Are you looking to start selling insurance, and wonder what agency or insurance IMO is best to join?

Do you want a no BS review of multiple insurance sales job opportunities?

If so, you’ve come to the right place!

In this “Ultimate Guide To Insurance Sales Jobs,” I review a handful of the most popular national insurance agencies for insurance agents looking for a sales position.

My goal is to empower you with information on what your options are, so you can make an informed decision on which organization is best for your career goals (and which agencies to stay from).

Let’s get started!

NOTE: Are you an aspiring or new insurance agent looking for more insight on how the insurance sales industry works? Check out my free New Insurance Agent Resource Guide to help answer many of your questions (as well as ones you didn’t know you had!).

Quick Article Navigation Links

• Insurance Sales Jobs
• Considerations
• Market
• Training
• Leads
• Commission
• MLM
• Carriers
• Vesting
• Releasing

 

Insurance Sales Jobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRpaY386wZU&t=3s

Let’s jump right in to detailing the top insurance sales job opportunities available.

Please note that this list is in alphabetical order, and that there is no ranking mechanism used.

 

American Income Life (AIL)

• • Headquarters: Waco, Texas

• • Website: www.AILife.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Union members and their families

• • Product Specialty: Whole life, term life

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales

• • Lead Program: Yes. Combination of free leads and teaching agents to develop referrals

• • Carrier Access: Only can sell AIL products

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? More emphasis on recruiting than other organizations. Does offer extensive product training.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Commission rates start in the 50% range, moving higher based on meeting production and recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: Some organizations have onboarding fees for joining, others don’t. My research shows nothing more than $100.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about American Income Life in my review article here.

 

Bankers Life And Casualty

• • Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

• • Website: www.BankersLife.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: The Baby Boomer Market (Turning 65 years old and older)

• • Product Specialty: Medicare product sales (Advantage and Supplements), annuities, final expense coverage, indemnity plans.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales

• • Lead Program: Cold calling over the phone and in person. Also will learn how to develop referrals.

• • Carrier Access: Only can sell Bankers Life products

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? More emphasis on recruiting than other organizations. Does offer extensive product training.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Commission rates start in the 50% range, moving higher based on meeting production and recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: None known of.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Bankers Life And Casualty in my review article here.

 

David Duford (Yours Truly =)

• • Headquarters: Chattanooga, Tennessee

• • Website: You’re here already =)

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: The Baby Boomer Market, 50-85 years old, mostly low-income to lower-middle income prospects.

• • Product Specialty: Final expense, Medicare Advantage, annuities.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales AND telesales, too!

• • Lead Program: Multiple options available. Weekly full-time lead cost ranges between $375 to $800, less for part-time producers.

• • Carrier Access: Brokerage. Have access to the best carriers.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Producer-oriented. David wants to teach agents to become top producers. Agency building is supported.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Commission rates start in the 100-110% range, moving higher based on either meeting production or recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: Besides leads, no other agency-based costs.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about how I help agents become top producers and agencies build bigger operations here.

 

DigitalBGA

• • Headquarters: Austin, Texas

• • Website: www.DigitalBGA.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: 50-85 years old low-income market for final expense, middle markets for term insurance.

• • Product Specialty: Final expense, term insurance, fully underwritten and non-med.

• • Sales Process: Telephone sales from home.

• • Lead Program: Multiple options available. Starting price for leads is $7.00 each. Expect a weekly cost of approximately $350 to $700 for leads for starting agents.

• • Carrier Access: Brokerage. Have access to multiple telesales-friendly carriers.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Producer-oriented.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Commission rates start in the 100-115% range.

• • Expected Costs: Besides leads, no other agency-based costs.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about DigitalBGA’s telesales from home sales opportunities here.

 

Equis Financial

• • Headquarters: Asheville, North Carolina

• • Website: www.EquisFinancial.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: New homeowners, mortgage refinancing. 30 to 70 years old, lower-middle to middle-class prospects.

• • Product Specialty: Non-med term insurance. Some final expense, indexed universal life, and annuities.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales in client’s home.

• • Lead Program: Multiple options available. Cheap aged leads available. For select agents, fresh and exclusive leads available at a higher price ($30+ per lead).

