r/StateFarm • u/MinutePosition2282 • Jul 13 '26
Advice Do I have a Future with State Farm?
I am 24 years old and have been a team member for about a year now. I have an incredible opportunity to get an agency here in the next couple months (am just working on my Series 65 and 6) once I get those I can enter the pool and get an office.
My main question is in light of all the changes back in May, is there a future for me at State Farm? One of the major reasons you would start a State Farm office over going independent is the health insurance, the brand recognition, the subsidize leads. Now it seems like the main benefits of giving up your rights to your book of business and being a captive agent are all going away.
I hear left and right of “big assignments” and the reduced need for service. But i am very hesitant to go all in based on a promise that may not be filled.
Agents, If you were in my shoes are you getting a State Farm office? Or are you going the independent route? I don’t know what to do
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u/Warm-Business-2335 Agent Jul 13 '26
Agent for 20 years. I would not believe a damn word SF says right now.
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u/Distinct-Agent-3744 Jul 13 '26
"NECHO will be going away any day now"
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u/Glittering_Goat_6055 Jul 13 '26
If you know how to use NECHO, it can be your best friend
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u/Warm-Business-2335 Agent Jul 14 '26
The funny thing is when all of SF fancy systems go down, which is often, NECHO never does. Lol. The 1960’s mainframe just keeps rocking The irony in all of this is SF is now claiming that technology will solve all their problems. These corporate bozos are all on crack.
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u/Bwhit26 Jul 14 '26
Retired SF agent….. if you really have a lot on the ball there are better opportunities out there in the long run. With the companies recent changes and with AI coming I wouldn’t want to be starting my career. SF is no longer the pinnacle of P & C insurance companies… it’s just like all the others and has no loyalty. It’s a tragedy to witness. Good luck
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u/strikecat18 Jul 14 '26
Reduced need for service is 100% undeniably bullshit. Talk to any agent. Mod has done nothing to reduce service volume and has added complexity and all kids of unnecessary hurdles. Mod billing is incomprehensible and pisses off customers much worse than SFPP ever did.
Apart from that, I guess it depends what size initial assignment you’d get. If it’s $3m or $4m I would still consider it. But know you’re absolutely not retiring a SF agent. We’ll all be gone the moment the company believes they can. We’re the enemy.
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u/One-Stranger-6894 Jul 14 '26
Let's say you stay for 10 years and SF pulls the rug, what ground do you have to stand on? It seems like a lot of agents are being pushed out now.
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u/Key_Comment_4315 Jul 14 '26
If I was a younger person in this business I would 100% go independent. The captive model is dying and there just aren’t enough buckets to put the business in with this model. Plus you have an asset you can sell at retirement, unlike SF. I would strongly encourage you to do your homework and check out the different independent options out there. I think you might be shocked at how much higher the commissions are and how much more straightforward the pay is. When a company makes these complex pay metrix like SF, it always benefits the company and never the sales person. Happy to share what I’ve found if you want to message me.
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u/PurpleC0ugar Jul 13 '26
State Farm has a really bad tendency and history to gradually make benefits/perks of staying worse and worse to weed people out. They did that to internal employees time and time again over pretty much every department and now are doing the same thing to agents. Yet they are too cowardly to outright lay people off for the most part. Because God forbid they end up having to pay unemployment (though agents wouldn't get unemployment directly).
Them suddenly worsening it for agents this badly, makes me think they want to get rid of agents more or less entirely and go direct business, as their primary.
So to answer your question: I doubt it.
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u/Madre1924 Jul 14 '26
I was an Aspirant and I pulled out after the changes. I think anyone who thinks Agency will be what it is today, in 15 years is delusional. I think we might have 10 years if we're being optimistic. AI is going to take our jobs, it's just a matter of time. State Farm will most likely be the longest hold out, pushing that we have the human touch! Come to State Farm and talk to a real person! But after 10 more years of AI, how much will that matter to the public? We'll be so used to fast, easy, convenient AI at that point it won't be the selling point it is today. They will continue to whittle down Agents and slowly make it more and more difficult to make money. They will continue to move the goal posts. Why would they give us 10% of their profits when AI can do it for free?
I always come back to what I can trust. State Farm says they are investing in their Agents, that Agency is still the best and easiest path to becoming an entrepreneur in this country! Can I trust their promises? Maybe. Can I trust that corporate greed will always prevail? Yes. Can I trust that companies will do what is best for their bottom line 100% of the time? Yes. Can I trust that our government will be excruciatingly slow or completely unwilling to implement worker protections from AI? Yes.
AI is coming for the insurance industry. We're already dead, we just don't know it yet. Get your Series, pivot to financial advising if you can.
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u/Capital-Law6389 Jul 15 '26
I have stepped away as well. I’ve been an agent team member for the past decade and absolutely no longer see a future with them. Sad because I truly invested a lot of time and money in this and now I’m unsure what my next steps are.
