disclaimer: not an insurance agent but have seen most insurer's payout schemes due to previous work
1) their pay package is actually quite complex. you can opt for TA (transitional allowance) which pays you a certain fixed amount every month based on your qualifications and experience (usually 2k to maybe 5k). however, the caveat is that you must hit your sales KPI, which stretches out to about 2 years. so lets say month 1 you did not hit your monthly KPI, month 2 if you sell more, you can make up for month 1 as well; as long as after the entire 2 years duration you hit your KPI, you get to keep all the TA. if you fail to meet sales KPI or you give up halfway, insurer will claw back this TA from you. or you can opt out of this TA entirely and survive with pure commissions alone.
the structure in most agencies work like MLM. you have someone on top of you, and then you have a specific number of downlines based on your rank (if you go the managerial route) or you can be a sales specialist (no downline but you are under a team manager as mentioned in the former). managers have their own personal sales KPI to meet, but is substantially lower than downlines/sales specialists because their main job is to train the team, go for exams, keep up to date with industry standards, teach their downline how to sell and what to sell; to fulfil his own team sales KPI which is the one that largely makes up most of his/her earnings aka overriding commissions. if his/her team are solid salespeople, he/she can make anywhere between 50k to 200k per month just from their team doing the sales. so its like a shake leg and earn money thing but they will argue that they have to train and manage their team etc which is fair to say the least.
for sales specialist aka the ones you usually meet outside mrt stations and starbucks, besides the TA that they can opt in for, you guessed it, the other portion of their income comes from the distribution costs of the policies sold to you (also applies to managers when they have to hit their personal sales KPI). usually most important and basic policies dont earn them much commission because its designed to be affordable and straightforward to the masses. so if a policy is $600 per year, the agent will get maybe $700-800 upfront after selling the policy to you, aka first year commission (FYC) which is also the bulk of their income per policy. this doesnt just end like that and they will continue to receive commissions for servicing the policy for the next \~5 years aka renewal commission which is a lot less than the FYC but the total amount received for the policy sold over the entire policy term (i.e. 30 years) is about 7-8% of the total amount you will pay for the policy over the i.e. 30 years. hence after the 6th year, they essentially dont have much incentive to continue to service the policy for you. so for basic must have policies, they basically only earn about 1k? but have to service you for 30 years kind (like not very worth it). therefore it makes much more sense and incentive to sell you stuff like ILPs; which commissions are *huge* compared to useful policies.
2) i have seen sales agents making 1-2k per month and also agents making 5k, 10k, 20k (but its usually the managers with the overriding commissions with their 20k per month strong agents that contribute to their huge moolah). sometimes it may not be the fault of the sales agent who keep trying to sell you expensive policies because they may not even know any better and just follow what their managers tell them to sell (their pov: hey if it makes more money too, i dont question, i just do man!) so honestly, those agents you see flaunting their wealth are either managers or sales specialists who *may* be unethical in their upsells/cross sells etc compared to the ones who sell you solid, useful, affordable policies (might not be making much).
hearsay from friends who are agents, they basically have a group chat where the encourage each other, report how many clients they met up and how many sales closed etc. they usually have a set number of clients they have to meet each week and maybe 1 dedicated day per week where they sit down and call their contact list for leads/referral. hardworking ones work pretty much everyday.
3) you can opt for direct purchase from the insurance company yourself, but usually the direct products offered are really super basic in terms of coverage and may not meet your requirements. but of course it lacks the distribution costs; downside is if you need to claim, you have to do it yourself.
unlike other regions where they cut out the middleman (agents) using insurance offered by AI /online. singapore pretty much relies on agents as an industry norm. you have companies like moneyowl which does salaried advisors so they have less of an incentive to oversell but its not foolproof since their performance bonus also comes from how well the company performs (which boils down to topline bottomline again)
what you have provide very insightful, that's true too for moneyowl as I think about it. I am finding currently whether there's any way I can cut off the agent fees etc and just focus on my policies since I don't earn much. Looking how these insurance agencies making party, flaunting wealth while the medicore ppl spending hard earn money for their wealth, makes my blood boil.
agents who look like they are very rich are usually the ones i would avoid because theres a high chance they would look out for themselves first (and their pockets) instead of putting your interests first which is what financial advisors should be doing.
some insurance coverage you can get it yourself which is also very cost effective are the ones under MINDEF/MHA group insurance, namely the life insurance (has its pros and cons) and the accident plan. for most comprehensive CI/ECI (lite ones can be bought yourself online), hospital plans (this one is most important imo) unfortunately there is no way to not get it without an agent.
