Insurance Agent Forum

[thecarguy]

My current position is an F&I manager with a franchise dealer for 8 years. Our sales have slowly decreased due to the sagging economy over the past few years and we are now selling less than half of the units we were say 3 years ago. As you can imagine my commission has also reduced about 50%. This is the reason that I have interest in p&c insurance for additional income and maybe a new career. I am in NC and have checked on my license. It would be $300 for online courses and pre-exam for p&c, and then another $210 to take the state exam and obtain my license. Coming from the auto business I feel I would have plenty of contacts to start out with since customers would not be knocking on my door. My plan after obtaining my license would be to write as many friends and family as possible to gain experience and bring in some income before I leave my current position. I have been carefully reading the sites of the wholesale companies such as agent secure, noodle, smart choice, superior access, etc. I feel like a wholesale provider is where I should start. Anyway, I would appreciate any advice or suggestions and sorry for the long post.

[mousidd]

Yes, you've made a great plan. Start from the wholesalers and work your way up. later on possibly you could get a producers license and start your own firm. Independent Insurance Agents also do well. It's all about your contact and trust. Have you looked into the online courses option? I can't say it will be much less $$ but certainly will save you time and be more convenient.

[thecarguy]

Ok thanks for the reply. Im still looking for more suggestions please. Is anyone running a succesful agency writing auto, homeowners and some commercial using only insurancenoodle, smart choice etc? That would be my plan until I could obtain an appointment in the future. I would like to retain my current job until I got going fairly well. I do understand that all of my time would need to be devoted, but im not finanacially able to leave my current position as a F&I manager. I also feel like I would need a wholesaler with companies that have very competitive premiums for me to be able to bring in customers from their current companies.