fredbull337
Expert
- 38
I am recently new to the Independent world. I left State Farm after 8 years to open my own P&C agency. My Life sales experience with State Farm consisted of selling small term policies to anyone who bought an auto policy. (State Farm cares about app count, not so much premium.) It was nothing to do 80 raw new autos a month and sell 40 or 50 $100k term policies. When you factor in the low premium with the multi-line discount its like shooting fish in a barrell.
Anyhow I knew that was not the type of agent I wanted to be, and with my strong connections in my hometown with State Farm and their inability to write new homeowners, I decided to take the plunge. Now 7 months in I finally have some help who can run the P&C side of things which frees me up to focus a lot more on Life. I have only been life licensed for 2 years now. Since I went out on my own I have done about $55,000 in premium on the Life side (80% off 1 case). I still primarily write term but I really want to learn the WL business.
I still had my full benefits package for the GI Bill available so I decided to sign up for my CLU and I am currently in the process of taking that. In the meantime I have paid a lot of attention to Cotton Systems. A lot of what he says makes sense, especially when he talks about 80% of the problems with new agents is prospecting.
I have contracts with MM, Ohio National, and Minnesota. Of the 3 Minnesota is my least favorite. I have placed the majority of my business with Mass. I am currently planning on writing a WL policy for my son. He will be 1 in March and he already has 2 small policies from his grandparents. My contact at ON has suggested I do a 10 year WL on him and put whatever amount I was thinking in to it. I guess what I am saying here is when I look at the illustrations between ON and Mass I find myself asking "what are we really arguing about here?" To me the numbers are so close that its pointless. I know a lot of you guys have so much knowledge about the inner workings of all these different companies and products so I figured I would turn to you guys for help. I have a local "mentor" who I worked with on the big policy but he has a P&C business too and I feel like i'm just giving money away to a competitor (60/40 commission split).
Am I just looking to deep into this? Its easy to get caught up in the complexities of these products especially when you start thinking about the cost to access the cash and all that jazz. Basically I just want to put money into a policy for my son and build up some cash for him. When he turns 25 I want him to be able to put a down payment on a house, but also be protected in case he becomes uninsurable at some point. I also want to be able to make one of these companies my "main company". I have been told there are advantages to having a go to company. MassMutual has the name and the strong performance, but I feel like ON is easier to work with. They are always reaching out to me to see if they can help on anything I have going on. Wondering if any of you guys faced the same issues early on in your careers.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
Anyhow I knew that was not the type of agent I wanted to be, and with my strong connections in my hometown with State Farm and their inability to write new homeowners, I decided to take the plunge. Now 7 months in I finally have some help who can run the P&C side of things which frees me up to focus a lot more on Life. I have only been life licensed for 2 years now. Since I went out on my own I have done about $55,000 in premium on the Life side (80% off 1 case). I still primarily write term but I really want to learn the WL business.
I still had my full benefits package for the GI Bill available so I decided to sign up for my CLU and I am currently in the process of taking that. In the meantime I have paid a lot of attention to Cotton Systems. A lot of what he says makes sense, especially when he talks about 80% of the problems with new agents is prospecting.
I have contracts with MM, Ohio National, and Minnesota. Of the 3 Minnesota is my least favorite. I have placed the majority of my business with Mass. I am currently planning on writing a WL policy for my son. He will be 1 in March and he already has 2 small policies from his grandparents. My contact at ON has suggested I do a 10 year WL on him and put whatever amount I was thinking in to it. I guess what I am saying here is when I look at the illustrations between ON and Mass I find myself asking "what are we really arguing about here?" To me the numbers are so close that its pointless. I know a lot of you guys have so much knowledge about the inner workings of all these different companies and products so I figured I would turn to you guys for help. I have a local "mentor" who I worked with on the big policy but he has a P&C business too and I feel like i'm just giving money away to a competitor (60/40 commission split).
Am I just looking to deep into this? Its easy to get caught up in the complexities of these products especially when you start thinking about the cost to access the cash and all that jazz. Basically I just want to put money into a policy for my son and build up some cash for him. When he turns 25 I want him to be able to put a down payment on a house, but also be protected in case he becomes uninsurable at some point. I also want to be able to make one of these companies my "main company". I have been told there are advantages to having a go to company. MassMutual has the name and the strong performance, but I feel like ON is easier to work with. They are always reaching out to me to see if they can help on anything I have going on. Wondering if any of you guys faced the same issues early on in your careers.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
