State Farm Or Independent!!!! Help Please!! last career move I hope

Independent or State Farm?

  • State Farm

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7

GetThaTComish

New Member
6
Hi so I am currently in a Franchise contract till June and im in the process of selling out early.I am also in a partner ship for this one location. We will be doing our own thing after the sale so I have really been thinking about state farm but I would also really like to go independent.

If I go Independent:
I can have many carriers. If the price changes from an up rate, I could always look for another company that would satisfy their needs.
I would like to learn commercial, life and health and try to build my book with that.
I have 7 yrs experience in P&C and do not know if I should just do all of these.
I have about 3-5 carriers that will give me appointments to start off but to offer more companies I would need to find a good agregator or cluster.
Marketing will be key.

If I go State Farm:

I will start out with a decent subsidy to get through the first couple years. I hear they also have a great training program. I would have an advantage on marketing due to them being around for years. But I am sure I would have to produce certain numbers and still be under corporate eye.

Either way I go I will need a great marketing plan along with a solid business plan.
Let me know any opinions or advice I thank you in advance
 
I'm not in P&C, but I'll respond to your post.

Figure out your marketing plan first, THEN find out which way would be better for you to go.

State Farm has a branding awareness advantage, not a "marketing" advantage. It'll still be up to you to figure out your marketing plan.

Keep in mind that State Farm is very protective of their brand, so their compliance department will be more strict than being an independent agent (obviously). Van Mueller talks about that in his training session to State Farm agents early last year.



BTW, if you go with State Farm, you'll be expected to produce life and annuity sales too. I know you said that you'd like to learn and build your book on that, but that's an optional endeavor as an independent agent, rather than a requirement as a State Farm agent.
 
With SF you won’t get your full contract unless you please your sales leader with life insirance and financial services that are not conpetitive. Honestly you will manage SF’s book of business instead of owning your own. I was an eligible State Farm agent applicant and decided to go independent for this reason. Forget commercial with SF. I get lots of referral business right now for commercial because the agent can’t write it. Go independent with a master agency. I used SIAA and feel like I made a great choice.
 
I left SF in California to go independent. You see many agents leave captive p&c to go indi, but very rarely the other way around.

Don't do it. Stay indi. I've been there, and I left for a reason. For every one reason you can give me to go captive, I can give you two or three big ones to go indi.

If you really want, pm me or call me. I can tell you the horror story about what happened to me, and now what is happening at SF. I have close relationships with a couple of agents, and am fairly "in the loop".
 

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