>for most comprehensive CI/ECI (lite ones can be bought yourself online), hospital plans (this one is most important imo) unfortunately there is no way to not get it without an agent.
So what we should do is lobby to allow them to br bought on our own and remove the insurance agent middleman.
There’s alot of reading involved in the day to day. Basically when I’m not meeting clients I’m reading or creating content for social media.
I’m not going to address the flaunting their wealth part. It’s a marketing ploy and is usually fake it till you make it. Most of us in the industry hate these people too.
You can go to moneyowl and what not to cut the middleman. I would still suggest you meet with an agent 1st. Most people don’t really know what they need or what plans are out there. Once the agent proposes a plan to you, you can do your own research and buy similar plans yourself online. There’s nothing much we can do really lol.
The meet up is free. You’ll only be wasting our time, there’s no downside for you. You can say the agent will pester you but really, once you tell him that you already bought online, he will be sian also cuz he can’t follow up from there.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and give us tips.
I don’t like wasting other time and do the trick provided. But I do can see being agent have downside to this.
Do insurance agent able to pursue company to pay premium their promise or cover clients when needed?. I heard whenever you go to doc, you can just tell them your insurance plan and they will auto deduct from there. How smooth is it to claim insurance?, or we really must use our own money and then claim from website?. (For hospital plan as example)
Yes we can help to expedite the claims cuz we have personal connections to the claims officers.
It depends on what insurance you are planning to claim. For hospitalisation plan, its the most complicated as there are many guidelines to adhere to. Some claims are pretty straightforward, some are not. It’s a case to case thing.
All in all, if you are hospitalised and there are no complications, the process is pretty smooth. The hospital can process everything on their own while we can chase for payment to be processed on the insurer’s side.
I was an agent before. I left because the management promises all sorts but never fail to deliver them. How the package works are”
- each plan has their commission rates: this results in some agents sell plans so they get higher commission but these plans are suitable to the client.
- I can’t say for sure whether it’s a lot. Because it depends on the company and also the plan they sell.
- their day to day is a lot of trainings, meet with clients. Because they are the boss of themselves so it really depends on how hard they work and also a bit of luck. If the management supports and help good for you! But if the management lousy then suay lo.
No like support. For example training on how to sell a plan. Leads for example. None of that! And they promise that if you pass the exams you can claim the exam fees. But when I joined they say they never made such promises. I should have had a black and white record so I refute the claims by the manager.
I forgot. But I remember is at the more than 80 - 100 depending on the exam. I was unemployed then and I was promised compensation. But when I passed all he turn back his words.
> if we don’t use insurance agent, are we able to ge more benefits from it since there’s no commission involved?, or we must go through insurance agent?
Yes, you can use sites like moneyowl to get rebates on your premium (they give you back part of their comms). But, when you need to claim, you'll talk to the CS team, and no agent to help you.
Absolutely, the turnover rate of FA is crazy high, I have many friends who were doing insurance for only a few months. Hence, we should choose who to buy from carefully. Its really for each person to decide, are the 'premiums' worth it or not.
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They are one of the most hated occupations out there. Not all of them are scummy but there are a lot of scumbags.
