I Am Thinking About Becoming Allstate Agent
- Thread starter Usfbulls25
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insurancemansam
Expert
- 80
Anyone considering being a direct writer has no confidence in themselves.
Bill,
I have been reading the forum for a little while now and finally decided to post. We are an independent brokerage office. We have had 2 former All State agents join our office. They could not believe how much lower their clients renewals are now. He made the comment that he can sell half as much premium and make more commission. That is after we take our fee. I can't speak as to the pros or cons of being an All State agent, but the 2 that joined our brokerage did not have many good things to say at all.
I have been reading the forum for a little while now and finally decided to post. We are an independent brokerage office. We have had 2 former All State agents join our office. They could not believe how much lower their clients renewals are now. He made the comment that he can sell half as much premium and make more commission. That is after we take our fee. I can't speak as to the pros or cons of being an All State agent, but the 2 that joined our brokerage did not have many good things to say at all.
- 561
If I got a hundred bucks every time I heard something good about AllState I'd be broke...
I understand that since I am new here and this is my first post you would be suspicious of my post. I have been on enough forums to realize that when I posted. I will do what I can to clear it up, however I am not free to give additional info about myself since I am still presently employed elsewhere.
I did a lot of research, talked to just under a dozen present Allstate Agents, and just do not find the problems that I hear many talk about. My feeling is that there are so many more like me that will buy up these agencies, complain all you want. I am presently in negotiations for the purchase of an Allstate Agency but have never been employed with them before.
Not one of any present agents had anything bad to say about Allstate. Two former agents I spoke to both regreted selling their agencies. Yes I am talking EA not IA. The simple fact is, is that guys had it good for so long they didn't want to change. Well Allstate is continuing to move forward, jump on the bandwagon or get off. I am looking at a book with premium over 3 mill and will pay a bundle for it. I am young and aggressive and will hopefully double it in a matter of a few years. If I am wrong and Allstate truly does suck, hopefully I can sell and get out. Huge advantage that others seem to always skip.....I can sell.
But I am still willing to hear actual facts not rumors, and will change my mind if I need to. I really do not want to waste my time on a bad decision, if this is one. But you have to realize you are telling me, after I have done research and made a decision, no don't do it....i heard.....Thats like someone telling you, on the day of your wedding, no don't marry her. I cant tell you why, just run. You either run and leave her standing there or you think in the back of your mind for the rest of your life "what was he talking about".
Now that I put everyone to sleep and killed the thread...
Have you talked to any agents who have purchased books of business within the last five years?
I really did not want to hijack this thread. I am taking it that all you guys are IA's. If I could be there I would. I am going through the natural progression of things, just like you guys probably did. (how did you start?) Its easy to say now, yeah, be an IA. Yea right! Start from scratch, are you kidding me? I have done that (and sold it) and I am not doing it again. Maybe in 10 years I go Independant, (with a book) that would be great. But at this point I am not spending half a million bucks to start from scratch. You guys just forget what it is like before you are an IA.
The financing is pretty easy, buy the book, instant cash flow bringing in 350k before expenses and I go from there. I could do nothing and bring home 100k in the first year.
Like I said, I will listen if you have alternatives. For me, at this point, it works for me. I have to add that my wife would never let me start a scratch agency. She wants guarateed income from day one.
Oh, and......there is a reason Allstate is one of the largest Insurance Companies in the US. Next your going to tell me that Campbells does not know how to make soup!
The financing is pretty easy, buy the book, instant cash flow bringing in 350k before expenses and I go from there. I could do nothing and bring home 100k in the first year.
Like I said, I will listen if you have alternatives. For me, at this point, it works for me. I have to add that my wife would never let me start a scratch agency. She wants guarateed income from day one.
Oh, and......there is a reason Allstate is one of the largest Insurance Companies in the US. Next your going to tell me that Campbells does not know how to make soup!
Yes, no problems, but maybe they left already and I missed them or maybe this area is fine. The issues or complaints could be regional. The guy I am buying from is not to happy thats why he is selling. But I know why and its ok with me.