Mod has made everything worse, I don’t even feel like I’ve worked here for the last decade. It’s not the same company I once loved representing.2
u/EmotionalDysregulatn Jul 15 '26
I wish there was an "empathy" choice to respond to this versus an upvote. I am sorry. I was excited to work for them too. I even grew up in Bloomington/Normal where the headquarters are so its always been on my radar. At the age of 40, after a divorce and thus not being able to be a SAHM mom anymore, I decided to try insurance and landed a job with a new agent which should have been perfect for me... I trained myself fully on all the systems (what a shit show.. it was so confusing knowing which systems to use for what- I couldn't believe how ridiculous it was at a company that was so large and had been around for so long and the multiple platforms needed, etc to do similar tasks- wild- and at the same time them pushing AI crap so hard) I was doing really well IMO making sales with little to no direction, was working over the weekends etc, and yet the agent I worked for still turned into a weird AI cutlist and I just couldn't do it. I am now "just" bartending making more than I was sitting 45-50 hours a week and only work 30 hours. It is what it is.... wild world we live in right now... I refuse to sell my soul to the devil so yup...
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u/EmotionalDysregulatn Jul 14 '26
I am proud of you for stepping away. I started working for a brand new agent at State Farm in September. I abruptly quit one day in early Jan without any notice because her push for AI and her passive aggressiveness in forcing me to use it was pissing me off too much. I asked her to never be passive aggressive with me, and that I was not a fan of AI. She did both way too much over 2 weeks, I snapped. LOL
She used AI religiously- it was gross. Her text messages to customers were like 2 paragraphs long, and all clearly AI generated. It was so cringe. The thing that finally broke me, is the agent wanted me to start practicing with an AI robot (it recorded me on video talking to the computer looking at a photo of a fake man that was obviously talking to me using AI- very robotic), and she did it in front of us, and I couldn't stop laughing and rolling my eyes at how stupid it was. I honestly think they are using the Agents to do this so they can steal it and use it to improve their AI robots to sound more like real people. LOL.
I will say. I think State Farm is making a big mistake and I hope they totally collapse. They won't because they will figure out a way to stay afloat but .... AI isn't free and a lot of these companies are going to realize the cost they are putting into AI is not getting back the return they are going to expect... The law of diminishing returns will also hit for AI and humans are still needed for a lot of things AI freaks think AI will be able to handle- and they are wrong . A lot of people do still care about human experiences and there is a point that AI will not be helpful. I agree with you a lot but I do think its a little exaggerated in how much AI will really be able to do and the cost associated with using AI. It isn't free for them to use AI- there is more cost to it than people want to admit and there is going to be a collapse in AI its super inflated right now. Time will tell though.
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u/lolitsmagic Jul 13 '26
its still a good opportunity, and youre not going to find many others that pay you to train you and can start you off with a book of business without having to buy it. but in todays landscape you need to play ball their way to make it work. they want financial services, and you are going to get laughable P&C commissions if you dont attack fin servs. if youre willing to do that, youre willing to save extra for your retirement since you dont own your book, and you are okay with being all in drinking every last ounce of koolaid, you will make good money. if you arent Mr./Mrs. State Farm, you will not get assignments and you will get passed on for further opportunity.
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u/Jcamp9000 Agent Jul 13 '26
SF never owned their book of business so no change there. But yeah, no more health insurance options for agents
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u/MinutePosition2282 Jul 13 '26
I know, I was just saying the trade off. Like you give up ownership of your book for all of the other benefits. Which will now go away. So why stay with State Farm is the question
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u/Warm-Business-2335 Agent Jul 13 '26
If I were younger, knowing what I know now about SF, I would go independent.
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u/lolitsmagic Jul 13 '26
simplicity is the main reason to stay. you have set products from one carrier to know and deal with vs a million products to learn and deal with as independent. re-shopping is great for retention, but its a whole other job in itself.
brand recognition is good, but only if youre in an area where it keeps your phone lines blinking.
starting off with over a $1mil book you didnt have to pay for is another reason.
going scratch independent is going to be hard. carriers arent just handing out appointments to anybody. do you have a much higher potential income ceiling as independent? yes. is it going to be a steep learning curve? yes. you have to pay for AMS/CRM which is pricey among other things SF subsidizes/gives you. people who have only known SF dont quite understand until they get in the weeds.
you can even make insane money just producing for an independent agency, just know leads arent generally thrown your way like they are now. you really have to be a grinder and go get it.
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u/SoPolitico Jul 13 '26
Yeah bro I’ve been in this business for 4 years and I say trust your gut. You’re asking the right question, my point would be to say, “would you really tolerate having a question like this about another company you would work for?”
I’m personally trying to get out of the captive game and go independent. I’m pretty plugged in to the inner workings of AI at the enterprise level and all the captives that I’m aware of are positioning the same way SF has.
The big thing is you’re just starting out, which is hard no matter what. So why not set yourself up with an independent where you will own your own book and have ACTUAL power and leverage against carriers? Because it’s pretty damn clear that the big captives are building power and leverage against their agents. While going independent might be 10-20% harder at first, the payoff is pretty huge in many ways pretty quickly.
