Becoming a State Farm Agent

[Praeter]

What does the avg State Farm agent make?

I have no idea what my agent actually makes. As stated he's in his first year and a scratch office at that. In my town, we have 7 SF offices in about 5-8 mile radius. Competition is heavy between each office, especially because I live in a depressed town. I tried talking to him about it and he says he will make profit in his 16th month.

 

[togatown]

I have no idea what my agent actually makes. As stated he's in his first year and a scratch office at that. In my town, we have 7 SF offices in about 5-8 mile radius. Competition is heavy between each office, especially because I live in a depressed town. I tried talking to him about it and he says he will make profit in his 16th month.

He will get a scorecard bonus in his 16th month (April each year) if he has enough financial services sales. Most good agents will bonus their team based off of obtaining different levels on the scorecard since they can't do it all by themselves. It also gives the team some buy-in and something to strive for together. As a new agent, he'll probably need it to pay off debt incurred in his first year.

 

[ltrrtl218]

I am not a SF agent, but a team member and after being with a scratch agent for 3 months I will be looking for a new job and would never recommend being a team member let alone an agent for this company.

SF is just too conservative. I don't know if it's because I work in a TICA office, which I've never even had that explained what a TICA means, but I swear underwriting is keeping score on how many policies they can either deny or cancel on a daily basis.

I don't know if it's because I'm new to insurance, or my previous job at Quicken Loans(mortgage banker) was that great of an opportunity(that i left), but the training I've received has been attrocious and the expectation level is ridiculous. This company is nothing but one gigantic pyramid scheme.

I've been told October, November, and December are the slowest months in producing sales. We missed our premium builder last month so my agent has now changed our pay schedule and threatened to take away our little salary if we don't hit his numbers.

It would be one thing if they told us all of this up front but they don't. After hiring in my agent asked me my 1st year goal. I said $36k, which I think is low. He looked at me like I'm crazy. After being told about the salary change, I cannot work for a company that will change my pay based on how my boss feels that day.

I know what you mean. I worked for a tica for about a year and was let go because of my low sales numbers. I was told that in the first year i shouldn't have a problem making around 40k and 50-60k my second year. My co worker (she eventually quit due to the pay) and I realized after the first few months that that would not be possible and eventually the chump change we got in commission (which would be between around $10-25 a policy)was taken away and we were only making hourly which was 1700 a month after taxes. For an entry level professional job that requires state licensing the pay is ridiculously low, especially for a sales position and what they expect out of you. Due to the low pay, frustration and uncompetitiveness there was very little motivation to hustle and sell. From what i've seen and heard from other sf team members is that the job is basically a high turnover job and what my co worker and i experienced was pretty typical. My buddy selling mens clothes at nordstrom made almost double what i made without having to cold call or hustle or even really work that hard, basically would you like a large or a medium. No entry level professional job should pay that low. Now i don't fully blame the agent for the crappy pay since it seems like that is state farm's model for the agents. pretty retarded if you ask me. I also realized I wasn't the best sales person and that in the end sales isn't for me but I think my lack of sales was mainly due to SF being extremely uncompetitive here in California and underwriting being sticklers and making it really difficult to write business for those even willing top pay the outrageous premiums. We were by far the most expensive company and it made it hard enough just to sell p&c let alone convince people to buy life on top of that and come in for a ifr. For anyone looking to either be a team member or an agent I would strongly recommend you look elsewhere since there are easier jobs that pay quite a bit more.

 

[infoe]

I made 160k my first year (gross) and this year i've made 214k gross PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!! understand this is just gross I want people to keep reading..

first year i made 160k but i spent 200k...I can tell you that simply because i owed 40k in debt at the onset of the first year....if i delve a bit further i probably spent more than 200k...remember state farm gave me 10k to move...18to start up...so please remember its one income source coming in and many many expenditures coming out...lease/payroll/marketing/utilities etc...personal expenses where kept very low i only pulled about $1500 give or take a month from my checks to pay for personal expenses. this year i must have cleared anywhere from 24k-36k net and the only reason for this is beginning of march (I feel very lucky to be able to share this story) I decided this was no longer for me (captive...I wanted to go indy and i wanted to return back home to my home state to do it there) I CUT EVERYTHING went down to 1 team member all marketing all expenses i could and my production obviously took a steady dive but it kept me going long enough to fly under the radar.

