Welcome to the jungle, the insurance employment jungle. Strap on your harness, it’s going to be a wild ride. Some people may assume that insurance employment is rigid and boring, consisting of buildings filled with actuaries and worker bees. In reality, insurance employment is fast paced, exciting, and highly competitive on every level from the mailroom to the executive offices.
The insurance industry has two main channels, the Field and the Home Office. These two halves of the insurance industry cannot function independently, but are consistently at war with each other, almost seeming to have two separate goals in mind.
Often, a person begins insurance employment in one of the channels and decides that life is easier on the other side, but the switch can be difficult because the cultures of the Home Office and the Field are vastly different. The Field is the sales channel of insurance, the face to the consumer. The Home Office is the main hub, creating, administering, and servicing the insurance products, working with the government, the Field, and individual consumers.
Insurance agents can work in an agency, that consists of owners, managers and several insurance agents, or can work independently from their home. Often, agents begin in an agency to learn the business before striking out on their own. Officially, the only education needed to be an agent is a high school diploma and an insurance license. However, a college education in finance or economics is highly preferred. Continued education is a requirement for an insurance license and takes about three days per year and an investment of $500 on average. Designations such as CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) are highly preferred and give credibility to an agent’s practice. Insurance employment in the field consists of helping clients find solutions to their insurance needs, mostly through selling life insurance and annuities. Life insurance is protection against dying to soon, while annuities are protection against living too long. The role of an agent is important because they often handle a client’s entire life savings and a poor decision can destroy a nesteff, leaving a client without money to live on, or can ruin the client’s chance to leave a legacy to their family or community. The industry is highly competitive, but those with strong relationship building skills and an aptitude for finance will be successful.
Insurance employment in a Home Office another route to take. There are a variety of positions available in departments including Executive Management, Actuary, Accounting, Marketing, Legal, Compliance, Customer Service, Claims, New Business, Licensing, Graphic Design, and Document Services. Insurance employment is possible in any of these areas without a degree, working in a clerical capacity. While some of the areas such as Actuary and Legal require highly specialized degrees, a person can work their way up through the ranks of other departments by continuing their education and building relationships across the company. Typically, a person begins in an enry level position in Customer Service or New Business either in a call center, or data entry position. They can attain positions as a team leader, manager, director and possibly vice president by taking business related college courses and attaining designations from LOMA or the American College. The marketing path is somewhat different. Marketing wholesalers begin in an inbound call center, moving to troutbound calls, then specialized areas such as training or recruiting. The highly coveted positions include significant travel, visiting field agents to build relationships and train them on products. Competition is fierce, especially in the marketing area because it is filled with sales-minded, driven professionals ready to pounce on promotions as soon as they are available.
Salaries vary greatly between positions, departments and companies. A Home Office employee in the mailroom may earn $19,000-$21,000 per year while a vice president may earn $150,000 to $200,000. Most entry level positions start from $24,000 to $30,000 per year, depending on if it is a call center or data entry position, and in what department. After five years of experience, depending upon department and function, insurance employment can pay $30,000 to $45,000 in administrative or marketing areas. Experienced professional attaining management experience can expect to ear $50,000 to $80,000 per year including bonuses and commission. Some companies are sending data entry jobs to places like India, where they earn a fraction of an American worker’s salary.
In the past, insurance companies had several employees completing one task only, so there were thousands of positions available at any time. Today’s environment is changing rapidly with the increased popularity of Six Sigma, or lean operations. Fewer employees are doing more work than in past years, so the competition is fierce for even lower paying positions. The future may bring increased globalization, sending positions overseas in order to decrease costs. After the crash of 2008, insurance employment has dropped significantly, due to companies tightening budgets to stay afloat.
The most effective way to attain insurance employment is to know someone in the industry. Insurance is based on relationships that make or break a person’s career. The other effective way to attain insurance employment is to apply directly to the company via a website. Send a resume to the Human Resources Manager with a cover letter expressing interest in insurance employment and highlighting saleable skills including previous phone and sales experience.
Insurance employment is fast paced and exciting. It is also rewarding as long as the end result is kept in mind. The purpose of the industry is to help consumers prepare for retirement and death, as well as to be protected with health insurance. Within the Field and the Home Office, the climate is intense, the competition is fierce, but the rewards are many. Insurance employment is a profession to be proud of, it is making a living from building relationships with clients and peers in order to help individual consumers to ensure they don’t outlive their money and their heirs are taken care of. The insurance employment jungle is waiting, are you prepared to tackle it?
