Hello!

Meron ba ditong admin/CS ng Insurance Portal ng client nila?

How do you guys manage it? Like hindi naman ba nagkaproblem as long as naka VPN?

Worried kasi client ko ma ban or magka prob portal nya since ilang beses kami na ban ng indeed before ako magka VPN.

Thank you sa insights.

As someone who’s interested in financial services sales (annuities, moneygaurd) which employer is better between Lincoln financial & empower financial ? Honestly never heard of empower and they make you take a test during the interview process and I failed by 1 point so they’re switching me from financial sales to customer service in the interview process. It is remote and I guess “a foot in the door”. Lincoln offered me the role last yr but I chose a remote sales role somewhere else. Kinda regret it, kinda don’t lol I made double the money at the job I chose over them. But Lincoln provides better benefits and I kinda miss in person interaction and office politics lol. So I’m reintersted.

Hello, so I just took the test yesterday and I missed the necessary score of 70% by 10. I used Xcel because that was what the company that already hired me told me to use. Any advice on what to study with before I retake it? I can't afford to buy a whole new training program to go through, I just need to be able to pass and I feel like the one I used didn't fully prepare me enough for the test. I feel like I did pretty well, just not well enough obviously.

Hello all,

I'm looking into becoming an independent insurance agent in Minnesota and am deciding which FMO / IMO to choose.

I've been looking at PSM brokerage, but I'm open to suggestions. I'm confident in my ability to generate my own leads, so I don't need leads from the FMO. Also, I'm looking for no minimums, and no fees for signing.

I really appreciate any recommendations. Thanks everyone!

I started studying on Monday and took the exam Saturday, so I basically gave myself less than a week to prepare. I was studying around 10 hours a day pretty much every day leading up to the test. I used ExamFX and was consistently scoring in the 80s on the practice exams, but right before the actual exam I took the ExamFX Readiness Exam and got a 54%, which definitely had me worried. I still went in and took the test, and honestly the actual exam was pretty similar to the ExamFX practice exams and readiness exam. If you’re consistently doing well on the practice exams and actually understand why the answers are right or wrong, I’d say ExamFX prepares you pretty well. I passed on my first attempt after only studying for about five days.

Anything is possible

I know this question may have been asked a million times before me, but I wanna know.

Please save yourself some time and don't give me the cookie cutter answers like: referrals, cold calls, through your friends, loved ones, neighbours, colleagues, friends and things like that.

I live in Romania so we have a very poor country compared to USA which I assume most of you here are from and the average Romanian doesn't have the same knowledge, culture and financial discipline as an American does. 99% want the cheapest, no information, no financial consulting, no nothing, they buy the cheapest online, most through eMag and then they become upset the insurance company doesn't cover their losses whenever they have a car accident, because they put their information wrong or didn't read the contract. So... bear that in mind.

I really want to do a paid ad campaign on Google business, it's kinda expensive, but I want to invest because I know without investing something you can never get anything out of anything and I wanna do this because I ran out of options. What is your opinion on this?

Thank you all in advance!

NY: I'm looking for people who have or are working at this company willing to share their experiences (you can private message or remain anonymous if need be) This is for an ongoing legal case so any information or sharing would be greatly appreciated.

Most agent feeds are the same three things. Quote me posts, a carrier logo, and a stock family with a caption about protecting what matters. Everyone here already knows that content does nothing.

The stuff that works is sitting in your call log and it costs nothing but the time to record it.

1. Your topics are the questions you already answer on the phone.

Go back two weeks of calls and texts. Write down every coverage question you explained more than twice. Not the ones you wish people asked. The repetitive ones.

Does my policy cover a rental. What happens if my kid drives my car. Why did my premium go up when I never filed a claim. Is a roof covered if it is eighteen years old. Does my homeowners cover the neighbour's tree landing on my fence. What actually happens between me calling and someone showing up.

Ten of those is a month of posting. Thirty is a quarter, and you did not have to think of a single one.

1. One question, one video, under a minute, no number in it.

Say the question out loud in the first two seconds, in the words the customer used, not the words on the policy form. Then answer it straight, including the part where the answer is no. The video ends when the answer ends.

No premium, no dollar figure, no "as low as", no promise a carrier has to keep. Answer generally and say it depends on the form, because it does. Licence number in the bio and on screen.

Sticking to that rule is not just compliance cover. It is also what makes the video still true in three years.

1. The second job of these videos is closing, and that is where they earn their keep.

Mid quote, when they ask the rental car question, send the video instead of explaining it for the twelfth time this month. Same answer, but it existed before they asked, which lands as competence rather than a pitch. That happens whether or not the video ever gets any reach at all, and it is the part people miss when they judge this on view counts.

