Affordable Insurance Plans, insurance coverage, health insurance quotes

Preferably I would love answers from people currently in the field.
Some concerns:
Is the pay really as good as they make it seem? ("unlimited"- based on commission)
Is the competition really hard?
What kind of skills do you need to succeed in sales work?
What advice would you give someone thinking about working in the field with no previous knowledge of it?
Questions for company/interviewer.
Correction: The correct position is health insurance sales agent

yeah, well, "unlimited" is true, but 95% of insurance sales people wash out in the first year. The AVERAGE of someone who ‘makes it’ is about $50,000. There’s no limit, though.

It’s hard. YOu’ll be putting in 60 to 80 hour workweeks at first. Yes, there’s a TON of competion. Especially for business accounts. The more the account is worth, the harder it is to get in the door to even quote, and the more agents there are out there ALSO trying to get in the door and quote.

What do you need to succeed at sales? Excellent communication skills. Perserverence, and a thick skin.

Training requirements, educational requirements, and if a company is offering base plus commission what should the base average be? I am really interested in this position, but I do not want to be taken advantage of. Help me please!

Generally, you need to be licensed in your state. That is unusual that you would earn a salary on top of commissions. That means one of the two might be lower than average. Go to www.salary.com. Typically, insurance agents/reps are paid on commission, which makes the income potential ‘unlimited’. Do your research on the companies, though, and don’t forget to ask them questions about attrition.

Training requirements, educational requirements, and if a company is offering base plus commission what should the base average be? I am really interested in this position, but I do not want to be taken advantage of. Help me please!

Generally, you need to be licensed in your state. That is unusual that you would earn a salary on top of commissions. That means one of the two might be lower than average. Go to www.salary.com. Typically, insurance agents/reps are paid on commission, which makes the income potential ‘unlimited’. Do your research on the companies, though, and don’t forget to ask them questions about attrition.

Is this a good idea? I had only one claim in more than 10 years and I am having trouble. Should I change and get my insurance directly from the company of my choice?

I would when you have a problem and you use a broker its really hard to talk to someone..they tend to pass you back and forth

Hi,
I am planning to experiment with a bit of a digress in my career path. I am a chemical engineer and working since the past 16 months. I do not enjoy my work a whole lot and plus I am always seeking out ways to make more money and achieve finanical security.

I decided to try perhaps studying for an insruance broker and maybe learning autoplan insurance skills and at a later point perhaps owning my own autoplan agency.

Is there much scope for such brokeaages and would such a career diverstion be helpful and productive.

thanks

Well, limiting yourself to auto would be a drawback. If you want to do insurance, I would NOT limit myself to just auto. I DO think brokerages are a good thing.

HOWEVER. The personality of a chem en, in my opinion, and a successful insurance salesperson, are LIGHT YEARS apart. So I’d have seriousl doubts about how well that career would fit you.

I’m about to get a car, and i’m thinking about car insurance. The thing is, I don’t know whether should i go to an insurance broker, or just shop around doing all these web quotes and find the cheapest out there and call them directly. Should i just do this or should i contact an insurance broker? What are the pros and cons of dealing w/ insurance broker? thanks

With all due respect to Bundysmom (who is normally dead on with claim/accident answers) I believe you are better off going through a broker.

If you deal direct with a company or one of their "captive agents" (an agent who only reps 1 insurance company) you end up with no comparison shopping at all. I can’t agree with that on any level. Auto insurance is a product like anything else and most people try to get the best value for everything they purchase and insurance should be the same way.

A broker or independent agent will be able to give you quotes from many different companies showing the difference in prices.

Sure some brokers are idiots and crooks but so are captive agents. The best advice I can give you is to go to an agent that is recommended by a relative or friend.

My agent is the daughter of the agent my father used, so I had a great recommendation about the agent and I would never consider buying direct off the internet. I get good service and advice and she does a great job of checking with me to see if I NEED additional coverages. A captive agent can do that for you also but without the ability to provide comparison prices.

Try to avoid buying direct online without an agent unless you are knowledgeable about insurance coverages. Last week there was a person on this site who bought a policy online but didn’t do it correctly and had an accident and found out the hard way that they did not purchase collision coverage so now they have car payments on what has become a giant paperweight.

Be careful and good luck.

I have weekends and some nights free every week. I work pretty efficiently, and I’m thinking about getting into the mortgage, loan origination, or insurance brokerage industries on the side. Has anybody done this? Is it possible? Any resources you would suggest? I’m really competent with the internet and building websites, and I have a large local audience that I can advertise to. If not, are there any other jobs to think about?

Maybe an insurance broker. In case you have not noticed, there are thousands of unemployed mortgage brokers and loan originators looking for work. And the ones still working are hard up for sales because of the lending standards going back to normal. Making easy money doing those things is history now.

I have a property/casualty license in NY but I don’t want to work for an agency because I want to sell multiple lines of insurance and represent the client.

Brokers have agencies, too.

It’s very easy to get the job, if you’re willing to split the commission. No salary, of course.

Can you please suggest auto insurance broker in Tacoma WA as we don’t like progressive which is our current insurer.
We want to get some quotes from reliable insurance broker and have insurance from them.

Try this site

http://yourfinance.co.cc/Insurance.html

here you can compare quotes from different companies.

I have found a health insurance broker…how do I tell if they are any good? I can’t find too much information on them on the internet, but I did check them out on the department of insurance for California.

You can’t really tell. There’s no agency that keeps track of that, or even that rates what’s good or what’s bad.

If they spend time with you, return your calls promptly, and explain the coverages, they’re good.