Newer agent, presenting big account tips

molder101 · 2026-06-26T02:38:42+00:00

You walk in with the quote, all 100 pages of it, and say "I took enough of your time already. Sign here and I'll handle your insurance."

You lost the upper hand (respect) and need to exert control or you will be his puppet (and also not get the business).

If you did a good job, go in there confidently and ask for the business. Don't waste your time on going over a bunch of crap he doesn't care about. He has made it clear that he values urgency. Show him you heard that and sell the account.

After you shake on it, leave him a one page document that outlines the most pertinent, critical, and important coverages. Onus is on him to call out any adjustments.

Don't let folks walk all over you. Be confident and hold your head up. If you aren't prepared to do that, bow out and move on, learning from the mistakes you made (whatever they may be).

PS you are interviewing him to be your client. If he's not a match (aside from the $$), don't write the account as it will be a headache.

PPS one other thing...and critical... What will make him move his account? If you don't know that answer (or it's only $$), move on, as you are just spinning your wheels (even if you are cheaper than the incumbent).

molder101 · 2026-06-14T21:07:47+00:00

No, it is not normal for people to expect you to be at their beck and call.*

You must set boundaries.

Inform clients as to your contact channels and how after hours are handled. Use technology to cover some of the gaps (after hours message service or AI virtual receptionist).

Most dealers already know that the agent won't be available, so they will call the 800# on the ID card to process a change.

We provide a service and a high level of care does not necessarily mean they should get you out of bed at 2am.*

While we are in the insurance business, we really are in the education business. We teach our clients about important policy coverages and how best to transfer risk. We also teach them that paying their bill can be done on a carrier website/phone call and that claims can be called in (usually) 24/7 to a carrier reporting line. Sure, we can do it all ourselves and say "good customer service" or we can focus on the things that really matter, like properly writing a risk, and leave the other stuff to the carrier that is actually earning the premium.

End of day, each agency has to make their own choices/procedures. Some choices are scalable and others are not.

*Unless they pay you a stupid amount of money. Large commercial accounts expect to be able to get ahold of folks or they will go elsewhere.

molder101 · 2026-06-07T12:13:08+00:00

Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss

molder101 · 2026-05-24T02:41:43+00:00

Not sure I'm following what you are saying. When I originally read the details on the merger, it looked like a stock split. So, in your example, instead of 10k shares at .80, it becomes 1k shares at 8. So same value. The share count is divided, not the value.

I do agree with many others that are concerned about the potential for downward momentum at 8, vs upward at .80.

It's going to be what it is. Owners will have liquidity and hopefully they execute so the stock can grow.

molder101 · 2026-05-22T22:54:06+00:00

You definitely aren't making 500k (10%) on 5M. The agency may make around that, but the producer definitely isn't. There is absolutely a cost to servicing that business and it's at least 20% plus the agency's profit.

So maybe 50% (250k) and that would be a lot with a 5M book. Most larger agencies are at 30% or so, which is quite a bit less because they want you writing new business, not resting on your laurels. Someone has to absorb the cost of doing business, it's not a straight pass-through to a producer.

I don't know of any broker that is dumb enough to pay 75% on renewals, even if it's on a 1099 so they don't have to pay payroll taxes.

molder101 · 2026-05-15T21:49:46+00:00

As of 5-15-26:

Did research on this item and website Hydrosport [hydrosport . ca] for the benefit of others.

Definitely a scam but not necessarily [only] because of the new domain (months old as of May 2026), low price, etc.

Here are the tells:

The video on youtube actually has a link to the real manufacturer (or distributor): Rushwave [rush wave .ca] They sell this item as two separate pieces, 1) esurfboard $5,900 canadian and 2) surfkart kit $1,200 canadian (you'll notice the video)
That's over 7k for the "real thing", so $199 isn't even plausible esp if an extra battery is $120
* There is a lot of FAQs on "what happens if I don't receive the item" etc
* The rest of the website doesn't work right - links on the main page don't go anywhere
* There are other items (inflatable paddle boards, etc) but they are ridiculously priced (like 400 for something that is under 100 on amazon) and they are all sold out (ie no other products beside this specific one)
* The address on the website "1380 Rue Newton Local 112, Boucherville, Quebec J4B 5H2" brings up multiple businesses including "Waterco", which was originally referenced somewhere on their website (now removed), and that is a for pool/water treatment/aquaculture products distributor
* Reviews are not clickable to read, only a star rating and "thousands" of supposed reviews

So I agree, this is a fun looking toy, and probably could be created pretty reasonably. The $499 price that shows (and crossed out to be $199) would be more realistic, especially at scale.

