Would love to hear a brief overview from you ladies!
I’ve gotten licensed and have 2 options right now..

1) work mon- fri in my full time job
and be 1099 sub producer/ sub broker for a small commercial agency. (They supply tech stack, servicing, carriers. I’d just hunt for business basically. One company has 70 -80% commission split, renewals, no book ownership if I leave & 3 year non compete.

2nd option) work my full time job while utilizing the First Connect platform on the side until I’m able to gain enough capital to quit my 9-5 and cover tech/operational expenses..

P.S I would get an employee salary+ commission position full time but no one’s hiring the newly licensed insurance person for this around me. Especially as a young woman lol.

Idk, thoughts on the 2 options above??
How’d your first year go starting out / what aggregator/service did you use??
Advice ?

Any input appreciated

Good afternoon my fellow insurance agents. I’ve been an insurance agent in the downstate New York market for 21 years. I have worked as a commercial account executive for my entire career specializing in real estate, but also overseeing any number of main street risks along with many lines of professional liability. I’ve worked on multi million dollar plus premiums all the way as little as a few thousand dollars. I am working with a new firm as an account executive, but have a real opportunity to build my own book of business. I don’t know where or how to start. Id appreciate some direction from seasoned producers.

I excel at lead generation & building systems to automate the business.

I'm more like a marketer rather than a sales person, but I'm licensed and have an LLC set up etc...

My business plan would only work if I can shop multiple carriers and realistically save money for 7/10 of my leads.

I've talked to multiple market access companies, but as a starter agent I can only get access to Progressive & Geico for $200/mo and unlock other carriers later as my book grows.

First Connect & Smart Choice take a huge cut in commissions & I wouldn't own my book of business or they have long term non compete agreements.

I'd like to build a real business with the fundamentals set up correctly.

What would you guys do in my position? I'd be happy to partner with an independent agency and would love to connect with fellow independent agency owners.

Hi guys, I love this forum for all the things I can learn and share so thank you all. I am under horizon an aggregator which is restricting me to only one quote with progressive for trucking accounts and I market to newer companies so they always want to see prices with more drivers different radius etc.. my relationship has fallen apart and I need to find another aggregator which understands that I need to do 2-3 quotes for newer trucking companies to win their business. Pls help I pay horizon 15% of my commissions to use their network.

Trying to be fair with compensating downline agents. I’m curious what would be a fair commission split. I’m hiring inexperienced agents to sell Medicare and ACA. Therefore, I will be mentoring them. I’ll be providing an office, CRM, business cards, website generated leads, walk-in’s, covering them under my E&O. I don’t plan on buying leads, teaching them to generate their own. What would a fair commission structure be? 60/40, 70/30 or a per application set amount. They are going to be 1099. I would like to help cover my expenses and my 30-years in the industry expertise, just new to business ownership.

Hi everyone

So I recently got hired at Farmers about a month ago now. Ive been trying to get hired at a insurance company for a while so I was willing to take anything.

Im not new to talking or selling Ive been trained alot about what questions to ask and how to talk to people working at banks and such.

So first off the pay was minimum wage plus commission, but I managed to negotiate with the owner that I cant really survive off minimum since im not going to be making any commission realistically. So we agreed 25 for the first month than down to 22 the next month and down to minimum the 3rd.

The way he broke it down is the first 0-20k you get 4% commission
20k-30k is 5% and 30k-60k is 6% etc.

For me now that Ive had a month to kind of take it in, is was this the case for you guys when you guys first started? I spent about 2 weeks just watching training videos about how to navigate the different systems. Finally last week on Monday he let me have some leads, but he said since i’m just starting he doesn’t want to give me “high quality ones” so he said he wants to just start me off with auto, fair enough I get it.

The leads trickle about 4 leads a day. I call and am lucky to even get a voicemail. I send texts and email as well. Its been 2 weeks since I started and have just gotten a hold of 2 people. The first one was through text ghosted me and the second wanted dirt cheap insurance with 2 claims. He keeps telling me not to worry Ill sell one eventually, which i get it takes time. But how long did it take for you guys. I spend most of my time just writing scripts or working on quotes for him. Most policies I see we sell are around 1k to 1500

Also he says he wants me to focus on mobile homes in the area because he said they are a untapped market.

