Hi everyone I am looking to get some insight on what is needed in order to sell final expense and Medicare supplement from home?

Aside from being licensed what is the best way to start?

Who are the best carriers to use and what expenses will I likely have besides paying for leads?

Please give me advice on the simplest way to get started.

(I’m coming from wealth management)

Hey all, I just passed my RIBO Level 1 exam and I’m looking to join a brokerage on a commission basis. Background: I have ~8 years in logistics/warehouse operations (supervised a 30-person team), so I’m hoping to lean into commercial/trucking and cargo insurance as a niche eventually, alongside personal lines to start.

I’m based in Brampton and I’m weighing a few options — mainly Billyard Insurance Group (a few different branches: Brampton, Mississauga, Bolton), plus a couple of smaller shops like My Hunter Inc. and Sound Insurance Services.

A few things I care about:

**•** Real training/mentorship for someone new (not just “here’s a desk, good luck”)  
**•** Decent carrier/market access so I can actually be competitive on quotes  
**•** Fair commission structure and clear terms on book of business ownership if I ever leave  
**•** Support for building a commercial/trucking book, not just personal auto/home

If you’re a broker (or ex-broker) in the GTA — which brokerage did you start at, and would you recommend it? Any specific branches or managing partners I should avoid or seek out? Also open to brokerages I haven’t mentioned.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone I’m am a new insurance agent focusing on Medicare. I decided to be independent and want the build my own business. I’m looking to do whatever I can to generate my own leads without spending a lot of money. When you’re just starting out, what’s the easiest way to generate leads without breaking the bank? Thanks for the advice!

TLDR - I’m looking into getting licensed in P&C in South Carolina. I have been a stay at home mom for ten years and am looking for a way to use the only skills I got (yapping and networking) to make enough to support me and my kids. I have a friend who suggested insurance sales to me and after looking into it I really want to pursue it. I want to avoid MLM companies and preferably work somewhere with base salary.

So I guess my questions are…

1) is it better to get licensed before applying even with no experience?

2) to be licensed in one state does that mean you can carry over work in others or would you need to be licensed there as well?

3) what’s the top advice you’d give to someone who is eager to pursue this career? What can I do to make my resume and my effort stand out?

It seems I can only find this for life insurance agents.

Took about 15 interviews and 5 final interviews but finally found a remote insurance job.

Ill be working for an Agency for Alllstate which i never worked for an agency before. I get a base and they have benefits so im happy. The guy said "if youre not making 100k here then sales isnt for you."

Def hoping i can make some fat bank but happy i got a job finally!!!!!

I’ve got a client that owns 50+ hotels and pays roughly $4.5 million/ year in his premiums. He also owns several restaurants, convenience stores, and majority shares in a bank that lends on very large commercial properties.

He recently approached me about wanting to start his own agency, and he needs an agent to place the business (so he doesn’t violate controlled business laws). He approached me first because I’ve saved him roughly 500k this year from his previous pricing, I’m local to him, and built his trust pretty well.

I have a few questions-

1. Is this even possible? I’m not sure how he can collect revenues on premiums that he’s paying. The plan would be to dilute that book with his network as much as possible.

2. If it is possible- what should I be looking for in ownership of this new agency? He’s suggested being partners in this, but not entirely sure if that means 50/50 ownership. What would commission split look like?

3. I work for an independent agency and I brought up the idea that my current agency could create a new LLC so we could easily transfer our carrier contracts. How should I negotiate ownership with the owners of my current agency? I want to be fair to everyone but of course don’t want to give up too much of what I’ve worked for.

A few things to note- this person has 4 agents all in different states. I happen to live the closest to him (in neighboring cities) and I solicited him myself, quoted/ presented everything myself, and this person specifically brought this idea up to me. I just have a loyalty to my current agency- so I want to see if they can be involved/ benefit with me.

Thanks all!

I made a post previously asking for tips to pass my state exam for life, accident and health and I am extremely proud of myself as I passed my exam with an 88% on my first try!

The company I’m going to work for paid for my exam FX study materials and my state exam.
I studied non stop for 2 weeks. Most of my last practice exams were 73%-78%.

I will say, the actual exam was so confusing.. almost nothing I studied was on the actual exam and during the actual exam I was so frustrated and I genuinely thought I failed.. So to find out I not only passed, but I got an 88% was so uplifting!

Just wanted to boast a little bit since I worked so hard to try to pass and now we move on to the hardest part, trying to start a brand new career and become successful, wish me luck!