• • Carrier Access: Have access to multiple carriers.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on agents to recruit. Product and sales training readily available.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Commission rates start in the 70% range. May increase with production and recruiting.

• • Expected Costs: Encouraged to attend the national conventions. Typically costs several hundred dollars, plus travel costs.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Equis Financial here.

 

Lincoln Heritage

• • Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona

• • Website: https://www.lhlic.com/

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Low- to lower-income prospects, 50 to 85 years old.

• • Product Specialty: Final expense

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales in client’s home.

• • Lead Program: Multiple options available. Cheap aged leads available. For select agents, fresh and exclusive leads available at a higher price ($30+ per lead in most markets, depending on the agency affiliate you join).

• • Carrier Access: Can only sell Lincoln Heritage products

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Depends on agency. Some heavily promote recruiting among newer agents. Others focus on agent skill development. Product and sales training readily available.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels vary. As low as 60%, as high as 90%. May increase with production and recruiting.

• • Expected Costs: None, besides leads

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Lincoln Heritage here.

 

North American Senior Benefits (NASB)

• • Headquarters: Lawrenceville, Georgia

• • Website: www.NASBNation.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Low- to lower-income prospects, 50 to 85 years old.

• • Product Specialty: Final expense

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face sales in client’s home.

• • Lead Program: Multiple options available. Cheap aged leads available. For select agents, fresh and exclusive leads available at a higher price ($20+ depending on the type of lead)

• • Carrier Access: Multiple final expense products available.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on recruiting agents.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels vary. As low as 60%, as high as 80%. May increase with production and recruiting.

• • Expected Costs: None, besides leads

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about North American Senior Benefits here.

 

NorthStar Insurance Advisors

• • Headquarters: Wentzville, Missouri

• • Website: www.NorthStarIA.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Call center recruiting local, virtual telesales recruiting national

• • Market: Low- to lower-income prospects, 50 to 85 years old.

• • Product Specialty: Final expense

• • Sales Process: Telesales (at the Wentzville call center) or virtual telesales from agent’s home.

• • Lead Program: Leads provided for free.

• • Carrier Access: Access to 2 carriers only.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on producer development.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels for producing agents in the 40% range.

• • Expected Costs: None.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about North Star Insurance Advisors here.

 

People Helping People (PHP) Agency

• • Headquarters: Lodi, California

• • Website: www.PHPAgency.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Middle-markets. Wage-earners at middle-class incomes.

• • Product Specialty: Indexed universal life, term insurance, whole life insurance, non-medical and fully underwritten.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face at the client’s home.

• • Lead Program: No lead program. Taught to work warm market for prospects and referrals.

• • Carrier Access: Access to multiple carriers.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on recruiting and agency building. Producer training available.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels for producing agents in the 25% range. Goes up as you hit production and recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: Small joining fee. Encouraged to attend national conventions at your expense.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about PHP Agency here.

 

Primerica

• • Headquarters: Duluth, Georgia

• • Website: www.Primerica.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Middle-markets. Wage-earners at lower-middle and middle-class incomes.

• • Product Specialty: Term insurance and retirement planning.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face at the client’s home.

• • Lead Program: No lead program. Taught to work warm market for prospects and referrals.

• • Carrier Access: Only Primerica insurance products.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on recruiting and agency building. Producer training available.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels for producing agents in the 25 to 30% range. Goes up as you hit production and recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: Small joining fee. Encouraged to attend national conventions at your expense.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Primerica here.

 

Senior Life Insurance

• • Headquarters: Thomasville, Georgia

• • Website: www.seniorlifeinsurancecompany.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Baby Boomers, 50 to 85 years old, low- to lower-middle income prospects

• • Product Specialty: Final expense

• • Sales Process: Mostly face-to-face, but teaches telesales, too.

• • Lead Program: Multiple lead programs available. Inexpensive aged/worked leads, Facebook leads, and direct mail leads.

• • Carrier Access: Only Senior Life Insurance Company products.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? A bit of both. Depends on the agency you join.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels vary on agency. Have seen as low as 70% and as high as 100%. Increases with production and/or recruiting goals met.

• • Expected Costs: Besides lead costs, none.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Senior Life Insurance Company here.

 

Symmetry Financial Group

• • Headquarters: Asheville, North Carolina

• • Website: www.SFGLife.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: New homeowners and recent mortgage refinances.