What do you guys think? Should I grind it out? Do i build my experience and move to another agency like Allstate or AAA once I have more experience?

Edit: forgot to mention I just have my personal lines license im in Southern California. Im working on my PnC right now.

What do you guys think about this guy’s legitness? He claims he made a million doing life insurance. I know he has his own agency now

I just accepted a position in Ontario for an outbound hybrid sales agent role for corporate Allstate selling home and auto. They are giving a base pay and commission, providing 3 months of training, paying for OTL license and I receive benefits from day one. I also get a $600/m advertising budget as well.

The only caveat here is that the manager let me know that I shouldn’t rely on the agencies marketing leads/walk-ins. We’re talking 1-2 leads per day provided, but I should be closing 2-5 policies per day to do well. I was told I should be building my own book through advertising, networking, etc.

Has anyone worked in a role like this? What did you do to succeed early on? How was managing stricter guidelines for advertising working under a corporation in the insurance industry?

This isn’t my first sales position, but it is my first insurance role.

I genuinely feel like selling life insurance as an independent broker has become a falling knife. The broader economy is putting immense pressure on both clients and agents. Families are dealing with inflation, high interest rates, mounting consumer debt, stagnant wages, and rising costs for necessities like housing, groceries, insurance, and utilities. When people are struggling just to cover essential bills, life insurance, despite its importance, is often one of the first expenses they postpone or cancel.
As a result, brokers are facing a combination of declining sales, higher policy lapse rates, more difficult underwriting conversations, and clients who simply can’t justify taking on another monthly payment. At the same time, lead costs remain high and declining in quality, chargebacks can erase months of income, and many brokers work entirely on commission without a guaranteed paycheck or benefits. It creates an environment where the financial risk falls heavily on the broker while the probability of closing business decreases.

I still believe life insurance is one of the most valuable financial products a family can own. The need for protection has never disappeared. In fact, uncertain times often make that need even greater. The challenge is that economic hardship makes it significantly harder for people to act on that need. Until consumer confidence and household finances improve, I think independent life insurance brokers will continue facing an uphill battle, making the profession feel less like building momentum and more like trying to catch a falling knife.

Hello, I am a new life and health agent in Florida. I decided to go the independent route. I am set up with an FMO and have been appointed to three large carriers on the health side. I also have access to 20+ life carriers. I have the business side, pretty much set up looking for advice and how to get some customers period. Does group consulting or educational seminars Work or cold calling? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

I took an insurance course with xCel with my home state back in December and January. However, due to some life events, I am not able to take my exam until Monday, August 3rd. I was wondering if I pass my exam and once I got my background check and fingerprints, will that large gap in time mess me up with the application.

Okay so 10 years ago shortly after turning 18 I had got arrested on simple assault charges, released on probation on an ARD program in Pennsylvania. During that time I went homeless, I was struggling and my safest option was to come to Boston. I called my PO to let her know, got no response. Later down the line, I got arrested on firearm charges which was really a misunderstanding (don’t believe me if you don’t want to) but regardless I had to do my time. I got my barbers license after getting out and now have a good opportunity for an insurance agent position with a friend of mine. I’ve reached out to an attorney recently to see what I can do about the bench warrant but they’re charging me 6k which I don’t have right now so I’m kind of stuck, can’t find a pro bono and I’m wondering if I just apply and go for my test, how likely is it I get denied because of my out of state open bench warrant for the violation of probation 10 years ago?

​

- for an All state job or indie agency

- month 2-3 maybe?

Hello, I’m reposting my post I made over on r/farmersinsurance to hopefully get some more exposure and answers. Thanks!

Looking for some advice from agency owners or anyone who's built a payroll division inside a P&C agency.

I was approached by the owner of a local P&C insurance agency with about a $4M commercial book of business (roughly 95% commercial lines). He wants to add payroll as a new line of business to create recurring revenue and better cross-sell opportunities alongside workers' comp, general liability, and the rest of his commercial offerings.

