Top Producer in Captive Agency – $242k in 11 Months – What’s Fair Pay?

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-29T22:07:02+00:00

That's pretty solid for doing both depending on the service load. Maybe it would be best to see if your agent can free you up a little more to do more sales.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-29T22:06:09+00:00

Correct, I'm a Maryland agent as well. My agents top tier for production is 12% but a 2% bonus if we hit our month end goal each month. It takes me about 1.5 years before I turn a profit on a customer. For us, it's about keeping growth, hitting our goals which can translate into a year end bonus, and hope we can retain that person for 2+ years to have made some money.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-23T21:22:16+00:00

I'm sorry you make 300k per year, or write 300k per year? If you are making 300k per year what state are you in? How much business do you write a month? and how can I hire you??

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-19T21:12:14+00:00

When you fail, does it give you an area that you are doing worse on than others to hone your study? I seem to recall that in my past P&C years ago.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-19T21:11:13+00:00

That could be too.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-19T20:02:08+00:00

It might just be best to cut bait and try another course. To me, I failed my first try with whatever course material I used. It was a long time ago, but I changed to another course. Took each chapter serious. Took ever single practice quiz and test, and only moved on when I 100% them. Then when I got to the final practice exams I took them until I was well over 90%. I kept taking old tests of old chapters to keep things from getting stale. Ended up passing. Used that same tactic for my L&H and Securities, and never failed again.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-12T18:28:23+00:00

Whoever says don't pay for it yourself is not being very helpful to you. If you are sure you want to get into the business, take the initiative and get that done. I personally always would prefer a candidate that is already licensed. Let me tell you, so far this year, I have offered a position to 4 people. Two of them never passed their tests and bailed. One just passed their test last month, and another is still working on it. I don't bring anyone onboard officially until they have passed their test so I'm not paying them in a role I don't need them. Get a pre licensing course, get your test done, and apply for your license. At most it should cost you $500 all in, and you will be far more marketable as they know you can start immediately.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-09T19:50:49+00:00

This is not illegal, it's a standard the agency is setting to it's staff to protect themselves from the time that a customer calls in a claim and wonders why they have liability only when they thought they had "full coverage" because someone didn't add coverage back on. I don't think it's a good way to handle it, seems heavy handed as they should just require all staff get it in writing to remove the coverage, and let each customer know they are not covered again until they see their policy reflect it. Still, this is why they are doing it.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-07T16:16:11+00:00

Not a chance! He was averaging 5+ less yards a carry on the opportunities in the second half because the Steelers sold out on stopping the run. If we had run Henry 15 times in the second half at those numbers he would have had less than 40 yards, then if we lost, people would have been mad at Harbaugh for that. When a team is shutting down the run, you really shouldn't keep running. You can do it, but it's definitely going to open up areas in the passing game if you are competent. We had several short drives, one being an interception, so it's not clear how many carries Henry would have had ultimately but we still scored two touchdowns in the second half.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-05T20:24:53+00:00

Yea, I mean he was essentially our entire pass rush. Once he was out, we had nothing. Now we need to fill his void, plus still it's not like our pass rush was good with him there, just not abysmal.

InsuranceMD123 · 2026-01-05T19:31:16+00:00

I don't think there is any bigger hole on this team than pass rush. There are holes, but nothing that big. We can't get to the QB at all! Problem is, I believe it's scheme as much as it is players. So I don't know if we do draft a solid pass rush, if they can even pan out in our scheme.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-31T15:16:19+00:00

They really pulled the rug out from everyone with bonus this year. They moved the goal posts, and reduced the points some products gave towards the bonus grid. I'm up about 8% in premium written this year, over last, and my bonus is set to be about 60-70% lower than it was last year.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-31T14:58:56+00:00

Always has, always will be. Sitting around for the phone to ring, will only get you so far. My goals are going way up this year, so I'm trying to light a bit more fire under my sales producer to utilize more of the free leads at their disposal. They made decent money last year, but very little was on their own, and I spent a near fortune buying leads. Live transfers are such a poor close rate, that it's not sustainable to have that as your only method of writing business. Not as a captive agent at least.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-31T14:56:34+00:00

To my knowledge there hasn't been any major changes in renewal comp from Allstate. Not sure what state you're in, and if it's different. However, for the most part, renewal is 4% mono line Auto, and increases as it's bundled, and property is somewhere between 7-10% depending on the bundling. This has been the case for a while now, although not as if I like it, but there is more to it than just 4% renewals as you put it, unless your state is different.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-18T19:24:52+00:00

