Am I Crazy for Considering a Move from Independent to Captive?

[F150]

you gotta be a little crazy to be in this business......

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You clearly answered your question. You are not motivated enough to succeed. You lack the drive to be successful. apparently you need the office space and supervisors to help you produce so you need your hand held. Why even go independent then. Stay at home and have mommy hold your hand

Sounds like a Farmers DM...

 

[Zoaty]

You clearly answered your question. You are not motivated enough to succeed. You lack the drive to be successful. apparently you need the office space and supervisors to help you produce so you need your hand held. Why even go independent then. Stay at home and have mommy hold your hand

I might be a newbie on this forum, but all I can say is that's just cruel. Perhaps there is a kinder way to offer your point? I mean sometimes a hard headed person needs a hit over the head with a log, but maybe try the softer approach first? Well I'm a new independent producer myself, so who knows - maybe I need to have mommy hold my hand too lol.. :-)

 

[plewi003]

MH I have 4 office in VA, and 1 is in Northern VA. You can contact me if you wish to discuss any opportunities. I am a Nationwide Ins Agent, but have the capability to broker based on size. So I guess the best of both worlds.

 

[DHK]

Motivation and discipline are two different things.

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Every once in a while I think of "going captive" again... but then I start to think about:
- the B/D hassles,
- having a manager with incompatible views,
- having every piece of correspondence reviewed before sending it,
- the lack of technological support,
- having to turn in all apps at the agency office,
- commuting to an agency office

and to top it all off...
- only earning 50% of what my independent contracts will pay me...

It quickly becomes clear to stay independent.

The only companies I could see myself going to at my stage in the business would be MassMutual or Guardian. But unless I could see how the total compensation package could compete with being independent... I won't bother.

Maybe one day I'll consider it again... but that won't be for a while.

 

[SingingSabre]

I honestly don't think you'd be happy going captive again, people rarely are. You'll see the exact same limitations in product offerings and flexibility.

Have you invested time in your own business development? I think actually going out, marketing, and developing your personal brand would be beneficial. Those things take a lot of time and there's often little immediate reward, but the captive companies have been doing that for years. That length of time branding and building systems is what your commissions pay for when you're captive.

Do you want to be independent or do you want to be captive? Do you thrive under goal oriented situations or do you work best with implementing systems? Do you work best alone or on a team? These questions alone aren't going to determine independence or captivity, but if you want to be independent and work best on a team, there are ways to partially bridge that.

The good news is that there's enough business out there for pretty much any company to get a good start. You just need to figure out how you can do it.

 

[xrac]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I even got a chuckle out of the 'Mommy hold your hand' comment from agencynew1. You might be a dick, but you have a point.

Because as all of you have said, if you put in an equal amount of effort into prospecting and your work as a Independent as you did as a captive, you should always make more money going the Indy route. (Especially well said liorselamb, TwiLight & NorwayGuy)

Going to use your advice as a springboard to get back at it. Still need to consider both captive possibilities because NYL is solid, garners instant credibility, said to have good training, etc..etc & Mutual gives you options to sell outside of company, and in my case said they'd love to sponsor me to try to get a securities license.

In perfect scenario, think I'd like to go about 1.5 - 2 months just going full tilt in terms of prospecting. If it still isn't working, yeah then it would be time to go captive. But know it's unlikely the same opportunities would be present.

Liorselamb, I live in DC, have a moderate amount of clients in city, but spend most of my time in MD & VA. Good area, and people can certainly afford Insurance, but in a very affluent market, a lot of people already have Insurance through work. Working on trying to tap in to the Federal marketplace, since Federal workers have insurance that both increases in premium and drops in coverage as they age.

Mh5918a, your response, common sense, and good humor speak well for you.

 

[joe90]

So here's the situation, and I thank you ahead of time for any advice you may give after reading my long-winded dilemma.

I've been doing Insurance for almost two years now. Started at that fine Insurance Institution known as Bankers Life.

Now, from reading these forums, and having lived it myself, there isn't much we need to say about Bankers. Suffice to say, it was an okay place to learn a bit about the industry, but once I really learned about how Bankers products and practices compared to everyone else, I knew I had to go.

So just over one year after staring at Bankers, I decided to go Independent.

As things currently stand, my product portfolio could really not be any better. But to say sales are flat would be an understatement. (As sad as it is, I sold more at Bankers.)

I realize now that I probably jumped the gun too soon. (Please offer any opinion on that, if you disagree.) I have read all sorts of posts here about going Independent after you have enough experience, and to be blunt, I do not believe I had enough.

However, in terms of making phone calls and overall prospecting, I know I haven't put nearly as much effort into it while an Indy, as I did when captive. No excuses for that at all, all I can honestly say is that a supervisor and office environment helped me focus as a captive, I spent less time focusing on product knowledge as a captive, because the product offering was more limited. Also had some leads as a captive, which weren't always great, but they were something.

Question is this, as someone still new in this career, would you recommend sucking it up and just getting better as an Independent, (Knowing that I will not have a more competitive product offering than the one I have now.) or does it sometimes make sense for a newer agent to return back to captive?

In terms of my possible options, have a second interview with New York Life and the hiring manager of Mutual of Omaha has told me even before our second interview, that he pretty much wants me to join.

Off the bat, think I'd be stronger at selling Mutual's product, but know NYL as a company and in terms of training is said to be very solid, and many employees have become lifers.

Let me know what you think, and thank you so much for any and all advice.

im way out of your realm, being based in the uk, but the only thing i would say is with regards to captive, - not all cages are the same...

scout out the firm and actually talk to people who have worked there. in this game its always good to build up contacts and take an active interest in how things are going for people you know. in captive it is so easy to do this, as you will invariably be knocking shoulders with people who have worked in x amount of different firms and will give you the inside track on how things are there. when you are working for yourself, its easy to neglect or simply not build up this resource. the internet is great for this, but having actual friends who have worked for different firms is gold dust, because they will give you the story, like no one else can, and set you up in so many ways, when it comes to different firms on the market.

 

[EugeneM]

I think you shouldn't lose the time you invested. Reverting would just make you unhappy now the you have had a taste of indy life.

It may have not been very successful but its not a total loss. You know a lot more then you did at day one and you gave it a shot. Give credit were it is deserved. As long as your not maxing credit cards to pay the bills I would keep at it. Either way its not going to be easy.

I would recommend connecting with another indy agent. All you need is a little self honesty and someone to hold you accountable. Just having someone else in the office to compete with makes a huge difference.

I obviously have no idea what your relationship with the wifey is but thats a good place if you need a swift kick in the A$$.