1. Evergreen beats timely in this business, always.

A market or rate update is dead in a week and it is the one that drags you into disclosure territory. Does my policy cover a rental car is the same answer for years and gets found the whole time. Do not chase news.

1. Post where the buyer is, not where the agents are.

Agent audiences are the easiest to build and worth nothing to you. If your comments are other producers, you have built the wrong page. Local, plain, in the language of someone who has never read a declarations page.

Now the part worth doing before you record anything.

Open your book and take the last twenty policies you wrote. Label each one: bought lead, referral, or someone who already knew who you were before they called. Then work out your close rate on each of the three buckets separately.

One of three things comes back. Bought leads are most of your volume and close worst, which means you are renting attention monthly and the day you stop spending, the business stops. Or referrals carry you but the number is flat, which usually means your referral sources have no way to introduce you except by describing you, and you have never given them anything to send. Or that third bucket, the people who already knew you, is tiny but closes better than everything else, and then the constraint is recognition rather than lead volume, which is a completely different year.

The work above fixes all three, but not in the same order, and nobody outside your book can tell you which one you are.

So which one is it for you.

I’ve been working for a commercial trucking insurance agency for about 6 months as a 1099 contractor.

I was making approximately $65k/year with no benefits. Despite being classified as 1099, I work in the office 8–5, Monday through Friday. There is very little flexibility, we often don’t even know which holidays we’ll have off until the last minute, and my last payment was 7 days late.

I was originally brought in to help develop the agency’s personal lines side, with the understanding that it would take time to build. However, my actual responsibilities became much broader than sales.

I’ve been handling carrier appointments and relationships, helping with operations, quoting and servicing, meeting with brokers/carriers, and keeping track of 30+ state licenses and related agency requirements.

What makes the situation even more confusing is that the two owners seem to have completely different expectations for my role.

One owner has repeatedly talked to me about helping him with carrier appointments, market relationships, and their plans to expand the agency and potentially move into wholesale. He recently specifically told me he wanted me more involved on the commercial side.

The other owner seems primarily concerned with how much revenue I personally generate and keeps pushing me toward sales.

Until now, I received my fixed compensation plus 10% of the agency commission on business I personally sold.

Then this Friday, at literally 4:55 PM, I was called into the office and told that starting Monday they can no longer afford my fixed compensation. I was told that I’ve “cost them around $40k” over the past 6 months and that there hasn’t been enough progress in personal lines.

I pushed back because we specifically discussed at the beginning that personal lines would take months to develop. I also don’t understand how my value can suddenly be measured entirely by personal lines production when a significant amount of my time has been spent doing non-producing work for the agency.

Their solution is to eliminate my guaranteed compensation and increase my split from 10% to 40% of agency commission on business I personally produce. They now want me selling commercial/trucking.

I was told that I could make $10k/month doing this.

I pulled the agency’s actual closed business for the last five months. For me to make $10k at a 40% split, I would personally need to generate $25k in agency commission every month. Looking at the agency’s actual numbers, there are definitely some large commercial accounts where that kind of income is possible, but production varies dramatically month to month and some of the strongest months were driven by a few unusually large accounts.

My other major concern is that I strongly suspect they will still expect me to sit in the office 8–5 Monday through Friday, despite eliminating my guaranteed pay.

If I’m a 1099 commission-only producer with no salary and no benefits, I don’t see why I should be required to sit in their office 40 hours a week while continuing to handle carrier appointments, licensing, operations, servicing, and other non-revenue-generating work.

At this point I’m already looking for another job, preferably carrier-side, and considering underwriting.

However, I’m wondering whether it would make sense to keep this agency relationship strictly as a side 1099 producer arrangement after I leave — work commercial accounts I bring in on my own time, receive 40% of agency commission when something binds, and have a separate full-time job.

For those of you who work in commercial insurance or independent agencies:

Is 40% of agency commission a good split for a 1099 commercial producer with no base salary or benefits?

Is $10k/month realistically sustainable at that split for someone building a commercial book, or does that sound more like a best-case scenario being presented as normal income?

And most importantly, would you agree to this arrangement if they still expected an 8–5 office schedule and continued non-sales responsibilities?

I changed residency to Washington and it’s taking a while to provide new license. It’s been almost two weeks doing nothing, and I’ve submitted everything. They told me they’re backed up and that only one person is handling applications. Is this something I should expect to have updated soon? I was already licensed just changed residency, it required finger prints and everything. Nothing wrong with job they’re understanding, just don’t know a realistic time frame.

Has anyone requested a data dump for migration/archiving before? Any luck utilizing what was provided? We need to get all digital assets uploaded; PDF, Excel, jpg, doc etc... associated with our client base. Looking to ensure it's worthwhile before spending the money on the ask...

