This is singapore commission, for Malaysia is far lesser for the first year premium.

Malaysia's commission rate is steady decrease unlike Singapore. This is to maintain a healthy Persistency Ratio in the market. FYI, if first year premium is too high and significantly drop after 1st year, the agent will "lose motivation" to service the customer after the 1st year.

Yeah of course, because in insurance industry, about 60% are parttimer or no-timer. They don't bother to do the sales and every year about 15% of manpower being terminated.

If you look closely in Great Eastern's commission payout in year 2010.
Source: Bank Negara Malaysia. http://www.bnm.gov.my/files/publication/dgi/en/2011/L2.pdf

GE has paid out nearly 700millions of commission and we are having 16,000 agents and about 15% of agent are not doing any sales at all.

We can neglect 15% of the agent who are not doing any business at all(waiting to be terminated).
By simple mathematics, every agent averagely earning, 700,000,000/13,600(active agent)=RM51,470/year = RM4,289/month.

This is nothing to boost about it as RM4k+ can be easily reach by any average Kuala Lumpur executive who has been working for about 5 years in MNC.

However, we have to do a little mathematic to show real fulltimer's income as there are only about 30-40% of insurance agent are full timer.

I have no database to show the percentage of full timer's earn. However, as far as I know, a manager averagely earn RM15,000 and a Group manager averagely earn RM30,000.

Most of the agent do not provide PA and Travel insurance due to low commission. A travel insurance premium is about RM50-100(depending on the destination, days and coverage). Travel insurance commission is 10%, so per case earning about RM5-10, minus out the time, petrol and other expenses etc, you might making a lost. Unless it's for bulk or for the purpose of building relationship as per what you said.

A mediocre first year agent in my group is earning about RM2k to RM4k/month, not a high flyer, they can't afford Merc yet, but enough to sustain their lifestyle. However, my agents who has been working with me for several years tend to have >10k/month.

Sound like speak from experience
I'm not sure which agency/insurance company you went but it sounds sad.

Actually I'm curious why would someone sell their body for sales, it's not that insurance commission is so lucrative. Unless you are buying with premium up to twenty thousand. If for the mere few thousand premium, I don't see the reason, they can earn more by directly become prostitute...

Insurance is a long term commitment, what if the client refuse to pay after 2nd month? She needs to "service" every month? What if got 100 clients doing that? Unless s*x is her hobby, else I think she rather live a mediocre life Not to mention some disease have to take into account as well.

Without a proper education given to the client about the importance of insurance, client will tend to lapse the policy as he sees no point to continue it or he sees the "advantage" has over. (unless continuity of "service" is given)

My car key attract only ikan bilis Oh, go clubbing also got a lot of girl give free service without any charges. I think if there is such agent exist, they treated s*x as their hobby like those SYT(Sweet Young Thing) in clubbing. It's like a win-win situation for them.

I have once asked a client of mine which is a "small boss" the reason he bought from me but not those SYT. He told me that insurance is a long term commitment, and when shits happen, he want a reliable person to help him instead of these SYT. If he really want s*x, he can afford to pay for it.

Hmm.....
80% x 700,000,000 = RM560,000,000
20% x 16,000 = 3,200

RM560,000,000/3,200 = RM175,000/year. Sounds logic

Cool down John, I understand your frustration in OTS.

I do see a very healthy competition in between Great Eastern, Prudential and AIA. That kind of business model/strategic you mentioned are not long lasting as the client did not understand the real objective of getting insured and tend to lapse after several months/years.

PS:


Rest assure xinken, there are always bad apple in every industry, just that how you look at them.

Recent, there are also Doctor who punished for having sex with clients, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-28/doct...edicare/5122894. Canberra doctor had sex with clients during consultation, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/c...1128-2yc7z.html or Thailand stewardess and pilot performing sex in plane and prosecuted when the image leaked. If you still remember, 2 years back leaked the Korean model sex scandal where it involved with a lot of high profile actress/singer. But that doesn't mean that every of the doctor/stewardess/pilot/actress are doing that on operation/consultation/flight. Even you are not sure your boss relationship with your female colleague which are promoting in a very fast pace There are always bad apple in each industry and it depends on how you look at it, the most important is you are not the bad apple.

Insurance agent is only a job, a career, a business. It depends on how you treat your own career. There are several ways to manage it including ordinary personal insurance, retirement planning, business insurance, will writing, income replacement, employee benefit etc...

I didn't laugh at your 80:20 statement by the way. Did I?

Well, if I'm still remember, I agreed with the 80:20 ratio thingy. This is the ratio in life even when I were working in a corporate, all the SMT got 80% of the total salary whereas we as executive only got 2k+-3k salary

Life is about how you going to become the 20% but not condemn about why I'm not in the 20%. This is not applicable in life insurance business only, but in every aspect including how you manage your own life in corporate world. I've seen my ex-colleague keep on complaining the boss for not promoting him but in fact he doesn't know his current capability and the reason the boss promote another colleague of mine. Some of my friends condemn about why they do not have gf but didn't manage themselves to a better state.

A lot of agent are having less than RM500/month commission, yes, five hundred per month not thousand, why is it that? Well, a lot of new agent will lose motivation after rejected by their prospect only after a few times. So, by selling a few policies and able to maintain about RM500/month, isn't it is better than work as part time food promoter in Tesco?

My own group's retention rate is about 40%, so it's not an easy industry. However, if you able to strive hard for your goal by giving awareness to the public about the importance of insurance, give them the real reason of owning an insurance policy, after 2-3 years, you are most probably can earn about RM5-10k.

In the end, it's all about yourself toward your life, if you are good in IT, go ahead and workout a new software, if you are having a good your physical figure, go ahead and work as actress/model, if you are rich, go ahead and venture into a new business. But if you are non of them, at least this industry is a good platform to help you to earn a little fortune at your own hardwork. This is not a magic industry.

For PCE(Pre-contract Examination) and CEILLI(Certificate Examination In Investment-linked Life Insurance) amounting to RM90+RM85=RM175. Normally OTS will only take PCE as they are not selling investment link medical card. That's the reason Azurika said less than RM100. But in normal agency, it will cost more than RM100 because of CEILLI exam.

It's your responsibility to help the client for the claims as they entrusted you when they bought your service at first place. Agent's wealth are not accumulate from first year premium but more on renewal premium, when your client(policyholder) pay renewal premium from their credit card, you will get commission without effort, but you get commission, no?

Well, if you want to earn a living in insurance line, you cannot put commission as your priority. You have to put responsibility and client's priority at first place and then the commission will come eventually along. Else you can't even survive in this career as your prospect only see your eyes are full of dollar sign.

This post has been edited by ExpZero: Dec 2 2013, 03:25 PM

+1 for both of you