What is a life insurance broker?What can you do for me?

Do I need to find a life insurance broker before applying for an insurance policy?What does the broker do?What is the relationship with insurance companies and insurance agents?

When you are ready to purchase life insurance, please seek help from a professional who holds a U.S. life insurance license.Among the most common roles,It's a life insurance broker.

Life insurance licenses issued by the insurance bureaus of the U.S. state governments,Is the most basic requirement of the profession.Before you choose a financial insurance product, please make sure that the other party has a government-issuedLicenseAnd understand what the other party representsBrokerage Agency.

The job of a life insurance broker is to communicate with potential customers on behalf of the insurance company and to escort them.Finding a professional who knows insurance products well can save you a lot of time and money.This article will explain in 4 chapters:

• The role of a life insurance broker
• How much does it cost to ask a life insurance broker
• What are the advantages of working with a life insurance broker
• What are the disadvantages of working with a life insurance broker

The role of a life insurance broker

A life insurance broker is someone who can answer any questions you have about life insurance policy products when you are just about to buy life insurance.A small number of life insurance brokers have also obtained the title of professional certification certification. They can call themselves life insurance consultants or insurance financial consultants.

A life insurance broker sells insurance policies to the public, but he/she must first figure out which type of policy is right for you, and which type of policy meets your financial situation and protection needs.

All life insurance brokers must hold a government-issued insurance broker license, study certified courses and pass the government's insurance broker examination.Therefore, life insurance brokers must have a good understanding of all the details of the insurance company and have the ability to answer all your insurance-related questions, such as:

• Do you need term life insurance or a whole life policy?
• What insurance policy do you need?
• What are your specific needs and which policy product can meet one by one

Life insurance brokers are better at assessing your needs than others.In addition to letting you buy the right insurance, it also helps you choose an insurance company with reasonable rates.For example, if you have certain medical records and history, or if you are underwriting risks, different insurance companies may come up with different underwriting judgments.At this time, a life insurance broker can help you compare insurance companies and look for insurance policy products that are more suitable for you in terms of health history.

Depending on your health, such as history of illness, smoking, and drinking habits, certain insurance companies may be more suitable for you.Before we prepare to meet with a life insurance broker, let’s get to knowLife Insurance Agent (Broker)和Life Insurance Broker (Agent)The difference.

The difference between a life insurance agent (Broker) and a life insurance broker (Agent)

The concept of Broker/Dealer comes from the securities industry.There is no corresponding uniform standard in the life insurance industry.

In daily understanding, the relationship between a life insurance agent (Broker) and a life insurance broker (Agent) is similar to the relationship between a real estate agent and a real estate agent.They can all represent insurance companies and sell you life insurance policies.

In order to facilitate understanding, from a practical point of view, what we call a "Broker" is also an individual, only acting for the products of multiple different insurance companies, while the Agent directly sells the products of a certain insurance company.Both are legal individuals, and there is no problem for customers to choose either party to purchase insurance. Agents can also choose to sign contracts with a company operated by a Broker for agency sales.

Please note that in the interpretation of California insurance-related laws, "Insurance Broker" refers to an individual who performs insurance compensation and other related activities on behalf of others (insurers), and does not represent an insurance company.The government does not have this type of "Insurance Broker License" issuance.This is not the same as Broker we verbally said.emphasize again,The insurance "Broker" we usually verbally refer to, in essence, refers to a strong individual or agent (Agent) who holds a broker's license..The following summary of experience will be described in detail.

Most of the time, life insurance brokers (Agents) are independent individuals.They may have a superior company, or they may not.

The former means that they work directly for a fixed life insurance company, called Career Agent; the latter, called "Independent Life Insurance Brokers (Independent Agent)", means that they can join a network of different sales channels. Sell ​​the products of different life insurance companies.

The following is a column editor's personal experience sharing and summary on common sense of American life insurance industry, easy to understand, recommended reading:

1. To sell an insurance, an individual must first hold a life insurance broker license, otherwise it is illegal.
2. American insurance companies are only responsible for issuing life insurance products, and sales are done by life insurance brokers (Agent).
3. The Life Insurance Broker Agent signs contracts and chooses different agency companies or channel networks to sell products as agents.
4. In the end, the insurance policy product purchased by the customer is a legal contract between the insured and the insurance company, and the customer directly settles the claim with the insurance company.

In the U.S., as long as it can passLife Insurance Broker Exam, You can get the life insurance broker license and get the qualifications.Then you can choose (or be recruited) into different product agency companies or sales networks to sell different life insurance products.

If this person has good sales performance, he can also choose to open a company independently, sign a larger agency network channel, or directly contact different insurance companies for product agency, thus becoming what we often call "Broker (insurance agent)" . He can give his company a good name, such as "XX Wealth", "XX Financial Insurance", "XX Family Office" and so on.At this time, Ta can sign different insurance company products to sell, and at the same time, it can also recruit other brokers to sell the products signed by Ta.

Ta can also choose to associate with a life insurance agency sales agency to take the professional service route based on personality, cost and many other factors, or choose to become an employee of a family life insurance company.In general, this mode of practice and sales is similar to that of the real estate industry in the United States.

