Insurance Career Counseling

One of the great things that the Insurance Training Academy offers to our students is optional career counseling. We know that, while making the decision to obtain your license is the first step, perhaps the scariest decision is what to do with that license. We can help with that. Within the insurance industry, there are many routes that one can take to build a career. This could be as an agent, customer service, working for an insurance carrier, etc. There are so many options, so how do you sort through them?

Many of our students are obtaining their license because the sales side of being an agent intrigues them.

There are many opportunities out there with many different types of agencies. There are independent agencies, captive agencies, and direct carriers. How do you know what to choose? Here is some more information on the options:

Independent Agencies represent multiple insurance carriers. This allows their agents to offer multiple products with multiple prices and gives more flexibility in the sales process. One of the major perks of this is when a customer calls in and inquires about their rates or a rate increase, the independent agency can offer pricing through a variety of other carriers. While representing a multitude of carriers brings a lot of benefit, it can also be challenging to learn all the different guidelines, coverages, etc. When looking for an independent agency it is very important to align yourself with one that will provide training and development so that you can best utilize your skills and offerings.

Captive Agencies represent one single carrier. A lot of times, captive agencies will get a lot of support from the carrier that they represent in terms of training, marketing, support. With most captive agencies, the “name brand” of the carrier is a big asset and creates a relationship with the clients and community.

Direct Carriers don’t have agencies. They sell directly to consumers typically from call centers or local offices. One of the downsides of this from a consumer’s perspective is that if you buy from a direct carrier, you don’t really have a point of contact when you call in.

There are plenty of opportunities on the insurance carrier side as well! Some of these, such as claims adjusting, require different licenses. In addition to claims, there are underwriting, customer service, sales representative, and many other roles that exist. If you have interest in working for a carrier, Insurance Training Academy has relationships that can help open that door.

A company that we recommend for new agents to talk to is Alpha Omega Insurance Agency (www.alphaomegainsurance.com) , one of the leading independent agencies in the DFW area. Their goal is to use their experience and expertise to help students make sound decisions in starting their insurance careers. Alpha Omega Insurance has opportunities for Full Time and Part Time work on both the sales and service side and has that dedicated Training and Development department that can prove to be so critical. We also realize that some students might be looking for a different opportunity and Alpha Omega has many relationships with other agencies -both independent and captive- and many of the leading insurance carriers!

Uncategorized

One thought on “Insurance Career Counseling

Leave a Reply to Mr WordPress Cancel reply