Job Responsibilities
I am an independant business person. By contract I am also self
employed. My responsibilities are like any self employed
person. Specifically, I solicit, advise and sell insurance
products for Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan. I also hire my
own staff and run my own office.
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Job Requirements
There is no specific education requirement for starting this
career. However, to be competent, there are many opportunities,
and depending on your state, requirements for continuing
education. The insurance designations you should strive to
attain are Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (for property
and casualty agents), Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow
(for life insurance and annuity agents), and Chartered Life
Underwriter (also for life and annuity). Many agents also
provide securities. If you are going to be involved in
financial/estate/life planning for individuals, you have to
seriously consider becoming licensed to sell various equity
products (there are different licenses depending on the products
you provide).
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Uppers
The biggest benefit is that you have some flexability in your work schedule.
You make your own hours to some degree. Again, it depends on the services you
provide. If you concentrate solely on life insurance/annuity/financial products,
you hours can be more flexible. If you concentrate on property and casualty, you
have to maintain an office to service clients with regular business hours and
generally need staff.
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Downers
There isn't a lot of flexibility in hours at the beginning. It
doesn't matter what types of services you provide. You have to
work very hard to establish a clientele and a base of business
that you can survive on. With most companies, either captives
or those that work through independent agents, after a 2 or 3
year training period, you are expected to make it on pure
commission. This will usually require evening work, because
that is when you can see people.
Also, unlike other product or service providers, you don't
determine the price of your products. If the company or
companies you represent aren't competative in your area, it can
be difficult, especially at the beginning.
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Lifestyle
In the beginning, you have to work very hard. You have to build a clientele.
It was described to me that an insurance agent is vastly underpaid for the first
5 years and can vastly overpaid for rest of his career. The struggle is to get
to survive until the fifth year. Once you have established yourself, the
challege is to run the business, not just sell insurance. Effectively running
the business can give you the flexibility and lifestyle you want.
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Compensation
If you have a purely commission position and you are an
independant contractor, the income is limited by what you do.
However, you can be responsible for all your benefits (health
insurance, retirement, etc.). Many companies reward you with
various production bonuses, trips, etc. You can't be mediocre
in this field. Either, you are successful, or you fail.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Pick a company or companies to represent that you are
comfortable with. Know what their compensation schedule is.
Know what support they give, especially to new agents. Then, be
prepared to put in 3-5 years of very hard work building your
business. If you can make it through that initial time, you can
be very successful. While there is competition from the
internet for insurance, there will always be a place for
agents. Too many people still like to sit down across the
kitchen table or desk and actually deal with someone they know
and trust.
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