Upside
- Easy Entry into the career. Companies offer training before you start offering insurance services and products. State laws require licensing. In some states, like Illinois, require in person or webinar training for a set number of hours.
- Strong Earning Potential: Your income is based on your ability to develop relationship with insurance buyers. The more people you help, the more you earn. Most policies will have renewal commissions based on relenting clients. According to ziprecruiter.com , the average independent agent earns $72,458 (Dec 2023) in the United States with 15% earning more than 95,000 a year. Your earning are based on your efforts.
- Flexible Hours: Since you are responsible for your time management, you can schedule your work around what works best for your personal time. Many producers never miss their child’s event because of this ability. Parent-teacher conferences, games, performances can be planned time away from work.
- Having a Positive Impact: With the financial services that we offer, we can change the lives of clients or their family for the better. Your recommendation to the client would allow the family to stay in their home after the client’s death or their retirement was free of financial worries. Because of the personal relationships, agents become to insurance expert for the family and their friends. It can be a rewarding career.
- You select the companies you sell for: Because of the numbers of companies out there, you can select the ones you want to sell for. One company may have great annuities product but no so good life products while another company has great life products, but annuities to offer, you can sell for both.
Downside
- Earning are difficult to predict: Because this career is commission based, this can be a challenge in the first year or so. The key is to keep enough business in the pipeline.
- You are your own boss: When you are an employee, the company usually sets your hours, provides health insurance, retirement, and withholds taxes. Profits from that work go to the employer. Here you own the business and the profits are yours
- Limited Paid Time Off: Many agents make a extra effort weeks before to build up earnings prior to the taking the time off for vacation or other events.
- Dealing with Rejection: This is a hardest part of the job. It is all a game of numbers, even the best baseball player only gets 3 hits out of every 10 times at bat. Every no means, you are that much closer to a yes.