So I am a Fresh Graduate, 23 years old with a Bachelor's degree in finance with no job experience in my field other than some part-time job.

I have a friend who is very successful in his career as an AIA Insurance agent. After explaining to me how the commission scheme work, I was convinced that being an Insurance agent really have a lot of potential.

The reason I considering being an Insurance agent are because of the flexibility of hours, be my own boss, potential high income, and passive income. And I also working on my online business , so having flexible hours really helps. The only thing I hate about it, is the stereotype surrounding it and I don't really like sales that much however I am willing to step out of my comfort zone, if it can offer me the freedom and success (wealth).

However, there are family and friends advice me to work in a 9-5 job such as bank or other related field for few years to gain some experience first before being an Insurance agent. So if Insurance agent doesn't work out, at least I have the experience to get hire for other job.

So my questions is:

1) Is it best for fresh graduate to start working in a 9-5 corporate job first that offer stable income, or should I start with being an Insurance agent? Which is better?

2) If I work in a corporate job for a few years, will it be too late for me to start being insurance agent when I could already build a client base long ago?

3) If I work as an Insurance agent and it doesn't work out, will it be too late for me to find a stable job since I don't really have any experience in banking or finance other than insurance sales. And I would have wasted all my time as an Insurance agent and go back to square one with basis salary.

4) What is the success rate of being an Insurance agent?

I wanted the freedom and make a lot of money but afraid it would fail on me even with all the hard work and I would end up with no job

Any help from profession or anyone would be much appreciate
Thank you in advance for your kind assistance!

There is no cookie-cutter approach. No guarantees in life.

1) No best time
2) Not too late
3) Yes a bit late, because people will question your experience.
4) About 20% of insurance agents make 80% of the total pool of income out there. The other 80% of agents make only 20%. That means only 2 in 10 agents make a lot of money, the other 8 need to fight for a small piece of the pie. If I ask you play russian roulette where there is a 80% of you dying or severely injured would you play? But don't neglect the 20%. High risk high reward, and high failure too.

Being an agent is no freedom. Selling is basically your day job. No such thing as freedom. Even MLM agents have no freedom. They advertise their job as 'being your own boss' bla bla bla but they work as hard if not harder than regular corporate employees. That's how they get to the top? You think you can shake leg and earn RM20k a month? HAHA!

I'll challenge you 1 by 1, feel free to rebut:
- Flexibility of hours - Yes but if you no work you no income? Money drop from sky? You will work like a dog.
- Be my own boss - No such thing. You are not boss. You're probably part of a bigger team. Your customers is your boss. You just a kuli serving customers
- Potential high income - Yes, every job got potential to become high income. Who says banking/finance cant get high income? Who says regular 9 to 5 cant get high income? Whats so special about your insurance job that only this industry get high income?
Passive income - Insurance not the only one with passive income. If you invest in a good stock or a portfolio of stock is also considered passive income. If you invest in the market is also considered passive income. You invest in a good property with high rental yield is also passive income.


Im giving you no bullshit answer. Whether you want to take it or not up to you. Good Luck.

This post has been edited by Oklahoma: Jul 14 2020, 02:03 PM

my suggestion, go get a 9-5 job first. while at the same time go do part time insurance/ property agent.
I think after 6 months you will know which road you want to go.

So my questions is:

1) Is it best for fresh graduate to start working in a 9-5 corporate job first that offer stable income, or should I start with being an Insurance agent? Which is better?

Assuming a corporate Job starts with RM3,000 pay and a 4% increment per annum, 2 months bonus:
Year 1 (23): RM3000/ month, RM6,000 bonus
Year 2 (24): RM3120/ month, RM6240 bonus
Year 3 (25): RM3244/ month, RM6500 bonus
Year 4 (26): Assuming you get a promotion/ change job to Assistant Manager level, 20% increment: RM3,900/ month, RM7,800 bonus
Year 5 (27): RM4,056/ month, RM8,112 bonus
Year 6 (28): RM4,218/ month, RM8,436 bonus
Year 7 (29): Assuming you outperform KPI 10% increment, 3 months bonus: RM4,640/ month, RM9,280 bonus
Year 8 (30): RM4,825/ month, RM14,475

