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New to this business? Before you sign anything, read:
1) Never sign contracting papers that you can't take home and read over. Some agencies will sit you at a table and sign 30 pages of stuff that you obviously don't have a chance to read over. Just tell them that you need to bring the paperwork home so you can read over it carefully. If you hit a lot of resistance that's basically everything you need to know.
2) Do not pay fees to join any agency. The only fees you should incur are licensing and appointment fees. If anyone is asking for money beyond that run, don't walk to your nearest exit. Ask any agency if you have to pay interest on either advances or debt.
3) Always ask what the commission schedule is. An agency may state that your commission on a certain product is 55%. Ok, is only 60% available and that's a fair deal or is 100% available and that's a horrible deal? Any ethical manager or agency owner will tell you the entire commission schedule.
4) Stay away from signing on with agencies that only talk about money and how rich you'll get. Are they talking about agents making $10K, 20K a week? Agents making $300,000 or $500,000 a year? These are generally "turn it and burnt it" outfits.
5) Do you own your book of business? Always ask before signing anything. If you don't that might be fine, but you should know before going into the deal.
6) What happens if you quit? Can you transfer your appointments to another agency? In a lot of cases you cannot move your appointment or if you do a six month period of time has to pass where no business is written. That could have drastic implications on your career.
Example: You sign on with "John Doe Agency" to sell the products of "ABC Insurance." You come to find that the John Doe Agency is simply horrible so you quit. But now you come to find that you cannot move your appointment with ABC Insurance to another agency, and you're dead in the water. This needs to be discussed before signing anything.
1) Never sign contracting papers that you can't take home and read over. Some agencies will sit you at a table and sign 30 pages of stuff that you obviously don't have a chance to read over. Just tell them that you need to bring the paperwork home so you can read over it carefully. If you hit a lot of resistance that's basically everything you need to know.
2) Do not pay fees to join any agency. The only fees you should incur are licensing and appointment fees. If anyone is asking for money beyond that run, don't walk to your nearest exit. Ask any agency if you have to pay interest on either advances or debt.
3) Always ask what the commission schedule is. An agency may state that your commission on a certain product is 55%. Ok, is only 60% available and that's a fair deal or is 100% available and that's a horrible deal? Any ethical manager or agency owner will tell you the entire commission schedule.
4) Stay away from signing on with agencies that only talk about money and how rich you'll get. Are they talking about agents making $10K, 20K a week? Agents making $300,000 or $500,000 a year? These are generally "turn it and burnt it" outfits.
5) Do you own your book of business? Always ask before signing anything. If you don't that might be fine, but you should know before going into the deal.
6) What happens if you quit? Can you transfer your appointments to another agency? In a lot of cases you cannot move your appointment or if you do a six month period of time has to pass where no business is written. That could have drastic implications on your career.
Example: You sign on with "John Doe Agency" to sell the products of "ABC Insurance." You come to find that the John Doe Agency is simply horrible so you quit. But now you come to find that you cannot move your appointment with ABC Insurance to another agency, and you're dead in the water. This needs to be discussed before signing anything.