Just how High Can Contracts Go??

[Newby]

All that any of us knows is that there is 200% total to work with. Everyone knows that the first two years of a life insurance policy is used for marketing costs.

How much of that 200% you get is based on how much good quality premium you can put on the books.

But the starting point for agents these days is SWEET. It was way lower back when I got into the business.

 

[rousemark]

All that any of us knows is that there is 200% total to work with. Everyone knows that the first two years of a life insurance policy is used for marketing costs.

How much of that 200% you get is based on how much good quality premium you can put on the books.

But the starting point for agents these days is SWEET. It was way lower back when I got into the business.

Yeah.. 90% was a top GA contract with many companies.

 

[ExProgrammer]

Yeah.. 90% was a top GA contract with many companies.

When did they get to where they are today?

 

[rousemark]

When did they get to where they are today?

You have to ask Newby.. But it seems they started climbing in the 90s, I think that is when the NMOs came into being. I was concentrating more on supplemental health I those days and those commissions haven't changed all that much. (with the exception of Medicare Supp.)

 

[Agentguy5]

There are many IMO/FMO offering all sorts of contract start rates. I have seen 50-120% contracts to start.

My question is just how high do they go? In theory and in the "real world"?

Maybe you should ask yourself something much more important like the following....

What am I willing to do in order to EARN a really good living selling final expense?

I only say this as the contract levels you can get in "real world" will never be reached until you do what it takes to reach them.

good luck

 

[Todd King]

Commission levels should not be like an Easter Egg hunt. Any IMO you are considering should have their starting commission levels clearly posted on their website. If they do not or can not send it to you in a published manor at the beginning of your conversation with them then you are not dealing with a very transparent IMO.

If they are trying to ask you a lot of questions before they give you their commission grid they are trying to see how much they can get away with and tweet the numbers in their favor a bit. Every 5-points is important.

Any IMO you are dealing with just let them know you have the FexContracting grid in your hand and they will know that you are aware of what is available to new agents along with proven training and the best lead programs in the business.

Final Expense Commission Levels

I've seen you say this many times, but I'm going to finally buck you a bit on this statement as it is a blanket statement that isn't good for all IMO's. It fits your model just fine, but not all IMO's run on your model, as you know.

Here's one exception for you. Many of our agency's agents know we're in the upline. If you were one of those agents, how would you feel if you saw higher levels than what you were getting now. Wouldn't it make you want to at least think about moving your contract and get rid of your present upline? How would you feel if you were an agency with agents under you where all those levels were posted for all of your agents to see. You know many of the downline agents won't take into account what the direct upline does for them, especially the newer ones who don't understand it yet.

We don't post ours simply out of respect for our agencies. I've thought about it many times and have come to the same conclusion each time. I understand why some IMO's/FMO's won't post it because they have a little something to hide, but that's not our reasoning.

There is another side to that coin brother.

 

[jdeasy]

I've seen you say this many times, but I'm going to finally buck you a bit on this statement as it is a blanket statement that isn't good for all IMO's. It fits your model just fine, but not all IMO's run on your model, as you know.

Here's one exception for you. Many of our agency's agents know we're in the upline. If you were one of those agents, how would you feel if you saw higher levels than what you were getting now. Wouldn't it make you want to at least think about moving your contract and get rid of your present upline? How would you feel if you were an agency with agents under you where all those levels were posted for all of your agents to see. You know many of the downline agents won't take into account what the direct upline does for them, especially the newer ones who don't understand it yet.

We don't post ours simply out of respect for our agencies. I've thought about it many times and have come to the same conclusion each time. I understand why some IMO's/FMO's won't post it because they have a little something to hide, but that's not our reasoning.

There is another side to that coin brother.

The way you said it right there makes it look as though you are hiding it.

The agent that sees someone else is getting more should want to move to the higher level.

Unless I'm reading you wrong yourposition is what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

 

[theinsuranceman]

I've seen you say this many times, but I'm going to finally buck you a bit on this statement as it is a blanket statement that isn't good for all IMO's. It fits your model just fine, but not all IMO's run on your model, as you know.