Insurance Agent:
Year 1 (23): Production RM5,000/ month, RM60,000 per year, 1st year comm 25%: RM15,000 = RM1,250/ month
Year 2 (24): Production RM7,500/ month, RM90,000 per year, 1st year comm 25%: RM22,500 + Year 1 comm RM15,000 = RM3125/ month
Year 3 (25): Production RM8,000/ month, RM96,000 per year, 1st year comm 25%: RM24,000 + Year 1 & Year 2 comm= RM4,000/ month
Year 4 (26): Production RM8,000/ month, RM96,000 per year, 1st year comm 25%: RM24,000 + Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 comm = RM24,000 + RM6,000+RM13,500+RM24,000 = RM67,500 per year/ RM5,625/ month
Year 5 (27): Promoted to Unit Manager with RM120,000 Direct group with RM96,000 Personal Production: Direct Group Overriding: RM18,000, Personal Sales: RM24,000 + Year 2- Year 4= RM83,500: RM101,500 per year/ RM9,125/month
Year 6 (28): Unit Manager with RM150,000 Direct Group with RM96,000 Personal Production: Direct Group Overriding: RM22,500 + Year 1 DG OR RM12,000, Personal Sales RM24,000 + Year 2 - Year5= RM89,000: RM123,500 per year/ RM10,300/ month
Year 7 (29): Unit Manager with RM180,000 Direct Group with RM120,000 Personal Production: Direct Group Overriding: RM27,000 + Year 1 - Year 2 DG OR RM27,000, Personal Sales RM30,000 + Year 2 - Year6: RM98,600: RM152,600 per year/ RM12,716/ month
Year 8 (30): Unit Manager with RM300,000 Direct Group with RM120,000 Personal Production: Direct Group Overriding: RM45,000 + Year 1 - Year 3 DG OR RM33,000, Personal Sales RM30,000 + Year 2 - Year 6: RM106,000: RM184,000 per year/ RM15,333/ month

I provide numbers from Year 1 - Year 8 for an average performer, *not the outstanding performer, commission assumption based on market average excluding production bonuses/ incentives.

2) If I work in a corporate job for a few years, will it be too late for me to start being insurance agent when I could already build a client base long ago?

If you are in corporate, you may choose to be a personal banker / relationship manager to build your future client base as well.

3) If I work as an Insurance agent and it doesn't work out, will it be too late for me to find a stable job since I don't really have any experience in banking or finance other than insurance sales. And I would have wasted all my time as an Insurance agent and go back to square one with basis salary.

If you are in insurance, you will be well trained to be a competent sales person, with the right certs and experience, I do not forsee a problem for you to land a corporate sales job. Corporate companies do hire seasoned sales agents to run sales for them, especially for experienced agents who are competent in the sales process.

4) What is the success rate of being an Insurance agent?

Success rate depends on a few factors:
1: Effort, how many people do you see per week, new relationships build, new cases opened. If you are willing to work hard with a steep learning curve, you may double my estimated $ above
2: Clientelle, how many prospects you have on hand on a monthly basis. If you can have the ability to regenerate your client list to a steady 50 new clients a month, you will be able to do a minimum RM120,000 production per year.
3: How long you can persevere without a salary, if you have a savings to lasts you 6 months and have minimal spendings, you are likely to be able to last through the most grueling stage. if you are a person with high commitment, it is advicable for you to build up the savings first.
4. Product Knowledge, just spend 2 hours to study 1 product. Focus on the best sellers which will be the top 4 - 5 products in the company. Total time spent 10 hrs. Read the write up, google the jargons, play around with different quotations.
5. Market, 1 RM30,000 case is easier than closing 10 RM3,000 case. If you have a good family backgroud or connections, you may be able to complete production targets more quickly. if you don't, it is your job to build up higher networth clients.

I see many agents succeed and fail, normally when the first 2 factors are managed well the success rate is 80%. If the first 2 factors are not managed, the failure rate is 80%.

