This is HARD

[Chazm]

So I'm getting the sense that a lot of this stuff is kind of just figuring it out on your own. That's cool I guess, but I just hate wasting time.

My biggest fear is 1 year from now thinking, "Man I wished I had gone with XYZ instead of this other place..."

I started with great American senior benefits back in February ‘09. I spent a year there and I completely sucked.
When I left there, I told the guy who trained me that we could make more on our own. So he left shortly after I did. He was a great trainer and his info was invaluable.

Great American, I can’t recommend. But I lucked out and after 3 locations, I found a good trainer. If I didn’t start at GA, I may have not made it in the biz.

I don’t feel like I wasted a year there because of him.

 

[DHK]

Thinking of your future after you leave whatever captive agency you're in now is what happens to all the business on the books. Do they go with you or are you starting from scratch when you decide to go out on your own and be independent?

Depends on the contract & company. Good question to ask though.

However, if you cannot survive and thrive at the career agency, then letting whatever renewals you have go (as well as any other employee benefits)... is simply another cost of making that decision.

But if you were Mehdi Fakharzadeh, who has spent probably 50+ years at MetLife, and has been one of their top producers for DECADES... you probably have no reason to leave. (Rumor has it that he gave up a $700,000 per year pension... to keep selling.)

You usually leave because you're NOT producing well. And if you're going to create your own systems and/or buy your own training from 3rd parties... what do you need to pay a manager for out of your production? Might as well do it yourself, because you'd have to.

 

[Paul Herman]

Chad, I'm entering my 30th year as a financial professional. The profession has made me wealthy to be sure, but the greatest satisfaction is the help and advice I've been able to share with my thousands of clients and to new industry people like yourself. No matter the company you choose, you need to bring 2 things to the table to succeed; 1) Your burning desire to learn the career and keep advancing your knowledge. So take your company's training program seriously. Get your securities licenses as soon as you can. Set your goal for MDRT-level success. Enroll in The American College courses and earn your CFP designation. This might take a few years but it's paramount to building a credible, serious practice. 2) Develop a sales and relationship-building aptitude. Most of the new advisors I've seen that failed didn't do so because they didn't work hard enough or weren't smart enough. They failed because they ran out of prospects. They focused so hard on "selling" that they never learned to network and build relationships. So you need to get involved in EVERYTHING you can that will let you meet with and network with other people. Read Knock-out Networking by Michael Goldberg, and check out his YouTube videos. It's a great place to start. Learn to gather referrals. Volunteer your time to improve your community. Be seen and known as a leader. All these things create "attraction gravity" that brings others to want to work with you. When I look back it's really all about organized common sense, and becoming the advisor that YOU would want to hire.

 

[DHK]

This story goes right along with Paul's post:

Would you hire a 24-year-old financial adviser?

 

[Rob Lion]

You wanna see hard, try working for bankers life and casualty. You’ll be selling a highly over priced colonial penn med supps and then you get the opportunity to lie to every client of why they need to buy it over the dozens of other better offers.

I second this. I currently am in the process of leaving Bankers and going independent, every morning at 8:30 we have a meeting except on Wednesdays its about an hour and they don't talk about anything at all its like wolf of wall street where Jordan gives a motivational speech but instead its horrible and you're broke. Colonial Penns med supps are about 50 dollars more than the competitive carriers and you just have to pray the 100s of people you cold call or door knock have no idea about medicare and have no want to look any of it. I've lost every client to cigna.

 

[Life Hawk]

I second this. I currently am in the process of leaving Bankers and going independent, every morning at 8:30 we have a meeting except on Wednesdays its about an hour and they don't talk about anything at all its like wolf of wall street where Jordan gives a motivational speech but instead its horrible and you're broke. Colonial Penns med supps are about 50 dollars more than the competitive carriers and you just have to pray the 100s of people you cold call or door knock have no idea about medicare and have no want to look any of it. I've lost every client to cigna.

You need to move asap! Make sure of one very important piece... keep all of the valuable information on your clients you have made... that is gold. Don't loose it.

 

[Rob Lion]

You need to move asap! Make sure of one very important piece... keep all of the valuable information on your clients you have made... that is gold. Don't loose it.

Not saying I've already printed and stored info on every client my manager has wrote FE to or just about every viable lead in there system but i may have.

 

[Life Hawk]

Not saying I've already printed and stored info on every client my manager has wrote FE to or just about every viable lead in there system but i may have.

 

[goillini52]

Not saying I've already printed and stored info on every client my manager has wrote FE to or just about every viable lead in there system but i may have.

He's saying to take the info on YOUR clients with you.

Do you think you can raid the branch's files without getting caught? If so, go for it.

 

[Rob Lion]

He's saying to take the info on YOUR clients with you.

Do you think you can raid the branch's files without getting caught? If so, go for it.

why not take everything you can haha. i can offer better products elsewhere