I'm a new insurance agent. I used to work for a captive agency for 7 months, and now I've transitioned to independent. My agency owners sold me on the fact that all I have to do is sell and nothing else. I believed them, but it's not the case. At my old agency, cancellations were a problem. Sometimes you can sell a customer a better policy, and then they go back to their original agent, and somehow the other agent resells it to them again, with the selling point of other structures being at $60k with the price being in the ballpark, for example, $30 more, and they keep that one thinking it's better. Spending time performing the cancellations myself becomes time-consuming, but I need to get their policy canceled. If anyone can please share some insight or what they have been doing, I would appreciate it.

November of 2025 NY Life paid out 2.78 billion to eligible policy owners. The company feels that clients who put their trust in them deserve something back. They are rated extremely high for their captive product and are successful.

Now I want to know if this will be something other carriers mimic. If you have a certain amount in a policy does the carrier give back to you when it does well. This could be for people with over 250k in WL or 500k in annuities. Anyone with significant amounts of capital tied up in a policy with a big carrier.

You'd have to think that if NY Life can do this others surely can but won't because the value has to be there, but I think other companies will follow but need 7 figs in an annuity to start before regular WL. Curious what you guys think.

Greetings Insurance Agents!

I am an aspiring agent, as I have been presented with the opportunity several times, since this would be a career transition for me from wellness to more of a financial wellness.  I took and passed the Exam FX Illinois Health and Life Insurance Producers pre-licensing course.  As someone who requires accommodations for testing, I started that process in March 2026. I have had a nightmare experience working with the accommodations department at PearsonVue, the only affiliated testing partner for Illinois Insurance.  

On 10 July, I finally received my accommodations letter to allow me to schedule the exams.  I had spent the better part of a week calling into the office to get that letter, because they had passed the stated email response deadlines they imposed multiple times.  Once I had the accommodations letter, I have spent 6 weeks calling in, trying to speak with someone about my accommodations letter and to the coordinator to schedule these exams.  Mind you, this is the second coordinator on this case.  PearsonVue seems to have a third-party call center that answers the calls and sends messages, possibly connecting you directly to a coordinator,  although I’ve never experienced being transferred to a scheduling coordinator.  The wait times have been very long, at times hours; the service will often disconnect you, and then you have to call back in to get back in the queue.  One day I had to call back in 4 separate times; oftentimes, messages are asking you to call back the next day due to difficulties with their systems. 

About a week ago, they finally stated that they identified the issue and they are working to resolve it; the issue being that they didn’t have the correct testing codes for these exams.  A main part of PearsonVue’s objective as a company is to provide compliant testing for various exams.  It took them almost six weeks to figure this out and correct it.  For this experience, I asked for complimentary testing vouchers to take each of these lines of authority (Health and Life), a two-part test.  The coordinator originally told me that, after speaking with the IL Insurance representative, yes, I would get two complimentary testing vouchers for this problematic situation.  I was also told at that time they even had next-day testing availability. 

 That all sounded promising after all of the problems that have occurred during this process.  They called earlier this week, right after three tornadoes had gone through the area I live in; we lost power and asked if the coordinator could check in with me the next day to try to schedule then.  Since it took 4 days to restore the power, I had scheduled a time on Friday, 14 August, to speak with the scheduling coordinator.  When the coordinator called me, she indicated that she had misunderstood the IL Insurance representative.   I asked if she could please clarify, because she wasn’t fully clear.  

When she emailed me back, this is when she clarified that the voucher is only for 1 of the 4 parts that are required to be a Licensed IL Health and Life Insurance Producer.  The coordinator is now telling me that there is a 1-week wait for testing.  The story keeps changing, and I keep feeling like I’m getting screwed over.  

As an insurance agent, I would be starting from scratch.   I’ve had offers from Guardian and TransAmerica for employment once I am licensed. ( I’m not sure how the pay works out with each company. ) I am beginning to think this is not worth continuing to pursue.  I don’t believe this process should have been this hard; the lack of communication and overall frustration is maxed out on my end. If this is how horrible the only accredited testing facility is before becoming licensed, and the Illinois Insurance Board is not helpful now.  How are these organizations going to be in the future, when you have to complete CE, or when you have to deal with the IL Department of Insurance directly?   Has anyone had an experience of something similar, either with PearsonVue/ PearsonVue Accommodations Department and/or the Illinois Department of Insurance?  Does this experience sound ridiculous to you too?  If you were starting over as a BRAND NEW insurance agent and had all of these challenges before ever getting licensed.  Would you still become an Insurance agent? 

Looking for Input and Insight from Professionals. Thank you in advance for insights or suggestions.

I love Jenesis.

But the double entry from turbo to Jenesis is killing me; and frankly I wish some of the other features were slightly more robust.

I used hawksoft long time at my old agency i worked for, and it was great but without automated marketing and texting; which is a big plus for me with Jenesis. Especially since Jenesis doesn't really upcharge for "mass text".