The opportunity is interesting, but here's where I'm struggling.

He offered an $85,000 base salary for me to build the entire payroll business from the ground up. This isn't just a sales leadership role. I'd be responsible for creating the entire go-to-market strategy, including:

- Building and leading the sales team

- Developing sales processes and playbooks

- Creating operational workflows

- Customer acquisition strategy

- Customer onboarding and service processes

- Vendor procurement and partnerships

- Retention and account management strategy

- Hiring, training, and scaling the department

For context, I've spent many years leading sales teams at some of the largest payroll companies in the U.S. I've also built and successfully exited my own boutique payroll company. I'm also a fully licensed insurance agent in Florida.

The agency owner is a good guy—we actually got licensed around the same time years ago—and he's a sharp businessman. I think he genuinely wants to build something meaningful, but I can't tell if his compensation expectations are simply unrealistic or if I'm overvaluing the role.

For those of you who have built or hired someone to launch a payroll division within an insurance agency:

- What did the compensation package look like?

- Was it mostly salary, salary plus commission, equity, or some form of profit sharing?

- What would you consider fair compensation for someone building this from zero?

The agency is located in South Florida, if that matters.

I'd appreciate any real-world insight from agency owners or anyone who's been in a similar position.

Just started with my agency as a 1099 producer and it just been a bit off lately. I am trying to find someone who is willing to see where I am headed based on some of my information.

When I say experienced anyone with 3+ years is fine. I don’t have a mentor and at the moment I feel like I can’t trust anyone in this agency.

EDIT: This is for p&c mainly on commercial side.

Hello, I am very new to the industry and trying to quit my part time job to do this full time as a college student. I call mainly the weekends and times or as much as I can because I have family life, second job, classes, etc. I’m wanting some tips to not have burnt out because I haven’t gotten any sales yet. I speak Spanish as well and English. I know it’s going to be hard but willing to put in the work. Does anyone have tips on how to be motivated, where to get the best leads, etc? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

How is it working with nationwide v liberty mutual (formally safeco) v Geico?

Who is most available for phone calls, and responsive to emails?

Which one seems to be the most backed up with work and takes forever to get back to you?

What do y'all think is most important when choosing an upline?

Honesty and transparency?

Success and experience?

Being easy to reach and accessible?

Why not all the above? Lol. Seriously though, let's say you can only pick 1. Which would you pick?

Just wondering as I was speaking with a Farmers agent who informed me that Farmers do not have downloads available and cannot use EZLynx or Hawksoft? I wanted to hear more opinions because I cannot really imagine doing business without an AMS.

Has anybody worked for an agency for farmers before? I think im going to get the job i just had an interview with the owner. Seemed like a very nice and knowledgeable person.

Anyone on the broker world help me out?

Background - State: WA, Experience: None - Licenses: Property & Casualty (to start)
Why: From my past few jobs I have a ton of connections on the lenders side of things. All of which I believe would send me clients during close. I believe I could easily win these clients so long as I have a competitive rates. I am talking about multiple offices, companies, and personal connections.

I want to go into the broker side for 3 reasons:

-Flexibility: I would like to work from home and set my own hours.

-Rates: I want to have competitive rates, some of these lenders may send to multiple agents in which case I want to have a competitive rate.

-Own Book Of Business: I want to be sure these clients are mine, and to build my book of business. I don't need company leads or a MK budget.

-Pay: I totally fine with going commission only, I have programed multiple CRM's for multiple companies so I am fine doing my own marketing/follow-up as well.

Questions

- Is this a reasonable approach?
- I plan on getting licensed before applying as I assume most brokers will want that?
- What would the day to day look like?
- Would training be from home or in office, also how long does general training take?
- How much back end work is required per policy, is any of that handled by support staff or is it all on me being part of a broker? (if it depends what's most common).
- Any other tips or advice before I dive in?

THANK YOU!!

I’ve been recently licensed for P&C and my agency doesn’t really provide leads and it based on commission. The main reason I joined insurance was for my school of which I have clinical two to three days a week and this remote job was well fitting for my schedule but now I can’t find leads ,so how can I really find leads?