State Farm Agent Opportunity

[Thenewguy1]

Good day to everyone. Thinking about becoming a State Farm agent here in the next couple of years. My agent mentor paints this great picture of how much money I can make, and how financially free I can be. Found these forums and now I hear it’s not the golden opportunity it once was. Also, a lot of the posts here are older. I’m sure things have changed to the agent’s favor. I’m really here because my agent won’t tell me the truth because he has money coming into his pocket if I become an agent. I hear about all the debt and how low commissions are these days in the new contract. I really just need some light shed on this situation and the honest truth. Is SF still a good idea? How does the contract look like? Is going indi better?

 

[DHK]

I’m sure things have changed to the agent’s favor.

LOL!!!

Contracts won't matter if you aren't getting enough premium into them to get paid. Skills come before money.

I can't answer everything else, but here's a Van Mueller State Farm training session (4 hours) from 3 years ago. It will help you to upsell your company's life & annuity products - and believe me, that's a core metric regardless of where you go.

 

[insurance82]

Good day to everyone. Thinking about becoming a State Farm agent here in the next couple of years. My agent mentor paints this great picture of how much money I can make, and how financially free I can be. Found these forums and now I hear it’s not the golden opportunity it once was. Also, a lot of the posts here are older. I’m sure things have changed to the agent’s favor. I’m really here because my agent won’t tell me the truth because he has money coming into his pocket if I become an agent. I hear about all the debt and how low commissions are these days in the new contract. I really just need some light shed on this situation and the honest truth. Is SF still a good idea? How does the contract look like? Is going indi better?

I worked for SF agency until few months ago. Training, support wasn't that great. I worked for a guy whose father is also SF agent. He is on old contract. I heard old contract pays 12-15% per policy and new contract pays only 8%. Instead buying SF agency why not work for SF agency, get some experience and then go independent?

 

[marindependent]

I think State Farm is a great place to get trained. Its probably not a great place to get rich. Contracts are very important, I agree with DHK.

As far as being "financially free" is concerned a lot of captive insurers paint a similar rosy picture, but I rarely see an agent in the first 10 years footloose and fancy free.

Starting an insurance agency - Captive or Independent is friggin hard hard work.

 

[Allen Trent]

I think State Farm is a great place to get trained. Its probably not a great place to get rich. Contracts are very important, I agree with DHK.

As far as being "financially free" is concerned a lot of captive insurers paint a similar rosy picture, but I rarely see an agent in the first 10 years footloose and fancy free.

Starting an insurance agency - Captive or Independent is friggin hard hard work.

I have 2 neighbors that are SF agents. 1 is 60 & the other 35 years old. Both houses exceed $1M. they both travel extensively & have about 300k worth of boats & super fast cars between them.

While I dont love SF, there must be something they do right that at least these 2 & a half dozen others I know have become rich being agents for them

 

[Thenewguy1]

Well I see some State Farm agents killing it man. They’re top in our area in all LOB. Not saying I’m not confident but I don’t think I’d be killing it like that the first couple of years. I don’t want to be in debt and have to be at the mercy of the mother ship. But I also hear if you go independent certain companies won’t do business with you unless you have 750k - 1MM BOB

 

[Chazm]

My friend has a SF office and he opened it in Jan in 2016. He kills it but he is really focused, driven, and loves it. He would of done well in any insurance company IMO.

 

[GuyOnABuffalo]

Good day to everyone. Thinking about becoming a State Farm agent here in the next couple of years. My agent mentor paints this great picture of how much money I can make, and how financially free I can be. Found these forums and now I hear it’s not the golden opportunity it once was. Also, a lot of the posts here are older. I’m sure things have changed to the agent’s favor. I’m really here because my agent won’t tell me the truth because he has money coming into his pocket if I become an agent. I hear about all the debt and how low commissions are these days in the new contract. I really just need some light shed on this situation and the honest truth. Is SF still a good idea? How does the contract look like? Is going indi better?

I am a current SF agent so I can share some of my experiences with the company. First off - yes it's possible to make very good money doing this. But that's also true of any opportunity - captive or independent - if you put in the work and do things the right way. Some agents write huge amounts of business and like to boast about it. But a lot of them are also not making much money because they have far too many team members on their payroll and are spending massive amounts of money on i-leads, direct mail, etc.

The contract is what it is - certainly not as lucrative as the old ones, but still gives you the chance to do well financially. You get a base of 8% on all P&C premium with the chance to earn up to an additional 3% if you meet auto, fire and financial services growth targets (1% for each of those).

I do still think SF is a good idea. It's given me the chance to build a solid business with the freedom to also spend time with my family. There are things about the company that drive me mad (constant turnover in the service hubs leads to slow processing times of applications and transactions, constant cutting of claims employees leading to poorer customer service) but every company is going to have its frustrations.

But, as to whether you should go SF or independent, I would probably suggest going the indy route. With SF we are tied to one company. When someone calls me to ask for help to lower their premiums, I have very few options to turn to. And the company controls your income in the form of rate adjustments. We just took a 12% rate decrease in my state, which means I also just got a 12% pay cut on my auto comissions (which is by far the bulk of my revenue). You also will struggle when the rate adjustment moves the other direction. You'll lose price sensitive customers and struggle to acquire new ones because the rates won't be competitive. Honestly I've thought a lot about going independent recently but I just can't pull the trigger. I have a family at home that relies on my income, and starting over just seems daunting. But if I had the opportunity to go back in time and do this again, I'm sure I'd choose the indy route. I hipe that this helps, and best of luck to you!

 

[Markthebroker]

I’m sure things have changed to the agent’s favor.

 

[Markthebroker]

I think State Farm is a great place to get trained. Its probably not a great place to get rich. Contracts are very important, I agree with DHK.

As far as being "financially free" is concerned a lot of captive insurers paint a similar rosy picture, but I rarely see an agent in the first 10 years footloose and fancy free.

Starting an insurance agency - Captive or Independent is friggin hard hard work.