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I like to chime in on some important facts that people seem to over look...I am neither pro nor against going allstate as a captive (well maybe a little against) I'm from Florida and currently captive in Texas with one of the two big captive agency group...I'm not allstate so you can guess which.
In my quest to return home to the great depression of insurance which is Florida and leave the calm warm waters of insurance growth in Texas, I can say that what depends of the overall success of a captive agent has to do with the market he is entering.
Since my carrier is not putting agents in Florida, I looked at being an Allstate agent in Florida to which just like anyone else I also spoke with half a dozen allstate agents...half of them were saying to run they were selling and getting out..."why would i leave texas to go to florida" the other half were semi optimistic of their sutation...saying yes its extremely tough here right now but I'm doing ok...I'm averaging 75k-100k a month, struggling to make it but hey I'm doing ok..."the half that was optimistic all but one told me if they were me they'd go indy" the one that didnt go with the closed carrier was happy he went with allstate instead. (probably lesser of two evils)
to get a control group I asked a few of the agents here in my zone (allstate agents) how they were doing...out of the ones I asked they were doing well (I would hope so I lose customers to them on pricing all the time) one of them was about to open his 5th satellite office and is at 20million in premium in 7 years of agency.
Would i be an allstate agent in this zone? probably. But knowning what i know now...if allstate is doing well in this zone...indy's must be doing exponentially better if their smart and know how to bring in the households.
now here are some facts. state farm's default compensation is 8% auto 8% fire..you get a default rate of 10% for the first 2 years of being an agent after that it's up to your GROWTH of PIF's to maintain it at 10% or even get it to 11% but it's designed to be difficult and the majority of SF agents are operating at 8% (8% is the floor)
If Allstate is thinking of going to that same method...the whole industry is in trouble because I would think independant carriers may follow suit...but in either case I would RUN.
one caveat to this is that SF part of the determination of your variable compensation is based on financial services....allstate is less dependant on financiial services (although they push life sales) so it may not be as hard to maintain the rate...I doubt they will go down to a 4% floor...I truly see them matching Sf's default at 8%
Good Luck to you,
In my quest to return home to the great depression of insurance which is Florida and leave the calm warm waters of insurance growth in Texas, I can say that what depends of the overall success of a captive agent has to do with the market he is entering.
Since my carrier is not putting agents in Florida, I looked at being an Allstate agent in Florida to which just like anyone else I also spoke with half a dozen allstate agents...half of them were saying to run they were selling and getting out..."why would i leave texas to go to florida" the other half were semi optimistic of their sutation...saying yes its extremely tough here right now but I'm doing ok...I'm averaging 75k-100k a month, struggling to make it but hey I'm doing ok..."the half that was optimistic all but one told me if they were me they'd go indy" the one that didnt go with the closed carrier was happy he went with allstate instead. (probably lesser of two evils)
to get a control group I asked a few of the agents here in my zone (allstate agents) how they were doing...out of the ones I asked they were doing well (I would hope so I lose customers to them on pricing all the time) one of them was about to open his 5th satellite office and is at 20million in premium in 7 years of agency.
Would i be an allstate agent in this zone? probably. But knowning what i know now...if allstate is doing well in this zone...indy's must be doing exponentially better if their smart and know how to bring in the households.
now here are some facts. state farm's default compensation is 8% auto 8% fire..you get a default rate of 10% for the first 2 years of being an agent after that it's up to your GROWTH of PIF's to maintain it at 10% or even get it to 11% but it's designed to be difficult and the majority of SF agents are operating at 8% (8% is the floor)
If Allstate is thinking of going to that same method...the whole industry is in trouble because I would think independant carriers may follow suit...but in either case I would RUN.
one caveat to this is that SF part of the determination of your variable compensation is based on financial services....allstate is less dependant on financiial services (although they push life sales) so it may not be as hard to maintain the rate...I doubt they will go down to a 4% floor...I truly see them matching Sf's default at 8%
Good Luck to you,
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What am I not understanding about the bold color statement above?
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