Thinking of Joining Combined Insurance As Agent

[glgamerica]

I have been approached after I sent them a resume and had a interview. At end of Interview got offered a job to start this Monday with 3 weeks Training school They will execute a binding Independent Sales Agreement and sales school Addendum upon arrival for training school.
My concerns are these.
1. They told me training is provided by them and they put you up in hotel for those 3 weeks. You get a small training wage per week and hotel stay and breakfast included. But then I have this form which says there will be a cost of $2600.00 that they will advance me the cost of training . and then they sate sales school is not free. I called them after reading this when I got home from interview and he said don't worry about that, it is only if you decide to leave during the training that we will charge you due to the fact that they put faith in me to work for them and then I up and leave. He said there will be no charges for the training, but it says in black and white that there will be I said, and he said, Don't worry about it if you got to school, study and pass the exam there will be no charge.
I am concerned, I am not signing any agreement. Any advice for me would be great. Any one else been through training with Combined Insurance? Also, starting off must be hard on the pocket book and since I have been unemployed for a while my pocket book is empty.
Looking for some help here if people could through some advice my way that would be good

If the guy is telling you that, I wouldn't see why he'd lie but I'd be like you. If it is in writing, it's enforceable. I'd suspect that it's an "advance" and the cost is spread out for you out of your paychecks when you start getting paid but who knows.

What I'd do is shoot the guy an email and say you are ready to sign up and just want to confirm again with him that there is no charge to you for the training.

He'll probably confirm again that there is no charge with you via email. Then you'll also have what he said in writing instead of just verbally.

I'd feel better in that case personally.

 

[DHK]

Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated. Any more information would be greatly appreciated. especially from other people who have worked at Combined Insurance, I literally have 24 hours to decide if I am going to do this. Thanks.

Some additional threads:

http://www.insurance-forums.net/for...agent-discussions/combined-agents-t45235.html

Keep in mind that for me, California laws made certain products more restrictive to sell than in other states. For half the products, you HAD to have health insurance before buying them - Hospital indemnity, critical illness, and the cancer policy. You'd think with Obamacare that it would be a great fit... but health insurance is just getting more expensive too.

Compensation on your sales kind of stinks too. Only 45% on new customers, and 30% on existing ones. Of course, only 9 months of premiums are advanced up front (industry standard).

Now, your goal is to sell $3,000 to $5,000 in annual premiums per week (gold and silver pacesetter levels). You can do the math.


This isn't planning. This is selling and peddling. There isn't anything complex about selling for Combined Insurance. You just have to DO it.


You'll be expected to report your daily numbers to your TM. You'll also be meeting with your TM every morning to get "pumped" for the day.


Look, there are worse places to start... but there are worse places to be long-term. I spent 6 months with Combined... and it helped, but I sure didn't want to stay long-term.

 

[newagent001]

Thank you all for your responses.

 

[pcbinsurance]

Just type a legal addendum and have the guy sign it (saying they won't charge you if you complete training). Easy Peasy.

 

[rousemark]

Last I recall, it was individual vs work site.

Individual Market:
- Critical Illness
- Hospital indemnity
- Accident Only (the little big one)
- Cancer policy
- Disability
- Non-par WL up to $100k

And in certain markets, they had a medicare supplement.

The work site had all the above as well, but also a term & UL policy and sold them through VPD - voluntary payroll deduction.

They not doing the debit type thing anymore?. I had a friend that was a state manager with them years ago.. They wrote small accident and life polices; later cancer policy that they collected every 6 months. The goal was to add a new policy every time you collected. Most of the premiums were around #30 per 6 months. The agents that wrote the accident didn't write the life and vice versa. Some made decent money but they expected agents to travel to other towns and spend a week at a time. Expenses could eat you up if you were not careful.

 

[DHK]

No debits. However, they would accept credit or debit cards for payment plans on their policies. Lapsed policies was simply a chance to re-write them to the current equivalent plan.

With my TM, I was given a territory to work that was around my home. Plus, you could work referrals with no boundaries (but it was still at your expense).

In California, you are an employee of Combined, NOT a 1099, so mileage reimbursement was required by Combined Insurance. That's a California only thing. Of course, that just covers the wear and tear on your vehicle, it's not income.

 

[rousemark]

No debits. However, they would accept credit or debit cards for payment plans on their policies. Lapsed policies was simply a chance to re-write them to the current equivalent plan.

With my TM, I was given a territory to work that was around my home. Plus, you could work referrals with no boundaries (but it was still at your expense).

In California, you are an employee of Combined, NOT a 1099, so mileage reimbursement was required by Combined Insurance. That's a California only thing. Of course, that just covers the wear and tear on your vehicle, it's not income.

Anytime you save out of pocket expenses it is the same as income.. (maybe not as far as Uncle Sam is concerned) .. As old Ben said, "A penny saved is a penny earned"..

 

[DHK]

Some agents would just drive around and submit mileage reports (sometimes falsifying such reports) so they would get a check. A form of company welfare for non-productive salespeople... until they are caught.

 

[rousemark]

Some agents would just drive around and submit mileage reports (sometimes falsifying such reports) so they would get a check. A form of company welfare for non-productive salespeople... until they are caught.

Always someone trying to beat the system... And, in most cases they end up ruining it for everyone else.

 

[newagent001]

Just type a legal addendum and have the guy sign it (saying they won't charge you if you complete training). Easy Peasy.

That does make sense. Thank you.