• • Product Specialty: Predominantly the mortgage protection market, using non-medical term insurance, some final expense. Indexed universal life and annuities sold, as well.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face in the client’s house.

• • Lead Program: Multiple lead programs available. Inexpensive aged/worked leads, all the way up to fresh and exclusive direct mail leads.

• • Carrier Access: Multiple carriers available.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on encouraging new agents to recruit.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels approximately 60%. Increases with production and/or recruiting goals met.

• • Expected Costs: Expected to attend national conventions at your expense.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about Symmetry Financial Group here.

 

World Financial Group (WFG)

• • Headquarters: Johns Creek, Georgia

• • Website: www.WorldFinancialGroup.com

• • Recruiting Efforts: Nationwide

• • Market: Middle-markets. Wage-earners at middle-class incomes.

• • Product Specialty: Indexed universal life, term insurance, whole life insurance, non-medical and fully underwritten.

• • Sales Process: Face-to-face at the client’s home.

• • Lead Program: No lead program. Taught to work warm market for prospects and referrals.

• • Carrier Access: Access to multiple carriers.

• • Producer Or Recruitment Oriented? Strong emphasis on recruiting and agency building. Producer training available.

• • Pay: No salary, straight 100% commission. Starting commission levels for producing agents in the 30% range. Goes up as you hit production and recruiting goals.

• • Expected Costs: Small joining fee. Encouraged to attend national conventions at your expense.

• • Interested in learning more? Discover more about World Financail Group here.

 

Factors To Consider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjXZeENi32A

Now that I’ve detailed a multitude of insurance sales job opportunities to consider, I’d like to take time reviewing what I believe are the most important factors to consider when thinking of joining an insurance agency.

As someone who runs a national agency myself, I discovered agencies purposely withhold or misrepresent information to skew a new agent’s perspective on the actual opportunity presented.

What happens to many agents is that they become scorned once realizing how their supposed insurance agency “partner” screwed them over.

And in worst-case scenarios, insurance agents leave the business prematurely, missing out on finding the best insurance sales job available to them.

Let’s discuss the different factors to consider that “they” don’t want you to know when it comes to selecting the best insurance sales job for your career goals.

 

Target Market

“Target Market” refers to what group of prospects you’ll spend your time marketing to.

The good news is that there is tremendous opportunity in most all markets. Your job is to find the market that’s best fit for your personality and work schedule.

Here’s a short listing of the most popular insurance markets the above agencies target. Carefully weigh their pros and cons before selecting an insurance sales job.

 

Middle-Markets

Middle markets are lower-middle to middle-class income prospects. They range in age from 30 to 70 years old.

Most are working and earning an hourly wage or salary. Most have a few children and own their house.

The advantage to working this market is that it’s relatively untapped. Most of these prospects do not have enough life insurance coverage, nor are they adequately prepared in planning for their retirement.

The drawback to a focus on Middle Markets is that the market is more susceptible to economic downturns, which could hurt prospecting efforts in recessions or depressions.

Also, most of your work is at the kitchen table at night, as most prospects work during the day.

 

Baby-Boomers/Senior Market

Baby Boomers and the Senior Market are folks in their 50s and up. They range in income from low-income to middle-income.

Many are either planning on retiring soon or are already retired. Some own their own home, others rent.

The advantage of targeting the Baby Boomer/Senior Market includes:

 

Supply of Prospects

11,000 seniors turn 65 daily for the next 20 years. The 65 and older population will double from 2020 to 2040.

Most retire with less money than they need. All of these factors make selling any product (final expense, Medicare, annuities) an incredible opportunity.

 

Life Event Marketing

Insurance is commonly sold during major life events. Marriage, purchasing a new home, retiring. For the Baby Boomer/Senior Market, all sorts of life events occur.

Seeing loved ones pass away motivates purchasing final expense coverage. Turning 65 means investigating Medicare options.

And making sure you cannot outlive your money encourages considering safe money products like annuities.

 

Day Time Work

Unlike a lot of other markets, you can conduct sales presentations with Baby Boomers and Seniors with normal working hours.

Evening work is expected, but not demanded every day. This means more time with family.

 

Recession Resistant

Retirees are guaranteed to receive their monthly Social Security checks regardless of what the economy does.