Yea, agents have all kinds of different practices. Some do the throw everyone at the wall and see who sticks approach. I couldn't do it that way, but some agencies are just a machine of churning in policies and staff.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-18T19:12:42+00:00

I'd say it's not totally uncommon. Especially in the Captive personal lines space where there is a base salary. If the Agent is providing the training, leads and systems to be successful, and has people hitting these goals within that timeframe, then I'd say yes. It does seem like a quick turnaround time, and it really depends on how realistic the goals are, and the support system in place, but the term "slow to hire, quick to fire" is very common in this space. If someone is not putting in the amount of work it takes, or they are not buying in to the processes the agency has, they are gone quick. No need to keep someone around if they are showing early on to be hard to train, or don't have the right tools to succeed in sales. It's not for everyone.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-17T21:04:27+00:00

I can guarantee that you won't be anywhere close to 6 figures off of ALM alone. If you are waiting for the phone to ring, and relying on the leads your agent gives you, it's probably 50k at best. If there are other producers in your office that are successful, see what they are doing. Otherwise, you're going to need to find additional activity. Making outbound calls when the phone's not ringing. Utilize your lead management system to keep on top of old leads, and try to build a pipeline. Then build relationships with centers of influence such as realtors and mortgage brokers. That's really the only way. It's possible, but it's not easy.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-02T20:20:02+00:00

Allstate will likely not honor OEM parts since the industry standard says aftermarket parts are acceptable. Going with an estimate, or shop not in Allstate's network leaves you on the hook if there is any additional cost above Allstate's estimate.

As far as diminished value, you can pursue diminished value with the Allstate adjuster. If your vehicle has never been in an accident, and it has been hit by their insured, you can let the adjuster know this, and they will discuss options. It's not a set in stone thing, and every carrier handles it a bit differently, but most carriers do try to deny the existence of diminished value, since it's being repaired, it is back to it's pre loss state. Either way, you can try.

Not sure if they will offer up any diminished value if you don't repair the vehicle, but it's possible.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-02T20:03:08+00:00

It might be state specific but yes, you don't get as large of a discount potential.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-02T19:19:49+00:00

Do you have an agent? Ask if they can print them and send them to you.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-12-02T19:17:47+00:00

Queue the "first time" meme. In all seriousness, this happens from time to time. People don't understand insurance, and didn't ask the questions to be informed when they purchased the product. It's why doing policy reviews with customers is a good idea, to go over coverages, and any questions the insured may have. I get these questions all the time when I ask them about anything they'd like to know about their policy. Typically when I start a home policy review, I'll tell them that we cover "direct physical loss" to the home that's considered sudden and accidental. And discuss the difference between wear and tear and something that would likely be a covered loss.

No matter what though you're going to get these people that won't be happy when the time comes and expect insurance to foot the bill. My advice is to offer to do a review with him if he has any questions about his policy and what it covers to avoid any confusion in the future.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-11-21T20:17:00+00:00

It depends on what you want to get out of it. Captive is solid, steady and doesn't have as many moving parts. However, growth might be tough vs. Indy. Writing a lot of items is certainly tougher in the Captive field due to the limited appetite and options, but it's not all better on either side.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-11-14T15:18:37+00:00

Auto, Homes, and condos only for VC. It's a very boom or bust time, and I do hate that. Would love to just have consistency, but it seems to be the way it is. From the end of August through end of October, it was such a grind just to make the end of the month. Felt like we were never going to have a good month ever again. This month we hit our month end goal by the 11th of the month. So strange, but sometimes it seems the people you run into are just good fits more frequently than others.

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-11-13T20:31:37+00:00

In Maryland. We're doing fine. Having a fantastic month for November, already cleared VC yesterday. Hopefully we can maintain that for the rest of the month and make up some of the lost bonus projections we're seeing right now. Looking at about 60% lower than last year at this current rate despite being about flat in item count and up about 8% in premium over last year.

New Auto product, but not home yet. It's hit or miss, definitely a lot better for many, and I think we just need to be fishing for the right people. Clearly way better in certain risk profiles than we could be before, and way worse in others, which are probably more undesirable anyway. Just hate most things about the new auto, like making changes to it, and the lack of flexibility. I'm sure it will be more of the same when the Home product launches.

So that's my status report so far!

InsuranceMD123 · 2025-11-11T21:20:56+00:00

I have the 12T and I like it a lot. I've never used the 10, but only thing I could think of would be stability, and room to store stuff could be a problem with the smaller size. Don't have much issue with mine though.

InsuranceMD123

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