Who Wants To Help Plan My Life?

[Bushbr]

for those of you who don't know, I will give you the short and skiny version

last semester i was at a private college in Minnesota to be a pastor, I decided that wasn't what i wanted to do, so i moved back home to racine and am currently going to a tech school here in town. Im thinking of going into nursing, or some tech medical position, but i actaully started thinking

What classes and general steps does one have to take to become an insurance agent?

not the most exciting career line obviously, but its stable, makes good money, I'm garunteed to have insurance obviously, so i was just wondering if anyone here knows.

[Jeff_T]

A lot of insurance agents, etc. have business/finance degrees. You could try going to a comminity college and get an AA in business. I'm 2 semesters away from my Finance and Management degrees, woot. May also try some professional selling (marketing) classes. The better you are with sales, keeping clients the more you will make in that industry. My parents some friends that are agents, and are very good at it, who easily make over $100,000 a year.
So i guess what I'm saying is College > tech school...

Good luck with any venture though Edited May 17, 2008 by Jeff_T

[iron molly black]

I worked in an insurance sales office for a couple of years, we had about 10 agents. It is mostly a sales thing. You learn on the job about the products, what is right for whatever customer (and what will get you the best commission). It is not always the most ethical profession, I'll tell you that one right off the bat. Knowlege of finance will help, four year college degree is good. If you are a good sales person, and are willing to hustle, you can make very, very good money, get to be a general manager or district manager (you get a cut of commissions of the sales people working under you), and/or open your own agency. You have to have the right personality for it, though, be very, very aggressive to make the big bucks.

I'm talking about individual life/disability insurance and annuities here, too. Not auto/home. That's probably a bit different.

And are you guaranteed to have insurance? Nope. Our agents didn't. lol Just a commission check at the end of the month. I'm sure not EVERY agency runs like this one did, but I bet a lot of them do.

And, speaking as a former career counselor, I can tell you that ANYTHING in the healthcare field will be in high demand in years to come. You can't go wrong if you get training in a health care field. I would seriously consider it if you want a stable career with good benefits. Medical imaging (Ultrasound/MRI tech) is a really good one that doesn't require TOO much as far as advanced school/training, and pays really well.

[Tati]

Nursing FTW!!!!

Its a very demanding and stressful career, but very rewarding as well.
Medical imaging is also awesome, and you dont have to wipe peoples butts...usually...

The insurance biller that works in my clinic works 3 days a week and makes enough money to be a successful single mom. You will always have a job there.

You could also be a realtor, make tons of money by selling houses. Mostly commission tho...

[NickReppinThe909]

LAW ENFORCEMENT !!!!!!!

drive around all day with a friend, help people and make the world just that much safer

plus you get to drive a kickass car (my county has V8 chargers now) and are required to shoot every month

[MechAnt]

Accounting. Not the most exciting of careers but it opens doors to a whole plethora of opportunities in the business world. Once a CPA License is acquired, 100k+ a year is easily attainable. I'm glad my school has an awesome program in accounting and has a job pretty much lined up for me with Ernst & Young. I'm excited

[Jeff_T]

Accounting. Not the most exciting of careers but it opens doors to a whole plethora of opportunities in the business world. Once a CPA License is acquired, 100k+ a year is easily attainable. I'm glad my school has an awesome program in accounting and has a job pretty much lined up for me with Ernst & Young. I'm excited

I was so close to jumping on the accounting path in my college of business, but decided on finance. Congrats with almost being done and the prospected job, hope all goes well.

Accounting is def. another great option and there a lots of jobs available with a degree and esp. a CPA. Going with this route you would have to weigh the cost of 4 years or so in school, time and money invested as well as the opportunity cost of missing out on the work you could have done in those 4 years (money could have possibly earned). I would imagine that getting an accounting degree would be well worth it for the current opportunity cost. Edited May 21, 2008 by Jeff_T

[liquidglass]

I actually work for Northwestern Mutual Financial Corporation as a financial rep. I'm working on my masters and my JD but I had the job with Northwestern before I got my BBA. So you don't have to have a degree, seriously.

I personally recommend Northwestern for a few reasons: there are tons of perks for full time. They've been around 150 years so not a big chance they're going under any time soon. The pay for all your classes you would need to obtain your various insurance licenses. Plus I trust the product (insurance). They don't try to rip people off, and they stick to what they say. They also are one of the number one insurance companies in the country with the highest rating possible from 4 out of 5 of the independent insurance rating companies.
And one more thing: they have the highest return rate on insurance policies (dividends paid to the owner) around 7.5% right now.

And one of my favorite things about them. Even though 'acts of war' (read 9/11) are not covered under ANY insurance policy in the USA. Northwestern paid out all the claims (paid out the most claims of any company in the US) against the deaths that day and had the checks in the families hands within 4 days. I know money isn't everything and I know that it won't bring someone back, but it helps relieve stress on families concerning financial issues.


I could go on and on lol but the long and the short of it is: I know what to look for in the financial world and this is one of the few companies I trust enough to work for. I wouldn't sell/recommend it (I'm even careful about outside companies i recommend to people if we can't help them) if I didn't trust it.


and I'm not trying to advertise just saying if you want to do the insurance business, this is the company for you.
you just have to be driven to do it, you can't sit there and expect it to happen for you.

PM me if you have any questions.

[liquidglass]

just to add on, anything in the financial field is a good thing to do, if you have the drive and the ability. Like accounting, while I was working on my Trust and Wealth Management degree I had to do some of it....I can do it, but damn it's frustrating lol.