Here's one exception for you. Many of our agency's agents know we're in the upline. If you were one of those agents, how would you feel if you saw higher levels than what you were getting now. Wouldn't it make you want to at least think about moving your contract and get rid of your present upline? How would you feel if you were an agency with agents under you where all those levels were posted for all of your agents to see. You know many of the downline agents won't take into account what the direct upline does for them, especially the newer ones who don't understand it yet.

We don't post ours simply out of respect for our agencies. I've thought about it many times and have come to the same conclusion each time. I understand why some IMO's/FMO's won't post it because they have a little something to hide, but that's not our reasoning.

There is another side to that coin brother.

Wow! So you seem to be saying that you are worried that your down line agents will discover you are giving them a haircut/scalping on their commissions when compared to the commissions Newby's agents receive. Is this what you are saying?

In your signature in red print you say "do the right thing because it's the right thing to do". How can you be doing the right thing offering your agents lower commissions and trying to hide that fact from them? And without even a lead program.

 

[Newby]

I've seen you say this many times, but I'm going to finally buck you a bit on this statement as it is a blanket statement that isn't good for all IMO's. It fits your model just fine, but not all IMO's run on your model, as you know.

Here's one exception for you. Many of our agency's agents know we're in the upline. If you were one of those agents, how would you feel if you saw higher levels than what you were getting now. Wouldn't it make you want to at least think about moving your contract and get rid of your present upline? How would you feel if you were an agency with agents under you where all those levels were posted for all of your agents to see. You know many of the downline agents won't take into account what the direct upline does for them, especially the newer ones who don't understand it yet.

We don't post ours simply out of respect for our agencies. I've thought about it many times and have come to the same conclusion each time. I understand why some IMO's/FMO's won't post it because they have a little something to hide, but that's not our reasoning.

There is another side to that coin brother.

Todd that type of thinking is what is wrong with the insurance industry and creates the type of stuff that screws over agents. I know that you are one of the good guys but that way of thinking comes from the dark side of this biz.

When you make any purchase you can shop prices that are disclosed. When you take a job one of the most important things to find out is what it pays and compare to other offers. But you think it's a fine system for agents to not be able to educate themselves what commissions are available to them through different channels?

These are life decisions for agents. A guy who is coming into this business needs to be able to decide whether he wants to work for less and go this direction or take more and go that direction. Agents wouldn't always take the higher one BUT the lower one would have to add value adds.

If every agent knew exactly coming in what each channel offered it would improve everything because the free enterprise system does that. But when the entire industry is set up to hide important information from the agents it enables "dead weight" middle men to add cost to the agents and take money from them but add no value. If they add value that is actually worth something why would that need to be hard to find their pricing/commissions?

At the very least, any agent that contacts your agency (or any agency) and is considering contracting through you should be given a clear grid disclosing this info right up front. In the funeral industry it had to be forced on them by the government to give prices in writing right up front because of guys who thought just like you. The old "If we make it too easy to shop around the customers/agents will only look at price" mentality. That BS was anti-consumer and in this business the agents are OUR consumers.

Just yesterday two different agents called me and both were spammed by PMs on this forum by scamsters that stayed vague on commission levels even after the agents had conversations with them.

Rule #1 for new agents reading this- if you get PMed by anyone that you didn't initiate you are being played.

Rule # 2 - if you are talking to any agency and they don't clearly give you commission levels in print as soon as you ask for them you are not dealing with a transparent agency. No inteligent agent should ever allow that. YOU are the customer. YOU have the power to choose who you deal with. If you accept the Easter Egg hunt for commission levels, that is on you.

Todd, you know I respect you. But in this line of thinking the industry has tainted your thinking. And it's not in the favor of the working/selling agent.

 

[Thedude]

FEX has already stated they have agencies (and agents in those agencies) that they have no idea what they are doing essentially so don't let them paint themselves as the all around good guy here. I can promise you they have agents below those contracts level they post due to building or due to them brokering out.

And anyone bashing Todd for this should clearly have their contract levels posted for me to see .....oh wait none of you all do that except FEX???? OH okay. I commend FEX for that.