Death To Us All

[Paradigm]

Yes something is in the works....What effect it will have on the agent will be muted at first because the carriers will need agents to sell. But longterm this nation is headed toward a single payer system. The writing is on the way; brought about by the rising cost of healthcare and their desire to combine Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and the new plan into a tax payer funded entity.

It will cause taxes to rise but they will distract from that for a while by running trillion dollar deficits. Healthcare is a moving target right now and their efforts will worsen the economy.

My advice to you if you are in the health insurance game bust your butt this year and prepare to reinvent your insurance practice so you are not caught unawares.

 

[Aerosail]

Well, as of now as I stated, I've not even started their training, let alone in any specific area of insurance. I have invested in a couple of new suits and gotten, what is looking to be in error, excited about Aflac and a new road to travel. That is as far as I've gotten with this. Sounds like the road may be closed for construction soon, and anybody caught on it at the time of closure will be SOL. Personally, I can't afford nor care to stomach a waste of time. Once again; If you were in my shoes, i.e, not yet invested in this, would you or not? Please give the answer you would give to someone you were actually trying to help improve their life and not just trying to sell something. I appreciate complete honesty. Enough of the other coming from the White House!

 

[Paradigm]

Well, as of now as I stated, I've not even started their training, let alone in any specific area of insurance. I have invested in a couple of new suits and gotten, what is looking to be in error, excited about Aflac and a new road to travel. That is as far as I've gotten with this. Sounds like the road may be closed for construction soon, and anybody caught on it at the time of closure will be SOL. Personally, I can't afford nor care to stomach a waste of time. Once again; If you were in my shoes, i.e, not yet invested in this, would you or not? Please give the answer you would give to someone you were actually trying to help improve their life and not just trying to sell something. I appreciate complete honesty. Enough of the other coming from the White House!

Aflac is a supplemental company and since supplemental is not essential care probably they will be unaffected by any healthcare reform.

 

[sheppco]

That's exactly why I'm selling Gap insurance with health insurance. When they nationalize health insurance the only policies to sell your existing clients will be gap-deductible bridge policies. Most clients buy the gap because it provides first dollar coverage with lower premiums by raising the deductible. Also a clever way to get in front of new prospects. I use Medibridge it's a guarantee issue policy.

 

[Aerosail]

I'm not sure if that was a yes,........ kinda, sorta looks like one............ but thank you for letting me know that you don't think supplemental will be affected. I guess I just expected there would be people with definite feelings in one direction or the other. I mean, where do you go to get information on a particular business? You go to the source. Successful people have usually gotten direction from successful people. That was my reasoning for putting my question on this forum. I felt I should put everything in check before investing funds that need desparately to show decent ROI, and ask pros in the business, how they feel about the future of the business. You are the pro.

 

[Paradigm]

I'm not sure if that was a yes,........ kinda, sorta looks like one............ but thank you for letting me know that you don't think supplemental will be affected. I guess I just expected there would be people with definite feelings in one direction or the other. I mean, where do you go to get information on a particular business? You go to the source. Successful people have usually gotten direction from successful people. That was my reasoning for putting my question on this forum. I felt I should put everything in check before investing funds that need desparately to show decent ROI, and ask pros in the business, how they feel about the future of the business. You are the pro.

If wish I could tell you more definitively however the mad scientists in Washington have created a very uncertain situation.

 

[djs]

Aflac goes after a niche market. As such, it isn't a bad thing to sell in addition to your other products.

Aflac's biggest problem is they have to many people selling for them in any given area. This makes it very hard to be successful.

To really answer your question though, insurance in general is a very tough gig to get into (easy on paper, tougher to actually be successful) even for the financially un-challenged people. Unless you can survive the first 3 months without a check (or whatever the company will subsidize you), you'll need to find a job to support yourself first.

In the long run, insurance is a great gig, but the startup is brutal.

Dan

 

[Winter_123]

I'm not sure if that was a yes,........ kinda, sorta looks like one............ but thank you for letting me know that you don't think supplemental will be affected. I guess I just expected there would be people with definite feelings in one direction or the other. I mean, where do you go to get information on a particular business? You go to the source. Successful people have usually gotten direction from successful people. That was my reasoning for putting my question on this forum. I felt I should put everything in check before investing funds that need desparately to show decent ROI, and ask pros in the business, how they feel about the future of the business. You are the pro.

However, just because Aflac is supplemental and may not be impacted as much, does not mean that there are no issues with Aflac. This country is wall-to-wall aflac agents who last a few months visiting businesses that have already either signed up or said no to a dozen other agents. This would still be true even if there were no changes int he health care system on the horizon whatsoever. Use the search function to read up on the extensive discussion about aflac on this forum.

 

[Aerosail]

Hello again folks. I had to go study for these finals a bit and also let the question soak for a few hours. Thank you very much for the input. I wish, as many do, that the future was a little less bleak, but according to 60% of our genius population, I should be grateful to have such a wonderful thief in chief running our country.
I understand that the market has been overrun by Aflac reps and this should at best, be looked upon as a learning experience and not as a decent income rewarded for hard work. Sounds like hard work with Aflac will most likely be rewarded with exhaustion. I'll be wandering around here, reading everything being said about this business and the companies represented. Thank you all for your sincerity. That is refreshing and always welcome! Best wishes to all and have a great month!

 

[russelltw]

I would stay away from aflac. I did it for 2 years and went through a lot of money until I was able to land a job with a captive company. Aflac is a churn and burn company. They use the law of large numbers on their agents. In my state, they routinely licensed about 1/3 of our agency force every year. So talk about flooding the market. Most insurance brokers see Aflac as a joke. I would recommend looking into other types of sales. Insurance sales, especially life, is about as hard a sales job as your can get. Learn to sell on someone else's dime. Save as much money as you can and then get into a sales job under an agent to see if you like it. No need to get out on your own and learn you don't like it after you have busted your bank account. People often hear that insurance agents make a killing, but the average ones do not (it may be all those aflac agents bringing the average down ). You often need a successful agency/staff under you to make $250k or more. I took the route of landing an equipment sales job and after about 4 years, ventured in to the insurance industry. It worked for me, but your mileage may vary.

Back to aflac....
I had a "friend" recruit me with Aflac and filled me with all kinds of BS. Six months down the road, he called me and told me I needed to recruit some of my friends and family. "Train them and get a 50/50 split on commissions with them. After about 6 months, they will leave and you can keep the accounts. That's how you get to the next level..." Those were his actual words. That's what I want to do to my friends and family, right. He also told me I was doing so well (which was pathetic buy my income standards), that I should recruit someone in my area so we could compete for the business. What kind of wacko sales manager says that...

Good luck