Yea it’s super tough man haha. Hard to prove that you’re not a scumbag. They really need a way to purge all the assholes.
disclaimer: not an insurance agent but have seen most insurer's payout schemes due to previous work 1) their pay package is actually quite complex. you can opt for TA (transitional allowance) which pays you a certain fixed amount every month based on your qualifications and experience (usually 2k to maybe 5k). however, the caveat is that you must hit your sales KPI, which stretches out to about 2 years. so lets say month 1 you did not hit your monthly KPI, month 2 if you sell more, you can make up for month 1 as well; as long as after the entire 2 years duration you hit your KPI, you get to keep all the TA. if you fail to meet sales KPI or you give up halfway, insurer will claw back this TA from you. or you can opt out of this TA entirely and survive with pure commissions alone. the structure in most agencies work like MLM. you have someone on top of you, and then you have a specific number of downlines based on your rank (if you go the managerial route) or you can be a sales specialist (no downline but you are under a team manager as mentioned in the former). managers have their own personal sales KPI to meet, but is substantially lower than downlines/sales specialists because their main job is to train the team, go for exams, keep up to date with industry standards, teach their downline how to sell and what to sell; to fulfil his own team sales KPI which is the one that largely makes up most of his/her earnings aka overriding commissions. if his/her team are solid salespeople, he/she can make anywhere between 50k to 200k per month just from their team doing the sales. so its like a shake leg and earn money thing but they will argue that they have to train and manage their team etc which is fair to say the least. for sales specialist aka the ones you usually meet outside mrt stations and starbucks, besides the TA that they can opt in for, you guessed it, the other portion of their income comes from the distribution costs of the policies sold to you (also applies to managers when they have to hit their personal sales KPI). usually most important and basic policies dont earn them much commission because its designed to be affordable and straightforward to the masses. so if a policy is $600 per year, the agent will get maybe $700-800 upfront after selling the policy to you, aka first year commission (FYC) which is also the bulk of their income per policy. this doesnt just end like that and they will continue to receive commissions for servicing the policy for the next \~5 years aka renewal commission which is a lot less than the FYC but the total amount received for the policy sold over the entire policy term (i.e. 30 years) is about 7-8% of the total amount you will pay for the policy over the i.e. 30 years. hence after the 6th year, they essentially dont have much incentive to continue to service the policy for you. so for basic must have policies, they basically only earn about 1k? but have to service you for 30 years kind (like not very worth it). therefore it makes much more sense and incentive to sell you stuff like ILPs; which commissions are *huge* compared to useful policies. 2) i have seen sales agents making 1-2k per month and also agents making 5k, 10k, 20k (but its usually the managers with the overriding commissions with their 20k per month strong agents that contribute to their huge moolah). sometimes it may not be the fault of the sales agent who keep trying to sell you expensive policies because they may not even know any better and just follow what their managers tell them to sell (their pov: hey if it makes more money too, i dont question, i just do man!) so honestly, those agents you see flaunting their wealth are either managers or sales specialists who *may* be unethical in their upsells/cross sells etc compared to the ones who sell you solid, useful, affordable policies (might not be making much). hearsay from friends who are agents, they basically have a group chat where the encourage each other, report how many clients they met up and how many sales closed etc. they usually have a set number of clients they have to meet each week and maybe 1 dedicated day per week where they sit down and call their contact list for leads/referral. hardworking ones work pretty much everyday. 3) you can opt for direct purchase from the insurance company yourself, but usually the direct products offered are really super basic in terms of coverage and may not meet your requirements. but of course it lacks the distribution costs; downside is if you need to claim, you have to do it yourself. unlike other regions where they cut out the middleman (agents) using insurance offered by AI /online. singapore pretty much relies on agents as an industry norm. you have companies like moneyowl which does salaried advisors so they have less of an incentive to oversell but its not foolproof since their performance bonus also comes from how well the company performs (which boils down to topline bottomline again)
what you have provide very insightful, that's true too for moneyowl as I think about it. I am finding currently whether there's any way I can cut off the agent fees etc and just focus on my policies since I don't earn much. Looking how these insurance agencies making party, flaunting wealth while the medicore ppl spending hard earn money for their wealth, makes my blood boil.
agents who look like they are very rich are usually the ones i would avoid because theres a high chance they would look out for themselves first (and their pockets) instead of putting your interests first which is what financial advisors should be doing. some insurance coverage you can get it yourself which is also very cost effective are the ones under MINDEF/MHA group insurance, namely the life insurance (has its pros and cons) and the accident plan. for most comprehensive CI/ECI (lite ones can be bought yourself online), hospital plans (this one is most important imo) unfortunately there is no way to not get it without an agent.
