Own Your Own Insurance Business

To start an insurance agency you will need to decide on going independent or being a captive agency. Some of the best known captives include Farmers, State Farm and Allstate. Captives sell exclusively, or mostly, one brand of insurance. There are advantages and disadvantages of each so it is advisable to investigate both. Many states require an insurance company to sponsor your license application, so selecting a company is a good place to start. A property and casualty license is generally the minimum to start and allows you to sell auto and homeowners type policies (Laws vary by state). It is advisable to get additional licenses such as accident and health, and possibly investment type licenses (For example Series 6 and 63).

For either choice many agents work part time first to get licensing, training, experience, and begin building a client base. If you have your own business your income will probably be straight commission. Normally you are paid for the sale of each policy and again every time of renewal. In my area 20 to 30 policies per month is considered good for new agents. This might pay you $2,000 to $3,000 depending on the type of sales. After you pay your expenses the income can be quite small when starting. As your book of business increases your renewal income will greatly increase your income.

An option to building an agency from scratch is to buy an existing agency. Typically you will pay 2 or more times annual earnings. For example, if an agency has 1,000 policies that earn $100,000 annually in renewals, you will probably pay $200,000 or more. It is possible to finance an agencies purchase. This will generally require 10% or more for a down payment. SBA is the most common lender for this kind of loan. My company, Texas Capital Mortgage 281-537-7800, can help with business financing for Texas residents. (I have found that the mortgage business is a good compliment to the insurance business.)

Obviously you need a lot more information to start an agency. I suggest spending a lot of time researching the business before jumping in. Read some books about the business. The larger companies have district offices where they can tell you about employment with them. The agent you buy your insurance from may be willing to share his experience with you. There is also a lot of information available online. Insurance is a great business but dont underestimate the difficulty!

Glenn Lamb is a Farmers insurnce agent and owner of Lamb Insurance Agency, Auto, Home, Life, and Business Insurance for Texas http://Insurance-For-Texas.com/ Texas Capital Mortgage, http://texas-capital-mortgage.com/ Houston Auto Insurance http://houston-auto-insurance.com/

Insurance Sales Success - Build Life-Long Relationships

A foundation for insurance sales success is never built on one time sales. To have a highly successful career you must develop life-long relationships with your clients that lead to repeat business and referrals. You have to plan to make that happen from the beginning by being able to answer a few key questions that each person has on their mind.

Each person you reach out to always wonders why you are contacting them. You need a really good reason for why they are the kind of person you work with and the ultimate result youve helped others just like them to enjoy. Everyone has a, whats in it for me, filter through which all communications are judged. When you can communicate a powerful ultimate result you have a better opportunity to gain their attention.

The next thing they are thinking is, why are you the person who should help me with this. You must be able to communicate that you understand them and their needs. They need to know that youve helped people just like them, and that helping people like them is the focus of your business. When you can communicate why you are the person they should be talking to youve bought yourself a little more time. They understand why you because they understand that you have more to offer people like them than your competition.

A big challenge in insurance sales success is that your now isnt necessarily the customers now. The people who agree to meet with you are always asking themselves why they should take action now versus some other point in time. Until you can clearly communicate a value that exceeds the cost, later will always be a better choice. You cant communicate this value until you understand the implications and value of your proposition yourself. Then you must be able to communicate both the value and the time implications in a succinct manner that clearly helps the people you meet with to understand that now is a better choice for them.

When youve done all these things right youve started a relationship that has the potential to last a life-time. Dont drop the ball here though by thinking thats all you have to do. A life-long relationship requires maintenance on a regular basis. When you do all these things right your reward is repeat business and high quality referrals.

Would you like to learn more about your sales skills? Try this Sales Skills Analysis and find out where your opportunities for improvement are.

Do you have $1 to invest in your future? Give Coaching a Try.

Who Really is the Financial Advisor?

Most advisors are really just salespersons. Sometimes it's hard to tell, given all the titles used by brokers: financial adviser, financial consultant and financial planner, to name just a few.

Many of these sound quite similar to "investment adviser" but there's a big difference. Investment advisers, unlike brokers, have a fiduciary duty to their clients. That means they have a legal obligation to place the client's interests ahead of their own, and to clearly identify all sources of compensation, the amount of compensation and any potential conflicts of interest."

Brokers are paid by a formula that will increase as revenues increase. As an example, compensation of $100,000 of business will be more than compensation of $50,000 of new business. These are based on different percentages of the total compensation.

Some brokers become very aggressive at the end of the year in an attempt to move to the higher percentage and the products they will rely on the most are the ones with the highest fees and the highest commissions, such as variable annuities and mutual funds with loads.

Fee based accounts can allow clients to trade as frequently as they wish for a fee of usually 1% to 1.5% of the total assets. Depending on the activity in the account, many investors may be ahead allowing a charge for a trade than the fee on the held assets.

Separately managed accounts which can create a customized portfolio can come with unusually high fees. With these accounts, the broker charges a "wrap fee," with the broker's fee wrapped around the fee of the investment manager. And the broker's fee can often be more than the manager's fee, possible twice as much. It is not uncommon for these fees to be in excess of 3% of the total account value annually. The fee is deducted but not itemized so it is not possible to know how much of the total fee the broker is receiving.

Here are some definitions worth knowing:

A fee based financial planner can charge a fee and also earn a commission for executing their recommendations.

A fee only planner will only charge a fee and cannot earn a commission for products they advise.

Bill Broich is thirty year annuity salesman who helps agents generate leads and sales. To discover more visit his website: Annuity Leads

Car Insurance Uncovered

There are many ways in which you can make savings on your car insurance, the best, not to mention the quickest way to make sure you get the cheapest car insurance is to shop around for your insurance.

You can do this yourself by going online or by getting a specialist insurance broker to do the legwork for you.

Things to bear in mind include combining your car and home insurance. There are companies who can offer savings by you taking both policies together. Sometimes you can make savings of around 40% on your car insurance simply by combining the two.

The safety features that are installed on your car can help bring your premium down. Simply by having top notch alarms and window etchings, you can attract huge savings.

Your postcode can make all the difference between the price you are quoted for your premium as certain areas and their postcodes are deemed as high risk crime areas and as such you pose a greater risk just by living in an area such as this.

Younger drivers will normally pay a higher price for their car insurance, due to their inexperience on their road and statistics that say they are more likely to be involved in an accident.

Women drivers - despite the man jokes about their driving - are classed as safer drivers and there are specialist sites aimed particularly with these people in mind who can offer discounted premiums.

If there is more than one driver and two or more cars in the family then you can get a great deal on your insurance by taking a package for two or more drivers. This can save you a whole lot on your insurance, which of course benefits the whole family of drivers.

One mistake that the majority of people make is to stay with their insurance company year after year and not even consider changing. People who don't look around when it comes to renewing their insurance could be paying around 30% more than they should be for the same level of cover.

So when it comes to purchasing your car insurance don't become complacent! By putting a little time and effort in to shopping around - or getting your broker to do it for you can save you hundreds of pounds on your insurance.

David Thomson is Chief Executive of BestDealInsurance a completely independent specialist broker dedicated to providing their clients with the best insurance deal. They offer great value car insurance, home and life insurance, ensuring that their clients have the protection they need, without leaving a hole in their pocket.