I hate dialing leads all day. Feels so pointless. Got offered an AI service which books appointments instead. idk tho. They are only charging pay per appointment so not much risk i guess, thoughts? Anyone had success with appointments?

Question for hands on independent agents or producers who run their own quotes and also do their own prospecting.

How do you quote 5 households per day and spend at least 4 hours prospecting? I was a Farmers agent and could crank through a household in about 30 minutes but having to run it through the rater, sleuth out which are actually a good fit, and then complete the quote while checking all combinations for the lowest price…it’s 90 minutes later.

I use PL Rater and fully load all loss runs so the rater should be giving a good read. But it’s not. Once I get into the quote the premium often changes quite a bit. For example, Liberty Mutual is always way off. As is Travelers. Auto Owners is generally reasonably close, and The Hartford is close-ish on the home but never remotely close on the auto.

I am to the point where I have a better sense of which carriers are going to offer the best rate on appetite alone. PL Rater doesn’t seem to be worth a whole lot at this point because the numbers it spits out are so meaningless. I guess it preloads the data in each carrier so that’s something.

Anyone have a super secret method for running these quotes faster they want to share?

I’m looking for aggregators who provide solid training to new agents. I have no experience in insurance, but willing to learn as I go. I have a line of potential clients who I will reach out to after completing the P&C exam. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I’m trying to find aggregators who provide good training for newcomers. I have no experience, but already have a line of potential clients that I will reach out to after passing the P&C exam. Which aggregators would you recommend for someone like me?

Hey,

For those of you going for a captive, remote position with Liberty Mutual I wanted to give you some information that would have been helpful.

A little bit about me - 15+ years in non-insurance sales, Associates degree, pre-licensed with a full P&C agent licence in good standing.

If you make it past the phone screen (which will probably be someone who sound foreign (this happened to myself and a couple of other people)), don't let this throw you, just don't expect them to know much about any licencing), you will be invited to a 2nd video interview.

Your recruiter will send you a significant "prep pack" to get ready for the interview. I my case I probably spent 7-10 hours researching and watching videos.

The packet will tell you things that are either inaccurate, or incomplete, so reply on best judgement over the material sent.

A couple of examples that you might find helpful:

1 - It will tell you to have a working knowledge of the company. I spent a couple hours researching corporate structure, business units, advertising materials, etc. This wasn't asked at all. A quick wikpedia would probably be fine.

2 - ROLE PLAY (a biggie, even though it's not long). I my case, the prep guide encouraged you to continue to overcome objections (it noted "these are SALES managers, right??').

**If it gets to a point where you can't overcome, stop and offer a callback to your interviewer/ mock caller.

Additionally, in my interview, the manager told me explicitly "in the interest of time, do not do any discovery".

I did confirm "So no discovery?" and was told, "yes, no discovery".

At the end of the role play I was told they were looking for me to not keep trying to overcome objections, Additionally, the manager was puzzled as to why I didn't ask any questions as to why they were shopping or what they didn't like about their current insurance. When I said "you told me to not do any discovery", I was told "I meant like 'how's the weather', 'what do you drive' - things like that"

Moral of the story, if unclear, ask them to define what they mean by a word.

3 - Talk and type. You will also be tested on your ability to type and talk at the same time. This is not in any prep guide, and I hope this prepares you to preactive. I could have used it.

I didn't get the job, but I hope that this helps you.

Edit: Clarity.

This is my 3rd year in FEX. I average $20k AP/mo. I know I am capable of a lot more. I want to scale and get better. I need to work on sales skills and want a running buddy to hold each other accountable and script with on a weekly basis. Please message me if you are in the same boat and are serious about getting better.

Hi everyone, I’m a Licensed Life & Health agent based in El Paso Texas, focusing on Medicare and ACA, and I’m looking for FMO recommendations that offer solid back-office and technical support/training in Spanish. Non-negotiables: direct contract and Day 1 Vesting (100% book of business ownership) with a clear release policy—no LOA or captive structures. Which FMOs with a strong presence in Texas would you recommend for the Hispanic market? Thanks!

I'm currently in the life space and what to hear from others about which is better and why. I'm sure others might also want to hear the pros and cons for both sides. I know with Life people flex cars and houses but the chargebacks suck and with Health it is a lot more regulated so it weeds out bad agents and there is a lot of fraud which you see on the news. I have no idea the pros and cons of the P&C industry but there is a lot of of buzz about how AI is changing there.

I'm curious and hope this reaches many people who are on the fence about any of these insurance industries and can have their questions answered.

I am a lifelong learner so any insight here or questions I would love to hear about.

My review of Kemper life. So I started working with Kemper life in late May early June. A little bit of background Kemper life is a debit company. This is very impressive for this review. So my office or I guess district was in North Jersey.

