Selling Life Insurance in Florida

Ok, I'm about to finish school. I'm not sure about which career path I want to take, but I want to try the insurance game. I want to start with fam/friends and work on referrals from there until I make a decision.

From the information herein, I have concluded the following:

1) I need to get E&O insured
2) I need to get in touch with an upline that will allow me to remain independent (or get appointed directly by a few good carriers)

Does this sound correct?
 
Ok, I'm about to finish school. I'm not sure about which career path I want to take, but I want to try the insurance game. I want to start with fam/friends and work on referrals from there until I make a decision.

From the information herein, I have concluded the following:

1) I need to get E&O insured
2) I need to get in touch with an upline that will allow me to remain independent (or get appointed directly by a few good carriers)

Does this sound correct?
Forgive me if I missed it, but it sounds like you are extremely new to insurance and financial services in general. I strongly suggest you consider a career company path to begin with.

Not all career (captive) companies are best for an absolute newbie, but New York Life, Met, Securian (Minnesota Life), and maybe Mass would be worth looking in to. There are other captives and quasi-captives such as Guardian, but they aren't all known for taking a guy as new as you and giving them what they need right out of the gate.
 
Forgive me if I missed it, but it sounds like you are extremely new to insurance and financial services in general. I strongly suggest you consider a career company path to begin with.

Not all career (captive) companies are best for an absolute newbie, but New York Life, Met, Securian (Minnesota Life), and maybe Mass would be worth looking in to. There are other captives and quasi-captives such as Guardian, but they aren't all known for taking a guy as new as you and giving them what they need right out of the gate.

If you go this route, make sure to interview your sales manager just as much as he/she plans to interview you. Many managers are just trying to fill a quota for recruitment and they are going to do their best to hide it. You need to find a manager and office that is able and willing to show you how to prospect, how to speak to prospects and clients, how to properly understand a situation, and how to present the solution. The most important part is how to prospect. If you have no one to talk to, it doesn't matter how good you are on appointments.

No manager is going to flat out tell you they are just looking for warm bodies. However, considering the time of year, I would watch out for the manager that strongly pushes you to contract now, or strongly pushes you to wait until after New Year's Day. That is a strong suggestion you are just another number towards their recruitment quota.
 
Forgive me if I missed it, but it sounds like you are extremely new to insurance and financial services in general. I strongly suggest you consider a career company path to begin with.

Not all career (captive) companies are best for an absolute newbie, but New York Life, Met, Securian (Minnesota Life), and maybe Mass would be worth looking in to. There are other captives and quasi-captives such as Guardian, but they aren't all known for taking a guy as new as you and giving them what they need right out of the gate.

You are correct. I am extremely new to insurance. In fact, other than the 40-hr course, I have very little exposure to it. I do, however, work for a registered investment adviser who has offered to teach me some things with basically no strings. I thought I'd start independent to see if I wanted to continue insurance sales as a career.
 
... I would watch out for the manager that strongly pushes you to contract now, or strongly pushes you to wait until after New Year's Day. That is a strong suggestion you are just another number towards their recruitment quota.
I would temper that by saying a manager may want you to wait until January to contract and to use between now and then to work on your inventory and any pre-contract training and production requirements. Pushing you to contract immediately is an obvious red flag.

You may have already caught the tone here that many were in the past part of the captive system and sometimes Career Management takes a lot of verbal abuse. No doubt some of it is deserved, but not every captive manager is a mouth-breathing crap-eating bastard.

Assume going in that a manager is going to earn a living off your labor just as you are going to LEARN how to make a living off THEIR labor. But as Vol said, do your homework.
 
What do people prefer between an IMO and an FMO.

Also, how important is it to have this in your home town?
 
Ah, I keep learning! My question is that if you write insurance through either of these, do you want the firm to be in the town that you live in.. or does it not matter?


I am an IMO, and about 80% of all of my agents are not in the same state as I am.
 
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