Summary: For clients who intend to insure or carry out asset insurance financial planning, whether they are facing lawyers, accountants, securities dealers, neighbors and friends, or facing the name of the wealth management planning "group" or "private wealth" "Management consultant", "XX Family Office", as long as the last product traded is a life insurance policy, then the counterparty is an individual life insurance broker or a group of life insurance brokers, not a life insurance company that issues policy products.

The most important thing is to choose a suitable broker, bypass the heavy packaging and marketing, receive the correct insurance education, and carefully communicate with professional brokers (life insurance consultants) and professional insurance policy customer design, so that customers can gain a reward. A specific product that suits your immediate interests.

Multi-level marketing insurance broker

In the U.S. life insurance market, there are also MLM (Multi Level Marketing, multi-level marketing agencies) independent insurance brokers, and the number is quite large.

The core business model of a multi-level marketing insurance broker or brokerage company isRecruit customers and increase staff (commonly known as: development offline).Therefore, in the face of this situation, the policyholder may be in a natural disadvantaged position.There has always been a huge controversy in the market.

How much does it cost to ask a life insurance broker?

free.In most cases, if you seek help from a life insurance broker, you do not need to pay a salary. How does a life insurance broker (Agent) make money?

The insurance company draws a certain percentage from the premiums of the insurance policies it sells and pays it to the life insurance broker or agent. This is the commission.

The amount of commission has been fixed in the premium.The premium is set by each state, and each insurance company's policy will have a benchmark value, which is roughly all the money you pay.Before an insurance company issues a product, it calculates the cost, builds a price list and submits it to the insurance bureaus of each state.

These costs are predetermined, unless you directly negotiate the pricing with the insurance company that issued the policy, which is also very rare.

In addition, there is a group of holders of life insurance brokerage licenses, professional financial consultants, etc. They may rely on professional service fees instead of commissions to make money. Although this situation exists, it is very rare.

What are the advantages of working with a life insurance broker

Rather than buying insurance on your own, you may be more willing to consider hiring a professional as your adviser.We also advocate this, and one of the purposes of the American Life Insurance Guide Network is also:

"American Life Insurance Guide Network©️ aims to remind the public of the important role professional insurance personnel play in helping families, businesses and individuals find the most suitable insurance products for their needs."

The U.S. life insurance market is very competitive, and products are updated with each passing day. At the same time, systematic Chinese life insurance knowledge and information are relatively scarce.For an ordinary user, it is full of difficulties to obtain the correct information. The information obtained from different channels and positions will be very different, which is very likely to confuse you.But by seeking the help of a professional life insurance broker with excellent professional ethics, you can avoid all kinds of misleading and grasp the nuances of various life insurance products.

In addition to letting customers know about insurance, life insurance brokers can also accompany you to apply for insurance throughout the process.If you apply for life insurance on your own, it often means wasting time in aimlessly waiting, which will add anxiety and uncertainty to yourself.With the help of a life insurance broker, you can avoid these problems and enter a professional application process.

If you apply for life insurance, but you are denied insurance (for example, because of physical health reasons or disease history file information is not fully disclosed, or the insurance company temporarily believes that the risk of guaranteeing you is too great), someone will keep all the information for you Critical.Once you improve your physical condition and living habits, or provide complete supplementary information, the life insurance broker can immediately apply for you again.

Life insurance brokers can also provide you with more options, such as guiding applications that they are already very familiar withVarious fringe benefits clausesand so on.These are the advantages of working with a life insurance broker.

What are the disadvantages of working with a life insurance broker?

Earlier we learned what the advantages are, now let’s take a look at the disadvantages.

First of all, life insurance brokers are essentially salespersons and do not have Fiduciary duty.

Secondly,The life insurance license is just a "sales license" and does not include any professional competence certification.As the independent brokerage system has developed into the mainstream of the industry, the threshold for license examinations is relatively low, and the professionalism and financial planning capabilities of practitioners are uneven.It all depends on personal literacy.For some current financial life insurance policy types, once the practitioners cannot plan based on your needs, or are not professional enough, it may be detrimental to you.

Finally, between the settings of the commission structure explained earlier, the larger the sum assured of the policy you apply for, the more remuneration they will get.You may be guided by certain life insurance brokers to purchase insurance policies that do not meet or exceed your actual needs.

Class summary

In the policy application process, the importance of life insurance brokers is irreplaceable.Like good lawyers, dentists, and accountants, good life insurance financial advisors are a scarce resource.Always proceed from the perspective of the insured's interests and conduct professional selection and planning, which can also create a concise and clear application experience and achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort.

American Life Insurance Guide©️ aims to remind the public that professionals play an important role in helping families, businesses and individuals find the most suitable insurance products for their needs.

The personal comprehensive literacy and professional value choices of insurance practitioners are the biggest difference between each other and the core embodiment of competitiveness.

In addition, if you are not sure what types of life insurance products are available, you canClick Here , A comprehensive study of the historical development and classification of American life insurance products.If you still don’t know how much insurance you need, you may wish to use our "Life insurance coverage calculator"orClick Here , Learn the "how much insurance coverage do I need" advice.

Please feel free to go through the American Life Insurance GuideLife Insurance Knowledge AcademyColumn andA must-read guide to insuring U.S. insuranceColumns, directly search for relevant knowledge and information. (End of full text)

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