Getting Started in the Insurance industry

you know whats weird that I just noticed. If you click on the signature links for a lot of the gurus they direct you to training organizations, and possible GA, MGA, FMO, and other 3 letter acronyms im still not familiar with :), Is that a general career path, start out selling insurance and advance up to run an organization with a 3 letter acronym?

p.s. I am not knocking that i'm just super new and like to know the big picture of the industry I work in. Which my take a minute as the insurance industry seems to be a scotch larger then I originally thought :)
 
I am currently an owner/operator truck driver. I have been working for myself for 11+ years and honestly make a decent living doing it. I am however very motivated to find a new career due to the fact that my wife and I had twin girls 13 mo. ago and we have another baby showing up in January, Lord willing. I have decided to become an insurance agent because of several reasons…
1. I have very little college training and it would take too long to become a doctor.
2. I want to continue being my own boss (at least in the long term, I recognize I may have to work for someone initially.)
3. I really do want to do something that helps people and I believe an insurance salesperson CAN help people greatly…I don’t think that all DO…but the opportunity is there.
4. I want the opportunity to be home more while at the same time making a decent living. (Before the trolls get all excited remember I am only home now a few days out of the month…so by “be home more” I don’t mean sit on the couch and wait for the phone to ring, I mean sleep at home most nights.)
I contacted the State Farm recruiter because of the paid internship thing, but after reading the post about them I am seriously reconsidering going that route…I have also been kicking around the idea of going to Shelter, they have a couple of openings in my area. I doubt that I am eligible for the Shelter positions, but after reading some of the pros and cons of being captive vs. indy, the indy thing seems like it may be more my style anyway. I want to get out of debt not create a bunch more!
I guess my questions are…
1. What am I missing? I know this is kinda vague but I know I am most likely overlooking a great deal.
2. What are reasonable expectations as far as income goes? (please don’t say sky’s the limit…I recognize hard work is required for a return, but creditors won’t take IOU’s . I’m just looking for rough estimates.
3. It seems like there is more discussion about health and life over property and casualty, is property less profitable or have I just been reading all the wrong forums? What is recommended for the complete newb like me? I guess I always just had it in my mind that agents did it all…
4. In your opinion is it possible to start part-time and work into full time so that income can be maintained.
5. Is the new health care law going to help or hurt the people at the agent level? Is it going to make a very competitive industry harder to compete in or is it going to provider everyone with some new opportunities or neither?
I have gone to the IHIAA and the HCO sites but they both seem to be for people that are a little further along in the process than I am. I don’t have a license and unless I am misreading the requirements (which is completely possible) Oklahoma requires me to work for/under someone for 6months? Anyone familiar with OK statutes and if that is the case?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
I have an Oklahoma resident license. I started out 5 years ago as a CSR for a State Farm agent. As far as I know, you're not required to work for anyone for a specified amount of time. But you do have to pass the insurance tests. There is a test for Property & Casualty and a separate test for Life & Health. You can take one or the other or both. I would suggest both because once you pass them, it just gives you more weapons for your arsenal and you're not so limited. I would recommend working for an agent first for a couple of reasons. Classes are offered to prepare you for the tests but they cost money. However, I found that the tests and the information provided to pass the test didn't really prepare me much for specialized products. It's really nice to be able to watch an agent sell some products and get paid for learning how it's done than doing the whole trial and error thing. Don't get me wrong, trial and error is pretty much how I prefer to learn everything else, but for selling insurance I wouldn't recommend it. It's kind of like when you started out playing Monopoly as a kid before you took your real money into the world and started buying stuff. Better to make mistakes (and learn) under someone else's E&O policy and not using your real money. Additionally, some agents will pay for your classes and the test if they think you might hang around for awhile and be an asset to their company. And don't be afraid to talk to these agents about commissions and an hourly wage. The downside to this is if you work for State Farm, Shelter, Farmers, Allstate, etc., (in other words, captive agents) you won't be able to pursue the independent side much. I also have a non-resident license in Arkansas and the Farmers agency I worked for didn't offer Farmers Health insurance. In that instance, I was able to sell health to our customers using other health insurance companies. Additionally, sometimes client's have health issues that make them ineligible for life insurance with your State Farms, Farmers Insurance Companies, and the like. In those situations, if you wanted to get appointed with life insurance companies who have minimal underwriting requirements or who accept clients with cancer, heart disease, etc., you might find a niche there. Professionally, I think it's a smart move to get appointed with these types of insurance companies because if you have a customer who needs life insurance and they get turned down by your captive agency, you might still be able to help them. Clients like people who have more than one trick up their sleeve to help them. Also when it comes time for that client to consider if they want to take their auto or home policy somewhere else, they will usually think twice because they will remember how resourceful you were when they needed an important product. Anyway, it's something I have tried and have been moderately successful at. Of course, the majority of customers are most likely going to qualify for a policy at some rate. Oftentimes, underwriters like to use what's called a table rate to increase the cost of a policy for certain conditions so they don't have to decline the policy but they can still charge a sufficient rate for the risk. So keep in mind that you'll probably actually only have a small percentage of people you could write with another company.

