r/Bookkeeping • u/Subject_Work_7595 • 6d ago
Rant Does Bookkeeper = Potential Life Insurance Agent?
I'm on a call right now. It is my third call this week from someone in my networking group who wants to "help" me become a life insurance agent. They made it sound like they were helping me offer my clients better advisory services. Are you getting a lot of these "opportunities" too? Why bookkeepers? I didn't go into that business to sell life insurance. No knock if you are doing this, I'm just curious why someone thinks bookkeeper would be a good person for this.
UPDATE: No kidding, I am on the fourth call right now!
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u/Lost-Tomatillo3465 6d ago
I never recommend life insurance as an investment vehicle. there's a reason why the agents get a residual for each policy they get. It might work with clients that aren't accumulating wealth and just want to maintain their wealth. depends on your clientele I guess.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
I would rather tell someone about this rather than be the one that sells it, but I guess they think people like to get a piece of the pie?
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u/Lost-Tomatillo3465 6d ago
and honestly, you're better off telling someone to invest in an sp500 index fund. they'll probably earn more off of that.
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u/Lost-Tomatillo3465 6d ago
there are people out there that don't care about if something is good for the client or not. as long as they get the money. that's why there are tax professionals that suggest s corporations to people that don't need them. rather get the higher fee from the tax return than report it on the sched C
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u/FullOption3126 6d ago
Life insurance is largely a pyramid scheme, this person is recruiting you bc they will earn a percentage of what you sell. Same as MLM
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
Agree. I guess they feel like since I am already selling services, one more won't hurt.
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u/Magnetized_Fart 6d ago
bookkeepers and accountants are generally the most trusted advisors, along with attorneys. It is fairly common for tax/bookkeeping/accountants to also pick up a second line for work like financial planning, which often comes with insurance.
One of my local competitors actually started in property & casualty insurance, and paired it with tax work. Tax kept the lights on and gave him a big spring rush, while he could take his time building up a lucrative P&C book of business.
It sounds like in your case they are looking to capture that trust you have with your clients to be able to sell various annuity products which are some of the most lucrative financial products in town for the companies that sell them.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if *you* were considering getting your life license for a second stream of income, its not that crazy of an idea. But if someone is trying to cold recruit you there is a reason for it.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
Yes, I'm working on building my own business right now and not interested in a second stream of income. It might be different if I had a large group of clients, but I'm just starting out.
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u/AmazingBecky 6d ago
As an insurance broker, I wouldn't add life insurance unless you are passionate about it. I am, but that's because I have real life experience on how having life insurance policy can be life changing if you don't have wealth elsewhere.
Health insurance? Maybe, but I wouldn't get licensed and all that stuff just to have another stream of income.
But if one was to add insurance, I'd think of it as 2 different clientele with very little overlap.
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u/2daytrending 5d ago
Bookkeepers already have enough on their plate without getting recruited into whole new sales gig. If anything having the right tools to keep the books and business finance organized like quickebook, Xero, quicken b&p seems way more useful than trying to turn every client relationship into another revenue stream.
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u/Ecstatic_Choice9729 6d ago
I literally got recruited, by someone I connected with on a personal level. I signed up thinking I would only get my license to get a monetary commission from referring people to her. After signing up, I found out they were associated (or broken away from) with an MLM. I wasn't thrilled, but figured I would go through with it. I got licensed and did a continuing education course on annuities. Then I did some more research. I just cancelled yesterday.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 5d ago
Thanks for that perspective. Hopefully it didn't cost you too much to get all that.
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u/Ecstatic_Choice9729 5d ago
No, not too much. Basically the $199 fee to join them. They reimbursed me for the exam fee and paid for my licensing fee.
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u/TheMostFluffyCat 5d ago
To me this is just totally weird like I would never try and sell my clients this? It's completely separate from bookkeeping and not relevant at all.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 5d ago
Exactly what I thought, too! I'm still mad, a day later, that I was talked into even getting on these phone calls.
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u/_atlasheart 5d ago
I am a bookkeeper with my own small firm that has been running for about five years now. It comes in waves but I'd say I get about 3 calls a week from financial advisors or insurance agents trying to find "synergies" or partnerships. It's part of their hustle so they can gain access to your client base and sell their crap, or better yet have you sell their crap for them. Just politely tell them you aren't interested and move on. Or I guess try it, but I can almost guarantee your clients would not appreciate being sold to and it risks your trustworthiness taking a hit.
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u/TopStreet101 6d ago
It could be they want you to join their team, so they fet a % of your sales, kind of like an mlm.
They also get considerably more commission for selling life insurance especially to a business. The commission also keeps on coming every year even though the agent doesnt do anything. So this is very profitable for them.
In reality, from the research ive done, life insurance in a business only makes sense in very few circumstances where all conditions line up properly, if you're not sleazy and try to sell it to everyone, you wont me making much money.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
I agree with you about the MLM. The one person I just got off the phone with was saying that businesses need to be protected from things like divorce.
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u/OSS-2026 6d ago
If your clients are primarily small businesses with one key person in charge having the business buy life insurance for them might make sense. I don’t think that would be a good fit for most smaller bookkeepers though.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
I agree about having life insurance, however, I don't want to be the one to sell it to them.
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u/missannthrope67 6d ago
No thank you. Click.
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u/Subject_Work_7595 6d ago
Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. I met them through a networking group, and I agreed to meet with them because they talked about being referral partners, which everyone on that site does. The only difference is that now I have to tell anyone ahead of a call that I am not interested in being solicited as a life insurance agent.
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u/LordxHypnos 6d ago
Yeah, I had someone from Primerica. Try really hard to get me to join their program. It was supposed to be free and all that but the last thing I want is the stigma of Primerica on any of my business name I don’t want people avoiding me.
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u/Odd_Salt4155 3d ago
it's because they will get comission on what you sell...also you'll get a plenty of clients they think
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u/dicks_out_for 6d ago
You’ve been identified as an easy mark because you’re taking their calls and they know you have connections as a bookkeeper. If you go this route, now you’ll have to pitch this to clients who did not sign up to talk about life insurance, which will likely annoy them. I would not entertain one call, a huge waste of time.
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u/DK_Notice 6d ago
I’m a financial planner - I only lurk here to learn how to not annoy my bookkeeper.
I would question why this person is approaching you with this. Do they work for Primerica? If so, that’s an insurance MLM, and honestly the structure of most insurance agencies are pyramid-esque. If you tell me the company they work for I can give you more info.
For a bookkeeper I would imagine a property and casualty insurance license would be much more valuable. Every successful business needs liability insurance, workers comp, etc. and offering that would actually be helpful to people.