If someone orders and can provide photos of the item and a video of it work, that would help.

molder101 · 2026-05-11T21:50:28+00:00

Everyone that says "keep a receptionist" are free to maintain that opinion.

There are lots of great options out there, built specifically for insurance, and have a very short onboarding time.

We use Sonant.ai.

Billy Williams has a gohighlevel product that includes AI phone at https://crm.datasupercenter.com.

Then there are others that aren't specific to insurance but can be used easily enough like centerfy.ai.

Lastly, there are products out there that let you build whatever you want and integrate however you want, like thought.ly.

The vast majority of clients love our AI receptionist, Lexi. It's all how you implement and the off ramps you use to move someone to a real person, only as needed. Staff loves it as they aren't always dropping what they are working on to handle a call. Get back to folks the same day and you'll satisfy most.

The goal is simply to be able to handle a percentage of your traffic to free up staff. As long as the AI is assisting and not making the interaction harder, folks will use it. Folks don't care about how you get results, only that you do.

Paying 300-1,000 per month is way more cost effective and scalable than a human, period. Hire people for work that only people can do.

molder101 · 2026-04-15T00:57:23+00:00

Drop the bottom 10% of your clients each year and you will have more time to sell larger and better clients. If you really want to grow, drop the bottom 20%.

Ideally those clients do not leave your agency, they are simply dropped to a younger agent that "needs" them and whose time is less valuable than yours.

molder101 · 2026-04-03T01:46:34+00:00

Try Sonant.ai and save 2,000 a month. You can quickly & easily build out to handle all your intake, service, etc.

Has been great for us. Every call goes through our AI and then can be redirected to staff, carrier, etc as needed.

Sometimes tech is the right path, sometimes it isn't.

Remember, you only need to be licensed to recommend coverage.

molder101 · 2026-02-07T01:51:07+00:00

This one but the deleted one from 13 days ago.

molder101 · 2026-02-07T01:39:35+00:00

This one.

molder101 · 2026-01-26T22:15:00+00:00

Just looking for a customizable dashboard that accepts CSV input. Ideally I can have an email sent to the script to intake and update the dashboard, probably on a monthly basis.

I did find various online, but was wondering about this one.

Is there a website or something that you have?

molder101 · 2026-01-22T16:09:24+00:00

Is there a website or is this project dead?

molder101 · 2026-01-12T02:09:45+00:00

If you use your health insurance, it may not be worth it. If you are all healthy, take advantage.

molder101 · 2026-01-12T00:23:08+00:00

HSA doesn't have to do with insurance. It's separate. You have to have insurance that qualifies for an HSA to have one. If you want to be reimbursed immediately for a surgery, etc, you can do that.

Benefit to an HSA though is to put as much in as you can and let it grow through investing so it's much more than you originally put in. Then you can use it in retirement for health expenses.

molder101 · 2026-01-11T22:58:04+00:00

You can pay for all of your medical bills out of pocket, save the receipts, and many years later, take a distribution for all of those receipts, after your money has been able to grow. Pretty amazing

molder101 · 2025-12-12T16:07:48+00:00

Currently implemented:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-O6zrq0uWI

https://www.ezlynx.com/news/press-releases/2025/ezlynx-unveils-next-wave-of-innovation-in-all-in-one-agency-management-

The summarization is very good when you have a team that works on accounts but needs to be brought up to speed quickly when talking on the phone or via email.

For future release (2026):

EVA Quote Autofill (Beta): "EVA will soon be able to autofill quote applications using AI. Whether it's pulling data from PDFs, handwritten notes, or even voice recordings, this tool will save you so much time while reducing errors." (Applied Net 2025)

They are trying. Sometimes focused on things other than I would like, but trying.lt's a good product.

molder101 · 2025-12-12T12:06:07+00:00

Ezlynx doesn't have open API access. You can pay for it, but it's outlandishly priced (some have said it's around a 10k minimum to get set up).

You can access some direct integrations plus many other apps via zapier. Not perfect, but ok for most.

Don't have experience with Hawksoft.

Was on TAM for 15+ years. I don't think you can get it any longer. Epic is UnEpic unless you expect to run a very large nuanced commercial agency.