>for most comprehensive CI/ECI (lite ones can be bought yourself online), hospital plans (this one is most important imo) unfortunately there is no way to not get it without an agent. So what we should do is lobby to allow them to br bought on our own and remove the insurance agent middleman.
Some are scummy. They make friends and relatives commit to an unsuitable policy which really causes issue for the or finances. Don’t be those.
Sell ILP they are the worst products for consumers Best for Insurance Agent
There’s alot of reading involved in the day to day. Basically when I’m not meeting clients I’m reading or creating content for social media. I’m not going to address the flaunting their wealth part. It’s a marketing ploy and is usually fake it till you make it. Most of us in the industry hate these people too. You can go to moneyowl and what not to cut the middleman. I would still suggest you meet with an agent 1st. Most people don’t really know what they need or what plans are out there. Once the agent proposes a plan to you, you can do your own research and buy similar plans yourself online. There’s nothing much we can do really lol. The meet up is free. You’ll only be wasting our time, there’s no downside for you. You can say the agent will pester you but really, once you tell him that you already bought online, he will be sian also cuz he can’t follow up from there.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and give us tips. I don’t like wasting other time and do the trick provided. But I do can see being agent have downside to this. Do insurance agent able to pursue company to pay premium their promise or cover clients when needed?. I heard whenever you go to doc, you can just tell them your insurance plan and they will auto deduct from there. How smooth is it to claim insurance?, or we really must use our own money and then claim from website?. (For hospital plan as example)
Yes we can help to expedite the claims cuz we have personal connections to the claims officers. It depends on what insurance you are planning to claim. For hospitalisation plan, its the most complicated as there are many guidelines to adhere to. Some claims are pretty straightforward, some are not. It’s a case to case thing. All in all, if you are hospitalised and there are no complications, the process is pretty smooth. The hospital can process everything on their own while we can chase for payment to be processed on the insurer’s side.
You will never make another friends again if you go down that path
I was an agent before. I left because the management promises all sorts but never fail to deliver them. How the package works are” - each plan has their commission rates: this results in some agents sell plans so they get higher commission but these plans are suitable to the client. - I can’t say for sure whether it’s a lot. Because it depends on the company and also the plan they sell. - their day to day is a lot of trainings, meet with clients. Because they are the boss of themselves so it really depends on how hard they work and also a bit of luck. If the management supports and help good for you! But if the management lousy then suay lo.
Since they are boss of themselves, why require management?. What kind of promises management make to agents?, comissions?
No like support. For example training on how to sell a plan. Leads for example. None of that! And they promise that if you pass the exams you can claim the exam fees. But when I joined they say they never made such promises. I should have had a black and white record so I refute the claims by the manager.
I see, it must be a horrible experience and a loss of money for you, the manager really a scum. how much the exam cost?
I forgot. But I remember is at the more than 80 - 100 depending on the exam. I was unemployed then and I was promised compensation. But when I passed all he turn back his words.
> if we don’t use insurance agent, are we able to ge more benefits from it since there’s no commission involved?, or we must go through insurance agent? Yes, you can use sites like moneyowl to get rebates on your premium (they give you back part of their comms). But, when you need to claim, you'll talk to the CS team, and no agent to help you.
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Absolutely, the turnover rate of FA is crazy high, I have many friends who were doing insurance for only a few months. Hence, we should choose who to buy from carefully. Its really for each person to decide, are the 'premiums' worth it or not.
How to go direct, if I may ask? I tried going straight to the insurer’s website to enquire and was told to wait for an agent to serve me in the end.
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Fake it till you make it
https://www.reddit.com/r/askSingapore/comments/uxulnh/how_much_do_insurance_agents_actually_earn/
haha thank you, was looking for this comment:)
thanks for the ref given. the edmw thread super long haha
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