Anyone working in the Insurance Industry??

25 years plus. Company for 9, broker for 16. Specialty is construction/surety. What do you want to know?

 

I am a Broker in the Oakland area as well. Started as a life agent, moved into Health Insurance, worked for Foundation Health until sold to HealthNet, joined and Agency 8 years ago. I went from a hobby, to a job, to an actual career.

I am more of a generalist one stop shop convienance, but have a few specialty markets including Construction / Surety, Restaurants, and Lessors Risk. As a producer we sell P&C, Benefits, as well as Personal Lines.

Remember the grass is not alway's greener on the other side of the road. I took abouy a 70% pay cut when I moved into a Broker position. I was in a position to fund this over a few years until my commisions caught up to my expenses. When making any changes make sure you consider everything before making the change.

Regards,
Glenn

 

Forget about making enough money in the insurance business to afford a new F-car unless you become a producer. Sales and/or ownership of your own agency are the only two positions that will ever allow you to make big money. Unless you have a knack for sales or you literally have hundreds of relatives, every dollar is hard earned.

 

In your business I am guessing you are making about 2k a month. You may not even be getting paid on renewal business. As a Producer or Broker, depending on Agency you are compensated on both new and renewal business. Would you rather get a 15% comm on a $1000 auto premium or would you like a 15% comm on a $500,000 General Liability Premium. I actually choose both. There are ups and downs to both, but clearly there is more comm. $ on Commercial when compared on a per client basis. Surplus lines v/s standard lines - yes I prefer standard line business, but I also have a very large block of contractors.

All this being said, I have had a mid 6 figure income now for about 15 years. My work schedule is flexible since I have a great support team including 1 receptionist, 1 marketing/underwriter, and 7 CSR's. I have friends that have a 7 figure income as well, but work much harder than I do and travel all over the Country. It is all about what you are after. Is it the money or the freedom that comes to a successful producer? maybe a little of both? I have a friend that specializes in one area and is very successful financially however since he is working in the surplus lines area when he loses a market he is running the risk of losing many clients. The stress of this may eventually kill him even though he makes over 2 mil a year.

Remember one thing, the more you make the more you spend. We are all simply broke on a different level.

 

I'm glad to hear you are in the 6 figure range - that just shows you have good ethics and that is important. Keep in mind the average Insurance Broker makes about 65,000 a year, so you have already surpassed this.

In your area of the Industry it sounds like it takes more time to make money which makes sense based on the premiums you are working with. I can maintain my client base as well as grow by about 2 insured's a month while working no more than 25 hrs a week. If I want to make more $ or grow my business that extra time is devoted to prospecting and following up on a tickler list. At best I may work a 40 hour week - however 2-3 of these days are telecomuting from home. I live in Vacaville, while our office is in Oakland.

Whenever I am frustrated or burned out I am reminded by friends from other Industries how good I have it.

Getting starting on our side as a broker can be difficult since you do not have a block of business to begin with. It will make it almost impossible to secure the markets needed. Even though we have 7 Producers in our office it still prooved dificult to maintain all the markets we needed to remain competetive in all departments. We joined UVIS (United Valley Insurance Services) a few years back. This enabled us to reuly do the right thing for each of our insured's every time! I would reccomend you find an Agency or come talk to us for that matter, instead of trying to start up on your own. An Agency like ours has multipe owners and also provides security to both owners and producers with a win win contract for all. Most established agencies also have a plan for perpetuation with Producers, as is the case for our Agency.

If you would like to pick my brain further, feel free to IM me and we can talk on the phone.

Glenn

 

I have an awesome guy you can talk to. He has been at it for a few years now, and is a HUGE producer. I reccomend him, as he is probibally one of the better insurance agents I know. I am sure he would be up to the task of helping you out on your own path. He owns his own agency, and doesn't do too bad for himself. I know ErnieGT reccomends him, and I use him as well. His name is Gil, and his office # is (916)983-8808. He gets calls from other people who are trying to get into the insurance field, and he usually gives them pretty good advice.

Also, DAK, do you work with residential upgrades, such as those involving multi-unit upgrades?? I need to find someone who can write those now, as they are becoming a specialized area. Can you assist me?

 

Are you talking about OCIP's/Wrap-Ups? Yes. That's one of my specialties. A lot of brokers think that they know how to do these, but how they are administered makes all the difference. We are one of the few firms that are approved to administer them in-house. PM me.

 

I too have done wraps and yes the administration is important. The carrier choice is also important. I am convinced this is an area of Insurance that can make plenty of $ but also carries a high amount of risk for the insured. I am pretty convinced that almost every condo project will be sued before the 10 years is up. That is at least until the laws are changed limiting laywers from chasing these as well as limiting how much they can charge a homeowner.

Glenn

 

They need a general liability cetificate...

However most carriers don't want to write their business because of the "Montrose Law". I dont know if this is something that you deal with, but if you do, I will PM you. I will PM you with my info.