How much P&C experience before going Broker solo?

[RobGarcia93]

How much experience did you guys have before going solo as a P&C Broker? I'm still new to the insurance world, 4 months at a major captive agency. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I feel like I have a good understanding about the insurance world. How much experience does Progressive, Liberty Mutual, etc look for?

 

[AZDave]

How much experience did you guys have before going solo as a P&C Broker? I'm still new to the insurance world, 4 months at a major captive agency. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I feel like I have a good understanding about the insurance world. How much experience does Progressive, Liberty Mutual, etc look for?

Going "solo as a P&C Broker" today means joining a Group/Cluster/Aggregator that has access to carriers and in turn you pay them a piece of the action. Going solo without any joining any group today is not really a possibility.

Many Groups/Clusters/Aggregators to choose from. Some don't care about experience levels and may take you on with 4 months experience without a problem. Some may require 5 years in the bus with $1 million profitable book. Just be careful and understand the contract and the costs associated of getting out.

Personally, it took me 22 years to jump ship from a Captive. Granted 15 of those years were quite fun.

Learning the business on someone else's dime is the way to go. But after a couple of years you should be indy. I would really suggest learning everything you can on the commercial market now. Placing your future in the auto and home insurance market is not the direction to go. IMHO.

Good Luck to you and Good Selling!
Dave

 

[marindependent]

You can get set up now as an independent, no problem.

As AZ Dave said its all comes down to the cluster and I would add your business plan.
The less experience you have the longer in general it might take you to be up and profitable.

 

[Markthebroker]

I am p&c commercial only broker. I've done well enough that I now only work part time and make a full time income. I do not own an agency, but I am an independent agent. I started captive.

There is no way you have a good understanding of the industry at 4 months at a captive agency, unless you are literally some sort of genius. I'm not trying to be mean, this is just real talk. You may have a good understanding of your role within the captive you are at, which means you may understand well the small part (your job) of the small part (the captive) of the industry. So, you may have an 90% understanding of your 20% of your captive agency, which is 20% or so of the whole market. Following that math, you have about a 3.5% understanding of the market as a whole, if you are gifted and already at a 90% understanding. Not much.

I would suggest you stay there for at least another 6 months, maybe 18, then go work as an employee at an indi agency and see how feel about it.

 

[Mike007]

None of those company will appoint you. As others have stated, you will have to go get appointments under someone else, another larger agency aka clusters. And even with clusters, some will require you have years under your belt. It's not all about experiences. It's also about if you can be profitable. Can you meet quotas?

Ask yourself these questions before going on your own:

1) Do you have money to pay for expenses, fees, and etc?
2) Do you know how to fish? Acquire clients?
3) Do you know the ins and out of your products?

 

[AZDave]

2) Do you know how to fish? Acquire clients?

I like! Let's go fishing!