Unlike our Middle Market prospects who could lose income, retired prospects are a stable source of premium payers as their earnings are less susceptible to economic downswings.

This means a more stable business for the agent.

The drawback to Baby Boomer/Senior Markets is that most product sales to them are lower premium size than Middle Markets.

Sometimes persistency (quality of business) is lower than Middle Markets, depending on the product sold.

 

Agent Training And Development

When I first started selling final expense insurance in 2011, I realized agent training was severely lacking.

Most agents need access to significant levels of training if they want success long-term.

Unfortunately, most agents fail out within the first year. And lack of sales and prospecting training is partially to blame.

The key point here is to recognize the importance of training and to carefully analyze if the insurance sales job you’re looking at actually offers it.

Ask about the following training protocols of the insurance sales job you’re considering:

• • Face-To-Face Training: Is there face-to-face training? Do you have access to field-training opportunities with experienced trainers or agents?

• • Group Training (In-Person And Virtual): Are there group training opportunities – virtually and in-person – that you can take advantage of?

• • Self-Study Material: Is there a comprehensive training website you can access to review sales and prospecting scripts, classroom training, etc.?

• • Support/Coaching/Mentorship: Is your trainer/upline someone with extensive experience selling insurance? How quickly does he return your phone calls, texts, and emails? Does he schedule group and 1-on-1 calls with you to answer questions, fix issues, and encourage you along the way?

Really, you need to ask your potential insurance sales job opportunity about every one of these factors.

Lacking in ANY of them increases your odds of failing out of insurance sales.

 

Leads And Prospecting

There’s only 3 things you need to be successful in your insurance sales job:

“See the people, see the people, and see the people!”

Having prospects to vist and present insurance sales opportunities is the lifeblood of your business.

Too little people to see spells certain doom for your insurance sales job.

When considering an insurance sales career, pay special attention to how they instruct agents to generate leads and prospects.

Below is a review of the most common lead/prospecting options you’ll see in various insurance sales jobs:

• • Warm Market Prospecting: This involves working your “sphere of influence,” meaning your friends, family, and business associates, for insurance sales opportunities. This is a cost-free method that can work really well, but turns off many people as it seems very “multi-level marketing” in nature.

• • Cold Calling: Here, you call people at their house without prior permission to solicit insurance to them. Cold calling is a grind and largely a numbers game. Surprisingly, it gets fairly boring after you get through the initial butterflies.

• • Purchased Leads: Some insurance organizations like mine offer leads for sale. You purchase these leads with your own money, and attempt to prospect those leads for sales. The advantage to purchasing leads is that THEY solicited YOU, meaning more time spent with better prospects.

• • Free Leads: This is similar to the type of purchased leads mentioned above. The difference is you do not pay for them. In return, expect to have a much lower commission level to offset the investment your agency made.

 

Commission

While not everything, an appropriate commission level is vital to maximizing your opportunity for a lucrative insurance sales career.

However, determining what a “good” insurance sales commission level is varies on what the agency offers you in terms of support, training, and leads.

Let’s break down all the factors you should consider when assessing whether or not an insurance agency is offering you a fair commission:

Leads: If you are paying full price for leads without a subsidy, you should expect near-maximal or maximum commission earning opportunity. Also, if you are self-generating your own business through your warm market, make sure your commission levels are maximized, as you are finding prospects on your own without financial assistance from your insurance agency.

Beware of insurance agencies that severely cut commissions lower than street levels when lead support is not offered. Odds are you are unnecessarily giving up commission upside.

Support: Does your insurance sales job offer support and training opportunity? How involved is your direct manager/upline?

Some insurance agencies focus exclusively on recruiting and not training. Others (like mine) heavily focus on agent skill development.

Expect to receive slightly less in commission receiving training and support.

However, long-term, once you are trained and self-sufficient, there should be clear commission improvement opportunities to reflect your sales mastery.

 

Multi-Level Marketing Consideration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQiJ8Db6xo&t=218s

If you haven’t realized, most agencies offer insurance sales jobs with the idea of promoting a “multi-level marketing” culture.

What is a MLM culture?

It’s an organization that promotes mass recruiting and getting friends and family to join the organization or downline.

A lot of people consider MLM “cringe,” so if you get the sense that the insurance agency you’re interviewing with falls into the MLM category, make sure you join only if you’re onboard with the philosophy.

