How One Life Insurance Agent Made Over $250,000!!!!!!! There isn’t an hour that goes by that I don’t receive a phone call or an email that starts out with a statement like that. It’s, of course, some life insurance company’s way of trying to get my attention so that I will look at their products and consider adding them to my portfolio. And don’t get me wrong. I would love to make all of the money they talk about, but it is almost 100% of the time going to put me in a position where the life insurance product becomes more important than the client. It’s going to put me in a position of selling life insurance products that I wouldn’t buy for myself or sell to my brother and it’s going to put me in a position where compensation becomes the drive behind my business recommendation. It may seem bizarre, but at this point and I would hope there never is a point where what I make becomes more important than solving my client’s problems and meeting their needs.

A couple of life insurance agents come to mind that were convinced I have been just plain stupid for making compensation for me a secondary concern. On the surface their argument makes sense. They say if you sell $200,000 of life insurance premium and your compensation averages 75%, you make $150,000 gross, but if you run your business through a general agency where comp would average 90%, my gross income would be $30,000 higher. Seems logical if all impaired risk general agencies were created equal, but like life insurance companies and life insurance agents, created equal is a stretch. I have used the same general agency, Special Risk Services, for the last 13 years because they have continuously come through for my clients. Other agencies, also because of the compensation override they make, steer agents to certain companies who then steer clients to those companies. Some of this is done blindly because XYZ company is easy to do business with and some of it is done with the full knowledge that they can do better for their clients, but they can’t do better for their own bottom line.

So am I the life insurance agent to go to if you’ve had trouble getting approved or feel like things should have turned out better? While my detractors above would try to make you believe that’s not the case and have even gone so far as to tell people, when they are asked about me, that I’m no longer in business, the answer is yes. My clients will tell you that I work hard until I have found and placed the best possible life insurance value for them. They’ll tell you that even then I keep on working for them, staying in touch and searching for ways to improve on what was the best rate we could get last time. Life insurance underwriting changes, evolves if you will, and just because you got a policy for $1000 a year this year, doesn’t mean that some company will see your impairment differently next year and approve the same policy at $800.

Bottom line. Am I on your side in meeting your life insurance needs? I am. My granddaughter asked me the other day why I like my job because she doesn’t see it as an exciting thing to do and I told her the most rewarding part of my job is when I successfully help someone who has run into problems getting life insurance for their family. Sounds hokey, I know, but my clients get what they need and deserve. If you have any questions or would like to see if I can improve on your last life insurance experience, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.