“If You don’t see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner.” Zig Ziglar
This is a question you may have asked yourself or other. Insurance may also be an industry that you have never given serious consideration to as a viable career. But in trying to expose various career options to young people, those that will require post-secondary education at a 2 or 4-year college and those that will only require a high school diploma or GED, I decided that insurance is definitely an industry that has great potential. The insurance industry can provide a person with a stable career with substantial financial rewards. In addition, for many of the jobs in the industry, a person only needs to have a high school diplomas or GED.
Keep in mind that insurance provides a needed service to the public. People will always need insurance, whether it’s related to maintaining their health, providing for their love ones after they have passed on, protecting their future income for retirement, or protecting their home, business, or automobile. As a professional in the industry, you can be the one helping to provide that needed service to the public and be well compensated for what you do.
In our last post we also discussed a career that is part of the insurance industry. That is a career as an actuary. In that post, we let you know that to become an actuary will require at least a bachelor’s degree with other layers of training and certification. For this post we will explore 4 other insurance related careers that you may want to give serious consideration to. Those career paths are insurance sales agent, insurance underwriter, insurance claims adjuster/investigator, and insurance customer service representative.
Following is a brief overview of each of the four career paths mentioned above.
Insurance Sales Agent
When most people think of a career in insurance , they tend to think of the insurance sales agent. While there are other career paths to choose from in insurance, make no mistake about it, the insurance sales agent plays an extremely important and valuable role in the industry. These are the people that are on the front line with the public. Their main responsibility is to sell an insurance company’s product to the general public.
What insurance sales agents do is:
- they search out new clients for the insurance company and service existing clients;
- they gather information about a client’s insurance needs in relation to their current financial resources and future goals;
- they explain the features of their company’s insurance policies to prospective clients;
- they assist clients in selecting the most appropriate policy to suit their needs;
- they maintain the necessary paper and electronic records related to policies they have sold to clients;
- they follow up with clients regarding policy renewal and also new policy features.
There are various types of insurance policies a sales agent can specialize in and sale to clients. Those policy types are:
- Life Insurance — policies on individuals that will pay a cash benefit to a beneficiary when the insured person passes away.
- Health Insurance — policies to help cover the cost of medical, dental, and vision care. Medicare advantage and medicare supplement plans would also fall in this category.
- Long-Term Care — policies that will help pay for assisted-living services for the elderly.
- Property & Casualty — policies that provide protection from financial loss in regards to property damage, theft, automobile accidents, etc.
**Please Note**: Life and health insurance sale agents may also be involved in providing financial services, such as annuities and other securities, to their clients.
Educational Requirements For Insurance Sales Agents
A person interested in selling insurance, generally, only need a high school diploma or GED. Each state, however, does have licensing requirements before one is allowed to sale insurance to the public. Those requirements call for an individual to go through a training class in order to qualify to take a licensing test for whatever type of insurance they are interested in selling. Once a person is licensed in one state, then other states have a shorten process so that one can become licensed in additional states and have the ability to sell in various states.
Once licensed, a person can sell one-on-one to the general public or to businesses (where they sell group plans for employee’s benefit packages or policies that help protect the actual business from loss).
Nice Facts to Know
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project the growth rate for insurance sales agent to be at approximately 9% between the years of 2014 through 2024. This will add approximately 43,500 new jobs in this industry.
- U.S. News and World Report ranks the profession of insurance sales agent as #2 on their list of Best Sales and Marketing Jobs.
Salary Expectation
The average income for an insurance sales agent in 2016 was $48,200. Income in the profession is influenced by which compensation structure an individual is employed under (salary, salary plus bonus, salary plus commission, salary plus bonus and commission, commission plus bonus, commission only).
