A Hot Job for Hard Times The Life

A Hot Job for Hard Times: The Life. Insurance Agent Team 9 Nicholas Saunders, Michelle Nguyen, Garrick Robertson S

Life Insurance Agents S Thousands are being added S Big companies planning to sign up more S Similar types of agents are switching (real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, bankers, lawyers)

Getting Started as an Agent S First years very difficult S Low Pay, almost all of it from commisions S Usually pay cut from former job S Lots of education S Many people after hired quit due to strain of job S All in All, it SUCKS!

WHY? ? ? S First, some background information

Background Information S 1950’s- Life insurance agents common S Door to door selling S 1980’s- families using proliferation of mutual funds and lower premiums S Less commission for agents

Continued Background S 1990’s- whole life still hard to sell S Gets even harder to sell due to a scandal hitting the industry

Scandal S Term life- protects set time interval S Whole life- protects until death S Insurers pay interest on whole life, buyers can get back $$$ S Expensive upgrades cheat buyers S Upgrades don’t cover cost of upgrades

Also S Lawsuits followed costing millions S Companies start requiring extra licensing from agents. S Forced agents to leave with policy

In Short S Scandal caused families to avoid whole life insurance S Life insurance agents get less commission S Companies employ less agents

Recovery of Whole Life S Didn’t have to worry about the Internet revolution that got rid of many agents for term life due to complexity S 12% growth in whole life in 2009 S Term life’s pitch “ Buy term and invest the difference. ” became “lose the difference” when the stock market crashed helping whole life as well

What does that say about the Present? S Economic slump S Term life insurance less secure S Whole life requires more agents to form policies S More agents hired