 

How do you find an insurance agency that’s NOT MLM?

Pretty simple. Commission levels should be higher than MLMs as there isn’t 10 people between you and the top, taking a piece of your commission.

Also, the agency you’re considering joining should extol their training and support programs first and foremost, preferably not promoting recruiting until agents develop first-hand experience.

Lastly, your insurance agency direct contact should have years of experience selling insurance, and can happily refer you to several agents who’ve had success in his program.

 

Carriers

Unlike the old days where insurance represented 1 company, the vast majority of insurance sales take place in a “brokerage channel.”

In other words, insurance sales jobs offer agents multiple insurance companies to partner with as opposed to 1 company.

Let’s talk about the advantages of working with multiple carriers:

• • Price Flexibility: When you offer multiple carriers, many times you can get a better “bang for the buck” for your insurance prospects. This means happier clients and better quality of business.

• • Underwriting Flexibility: Prospects are not all in the same health. Some have health issues that some carriers don’t cover, while others do. Carrying multiple insurance carriers optimizes underwriting flexibility, so you have better odds of giving your clients the best value coverage available.

• • Work For The Client, Not The Company: Many agents offering multiple companies feel they are helping their clients more earnestly and transparently than those agents who choose to work with 1 company. For agents with this predisposition of offering the best coverage to their clients, only having one company when they know more exist that work better can demoralize and demotivate an agent.

• • More Sales, More Money: With more options, you’ll write policies on people that otherwise would not buy coverage because of expensive pricing or inflexible underwriting. This means more people helped, and more income made.

 

Is Working For One Company A Bad Idea?

While I’m a born brokerage agent, I admit there are plenty examples of successful agents selling one solitary company.

Agents who do best selling 1 company are less worried about pricing/underwriting flexibility, and more worried about personal ease of use.

If that fits your personality type, you may help more people with a 1 carrier approach.

 

Vesting

This is one of the “dirty little secrets” many new insurance agents don’t know about that enriches greedy insurance agent owners with tremendous levels of commission.

Vesting is the insurance industry’s term for ownership of your book of business.

With many agencies, agents unknowingly sign over ownership of their book of business and future income earnings for a number of years, if the agent decides to leave.

I’ve talked with agents who lost tens of thousands of dollars in first-year commission and renewal income to these deals.

How do you find out if you’re vested or not?

Read the contract!

Further, ask the recruiting agent about vesting and ownership of your book of business.

If they squirm in their seat, treat that as a red flag.

 

Releasing

Ultimately, realize that ALL insurance sales job opportunities put their best foot forward when describing their career advantages.

For some, the “rainbows and sunshine” does not turn out, leaving many disgruntled, frustrated, and looking for a new insurance agency to join.

Here’s the problem…

Your current agency has no obligation to allow you to move your carrier contracts to the new insurance agency you plan to work with!

Why is that a problem? What if you have a good working relationship with a carrier despite your bad experience with the agency?

That means you’ll have to change up your carrier focus to something new, possibly missing out for a considerable amount of time (6+ months) before you can recontract with that carrier at your new agency.

Bottom line, as long as you don’t owe chargeback debt, all insurance agencies SHOULD release WHENEVER you request.

That’s how I work in my organization. Why? Because agents retaining the option of release holds me more accountable to living up to my word.

In fact, the MORE leverage you have working with a company, the better off your relationship with them will be.

 

Want To Learn More About Working With David Duford?

To learn more about contracting with David Duford’s national agency, reach out here.

We have access to all sorts of benefits for final expense agents, including:

• • Top contracts for new and experienced agents. David Duford recruits and operates at FMO/IMO levels, giving him buying power to offer commission levels to agents and agencies others cannot match.

• • Affordably-priced, high-quality lead programs for direct mail, Facebook, and telemarketing leads. David does not profit from the sale of leads, only referring you to sources with a track record of success.

• • An endless supply of top-notch prospecting and sales training at your fingertips.

• • Weekly sales training calls with David, ride-along training opportunities with David and his team, and direct phone/text access to David when you have case placement and sales questions (yes, David answers his own phone =).

• • Additional training and support for agents interested in cross-selling Medicare Advantage, annuities, or growing their own insurance agency.

Reach out to David by starting here. Talk soon!