You May Have Noticed A Lotta Insurance Agents Have Gray Hair

The biz magazines for the insurance field have been bemoaning the fact that there are so few younger people entering the insurance agent or broker field. One magazine alone had stories about this in both the September 2007 and the July 2008 issues. One cover says “young brokers have just vanished”. Can it really be that the insurance agent will go the way of the buggy-whip maker?

The average age of insurance agents continues to climb -- currently it is 57. Sometimes it seems like the only younger people getting into it are the sons and daughters of current agents. It doesn’t help that most companies take a sink-or-swim approach to developing new agents -- here, kid, you passed your company’s 5-day training session, now get out there and find your own customers and sell, sell, sell. Young people with college debts to repay just cannot go weeks without a sale and commission.

My Suggestions: Possibly it would be better if the industry adopted an internship or mentorship model of bringing up new associates. And teaching agents how to develop a business plan is an absolute must. But you have to admit, there are few businesses where a kid right out of college COULD get in with a Fortune 500 company with little start-up cost or investment. Insurance is just about the only one there is nowadays.

Insurance is in my view an intensely personal transaction. The best agents really LIKE people and want them to do well, and want them to avoid losing everything they’ve worked so hard for. There is no way to accurately assess the real needs of a visitor/caller to one’s office (or website) or get down to the bare facts in a cold call. Many Americans are under the impression that all insurance is alike, really, that you can compare prices on the internet and that’s all there is to it.
NOT!

In an era when tons of information and data are at your fingertips on the web, I feel that today’s customers are LESS informed about insurance in general and about the advantages of different kinds of insurance in particular.

I could write a book about general misinformation about Life or Health Insurance -- and who knows, maybe one day I will. I have met people informally online or whatever who think that because they are perfectly healthy now, they do not need health insurance and should not be forced to buy it. They do not seem to understand that once they get a serious health condition that they will have a hard time qualifying for ANY health insurance, at ANY price! And the worst part is that they do not know that insurance products vary from state to state according to what that state’s insurance commissioner will allow to be sold there! It can be very frustrating for me as an agent when my company does not offer a desired rider (such as return-of-premium) in that state.

Also I have had frustrating sessions trying to explain how insurance works to people who don’t want to listen after more than 30 seconds because they think that you are just trying to sell something they don’t need. They have a mental block when I try to tell them that a responsible agent will spend plenty of time trying to find out what you DO need so that you do not waste your insurance dollars. A responsible agent will take all the time necessary to explain what your options are, what any provisions mean, the advantages and disadvantages of a type of policy, and to answer any questions you have.

And you need to do your part, too, by doing a bit of homework (my site is a good place to start, as are the Komen Foundation, Health Symphony, and the industry NAIC site). Find out the different kinds of policies and ask the agent what kinds of riders are available in your state.

Then call up a few local offices, (or visit websites) and ask for assistance on whatever concerns you have. You can tell an agent to stop bothering you if he or she is pressing you to buy before even explaining the policy. YOU have to speak up for YOUR needs. Now get at it.