking forward to becoming active on this board. I am a younger (lower 20s) L&H and P&C licensed agent currently working for my fathers insurance agency. I have a degree in insurance as well as CPCU, AAI among others. Working with my fathers agency may not work out so I am planning ahead. My goal is to form my own independent agency focused on P&C.

Is it even possible to get contracts when I have no existing book of business? I am thinking I will have to go with another agency in the short term (a few years), build a book, then lose it all when I form my own agency. Otherwise, no carriers would be willing to give me any contracts. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

 

[FL P&C Broker]

What is wrong with your fathers agency?

 

[FLagent00]

Nothing in particular, it's possible he may sell it but I want to sort of be prepared in case he does. If he doesn't, I'm pretty sure staying with it is the best route. Higher commissions, but very little training. It is a traditionally L&H agency and he is also fairly new to P&C so I am finding it tough to figure out the small details of quoting and whatnot.

 

[FL P&C Broker]

Going completely solo will be rough in Florida for P&C. Does you dad have any p&c appointments now?

 

[EugeneM]

I have known of arrangements when a broker would submit apps to carriers for you and let you retain ownership of the policy, however you will be getting much much less 1st yr commission and even less for renewals.

Then when you build the book this way you will be able to move/place it later on once you get some volume. These arrangements are hard because you typically need another source of income. If you want to retain ownership and don't have appointments you will have to sacrifice majority of the commission.

the broker would handle underwriting etc and servicing the account while you focus on initial meetings, relationship and gather u/w information. You get to start building a book slowly until you are ready and they get to hit volume/bonus requirements from carriers win win

 

[fearsback]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking forward to becoming active on this board. I am a younger (lower 20s) L&H and P&C licensed agent currently working for my fathers insurance agency. I have a degree in insurance as well as CPCU, AAI among others. Working with my fathers agency may not work out so I am planning ahead. My goal is to form my own independent agency focused on P&C.

Is it even possible to get contracts when I have no existing book of business? I am thinking I will have to go with another agency in the short term (a few years), build a book, then lose it all when I form my own agency. Otherwise, no carriers would be willing to give me any contracts. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

Hello FLagent,

Where in Florida are you located as that can make a difference in how hard it is to get appointments. The further South you go the hard it is to get appointed. I would first recommend to stay with your Dad if he didn't sell as he probably has a book and appointments. The other two options would be getting in with a franchise/aggregator or teaming up with an independent agent who has all the carriers. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Good Luck.

 

[AZDave]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking forward to becoming active on this board. I am a younger (lower 20s) L&H and P&C licensed agent currently working for my fathers insurance agency. I have a degree in insurance as well as CPCU, AAI among others. Working with my fathers agency may not work out so I am planning ahead. My goal is to form my own independent agency focused on P&C.

Is it even possible to get contracts when I have no existing book of business? I am thinking I will have to go with another agency in the short term (a few years), build a book, then lose it all when I form my own agency. Otherwise, no carriers would be willing to give me any contracts. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.

Do not leave your fathers agency, unless you have to. He has the current appointments, and ability to add appointments. You will be in a much better position to have an agency in your name in the future.

If he is not able to, then you will have to look for aggregates/clusters in your area.

With your Designations, you should be a 'shoe in' for growing papa bears agency with you as the legacy.?

Dave

 

[FLagent00]

Thank you for the input. We are in central Florida and we have our p&c appointments with a pretty big cluster so we have maybe 10-15 pretty good companies. Problem is there is very little support, and both of us are learning p&c for the first time. It seems like I am calling underwriting about every other question on each quote I try to do. Each companies appetite is so different it seems overwhelming, but I am slowly learning and gaining more confidence. I am going to do my best to convince him not to sell. I think it would set me back several years if he did.

 

[FL P&C Broker]

Thank you for the input. We are in central Florida and we have our p&c appointments with a pretty big cluster so we have maybe 10-15 pretty good companies. Problem is there is very little support, and both of us are learning p&c for the first time. It seems like I am calling underwriting about every other question on each quote I try to do. Each companies appetite is so different it seems overwhelming, but I am slowly learning and gaining more confidence. I am going to do my best to convince him not to sell. I think it would set me back several years if he did.

Are you mostly doing commercial or personal lines? If you leave you will have to start all over. He has fought half the battle by getting the appointments.

 

[FLagent00]

I have been getting mostly personal leads lately and having a tough enough time placing them. I want to go after commercial accounts once my income and confidence is stable. How difficult is it to get appointments as an independent agent? I would like to focus on a few companies and keep them happy rather than spread my book too thin and risk losing them.