50 Years!!!!!

[rousemark]

July 5 marked my 50th anniversary in the business.. Things sure have changed.

1. Seemed most agents, even the ordinary agents worked in captive situations.
2. There were over 1800 active life insurance companies... now there are just a little over 800.
3. Debit companies were some of the largest companies in the nation.. Metropolitan, Prudential, National Life and Accident, and there were many more in my area, Independent Life, Life and Casualty of Tennessee, Interstate Life, National Trust Life, Liberty National Life, Kentucky Central, Atlanta Life are just a few that comes to mind.. Most no longer exist.
4. Industrial (weekly premium) life and health plans were still being written.
5. Industrial Sick and Accident was still being sold to the black clients and soem companies still had a "white" and a "black" rate book.
6. The NL&A had just quit requiring agents to wear a dress hat in the field a couple of years before I started. They still required agents to wear a tie and jacket.
7. There was almost no direct mail leads and the DNC list did not exist.

What changes have you seen since you started?

 

[billyb]

Started with Liberty National on 10/3/1977. Had a small country debit. Be at the office at 7 wearing a coat and tie, summer months just a tie. Worked until 9 pm 4 days a week and had office meetings on Friday. You were either a hero or a loser and that status would change depending on your production each week. Had an ass for a district manager but the job taught me how to be a success.

Now anyone can be an agent. If you can't pass the test someone can do that for you. Telemarketing has ruined the business for me. People get so many robo calls now and just won't answer the phone. Marketing cost have skyrocketed and the local agent just don't have the funds to compete. People are afraid to answer the door knock because of what they hear or read about. Some weeks I collected $5000+ and kept it on me or in the car. No gun and usually didn't lock the door. Nowadays you would be inviting a crook to rob you if they knew you had that much cash. The world is a much more dangerous place.

 

[shooter]

Started with Liberty National in 1978.
We had 25 agents in office and 24 desk.
The agent with the least premium from the previous
week had to stand.

The leading agent from the previous week, was off on Friday and had the largest desk
in the office

As for as changes,
Debit agents and companies gone.
Fewer companies in general now.
Fewer agents.
Couldn't have facial hair as an agent.
Leads came from your debit.
New babies, some one buying a home, are service
work from a death claim.
You knew most clients on a first name basis.
Mailing in the premium to the office.
Know one security licensed.

Getting a life illustration took a week to come from
the home office.
The demutualization of big name companies.
Yes, you did have to wear a tie.

Shooter

 

[shonceman]

I'm a youngster compared to you guys! Had two false starts in 1984 & 1990. I found my niche when I joined Independent Life & Accident in 1992. They were an established debit company, and gave me a book of business to service and I went to town! Biggest change is that the old debit companies are mostly gone. That business was on its way out until the new independent debit companies came along about 10 years ago. Now debit seems to be making something of a comeback.

Biggest changes for me are:
- I nearly never wear a tie, although that habit died hard.
- I nearly never use paper. I even stopped filing hard copies of apps this year.
- I own some rate books, but I never use them. I have apps for that.
- Practically my whole agency is in this iPad & backed up to the cloud.
- I still collect premium but a lot of that is not physical collections. I take debit cards in person or over the phone.
- I'm licensed in several states and can do apps completely by phone, without a physical signature (or in some cases even without digital sig).
- And best of all, NO SALES MEETINGS. I can browbeat my own dang self!

 

[tinasam]

Thank you @rousemark I was having such a hard time remembering the name of Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee My grandfather sold for them and I really wanted to remember the name and it wasn't coming to me. Your post was the magic jiggle to help me remember.
I sincerely appreciate it.
I know it's a little thing but it matters to me.

 

[shonceman]

One more thing. The advent of the cell phone revolutionized my business more than any other single development.

 

[Russ]

I started Labor Day 1984 with Southern Life and Health. Collecting a debit. Horrible job. It taught me a lot though. Wore coat and tie at office meetings on Friday. Tie when I was trying to collect. I got charged commission if someone lapsed a policy that was written before I started with them. Left in 1987 making under $300 a week.

Started on my own completely in 1989. Great to be my own boss. Writing Medicare products now. Age 65+ market mostly. Persistence is so much better then debit life. Now watch someone cancel on me

 

[billyb]

One more thing. The advent of the cell phone revolutionized my business more than any other single development.

If you are like me you wonder how you ever found an address without Google Maps. When I accepted a Sales Manager position in Jackson, MS in 1988 they gave me a map of the city and told me to go out and collect the open debits that I had under me. I had never been there but found my way around somehow.

 

[shonceman]

If you are like me you wonder how you ever found an address without Google Maps. When I accepted a Sales Manager position in Jackson, MS in 1988 they gave me a map of the city and told me to go out and collect the open debits that I had under me. I had never been there but found my way around somehow.

I still have a crate full of maps and map books of every city and town within a 200 mile radius of me. I suppose I keep those for the same reason I keep my rate books. (Maybe someday I can stop being a hoarder!)

 

[Tothetop]

The agent with the least premium from the previous
week had to stand.

The leading agent from the previous week, was off on Friday and had the largest desk
in the office

Glengarry before Glengarry