Insurance Agent Forum

[al3]

All of you... especially life agents, need to read this article from California Broker Magazine that just came out.

2009 editor column

I'll be interested in hearing the comments of those of you with 10+ years of perspective in the industry.

Al
InsuranceSolutions123 Agency

[healthagent]

Great opinion piece - no real meat in there.

[stormtracker]

The carriers would love to eliminate the agent from the equation. That is where Medicare is going. Over the decades, the in-house agent has been replaced by the indy. I dare say, that did not reduce the distribution costs-- only transferred them. The market pretty well decides the cost/commission structure. Drop commissions and agents quit selling that product. Obviously, raise commissions and agents flock to it. Anyone remember Humana's feeble attempt to charge for MA certification a couple of years ago? That lasted about two weeks before they dropped that ridiculous demand. It still amazes me to see the shock on the faces of people who had no idea that their P&C agent really is NOT an employee.

[djs]

For life, it makes some sense. There are a lot of agents out there, carriers don't have to compensate as much to get people to write life instead of health/DI/LTC, etc. It's the law of supply and demand.

On the other hand, if you are first to cut, you're agency force will reduce significantly. Submitted apps will plummet. It's okay if you are in a position to not take on a lot of new business for a while, because others will follow pretty quickly. They also want to reduce expenses. It would take a while for the market to rebalance at 20 points off comp though...

We'll see how this shakes out. I wouldn't panic for a while.

Also, if this expense reduction is reflected in rates, it might be a net gain rather than a net loss.

Dan

[insuranceexec]

Originally Posted by al3

All of you... especially life agents, need to read this article from California Broker Magazine that just came out.

2009 editor column

I'll be interested in hearing the comments of those of you with 10+ years of perspective in the industry.

Al
InsuranceSolutions123 Agency

Al, thank you for sharing. That is an excellent article. I especially like the part about "going next door."

Remember; I am next door..........LOL

[WinoBlues]

Ditto on the great article, Al

Thanks

[bluemarlin08]

Changes in compensation might change, I have seen changes and rumors of changes for 30 years. The fact still remains that there will always be a place for the successful agent, threshold levels might play more of a role than before, but that is okay with me. Lets face it, all insurance companies are being squeezed from several different areas.

[WinoBlues]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Charles Darwin[/font]