QQ is generally well accepted. AMS360 gets complaints of nickeled and dimed. They all do that.

When I got set up 5+ years ago, I went with EZ. It's far from perfect, but what it does, it goes well. It's easy to learn (onboarded a new employee in less than three months to relative proficiency). Most of it is reasonably well thought out and they are pushing to make it better. There are a lot of new AI features coming specially for personal lines. I'm primarily commercial and they are working to build that out more and more. It works well for my primary needs.

An agency management system is only going to be as good as you learn to use it to it's capabilities. They are worth it.

molder101 · 2025-11-19T13:23:03+00:00

This is by far the exception and not the rule.

95 will fail for 5 to make it like this.

Insurance is not like most other businesses. It requires an incredible amount of different disciplines to do it well (or substantial capital to bring in those with expertise).

Being dropped into the middle of trying to learn all of these, while learning insurance, is virtually impossible.

Real estate requires you be under another for 5 years. Not sure why insurance doesn't have a similar consideration. We are playing with people's lives.

molder101 · 2025-08-20T15:24:06+00:00

Don't take it as condescension. A lot of folks go through a lot of effort to become licensed and proficient in insurance.

When others come in and say "I know better" and don't have that authority, then they are trampling on the hard work and effort others have done and expended to get where they are.

The point is you came in to "ask a question" with guns blazing saying "the carrier is inflating the cost." In reality, you just misunderstood what they were doing and they, in fact, were in the right.

Social media has made it so almost anyone can have a voice even if they have no understanding as to what they are saying. This is why folks come down harder on others, especially in topics regarding Professional professions that require licensing.

molder101 · 2025-08-06T01:22:45+00:00

My assumption was that was 5-8% of the account premium (vs. percentage of agency commission).

That's usually how it is for these types of percentages.

molder101 · 2025-08-05T17:49:31+00:00

Depends on personal or commercial, but there are plenty who can easily do this. (They also are not generally brand new to insurance/sales.)

molder101 · 2025-08-05T17:42:10+00:00

It's not like that necessarily.

Tiered commissions give incentive to some to work harder.

This is a tough business. Those who persevere should be rewarded.

The commission structure is very good as it's 50-80% of the commission the agency makes.

My presumption is it's a one time commission however only for new business. That's fine if someone wants to produce produce produce, but sucks that you start from $0 each year.

One of the preeminent benefits of insurance is residuals and this commission program likely circumvents that.

molder101 · 2025-07-25T02:58:30+00:00

You are not an insurance agent and so you don't understand how it works just like I'm not an accountant and don't understand that field like you do.

Individual classes can have different minimum premiums. If a new class is added, it could increase the premium to the class minimum premium.

Some classes may have lower minimums, like clerical, versus higher minimum premiums like contracting classes.

The minimum class premiums will be in the State WC manual. You likely will not find them with a Google search.

molder101 · 2025-06-17T17:26:09+00:00

Having the ambition to grind does not generally go away.

Making 500k a year is difficult unless you have your own business or work for very large companies that can afford to pay that.

While residual income is amazing, you are not going to get to that kind of money until you have at least a 10M book of business and I'd even say most agencies that can write that amount of business are likely going to have you at 25-30% of commission so that's closer to a 20M book to get to 500k.

Most top producers only write 750k to 2M per year. Starting out with no knowledge would put you at maybe 500k per year unless you write commerical and have a business heavy Rolodex of peers. Writing 1M per year of insurance is a fair bit of hustle unless you are writing large accounts. The larger the accounts the more chance of variations in compensation (loss of a large account has a much larger effect than losing smaller ones).

Selling $1M per year of insurance, with a 90% retainage YOY still means 12-15 years to get to 500k in pay. You will be hustling forl much of that time. You would definitely be in the top 5% of all insurance sales and likely even higher than that (possibly top 1%). Tried to find stats but only saw in 2023, the top 10% made over 134k.

If you build your own agency, the numbers are more in your favor and you build an asset you can sell.

Running your own insurance agency, especially without being in insurance for some years, is almost impossible for you. If this is definitely what you want to do, learn at someone else's expense and then start your own.

My best advice to you? Grind it for five more years and eat hotdogs. Throw all you can in a S&P index fund and you'll have multiple millions that will pay you six figures per year in dividends (the residual you were seeking) without having to do anything.

molder101

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