In one of this week’s more popular new threads on the Forum, a captive for a general agency in Georgia is satisfied with his health insurance commissions, but extremely unhappy with having to split commissions with the GA on life insurance sales, which he generates all on his own.
The producer has MDRT qualification in his goals, and is more interested in life insurance sales than health insurance. Should he quit and go independent, try to rework the commission structure on life sales with the GA, stay but write the outside life insurance business through an IMO, or stay put and focus on health insurance sales the agency is geared toward?
A situation like this has all sorts of considerations. Overhead costs, E&O, dual contracting, and the fact that because he has assigned the commissions, if he leaves the renewals stay with the GA.
Forum members are asking more questions and providing all sorts of advice.
If MDRT is his goal, perhaps he should go to one of the big mutuals that produce lots of MDRT qualifiers. Go independent and find a good IMO. Find a different captive agency with a comp/bonus plan for good life sales. Keep the existing contracts and then dual contract through an IMO for life products.
“I’m working TOO HARD trying to drum up business and have half my damn commission taken away AND not even be able to keep the renewals once I leave,” the original poster says in a subsequent post. “Basically I’m only sticking around because Medicare and obummy open season is right around the corner, so I’ll be able to make easy easy easy money then, which is a good crutch for a new agent struggling to pay bills. However, my mindset is on life insurance and the financial services, so this is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
Some Forum members say this requires some real soul-searching.
“The first thing you need to do is review your current contract. It might not say in the contract that you are required to run all of your business through this guy…. if not, then just get your own E&O and contract through an IMO,” says one post. “But if you are required to run it all through the agency, then you need to decide on what direction is best…
1. Indy Agent paying for all overhead (office, supplies, E&O, etc.), but getting full comp on life sales
2. Health Agent who is captive under your current agencies arrangement, who does some life on the side.
Or, go out and find a new agency in your town to work under who has a better comp setup.”
What would you do in this situation? Chime in on this thread on the Forum here.
