Young and joining Farmers?

Hello everyone,
Fist of I would like to say I am very glad I found this site. I have lost my job this year and been searching for a new career. I while ago I made my decision that an insurance agent is what I will be,

The problem of course is that I have no training or experience in the insurance field. So getting my foot in the door is quite the challenge. Recently I was contacted by farmers and have gone in for their interview. People have pretty much pinpointed on this site exactly how it goes and what they tell you.

Here's my dilemma, I need and want experience and the training they offer. Get my foot into the door of the insurance business.

Would it be advisable for me to work with them for a couple years to get he experience and learning and move on? Maybe search for a job at a IA office when I feel I have a grasp for how things work.

If so, is there any advise on what I should make sure I do while I'm there? perhaps keep personal copies of client information or suggest what info I should always print out?

Also, I heard them sell me of their generous offer of a subsidy plan.(debt?) any way I can bypass that or at least minimize it as much as possible so it wont hurt as much when/if I do leave?

I hear they have a no compete clause(16pages I heard someone say) lol
What exactly does that infer? If/when I go, I am never able to contact/deal with those clients ever again?

I don't plan to sell to my friends and family while working as a farmers agent. Later down the line in my career I intend to. I know this would probably handicap me severely during my beginning time with farmers as probably those are the client most new agents get first. Is it feasible or would it just make a hard first few years near impossible setting me up to fail?


In short, if you agents out there knowing all that you do now started out with no experience or training today, What and how would you handle it.

Is starting out with farmers to get my foot in the door in the insurance business a good idea at all? I'm young so I don't mind using some years in doing so. But would like the wisdom of those who have been around.

Thank you

If your want selling experience then jump into Farmers, expect no help from your DM or any in the District Office. You must sell x numbers of policies in a set period of time to career and then the subsidy BS begins. Basically, subsidy is a loan. If you fall out of the program you have to pay back.

You want to make it work for you. Do not buy any leads, get the free 21 Century leads and sell to them, monday mornings are best. Do the online training and forget about the Farmers University, it is a 4 day drinking fest.

Do not cross the 40 and 4 line, your final 3 months do not sell anything and get dropped. Now you have learned enough to go to work for an independent agency and probably do better in the long run.

The DM's want to get as many into the program to get one or two per years to cross to career and then one or two to cross to full agent in three years.

Do not spend a dime on leads, prepare to lose friends and have phone calls and all sorts of troublesome customers that will call you every name in the book once billing starts and screws with the policies.

We are looking for agents interested in going independent without recreating the wheel. The opportunity will include carrier appointments, technology, service team, and more. Do you know someone who may be interested in joining Goosehead Insurance? 949-338-4185 megan.bailey@goosehead.com

Naive01,

If you want to learn as someone who has 0 experience don't join Farmers. You will get very little training unless you have an awesome district manager (which you very will could, but it's hard to tell). I joined Farmers with 0 experience and my training was sh*t, but for me I wanted to make it work so I worked my tail off and now I'm doing very well with Farmers. Farmers isn't a bad company to work for if you have experience, money, or a very hard worker. I had only the latter, but I learned a lot from other agents and I learned from my mistakes and now I'm going to be with Farmers for a long time.

Right now I think Farmers is great, but I am disappointed on how many Reserve Agents they try to bring on who have zero experience and how poorly the training is (at least in my District). My suggestion is to work for a State Farm, All-State, or American Family agent, become their producer and gain experience from a successful agency and learn the business. Then if you still want to become your own agent, try getting a job with the company you're with or try Farmers. With experience, some money saved up, and if you work hard you'll do great with Farmers or any other company.

Good luck!

20+ year’s w/Allstate and I will tell you don't look to start with Allstate. Check out ALLBLUEBLOG.COM (w/4K+ Allstate agent members)owned by an ex-Allstate agent who was successful and saw the writing on the wall that Allstate is looking to get rid of a large number of agents and lower their commissions from 10%/10% (new/renewal) to 9%/9% starting Jan 2013. Also, the bonus possibility at the end of the year was getting harder and harder to achieve. In the past or in the beginning the bonus was set up to make the agents happy and most agents did receive a bonus. This well planned out bonus pool was spread out to many of the active agent’s; it seemed most agents were happy with it. The agents who worked hard were rewarded handsomely and the agents that plugged along with minimum growth made an acceptable bonus. All were pretty much happy! The last few years Allstate made it hard to achieve certain levels of success by using certain business practices to slow growth and use business practice to terminate agents for lack of growth. This tactic was used to legally fire thousand of agents for lack of production. In the past three years Allstate has terminated or downsized agency distribution points by around 3,000.

The changes have been fast and furious over the past 10 years, some good but the few that were bad hurt financially. You cannot use a business plan for your agency because Allstate makes to many changes during the year causing loss of income (cash flow to properly run your agency).
Also, they require a licensed sales producer (LSP) for a number of household (HH) that are insured in your business. In the past the number was much larger, around 1000 HH per LSP. Now many agents have found the new requirement put them short by one or two sales producers. Depending on your cost of living, each LSP could cost around $40K which comes out of your pocket plus the 10% drop in commission (from 10/10 to 9/9). The Allstate agent is now on pace to be the lowest paid and most worked with no guarantee of continued relationship. Allstate agents don’t have contracts only an agreement that can be changed any time.

Allstate is a stock company that has an extremely hard time being competitive with mutual and privately owned insurance carriers. You don't want to have anything to do with Allstate. Many of the good quality agents have left and or are looking to leave because of the direction of Allstate. The agent’s value of their agency has declined because Allstate has lowered their commission and require the agents to many man hours of intensive administrative work with each policy holder during the year. All tasks are monitored through the computer and have reports that are sent out to the agent showing where they stand monthly. These reports have a direct correlation to what your bonus is. There is a growth number, certification process for agent and staff, branding your office, life number of apps plus a large $$ number for any bonus. Allstate is only looking to pay out bonus money to the top 20% so they can pocket the rest for the company. Allstate has lost its moral compass so do you do diligence before coming to work for Allstate.
I am still with Allstate and looking elsewhere, I must tell you I have more respect for myself than Allstate has for me! Best of luck to you!

After 10 years as an agency owner and top producer for Allstate, MetLife, & Travelers, I can honestly tell you that this business is no fun, and you will make only enough money to barely pay your bills, in a good year. This has been my experience even when income exceeded $250K/year, and I was the sole producer. My suggestion is to become a public and private adjuster, then work for a public adjusters firm. This is much more interesting work and you can make a fortune, really, a ton of money. The best part is the personal gratification you will feel by getting the money a claimant truly deserves. One of the most disheartening parts of being an insurance agent, is that the insurance companies treat you like dirt, compensate you like a slave, and abuse their insureds once they become claimants. The insurance business no longer is about taking care of people who have devastating losses, it has become a finance industry that takes insureds money and then trys to keep as much of it as possible, for as long as possible, often at the expense, misery and hardship of those claimants it refuses to pay fairly and in a timely fashion. If adjusting claims in the private sector is of no interest to you, find some other line of work because you will be much happier. Agents garnish no respect from insurance companies, we are simply a sales force, that can be churned like the leaves of a tree every Spring. At age 62, I have no viable options - you do; finding your happy place is the most important element in any career.

Very well said, but I tell you, they dont treat thier employees any better. My ex Supervisor is so poor a supervisor, they only let him inspect cars now and have the other supervisor do field rides with the employees. This company honestly does trear everyone bad, I just not sure why. Very irrogant company.