Combined Insurance - Opinions Needed !

Not for nothing, but a part of good training is practice. If someone claims they can teach you to be successful in this business without you doing a lot of work they are most likely telling you a lie. If you want to avoid a huge time commitment I have to agree with the idea of getting a job rather than working as an agent. If you do want to be an agent, go indy and get your own training and that will probably be as close to what you're looking for as you're going to find.

How does one go about getting good training as an independent agent? Seems like going captive has the training and (sometimes) lead or orphan account leads as bonuses and going captive will offer flexibility in products you offer as well as flexibility in work schedule. I do not currently work as an EMT so my schedule is actually completely open, but I did hope to get maybe a part time job if my schedule allows.....
 
30% when you might be able to get in excess of 100% on your own. Must be some valuable training. I was approached many years ago. At that time they were W2 not 1099. Drive around and try to sell farmer Joe or some mechanic an over priced policy. Very rural. Very blue collar.

I went out one day many many years ago just to check it out. Had a good laugh and passed. Not for me.
 
How does one go about getting good training as an independent agent? Seems like going captive has the training and (sometimes) lead or orphan account leads as bonuses and going captive will offer flexibility in products you offer as well as flexibility in work schedule. I do not currently work as an EMT so my schedule is actually completely open, but I did hope to get maybe a part time job if my schedule allows.....

If you want to be an insurance agent you need to bust your hump on that and focus on it 100% initially. Can it be done part time? Sure, but your odds of succeeding are slim to begin with so to me it's a no brainer to go all in.

Training depends on the products and products depend on the market. If I were in your situation and assuming you could afford to go a few months with little to no income I'd sign up with combined or another company folks will give grief about called American Income Life Insurance Company. I'd roll in and just take the bait hook, line and sinker and go through their training program. Not all agencies are created equal, but they usually do more than alright for themselves. The reason why I would suggest those two companies is because up until recently (may have changed with combined) they only let you sell THEIR products. So let's say you go through the training and find out you love it and you're knocking down $1,500/week and you love their leads and you love their system, then great, you have yourself a career. Let's say you hate the company, but you love what you're doing, awesome, go grab yourself a contract with another carrier (sea is wide open on that and just about anyone will give you a 100 point contract with most carriers), and give yourself an instant commission increase. Well, to be fair, it'd only be an increase if you sold as much or more business, but that's the idea anyway. The one snag you'll have going independent (aside from the training), is that you'll need a good source of leads. I'd take a look at the different lead threads on here (some posts have value, others don't) and see what you think makes sense. If you can cold call yourself then great, if not, you can do direct mail. Personally I think internet leads are a waste of time and money, but others have different opinions and I can't say as I'm qualified to disagree with them, but that's just my experience. You'll need to keep in mind, with respect to the leads, that you're going to need some money to invest/learn/burn on leads. Personally, I think you need at least $2k to get started unless you're cold calling/door knocking yourself, but again, there are different schools of thought on that. What you don't want to do with the leads is pay for them with a credit card hoping the commissions will pay the credit card bill, that's a gamble few take and win.

As far as sales training goes, with health I'd go with Health Choice One because they'll give you a good contract and plenty of support and I'd talk to the guys at iliaa.org about contracts/support on the life end of things. Other than that, just basic sales training, one of my favorites is: Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer (Hardcover): booksamillion.com . You can get it anywhere you'd like, but there is a ton of solid sales training in there. Also, just about anything by Zig Ziglar.
 
I worked for combined insurance in New Zealand, it sounded to good too be true, and that was the case, I was working massive hours and getting not much in return, I love the insurance industry because I get to meet so many people but when I got into my job as a broker alot of them wouldn't take me seriously because I worked for combined, it is a very pushy job and they do not take no for an answer, I was away almost every week, so was paying heaps for accommodation. I am now working with someone who also worked for combined as a district rep and he ended up taking them to court because they wouldn't pay him. If you are good at making people take out insurance they don't want or need and are happy to go door knocking you could do well with combined.
 
I am a former Combined agent with 5 years exp with them and 7 overall in the industry. Here is what i will tell you about them, good and bad. First, when I started, way back in 2004, they were still operating on the old system: you get an "assignment" in a township with established combined business. They had you go see the customers and renew the premiums for the accident poolicies that were due, and you got 14% commission on that. The problem was, they changed the structure of writing business a couple years ago. Now they have you go try to write business in the same area, w/o the benefit of collecting the 14%. and if you cant produce at least $2000 a week in annualized premium, you will starve. Where they fall flat, is you are not allowed to do your own marketing in your town. There are probably 10 other agents in your town trying to do the same thing you are. Dont get me wrong, they gave me great training, and I owe them my carreer, but in hindsight, you can get good training iin other places too. I would give them a year, and then go out on your own. In a year, you will learn how to sell, but in the long run, I think you are better off being an independent agent.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
the other thing is, you are not on the road 6 days a week now. that is gone. You work in a very small area close to home. The roadie stuff ended with the change a couple years ago.
 
Last edited:
I'm bumping an old thread because the information is pretty good.
Just wondering if there are any recent Combined Insurance agents who can weigh in with their thoughts about the company. I have read that there were some changes made in the past few years.
I also heard they "combined" (no pun intended) the two divisions into one.
Combined Life and the A&H divisions are now together.
Has the commission structure changed?
 
I was with Combined back in 2012 in California. It's a great place to learn how to sell supplemental health policies cold-calling to business owners/managers.

As far as "Combined life" and "A&H"... I don't know. What I had for life insurance was a non-par whole life up to $100k. That was it. No term or universal life - that I think was available to Combined Worksite employees.

Commission structure was 45% to New Customers and 30% on existing customers.

Great place to learn and leave. I was with them for only 6 months.
 
I was with Combined back in 2012 in California. It's a great place to learn how to sell supplemental health policies cold-calling to business owners/managers. As far as "Combined life" and "A&H"... I don't know. What I had for life insurance was a non-par whole life up to $100k. That was it. No term or universal life - that I think was available to Combined Worksite employees. Commission structure was 45% to New Customers and 30% on existing customers. Great place to learn and leave. I was with them for only 6 months.

At Worksite we had a GUL to age 100. No WL that I was aware of.
 
They also still wont let u be vested. Even after 5 years. As soon as u leave, your business stays with them. I keep in touch w agents who told me that hasnt changed.:1baffled:
 
Back
Top