expertise needed--serious advice

[jdip23]

hey everyone again,

i have spent the last couple weeks reading all your guys posts and they are great and provide so much info..so thanks for that. i just want to get some of your experienced opinions on what im thinking. i am completely new to the insurance business. i have been in the financial markets for about 8 years now. accordingly, i am licensed with my series 7, 63 and 55. the p&c tests should not be too hard right? as well, i will prob take the life and health exam as well, just to have the option. i want to focus on the property insurance though. anyway, im looking to start my own independent agency. i have numerous contacts and should be able to get appointments with aig, travelers, chubb to name a few. i want to invest about $150-200k in starting a new agency. get an office, hire a couple sales reps, advertise, and start from there. i really want to put all the time and effort required into getting this up and running. does anyone think its a stupid idea since i dont have the experience in the insurance industry? i know 3 or 4 other independent agency owners and have used them as resources for info as well, but i wanted to get your guys opinions.

i guess my real first step is getting licensed. it looks like i can do it online. anyone have any pros/cons of the online courses?

i really would love to hear all of your feedback. it seems to me that a lot of you give so much good honest advice and thats exactly what im looking for. let me know please!

 

[Sam]

I don't think it is impossible, but without experience, you will really be handicapped. I would say that 3 months of personal experience might be worth 100k in savings and or additional profit, just from what you will learn.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Absolutely. And six months in the field might be worth 150k savings...one year in the field...maybe priceless.

 

[sman]

hey everyone again,

i have spent the last couple weeks reading all your guys posts and they are great and provide so much info..so thanks for that. i just want to get some of your experienced opinions on what im thinking. i am completely new to the insurance business. i have been in the financial markets for about 8 years now. accordingly, i am licensed with my series 7, 63 and 55. the p&c tests should not be too hard right? as well, i will prob take the life and health exam as well, just to have the option. i want to focus on the property insurance though. anyway, im looking to start my own independent agency. i have numerous contacts and should be able to get appointments with aig, travelers, chubb to name a few. i want to invest about $150-200k in starting a new agency. get an office, hire a couple sales reps, advertise, and start from there. i really want to put all the time and effort required into getting this up and running. does anyone think its a stupid idea since i dont have the experience in the insurance industry? i know 3 or 4 other independent agency owners and have used them as resources for info as well, but i wanted to get your guys opinions.

i guess my real first step is getting licensed. it looks like i can do it online. anyone have any pros/cons of the online courses?

i really would love to hear all of your feedback. it seems to me that a lot of you give so much good honest advice and thats exactly what im looking for. let me know please!

I have to say that's a pretty lofty goal. I'd love to be able to develop an agency that handles all facets of the industry (P&C, Life & Health and Securities). I don't know of many P&C agents that can make the transition from making the home, auto or commercial sale to the other products. That's where a team comes into play. But everyone needs to know their part and how to hand-off to the other "expert". And to do that, they need to have a good understanding of those other "parts".

I was just talking to a friend the other day about the P&C business and how I think I could have a decent size P&C book just based on the referrals I've made to my personal P&C guy.

Allstate has been trying to do this for a while now and have had limited success. The older Allstate reps get sick and tired of being "required" to sell a certain amount of life insurance and get a certain amount of investment dollars.

It's really hard to be successful when you are trying to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. If you get a couple of experienced P&C folks to handle that side of the business, a life & health person and you focus on the securities side, it may work.

One last thought, you may want to consider purchasing an independent P&C business and keep the clerical staff on as employees. That's who the clients deal with the most anyway. That way you start with a book and can add the other services. Just a thought.

 

[jdip23]

hey thanks for the response. i appreciate it. my question to you is this...would you try and get the licenses, get appointments with companies to sell their product, and start from your home office, then after drumming up some business, then try an open an independent agency office? if it be 3, 6, 12 months so i can get some experience on my own without the out of pocket costs of starting an office.

or would you jump in with a bankroll of 150k, find office space, hire two different sales reps, and learn as i go while i manage the office and make sales myself. i want to give myself the best shot of making this happen. i know i can sell thats not an issue and i know i can run a business. i just dont have the experience in this industry.

i didnt want to make it seem like i wanted to be a jack of all trades. i think you are right, if i tried that route, i would need a couple sales reps with dedicated knowledge to certain lines.

i just dont know if i give myself the best shot by hiring a couple of people who have been selling for some time now. give them a decent salary and incentives and i can handle the running of the business aspect as well as learn the sales of insurance. or if i should just try to sell myself through the home office and see if i can get business on my own and move on from there.

 

[sman]

hey thanks for the response. i appreciate it. my question to you is this...would you try and get the licenses, get appointments with companies to sell their product, and start from your home office, then after drumming up some business, then try an open an independent agency office? if it be 3, 6, 12 months so i can get some experience on my own without the out of pocket costs of starting an office.

or would you jump in with a bankroll of 150k, find office space, hire two different sales reps, and learn as i go while i manage the office and make sales myself. i want to give myself the best shot of making this happen. i know i can sell thats not an issue and i know i can run a business. i just dont have the experience in this industry.

i didnt want to make it seem like i wanted to be a jack of all trades. i think you are right, if i tried that route, i would need a couple sales reps with dedicated knowledge to certain lines.

i just dont know if i give myself the best shot by hiring a couple of people who have been selling for some time now. give them a decent salary and incentives and i can handle the running of the business aspect as well as learn the sales of insurance. or if i should just try to sell myself through the home office and see if i can get business on my own and move on from there.

I could be wrong, but I thought most P&C carriers required you to have a retail location. Even if they didn't, I don't know that I'd try running a P&C business from my home. L&H and Securities can work that way (that's how I do it). I had a retail location and it really didn't do much other than give me something to spend $2k on each month.

If I were going to add P&C, I would find a fairly local agency willing to sell and just purchase it (assuming I had $200k to work with). But if you just start with L&H and Securities, working from home is fine.

 

[padthaiforlunch]

I decided against the P&C route because auto ins. is such a commodity and you'll always get undercut by someone. Clearly there is more to pnc than auto, but I think you start at a disadvantage to the nationals in branding and ad dollars.

Life and health just seems to have a lower barrier to entry.

 

[jdip23]

so if i go the route of doing this on my own, go with L&H and start from home seems to be your guys thoughts. see if i can gain some experience and build some type of book before trying anything else. the other option is I'm being recruited by two companies right now to open my own branch office. the upside to it is that there is a training program, they assist in different areas. commissions are about 10% so not too bad. obviously, there are cons as well since i will be tied into that one company's products and commercial insurance wont be much of an option since these agencies arent in the commercial market much. but it might provide me with the guidance, support and some training you are all recommending while still getting the opportunity to own the business myself and run the show. what you guys think? can i make just as much or close to it owning that type of agency rather then opening an independent one?

 

[arnguy]

Jdip23, are the CapsLock/Shift keys broken on your keyboard? Man, trying to read your posts is like reading James Joyce's Ulysses. Just a myriad of run on stream of consciousness sentences.
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[jdip23]

haha...i didnt know i needed to capitalize the beginning of each sentence for you to be able to follow. j/k. I'll try to be more formal with my capitalization.