I'm in the process of starting an independent agency myself ; which means, I can't speak from too much experience comparing the pros and cons. One thing I can say is, I miss making sales calls from a marketing list provided from my former boss using his money and/or good old cross-selling. That being said, I'm a great boss and I'm no longer that disgruntled employee who has been overworked and underpaid! I'm still looking for other companies to write Life and Health policies for who don't require E&O policies to get started with. And I'm thinking about trying my hand at Medicare. I've been afraid of taking it on in the past because I had such a busy work schedule when I wasn't working for myself and I think there is some other training that is involved to be able to sell Medicare. I couldn't take much time off when I worked for someone else and usually all my vacation days were used taking care of a sick kid...so I didn't have any vacation time left to take to go to Medicare seminars. But I would suggest that you test for everything so there are no limits to how you're able to help your customers. You touched on wanting to be able to help people in your post and I think that's a great intention to start out with. People work most of their lives to afford a home. People depend on their cars to take them to the place that helps them pay for their home and to get home at the end of the day. People need life insurance to take care of their loved ones when they pass away. People need health insurance to help them stay alive as long as possible. Insurance agents have a lot entrusted to them and a pretty unique opportunity to help people make good decisions in protecting the things they place a lot of value on. So, I hope that as you gain experience and start writing policies that you remember to help the customers first, sell them the products they need, provide sound advice, and think more about their needs than your need for a commission check. I've worked with both types of agents...the one who had a desire to help his customers and the one who had a desire to help himself. Ironically, the one who helped the customers first had a better attitude AND more money...they both had the same amount of experience and sold similar products. So, personally and professionally, I'm sold on the helping others aspect. :) Anyway, I wish you success if you choose to take this path. Best of luck!
 
Thanks Krista that helps a lot. I cant wait to get started, I am going to talk to a neighbor who owns an Allstate agency next week and get a little input from him. I appreciate the reply.
 
The guys who recruit for FMO's, or act as GA's only get a small override (compared to the actual commission) for each policy sold, so they need to recruit lots of agents under them to make any money as most agents won't produce.

If you can get the volume then you can get FMO contracts with carriers. The best margins that I'm aware of are final expense. The juice is 200% and the FMO's tend to pay 105% first year comp with small trails that will run 160%-180% total comp over 12+ years -- providing the client lives long enough for the writing agent to get the full trail.

Very few successful agents -- those making $100k+ are going to take the time away from making sales to service a bunch of semi-incompetent agents who will need too much hand-holding for the amount of business they produce.

There are exceptions to the rule, but if you develop a good process for selling insurance you won't be willing to take a pay cut to deal with the annoyance of agents calling you every time they have a question you have already answered several times.

But if you find it a struggle to sell insurance, you can always get in on the MLM side and recruit other agents.


you know whats weird that I just noticed. If you click on the signature links for a lot of the gurus they direct you to training organizations, and possible GA, MGA, FMO, and other 3 letter acronyms im still not familiar with :), Is that a general career path, start out selling insurance and advance up to run an organization with a 3 letter acronym?

p.s. I am not knocking that i'm just super new and like to know the big picture of the industry I work in. Which my take a minute as the insurance industry seems to be a scotch larger then I originally thought :)
 
I'm in the waiting process to receive my L & H license. I've already submitted the application, and am just waiting to get the license. I was going to go with PMA, but I couldn't memorize the script. I live in Amarillo, Texas. There's a lot of options out there-captive, independent, life, health, final expense, supplemental: Can someone list the advantages and disadvantages of all these possibilities?
 
I need to know the best online pre-licensing exam prep for Texas. I have heard of several but I want one that will prepare me and I am not a books type of person. :goofy:
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Krista, I am just starting out in Texas. What online course would you recommend that truly prepares you for the exam?
 
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I need to know the best online pre-licensing exam prep for Texas. I have heard of several but I want one that will prepare me and I am not a books type of person. :goofy:
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Krista, I am just starting out in Texas. What online course would you recommend that truly prepares you for the exam?

I'm from Texas and I used the Kaplan course. It took me a while to pass it, but I did pass using this course. Just look under Kaplan Financial.
 
I need to know the best online pre-licensing exam prep for Texas. I have heard of several but I want one that will prepare me and I am not a books type of person. :goofy:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Krista, I am just starting out in Texas. What online course would you recommend that truly prepares you for the exam?
I used examfx and liked it a lot. Sometimes you can get discounts so maybe search online for these. This place was recommended to me and America's Professor - Online Insurance Prelicensing & Exam Prep
and there's also pearsonvue www.vue.com
Do a search and check them out - read the reviews. I did very well with Examfx - studied for a few weeks - those practice exams and simulated and bonus exams helped a lot and I passed with ease. I always thought I wasn't learning it but everytime I took the quizzes and practice exams I would pass! but I think I'll use the America's professor because it's less expensive when I need to take practice exams for next tests. Sue
 
I need to know the best online pre-licensing exam prep for Texas. I have heard of several but I want one that will prepare me and I am not a books type of person. :goofy:
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Krista, I am just starting out in Texas. What online course would you recommend that truly prepares you for the exam?

I actually haven't explored the online option. I know there are some online programs available but haven't heard of any (good or bad) that really stand out. It appears that other people here are more familiar with the online aspect of training than I am.

I attended the Stone Insurance Education classes in Tulsa, OK. The Property/Casualty class lasted 3 days. Once I passed that test, I went back for 3 more days in training for Life/Health. I don't know what training seminars are available in Texas. I would suggest researching companies who instruct continuing education (CE) courses in Texas. I know that Stone Insurance Education offers Pre-licensing and CE courses both in person and online.

Best of luck!
 
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