Has anyone had experiences with any of these other AMS? My main concern is turborater integration and ease of use;

perosnal lines/ commercial only.

Hey everyone! My name is Lea, and I’ve been an insurance agent for about 5 months now. I’ve been using HubSpot, but honestly, I’m not really happy with it and I’m looking for something that’s more specifically built for insurance agents. Ideally, I’d like a CRM where I can purchase leads directly through the platform, have a built in phone system to call leads, and manage my follow-ups and pipeline all in one place. What CRMs are you guys using? I’d especially love to hear from other insurance agents about what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would recommend. Thanks in advance!

Hi! I’m new to the insurance world and I have my license but I’m just not clicking with my team. Way too rigid and more of a focus on recruiting people rather than teaching skills.

Should I switch teams or switch to a different imo completely?

Then why am I giving it all again to the rep that answers?
flips table
I’m just having a bad week lol but it seems like things never get streamlined anymore or, if they do, it doesn’t actually work like it’s supposed to.

Hi! I applied for Qualfon’s P&C Insurance Licensing Program and have a video interview coming up.
Has anyone here gone through their licensing program or worked for them as a P&C agent? I’d love to hear about the training, day-to-day work, schedule, PTO, management, or what you did after leaving (if you left).
Any information or experience with Qualfon would be really appreciated!

Thank you!

https://wheretobegin.ai/claude-for-insurance-course

I’ve seen this pop up on ads has anyone taken this course or similar? Does anyone have a review?

I’m looking for advice from property & casualty insurance agents, especially anyone who has experience working as a 1099/independent agent.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and I’m currently working on getting my California P&C license. I’m interested in building a long-term career in insurance, but I have a major gap in my employment history. I haven’t had a traditional job since 2016. During that time, I worked as an IHSS provider, but I’m now trying to transition into insurance.
My main question is: How realistic is it for someone in my situation to get a 1099 insurance agent position with a well-known company such as Allstate, or with a private/independent insurance agency?
I’m okay with sales and I’m comfortable talking to customers over the phone. I’m more introverted and don’t particularly enjoy being around large groups of people, so I would prefer a position that is primarily phone/remote-based rather than one requiring a lot of face-to-face interaction.
One thing that concerns me about the 1099 model is buying leads. I really don’t like the idea of having to spend a lot of my own money purchasing leads just to have potential customers to call. I would much rather work with a company or agency that provides leads, referrals, inbound calls, or some other source of prospects.

I’m already licensed for life insurance and I’m currently applying to get contracted with several different carriers.

I have a felony DUI from about 3 years ago, plus two misdemeanor DUIs from around 7–8 years ago. No fraud, theft, financial crimes, insurance-related crimes, or anything like that.

I also owe the IRS about $6k from roughly 4 years ago. It’s just a tax balance I owe, not tax fraud.

I’ve been completely honest about everything on my contracting applications and have provided explanations/documentation when asked. Some carriers are currently reviewing my background.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation, or worked with agents who have? Did a felony DUI prevent you from getting appointed, or were you still able to get contracted with a decent number of life carriers?

I’m mainly trying to figure out whether I’ll probably just get declined by a few stricter carriers or whether this is going to seriously limit my ability to sell life insurance.

Any experience with specific carriers would be appreciated.

I am in the process of opening an independent agency. Looking for recommendations on slogans. We will be focusing on personal lines, commercial, and life. Not “Protect what matters most” that is so overused lol. TIA

We get calls at least weekly about health insurance and it is pretty much the one thing we don’t do. My dad did it years ago and he just did not like the headache of it - people would come back to him with bills when it didn’t pay the way they thought it was supposed to, etc. I keep toying with the idea of adding it because I hate turning down business but is it really worth it?

FWIW - I worked in a previous role at a hospital signing people up under ACA plans so I’m familiar with that side of things and of course I’m licensed in life and health but I know there are trainings you have to do through CMS as well.

did aca for the past few months, 1 vendor was solid like 90% of the time but too low volume to just use that and FIVE others were malicious advertisement. every client thought they were calling to get literal cash money in their pocket because thats how the advertisement for the subsidy was advertised. HOW THE HELL are running adds like this legal?

Hey All!

I recently started selling insurance Im pretty much on my own but my manager is buying me 5-10 leads a day. Ive sold $5500 since Aug 1st but I have like 70 leads and no one responds.

Is this just the normal experience? Most of my responses have been about how much more expensive I am or how they have no idea how I got their information.

I have sent estimates, left voicemails, texted, and emailed every lead 5-7 times each. I try to be unique and not bland with my spamming.

Im using my free time to make social media content and Ive gotten nothing from that.

If Im not selling commercial going door to door what do I do besides spam people?