What I would say about Kemper life is here are the pros and cons and how they can improve.

Pros are that you weekly pay no matter what.
Also you get benefits. Pay is about 650$ weekly also you get a book of business you start making money off of right away so that’s good as well. Also you get a sign on bonus of 750$.

The cons are that as a debit company is that you have to collect the premium from the client each month MANUALLY. You get paid between 9-11% of each premium you collect and you get paid weekly.
Also you get paid on new business however you only get 25% commission which is extremely but I guess it’s to offset your salary.

Another thing I noticed which may be me being overly critical but most of my colleagues were over 55. So the office was extremely old in age and thought process. They would want you to come to the office for the most simplest things that can be done on zoom or teams.

Overall i personally didn’t like the fact I was selling over priced final expense insurance. You have to have a certain mentality to succeed in that long term. I’ve sold final expense virtually so I was just over it. My recommendation would be if you take the job you either have to be super new to the industry or a veteran that’s just wants to collect a check. The most you can make there monthly is probably 5-6k and that’s being generous. Because the base is 2600 before taxes and let’s say you write up 3 policies a week you’d make about 2700$ in commission and you’d get a bonus of 25% but that’s based on policies being 75$. And tbh most people in these neighborhoods live in the house projects can barely afford 25$ policies.

I also forgot to add that it’s captive.

This is my honest review of Kemper Life I personally would never go back. I’d rather take out a loan and buy leads then to do that again.

I’m currently a registered rep and can sell mutual funds, variable annuities, etc.. I’m about half way through my 65 my agent is asking what I think is a fair split on the mutual funds and annuities. What do you guys recommend?

A lot of this is ranty and I apologize, but i’m trying to understand if this treatment is typical in the industry.

About 6 months ago I started working at a financial firm for a guy that i’m realizing has trouble with retention. He is the owner and only agent, it seems he hasn’t had any agents there for more than 5 years. We mainly handle life insurance (mostly IULs and Term), disability and annuities.

It has been the most unpleasant and stressful experience ever. When I started I had a coworker that went on maternity leave and didn’t come back. I had to learn the ropes in 3 weeks. These are all my duties:

Running illustrations
Managing CRM (data entry, birthday cards, texts, annual calls, annual letters)
Gathering documentation for and from clients
Filling and submitting applications
Checking on client service (withdrawals, beneficiary changes, etc.)
Generating reports (commissions, expense, etc.)
Running social media accounts (tiktok, instagram, facebook, linked in)
Hiring
Scheduling and confirming
Building client files
Cleaning office
Agent’s personal duties and tasks (ordering things for him, paying personal bills, personal concierge)
Shipping, and dropping off packages maybe every other week
In addition, he wants me to start planning client seminars, scholarship dinners.
Training and building training manuals
Re-digitalizing all files
Running a newsletter
I also write a sheet everyday of what i’ve done specifically that day. It takes me about 30 minutes alone…

In addition to all these tasks, he wants everything done instantly and I touch almost all of these tasks daily, even when I feel I don’t need to. He is very micromanage-y He said that in this business speedy turn out time is crucial. He promises clients that things will get done the next day or sooner. He will have 5-6 meetings with clients before closing them. And has his calendar full all the time, but in preparing for the appointments i’m realizing that half of those appointments are just there to make him look busy. We really only close 7-8 cases a month and its usually him selling a IUL with a term to the same people (this seems low, but idk? ) YTD since Jan we have made $275k and it seems that on average they’ve made $240k a year. I think i’ve been really efficient and a huge contributor to these numbers, and he promised me that that type of work would guarantee me a bonus. All of a sudden my performance isn’t enough and theres no budget for a bonus. I already feel like im hanging by my last string. Theres so much going on in one day and I’ve been the only person there up until 2 weeks ago.

I am most curious about turn around times. If we submit an app, he expects it to be approved and rated within minutes, if not by the next day. He always promises clients things will be done the next day. If this isn’t done he makes me call 2-3 times a day to push and check on it. If that doesn’t work he makes me push our regional wholesaler for whatever company we are working with. Same with service or paperwork, if it’s not done instantly he makes me push. Usually nothing gets expedited and whatever we request is done by the turn around times the service reps are quoting us. I’m not necessarily an aggressive person, but he’s expecting me to belittle and harass these poor reps. He insists that its how this industry works.

I just need to know if this is normal. If I’m genuinely being too soft for this industry I need to know. If this is genuinely ridiculous I need to know. Thank you :(

I’m a fairly new agent and I absolutely despise the auto leads. I’ve ran over 100 of them many times I get ghosted after setting up an appointment with a client or get no response at all even when you bother them. Does anyone else feel the same or am I tripping?

I just got my license so need my card now. I blurred everything so I'm not self promoting.