second year bonus, second year scorecard and putting money into the 40k to be debt free 7 months later brings me to today...I just let the company know i'm resigning (again I am very lucky) they were very gracious don't feel like i burned any bridges...I don't hold any personal ill will towards the company because I was able to leave on my terms and leave in the black...have the company be (understanding) of my position and even offer letter of recommendation if i wanted (I know they were considering me for their leadership position when I was in the prime) so I was able to guise my exit strategy well....others are so deep in that they are in the eye of the hurricane and anyway they go, they will be in trouble.

the first few years of a state farm agent is done ass backwards...they want you to grow faster than you can afford and it puts people in debt...I will grow my indy agency at my pace, learn at my pace and write much more quality business without having some numbnuts that was an agent for less time than me try to tell me how to run a profitable business...i felt nolstagic and came back to this thread to answer the how much a state farm agent makes...this was my scenario and not all others are the same...

 

[wfs]

What does the avg State Farm agent make?

I think it depends on the market and of course the agent. But, in the Las Vegas market, it seems $30K to $45K seems to be first year after expenses. Then $60K -80K. Year 3 seems to be the breakthrough year for most. The above numbers also assume a certain amount of "debt", so it's hard to really give a number. Running a SF business involves high expenses. Some agents have the business pay for expenses like their Lexus, cellphone, trips, meals, etc, then say that they only made $40K, when in fact, the "take-home" is higher if you did a real apples-to-apples comparison.

I've talked to many SF agents in Vegas, 1 Yr TICAs, 3/5 Yr TICAs and those on permanent contract. The results seem to be pretty consistent in this market:

New Market is the way to go in Vegas, no service work holding you back so you can build your book.

I would not advise anyone to look into SF unless they have at least $100K to "invest". And they should have solid business experience and be able to look past the SF hype.

In year 7, you start to get a 5% bonus (not exactly sure it's 5%) on your entire P&C book. That's where the money is. A $2M p&C book would yield a $100K bonus. Making money in SF takes time. I think you can certainly make more money by being indy, especially up front, but for some, SF is a better choice.

I'd pick SF over Allstate and Farmers for sure.

 

[togatown]

I think it depends on the market and of course the agent. But, in the Las Vegas market, it seems $30K to $45K seems to be first year after expenses. Then $60K -80K. Year 3 seems to be the breakthrough year for most. The above numbers also assume a certain amount of "debt", so it's hard to really give a number. Running a SF business involves high expenses. Some agents have the business pay for expenses like their Lexus, cellphone, trips, meals, etc, then say that they only made $40K, when in fact, the "take-home" is higher if you did a real apples-to-apples comparison.

I've talked to many SF agents in Vegas, 1 Yr TICAs, 3/5 Yr TICAs and those on permanent contract. The results seem to be pretty consistent in this market:

New Market is the way to go in Vegas, no service work holding you back so you can build your book.

I would not advise anyone to look into SF unless they have at least $100K to "invest". And they should have solid business experience and be able to look past the SF hype.

In year 7, you start to get a 5% bonus (not exactly sure it's 5%) on your entire P&C book. That's where the money is. A $2M p&C book would yield a $100K bonus. Making money in SF takes time. I think you can certainly make more money by being indy, especially up front, but for some, SF is a better choice.

I'd pick SF over Allstate and Farmers for sure.

Slight correction on the 7th year bonus. TICA's and AA05's get 5 % of their P&C commissions, starting at end of 5 full years called AIPP or term pay, it is supposed to be used toward retirement in lieu of a pension. So on a 2 million dollar book at 10% commission, you would get 5% or $ 10,000 per year.

 

[Billy Shears]

The first posting on this topic is exactly why I opted not to go with SF. That was 2.5 years ago. I jumped out at the last moment after speaking with several SF agents - both tenured and short-timers. This scenario is very common for a 2-4 year SF agent. The business model just does not work. This person who posted is a sharp guy. He was able to strategically remove the debt prior to bailing out. Most do not and are shackled with it after moving on. Kudos to you for thinking on your feet and taking care of number one.

 

[jcarring99]

Would a 1.5 million book of business be enough for you to take the opportunity? 2 million? At what point does it make sense to take this opportunity?

 

[gebins]

American Family did the same thing to me with the credit check with really high standards. Its good that they do this i believe.

 

[SteveFlintstone]

This is the most accurate post about SF I've read. You have to cut everything to get ahead.