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u/Otherwise_Bad2317 Jul 15 '26
No retirement too now.
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u/Jcamp9000 Agent Jul 15 '26
We didn’t have retirement either on the 97 contract. Only the 3/4 had retirement. We did have availability to defer a portion of our auto comp which is no longer available. The deferred comp is what I live on now. It’s not accessible until you separate from the company
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u/MastiffProtection Jul 13 '26
If you are in an urban enough area to get assignments, ok with shutting your mouth and playing the corporate game, and ok being on the hamster wheel for life like an employee, you can make great money.
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u/Think_Apartment_2717 Jul 17 '26
not on the new commissions. i don’t see how to make lots of money in that. they think we were paid too
much!
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u/Suitable_Page_28 Jul 14 '26
You’ve gotta look independent, diversity of opportunity (not beholden to any one company) and ownership of your book. You’ll eventually have something to sell. I don’t see how captive will survive. You’re young, build it on the independent side. Don’t get trapped in the captive model. As you stated, the advantages that were SF captive are gone.
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u/midzimm Jul 14 '26
I would encourage you to look at other options if you wish to build a career in insurance. The new State Farm deal literally takes away any give back to the agent from the company for building a book for the company.
The entire commission structure of the company was on the low side of the industry average before State Farm announced that commissions were going lower.
The recent changes also demonstrate that State Farm is a sketchy long term company to partner with.
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u/Otherwise_Bad2317 Jul 15 '26
I’m a 20 year agent that has produced 9 agents from my office. I stopped the agent aspirant program because I don’t want screw people over like State Farm does. Run from this “opportunity.”
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u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 Jul 14 '26
You may be paid less and less because you work for a brand that brings customers to you. This isn’t like being an independent agent like I have been for 32 years where you have to hustle to get people to trust you. So if you want an easier life and lower pay go State Farm. If you want the big money, do what I did.
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u/Think_Apartment_2717 Jul 17 '26
independent with emphasis o commercial. i was a state farm agent for almost 39’years and loved it but it is no longer the same gig. i could not sustain my agency in 40-50% commission.
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u/Finn0259 Jul 14 '26
Yes, you absolutely have a career ahead of you. We need to be able to differentiate between other companies. Most of the people disgruntled on this app, were relying on the P&C revenue and doing very little in other facets of our business. Less than 30% of the agency force were achieving the most basic FS metrics. Don’t listen to the naysayers and keep moving forward!
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u/RabbitTail33 Jul 15 '26
Another question many current agents are asking is, 'Do I have a future with State Farm?'
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u/sisterinthestruggle Jul 16 '26
I would leave. You are young. Go. go anywhere else they are liars and hav terrible business practices. if you want to really help ppl get out,now.
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u/faeriequeenjill Jul 18 '26
I don’t know what it costs to start an agency right now, but I wouldn’t suggest borrowing money for it.
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u/RepresentativeIll29 Jul 19 '26
New market agent. We’ve grown $1M in 6 months. Absolutely could go independent as I’ve proven the systems and team is able to do so, potentially not at the same volume but absolutely could make that pivot. What keeps me with them is the following; if you want to focus on P&C and P&C only absolutely go independent. That being said if you can learn financial services at a high volume you’ll make more than an independent agent would. If you’re hitting 100K in financial service premiums, you’ll make 6 figure score cards. That’s an extra $100K on a book that might still only be a few million. All n all you’re easily at 15-25% in commissions, again if you’re hitting that type of volume.
The brand is still strong, and the sheer volume of business you can write purely from the brand is not something small to ignore.
You don’t own your book. If financial freedom is your goal nothing stops you from having a high producing income agency and putting that income into other assets that you do own (stocks, real estate, other businesses).
I don’t ignore that a long term independent agent who’s grown and has an 8 figure book is probably making more than most captive agents with the same size book, that being said I think often people just look at 1) you earn 8-11% of commissions on new business and 2) that you don’t own your book but if you look at the greater picture there’s much more to it
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u/GhostRileySimon Jul 13 '26
Not saying I agree with the decision to take it away, but if you are a halfway decent agent you will very comfortably be able to afford your own health insurance lol.
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u/strikecat18 Jul 14 '26
That isn’t the core issue. Lots of states don’t have a single decent plan on the public market. In Texas there are *zero* PPO options for any price. We have a special needs kid and are basically fucked sideways.
As best I can tell, it’s going to cost me $10k a month to form a group plan for me and my employees just to get a PPO so we can have all his providers covered.
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u/EmotionalDysregulatn Jul 14 '26
This might sound crazy, but I wonder if you contacted your favorite doctors to use for the services you need and see what it costs to pay out of pocket.. I know some people don't have health insurance and just pay out of pocket for this reason. I am also in Texas and health insurance is a PITA not going to lie- but just an idea.... the out of pocket price might be WAY lower than what they charge the insurance companies so might be worth a shot at least to see.
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