I work full time in a bank and insurance as side hustle

Bank
- easy to find job in the future
- have more career choices 2 - 3 years later

Insurance
- high commision can earn 100k vs corporate 40k

but eventually give up on sales job, hate the daily process of cold calling and begging people to sign

to view being insurance agent like owning a business, i sort of agree. the downside of owning a business is let's not forget, every problem you gotta solve. client masuk hospital? they call you. Client want to make claim, they call you. money no masuk, they call you.

BUT please be more realistic and practical about 'flexibility' of hours. Being insurance agent is rewarding BUT really not easy. as with things in life, no pain, no gain.

Meeting clients usually happen when?
Weeknights, weekends because most ppl work on weekday (this is also similar to tuition teacher also la)

Other times what do you do?
You have to prep for the actual sales process. i dont do sales but i'm guessing, again, this takes up time too.

Doing sales job is the best/ultimate meritocracy job. Do more, work harder, get more $$$ (most of the time). this also mean, no do no rice to eat. Do corporate job, do more, bonus same with your neighbour who do 70% of what you do (which makes you feel dulan).

To be successful insurance agent, you also need to be 100% full time, else really can't. Most do part-time, they get discouraged, stop.

wait for more insurance agents in the forum to come give real and practical advise.

If you want to be an insurance agent, than don't go and apply for an office work where you are only seated in the office 9 to 5.

Apply to be a marketing/sales role, where you can travel and meet people.

If you are compel do to it, the chances of you failing is low. Thing is you haven't even started but already plan for an exit than you are most likely to fail.

1 - if you can take the hardship of working on your own than sales. The pro's of working for yourselves is far more than the con's if you put aside monetary values for NOW.
2 - nothing is too late.
3 - refer 2.
4 - this purely dependent on your skills and how compel you are towards your business. Working on your own than most likely 365 days is all working days if just starting out.

I have seen insurance agent who made it, open own agency, big cars big house.

I have seen insurance agents who can hardly make ends meet.

The only determination of success as an insurance agent is YOU and you alone. As a corporate, you do your share and you will contnue on comfortably. As an insurance agent, you dont put in the effort you drink end of month, literally.

how much have those successful insurance agent had invest in their business before success? time to layan customer that may not even sign, drinks/café on you when you approach your prospect, how many cold call that they did in a day, how they build their network?

If you do not have interest in sales to achieve KPI then don't waste your time, focus on your full time job and continue with your online business! It is never easy be your own boss since you run online business too...

Let's say you fail in 2 years as insurance agent and back to square one to compete with new batch fresh grads without experience, your chance being hired?

I sugg go with trad 9-5 job first.

Thank you for being brutally honest, I guess you right.

Really appreciate it!

+Jul 14 2020, 02:38 PM-->I'm quite curious, are you saying the average insurance agent earns this much after 8 years of working?

its your life, but I would strongly advised against this

You will have very low career progression should you choose to jump anyway beyond sales and you said it yourself, you dont like sales. There will only be so much ppl you can sign on, not to mention technology threats and digital insurance platforms cropping up. While others move up the ladder, you will just be there at sales

You need to put yourself in a position of flexibility and adaptability.

My advice? Take a corporate job and do insurance on the side (if banks then might be harder due to policies and regulation).

Im giving the number for an average performer, 3 cases / month. When promoted recruit 3 average performers with 3 cases / month.

Try to build a career through a corporate job first. Insurance agent can be a hit or miss. You can either do very well or you can do miserably.

+Jul 14 2020, 02:38 PM-->Thank you for taking your time to list this out!
That income is what really attracted me honestly. And from what you said being the 20% of people that are able to make that much on average is really better than 8 year in a corporate job.

Idk it is too good to be true 😂 and ofc I know I need to put in the amount of work and effort as well.

And I assuming you also an insurance agent?

