Getting Started - Big Plans!!

[JustDanielle.90]

Hi! My name is Danielle I'm in Florida.
This is my first post here and I hope I'm following all the rules and doing everything right!

I just obtained my 215 license for health, life and variable annuities & I'm super excited to be licensed and onto my career!

I'm very new to the industry and had a few questions -

I would like to open my own brokerage in the very near future, starting off small of course with just myself.

The vision I have of my office would BE a one stop shop for insurance (not just saying it is). Is it possible to be appointed with all the major carriers (blue cross, aetna, humana, united etc)?

And if so, why don't more offices do this?

What would be the pros and cons of this?


Any additional feedback would be helpful too!

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Hi! My name is Danielle I'm in Florida.
This is my first post here and I hope I'm following all the rules and doing everything right!

Welcome aboard Danielle (from a fellow Floridian). Everything looks good, you're doing great so far.

I just obtained my 215 license for health, life and variable annuities & I'm super excited to be licensed and onto my career!

Congratulations.

The vision I have of my office would BE a one stop shop for insurance (not just saying it is). Is it possible to be appointed with all the major carriers (blue cross, aetna, humana, united etc)?

Looks like you're talking about health insurance. Florida Blue doesn't work with brokers on individual health. The others do.

 

[JustDanielle.90]

Thanks for the warm welcome!
& also the quick response..

Much appreciated -
Any words of advice you would give a new agent like myself?

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Any words of advice you would give a new agent like myself?

If you're new to the business, I would advise that you find a mentor to help you shorten the learning curve and teach you good habits. They're not easy to find, but they are invaluable!

 

[eharriett]

Hi Danielle, welcome. And welcome to the business. It is very rewarding, both personally and professionally, but requires hard work.

Like any other profession, it requires a skill set. Do you have any experience with health insurance (I too, assume that's what you're looking to sell based on the companies you named)? If not, as already suggested, consider a mentor to help you in the learning experience. Assuming Florida is the same as Ohio, getting the insurance license is just basic competency. Their goal is to teach you to know what you don't know, in addition to the basic laws of your state. Everything else is up to you.

As far as one stop shopping, my partner and I have that setup for Medicare supplements and Medicare advantage. Not every company works with independents, and you **might** want to consider starting off with a marketing organization to take some of the load of appointing and getting properly set up off your shoulders. They may even help with some training. But tread carefully. There are some really great marketing outfits out there, and some very bad ones. Ask around before you commit to any. We recently dumped ours for new business because we could handle what they were doing for us better ourselves, and we think those guys were actually one of the good ones.

My partner and I came from a captive agent situation in 2007 and went independent. In our opinion, you can't beat it! But that's our experience. Every day, we wake up loving our job and our clients (most of them). The insurance professional organizations were the ones that really helped us out as independents. Primarily NAIFA, who reached out to us within a week of us severing ties with our former employer (captor?). Later, we were sought out by NAHU because word got around our main focus was health insurance. These groups are around to help advocate agents, regardless of whether or not they work as independents or companies. They may be helpful to you as well.