Moonlighting Insurance on the Side?

stonegator

New Member
4
I am considering taking an inside sales position within a bank selling their life and annuity products. I still want to sell other insurance products on the side (without their knowledge) to prospects that are NOT customers of the bank. Would there be any way for the bank to know if I'm selling on the side if the clients I sell to have no connection to the bank?
 
Yes, they can find out based on your company appointments that are public with your state department of insurance. In addition, it's possible that your bank account with the bank could be monitored for compensation from other sources.


Because insurance is a financially related field, using a license that they will (should be) paying for - including CE - it would be a conflict of interest. Even if it isn't a conflict with the products, it can be a conflict with your time management to affect your job performance. At least, that can be the theory anyway.


For an official position from your bank, you should contact your human resources department and simply ask the question. There's no problem in asking a question BEFORE it becomes an issue.

If they grant you permission... get it in writing and document everything.

Also, keep in mind that if you're a bank platform rep selling life & annuities, more than likely, your bank also has an affiliated B/D. To sell outside of the B/D, all outside business activities would have to be disclosed. I would expect the same treatment by your bank to say (if they allowed this) that you disclose any outside business activities.
 
Thank you for the excellent advice. I'm probably gonna pass on taking the job; I don't want to give up my Medicare clients and other potential opportunities.
 
If you have an existing book of business, yeah... I'd pass on the bank job too.

Most bank platform reps only earn "bonuses" not commissions. The bonuses are based on the number of products you sell, not necessarily the dollar amount of profitability you brought. So a $10,000 annuity is the same value as a $250,000 annuity, etc. You have to sell 15 per quarter or something like that to earn your mediocre bonus.

Well, even if you sold 15 $10,000 annuities, that $150,000 in premium and with a 7% contract, that would be $10,500... and I can guarantee you that you would earn SIGNIFICANTLY less than that at the bank.

That's just how the bank platform works if you're not a securities licensed advisor.

You'll make a LOT more money working for yourself than the bank.


I was a bank manager many years ago, and I was looking to do financial seminars before I was insurance & securities licensed. They were based on helping people to get out of debt and then to hire me as a consultant for a fee to create a customized repayment schedule. (All that stuff is available online for free today.)

So I called my HR department just to see if the idea would be acceptable or not while I was working at the bank. My HR consultant told me that I cannot profit separately from expertise that I gained as an employee of the bank or could APPEAR to have been gained as an employee of the bank. Doing so would appear to be a conflict of interest and put my employment at risk.

Even if it wasn't a direct conflict, just the appearance of a conflict would've been an issue.

At least I asked and found out.
 
I'm amazed at how many agents have no clue that what they do and who they are appointed with----is public information.
Not quite as bad as the one who posted a document with her name on it on the forum to verify her production and then when somebody called her by name the next day, she asked, "How do you know my first name?".. :laugh:
 
I am considering taking an inside sales position within a bank selling their life and annuity products. I still want to sell other insurance products on the side (without their knowledge) to prospects that are NOT customers of the bank. Would there be any way for the bank to know if I'm selling on the side if the clients I sell to have no connection to the bank?

Bad idea. No upside other than a sale here and there. One mistake, one complaint, one small problem -- and it manifests and spirals out of control. I've seen this numerous times. There are numerous problems with this -- selling away, E&O, not being covered, the inference that when you are selling something on the side, the client may think you are "representing the bank" and so on and so on. Too much to even go into here.
 
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