Have you explore other options like real estate agent, or unit trust agent?

i have a friend. he's in IT banking industry and side hustle as insurance agent.

the company not doing so well, so he get to get full time salary + side hustle as insurance. we always persuade him to go full time insurance, but i guess due to uncertainty, in the end he still stick with full time job.

my advice, do both

Yeah, I did look into real estate agent but not in unit trust

It's quite different from my perspective. I have a lot of friends (20+) doing insurance and property. Only 1 managed to do well (unit manager in few years and is now a regional manager). A few of them doing ok, getting averagely 8-9k per month after years of effort. But most of them earning below average, quitting and rejoin 9-5 job after few years of trying. At bad times, some even get 0 sales for months.

As for corporate job, in my circle, my average performer friends are getting 5-7k after same years of experience. A few performing ones are getting 13k+ and 1 I know is getting 20k+. We also saved up a good sum of EPF which a lot of insurance/property agents don't have.

I think if you can perform, you will do well in both. But for average people, corporate job is better in terms of stability.

Why not real estate then ?

Actually, we do have a few insurance agents in these forums. wild_card_my is quite active, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing his personal perspectives on this issue - from what I understand and if I recall correctly, he started off with a bank and then went into insurance: so TS might get a different view of both aspects.

If he gets this tag, hopefully he'll have time to chip in!

1. Working in the bank has made me who I am. A little different than most agents that were recruited from other professions. What I am saying is that your first job defines you a lot. If you start off as an engineer then become an agent, your style will be different compared to mine who started off in banking

2. There are tons of agents that were recruited from other industries, those not even related to the insurance industry

3. This is my bigger worries. I know of ONE fresh-out-of-uni insurance agent that is successful - he's an agency manager, with the support of his sister who is also an agency manager. That is one out of hundreds of agents (and non-agents now) that I have met that made it. Everyone else (successful) started off in a different career path before taking this part-time, before eventually becoming a full-time agent, if they persist

4. I wouldn't know the actual numbers, but I can give my input anecdotally: quite low. I am looking at my uplines' success rate in recruiting quality agents. In the company that I represent, there are four levels of promotion - agent > unit manager > unit manager 2 > agency manager. To get promoted an agent needs to have a few downlines that are able to reach a set of sales target. e.g. to become a unit manager, an agent would need at least 1 recruit that does RM50k sales and 2 recruits that does RM25k sales a year

So these promotion-aspirants would do a recruitment spree - based on what I see, only about 1 out of 10 makes it and would last longer than a few years. People falter away after a while, never to be heard of again. It is not an easy job, and your recruiter may even mention this - "anything worth doing is not easy". But this applies to everything else, including your corporate job

It took me about 3 years with Prudential to buy my dream car. It was hard work and my style is different from most agents out there. As mentioned, I was a banker for quite a few years, so when I become an agent I was able to land on my two feet and started running; I didn't need any soft-skills nor sales knowledge training (not at beginners' level anyway), I only needed to learn about the products which are similar to the things I was already selling in my previous jobs. The bank made me who I am today, which tremendously helped, the same can be applied to corporate employees agents turned agents

About the perception of insurance agents - not much that you can do about it. You just have to be quite professional with yourself - I am not saying that you have to dress in corporate attire all the time, my daily "uniform" is just a dark blue shirt with jeans. Wear whatever makes you comfortable without being over-dressed. You have to be happy to announce to everyone that you are an agent. Your main job as an agent is to meet people. If you do not meet people because you are shy about being an agent then you would have failed the first requirement of being one

Thanks for tagging me. I'm always happy to share my thoughts on these matters.

This post has been edited by wild_card_my: Jul 18 2020, 08:03 AM

I see Insurance have a more long-term and passive commission than real estate. Or am I wrong? haha

Thank you for tagging someone with more knowledge / experience in this!

Just curious, if you don't mind me asking. What role you work as at the bank? And what make you leave and be an Insurance agent?

Depends on whether you are a licence holder or a negotiator.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1408800/+100?hl=Real%20estate

This post has been edited by mini orchard: Jul 19 2020, 08:47 PM

I was in sales. I left because it was either going up the ladder or expanding my sales network

I am very entrepreneurial. Stepping on other people's toes while climbing up isn't my cup of tea