25% of insurance sales agents work directly for an insurance company and sell that company’s products exclusively to clients. This type of employment situation may carry a salary, salary plus bonus, salary plus bonus and commission or a salary plus commission type compensation structure. 50% of insurance sales agents work for independent insurance agencies and brokers, which may carry a compensation structure of salary plus commission, commission plus bonus, or commission only. 20% of insurance sales agents are self-employed which will most likely carry a compensation structure of commission only. As a result of the commission only compensation structure, many new sales agents may struggle (starting out) to earn a sufficient enough income to suit their needs. As a result, frustration may set in causing new agents to prematurely quit the profession and switch to other occupations. Due to this, the insurance sales agent profession experience a large turnover rate.
Insurance Underwriter
These are the professionals in the insurance industry that will evaluate a person’s application for insurance. Once an insurance sales agent submits an application from a client, then the insurance underwriter will evaluate the information on the application and make a decision as to whether insurance will be granted or not. The duties of an insurance underwriter include the following:
- analyze the information provided on an application for insurance to determine the risk involved in issuing the policy
- contact other resources, such as sales agent, medical personnel, law enforcement, etc. to obtain additional information relate to the applicant
- evaluate the recommendation given from the underwriting software they use and screen the applicant based on set criteria
- decide whether to offer insurance to the applicant
- determine what level of insurance an applicant will be granted and at what premium.
Underwriters are used in all types of insurance — life, health, long-term care, and property & casualty.
Educational Requirement
Employers may prefer to hire a person as an underwriter who has at least a bachelor’s degree. Some underwriters, however, have been hired as a result of insurance related work experience and strong computer skills (*note: underwriters rely heavily on computer software in performing their job duties).
Salary Expectation
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median income for an insurance underwriter in 2016 was $67,680.
Important Note
Due to advancement in computer software, insurance underwriting has become mostly an automated process which allows application to be processed in a much quicker manner. As a result, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an 11% decline in jobs for this profession, but please keep in mind that individual underwriters will still be needed to evaluate the recommendations given by the computer underwriting software being used.
Insurance Claims Adjuster/Investigator
When a person makes a claim against their insurance policy, it is the claim adjuster/investigator who will evaluate that claim and decide whether an insurance company must pay the claim and for how much. The duties of an insurance claims adjuster/investigator will include the following:
- determine whether the insurance policy covers the loss being claimed
- ensure that the claim is not fraudulent
- contact other individuals to gather additional information related to the claim
- consult with legal counsel as needed on a claim
- negotiate settlements and decide if a claim should be paid and if so for what amount.
Educational Requirement
A high school diploma or GED is typically required for a person to be hired as an entry-level insurance claims adjuster/investigator. In some instances, an employer may require that the person have a bachelor’s degree or some insurance related work experience. Typically, entry-level insurance adjusters/investigators receive on the job training working initially on small claims under the supervision of a more experienced adjuster/investigator. With increased experience, the entry-level adjuster/investigator is then assigned larger more complex claim cases to work on.
Good skills for an individual to possess for the adjuster/investigator role would be analytical skills, good communication skills, interpersonal skills, math skills and be detailed oriented.
Salary Expectation
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average income for insurance claim adjuster/investigator in 2016 was $63,680.
Employment Outlook
Growth in this profession is projected to be at 3% between 2014 and 2024, which will add approximately 9,800 jobs in the industry. This slow growth rate is stated to be the result of automation of the claim process as well as the production of safer automobile which will see lesser claims against automobile insurance.
Insurance Customer Service Reps
Customer Service Representatives are widely used in the insurance industry. In many cases they are the face of the insurance company for it clients. Some of the duties of the customer service representative are as follows:
- interact with customers either via phone, computer or in person
- respond to customer’s inquiries about the company’s products and services
- educate customers on policy features and future changes
- handle and resolve customer complaints
- process customer orders and calculate charges
- process customer billing and payments.
Educational Requirements
The educational requirement for an insurance customer service representative is that of a high school diploma or GED. After being hired, one would receive on the job training from their employer.
Salary Expectation
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average salary for a customer service representative during 2016 was approximately $15.53/hour. The job growth rate between the years of 2014 and 2024 is projected to be around 10%.
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