“State of the Industry” at NAILBA 33

[Brian Anderson]

Some observations from NAILBA 33 “State of the Industry” panel discussion…

• Financial services industry has done well of late communicating need for retirement planning, but is lacking when it comes to explaining the need for life insurance.

• Michael Tessler of Brokerage Unlimited says the existing distribution model is not working, and needs to be reconstructed in a much more consumer-friendly manner.

• 52% of agents have more than 25 years of industry experience (and 41% are over age 60) while only 9% have between 3 and 9 years of industry experience, according to LIMRA’s Jim Kerley, talking about the aging agent population.
More in this new article:

Insurance Forums | Rethinking independent brokerage: Calls for change at NAILBA 33

 

[Stevekobrin]

Two really good points that I picked up here, Brian. Thank you for mentioning them. The first is that consumers may be informed, but not necessarily understand life insurance. I find this all the time. People don’t readily grasp the features and benefits of the product. They need to learn them through discussion with an expert.

I was also startled by the disproportionate number of older sales people that we have in our ranks. I don’t know if the brokerage distribution channel has ever had an effective way of grooming new talent.

 

[rousemark]

Two really good points that I picked up here, Brian. Thank you for mentioning them. The first is that consumers may be informed, but not necessarily understand life insurance. I find this all the time. People don’t readily grasp the features and benefits of the product. They need to learn them through discussion with an expert.

I was also startled by the disproportionate number of older sales people that we have in our ranks. I don’t know if the brokerage distribution channel has ever had an effective way of grooming new talent.

The Brokerage companies have always been dependent upon the captive companies for their feeder system. Now, that the number of captive companies is dwindling, the lack of trained youthful agents getting close to crisis proportion. Seems almost everybody I know in this business has at least some grey in their hair.

 

[Stevekobrin]

Yes, indeed – with those of us that still have hair.
I do see one potential source of new blood for the life insurance business outside of the agency system: the wealth management/investment advisory arena. These guys are trained in financial services, know their clients need life insurance, and want to help them buy it. They just can’t do it themselves. These are good opportunities for joint work.

 

[Cash]

The Brokerage companies have always been dependent upon the captive companies for their feeder system. Now, that the number of captive companies is dwindling, the lack of trained youthful agents getting close to crisis proportion. Seems almost everybody I know in this business has at least some grey in their hair.

You know that makes a lot of sense.

The thing with people getting in this business is no salary. Most people just can't do that. According to Harvard Business School, 63% of sales people are ineffective. If someone could find a way to get effective sales people and pay a salary they could probably make a lot of money. Then again, if it was easy more people would be doing it. There are now car dealerships that pay their sales people a salary and are successful. I would like to see an example of this in the life insurance world.

 

[Rearden]

At 30 with 4 years of experience under my belt in the life insurance industry, considering those stats above, the world is my oyster!

 

[Cash]

At 30 with 4 years of experience under my belt in the life insurance industry, considering those stats above, the world is my oyster!

I was thinking the same thing. I am 25 and a third generation life insurance salesman. I have scraped by these last 4 years but things have gotten better recently. I would like to think the world belongs to us but I am hesitant to say so.