Can A Successful Entrepreneur Open An Insurance Agency?

JustinG30

New Member
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Hello everyone. Im looking for some advice so any and all would be greatly appreciated. Here is a quick background about myself.

I have worked for 2 of the largest banks in the country selling financial products, life insurance and loans. I loved doing this kind of work. I have never sold P&C or health insurance. I was always a top producer for the banks. I left that environment about 6 years ago because i was extremely unhappy with the current bank i worked for. Since then i have owned businesses and have had great success. My current business is a computer/phone repair & sales facility. This is all great and i make nice money, but as i get older i miss selling products people need and miss the interaction on a daily basis like that. But i don't want to give up my entrepreneurial lifestyle or go back to having a boss. My goal would be to open an independent agency that starts off offering P&C, Life & health. Eventually i would be looking to add more financial products also.

So here are my questions.

1. Has anyone with a background in another form of sales just jumped right in and opened an independent insurance office?
2. For those of you that started an agency from scratch, did you jump both feet in and get a building and everything or did you start out of your home or just rented a small cheap office?
3. I have been reading about Clusters & SIAA. For someone new to the P&C world, which has the least amount of resistance to new agents?

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
I look forward to seeing the responses you get! I'm commenting so I can keep up with the thread! Cheers
 
I'm a captive agent right now, fairly new to insurance, licensed in property, casualty, life, and health. Really enjoying it and want to make it a long career.
 
I would be happy to discuss it further with you.... P&C is not a good choice starting out. Cluster agreements are one sided in Michigan and leave you dependent on the group unless you are willing to walk away. May as well work for State Farm.

P&C appointments are difficult in Michigan and most States because they don't want anybody representing their companies without some experience in selling, field underwriting and providing a good mix of personal lines and commercial lines of insurance.

P&C is very detailed business and there has to be many office procedures and staff in place before a company will even look at you for an appointment. Paying your dues in P&C is important as it weeds out the weak in this business.

As a P&C agent you have the power to put a company on the hook with liability claims for hundreds of thousands of dollars with your verbal word and that takes time and trust to build....

A P&C appointment is not given to someone because they were good at selling. It is more about the profit you make a company along with sales volume that is important...... $1m in sales doesn't mean squat to a company if they are paying out $900k in claims. They expect claims to be under 60% of premium as a successful agency and that takes a lot of management on the P&C Agency owners part.

Now as a Life and health producer, there is a lot of opportunities for you to get appointments and get into a good agency. If you want to work in an office doing Life and Health, than that is not going to work as you need to go out and meet people face to face in their homes in order to make the money you are wanting to make. Yes, you can get appointments for L&H easily, though the work ethic and ability to do the daily grind is what makes a L&H producer successful.

FYI, I find that people with your background and Mortgage sales experience do quite well in L&H and I would start in that area first.

Feel free to contact me any time.

Skipper
 
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Skipper would a P&C cluster have any problem with someone being appointed with L&H after the fact? I'd like to be able to multiline and offer options, I think the P&C storefront combined with L&H cross selling is great.
 
Skipper would a P&C cluster have any problem with someone being appointed with L&H after the fact? I'd like to be able to multiline and offer options, I think the P&C storefront combined with L&H cross selling is great.

Depends on the cluster.... SIAA requires all your appointments, including L&H and they will be paying out at well below Street level commissions.
 
Makes me want to focus on L&H even more after reading everything you said. Looks like 6 & 63 will be needed. I suppose it would be much lower cost since office isn't a req and L&H provides more money upfront.
 
Makes me want to focus on L&H even more after reading everything you said. Looks like 6 & 63 will be needed. I suppose it would be much lower cost since office isn't a req and L&H provides more money upfront.

6/63 is not needed.... in fact that is a 1990's approach to selling Life/Annuities.

What you want to work for is an RIA / Series 65. That is a Registered Investment Advisor. Assets under management is where you want to look towards in building your career as an AIR/RIA.

The old Broker/Dealer Relationship is antiquated and will be dumped by most agents in the next 20 years.
 
You're a wealth of good info, really appreciate that. I'll look into it, so let's say I'm a new agent for Life and Health with nothing on books toward those lines (green as it gets). What does the process for being setup look like?
 
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