The requirements for obtaining an insurance license vary from state to state. The one factor that is constant between all states is that you must acquire a passing score on the insurance exam. Contacting your local licensing authority will give you some clarity on exactly what procedures you need to take in addition the exam in order to get your license.
You need to determine what nature of insurance you want to work with prior to beginning the licensing process. Options include health, home, car, and various other options. Most state laws are based on the particular type of field that you choose to work in. Also, the insurance exam is divided by sector as well. When you are aware of the field you want to go into, all of the other steps will fall into place quite effortlessly. After deciding on a field the next and most logical step is to sign up for one or several classes in preparation for your test. This specific exam contains an extensive amount of information that really constitutes a formal class to grasp. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you take a test before signing up to take the exam. In some states a specific number of classroom hours are actually a requirement.
The actual taking of the insurance exam goes about the same as any other adult academic test. Once you have finished and passed the parts of the test that are indicative to your field, with the minimum score set by your state than you should be all set to apply for your insurance license. To find out the cost of acquiring your license you will have to check with your state.
It may take up to several weeks to actually obtain your license, in several states you can work during this time if you have proof of a passing examination score. In other locations the law is a little more intense. No matter where you are, once you have received your license you are able to freely seek out employment.
No matter what exact aspect of insurance you decide to work in you are pretty much required to pass the insurance exam. It is also a necessary step of working with any type of insurance, not just life insurance as some people mistakenly believe. Insurance agents maintain a low unemployment rate and tend to be generally happy with their career overall. Requirements for this path include an ability to work on your own for extended periods of time and to have flexibility in your schedule. If this sounds like you, then insurance could be the field that you have been seeking.
Learn some tips how to pass insurance license and remember to check requirements for insurance exam.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Monday, November 26, 2018
Irrevocable Pension Decision Article
By Neal Angel
So you are getting ready to take the gold watch & call it a day on the last forty years of your working life. On the way out the door, your employer dangles several appealing options regarding your pension benefit. Stop! Don't make a move until you've carefully considered the issues & implications for each option. You may just find that you have options that you hadn't considered when it comes to your pension benefit.
Should you decide to take the lifetime pension option, you now must choose between one of several payout options. If you are single, the choice is simple. Take the single-life payout option in order to secure the highest monthly lifetime income. But if you are married, it gets more complicated. Should you take the highest payout that ends at your death with no residual pension benefit for your spouse? Choose this option, and your wife could be left out in the cold with nothing after you're gone, and struggle to pay the bills the rest of her life. If, on the other hand, you choose the option that provides 100% survivor benefit, you sacrifice a large chunk of your monthly pension check. But here's another potential problem that you may not have considered. Statistically speaking, most husbands die before their wives. But what if your wife dies first, and you have chosen the lowest payout with 100% survivorship under the assumption that you would be the first to go? You have now sacrificed the added pension benefit that you could have received for the remainder of your life. Sadly, there are no "do-overs" when you make your decision. Bet you hadn't thought of that, had you?
Just when things were getting complicated, your employer throws another curve ball at you. Rather than taking a lifetime pension benefit, he offers you a lump sum of money instead. This has become increasingly popular with companies for reasons we'll discuss later. Should you take the money & run? Or should you take the easy way out, and go with the monthly paycheck for life? After all, this is the closest thing to the security of a paycheck while you were working.
And you thought retirement was going to be easy, didn't you? Heck, this is too much like work. Rather than get all wrapped around the axle, let's break down the issues & bring a little clarity to your options.
SURVIVORSHIP OPTIONS - First, let's consider the survivorship options, and see if there are some alternatives available to you. Quite often, there are more survivorship options given by your employer than the ones mentioned here, but we'll confine ourselves to these basic options for simplicity's sake. First, your employer has offered the single-life with zero survivorship option. Taking the single-life option ensures the highest payout while you are living, but nothing for your spouse at your death. On the other hand, choosing either a limited (25-75%) or full (100%) survivorship option means potentially sacrificing a significant amount of monthly income for you. To add insult to injury, you may penalize yourself if your spouse dies before you. Perhaps there is a third way. As a matter of fact, there is. It is called pension maximization, or pension-max, for short.
Under pension-max, you opt for either no survivorship or limited survivorship options, then take the added amount over what you would have received for the 100% survivorship option, and purchase life insurance on yourself so that your spouse can then receive either a lump sum or annual death benefit to make up for the lost residual income at your death. As an example, let's assume that your full benefit with no survivorship option is $1500 per month. On the other hand, the payout for the 100% survivorship option is $750 per month. Under pension-max, you opt for the first option, then take the added $750, or some lesser amount, depending on your age & health to purchase a death benefit that will replace the lost pension income at your death.
Before choosing the pension-max option, it is vitally important that you talk with a financial advisor who can help you crunch the numbers in order to determine if this will benefit you & your spouse. There are several important variables to consider that may determine if this strategy makes financial sense for you, including your age, health & insurability, the age & health of your spouse, along with the life expectancy of both you & your spouse. Do you have good genes? Did your extended family members live long lives, or did they die prematurely from some inherited condition that is likely to affect how long either you or your spouse are likely to live? In addition, you need to consider the cost of insurance, your tax bracket in retirement years, and whether any health care benefits from your employer are tied to your pension. These are things that an experienced financial professional can help you sort out.
LUMP SUM VERSUS LIFETIME ANNUITY OPTIONS - Recently, more & more companies are offering the lump sum payout option to their retirees in lieu of income for life. Why is that? A little context might be helpful. Pensions were at one time the de facto retirement benefit offered by companies as a way to entice loyalty on the part of their employees. During the past twenty years, however, that trend has reversed. Rather than offer lifetime pension benefits (also known as defined benefit plans), companies began closing these plans to new members & replacing them with either newer & leaner "cash balance plans"; or alternatively, with defined contribution plans, also known as 401(K)s or 403(B)s (for employees in non-profit organizations). These plans were first introduced by an act of Congress in 1978, but have become increasingly popular, while defined benefit plans have become the modern equivalent of the corporate dinosaur. Why is that? According to Moshe Milevsky, finance professor at York University in Toronto, Canada, and a noted expert in North American retirement planning, 82% of defined benefit (pension) plans in 337 of the S&P 500 companies were under-funded as of 2006. When you combine the fact that lower interest rates since then have only made it more difficult for them to meet their liabilities, along with the fact that people are living longer these days, it's easy to understand why companies might want to shift this risk off of their balance sheets and onto the balance sheets of their employees. In addition, the cost of insurance for companies participating in the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation insurance program is scheduled to increase by between 30-50% in 2015, with even more increases proposed for 2018, making it more expensive to maintain these plans, and further exacerbating their unfunded liabilities.
It's important to understand that your company assumes all the investment risk for benefits provided through defined benefit plans, whereas the employee assumes all investment risk with defined contribution plans. In addition to closing plans to new members, many companies have also attempted to further avoid the risk to current plan members by offering lump sum payouts. After all, we are living in a time when interest rates (both defined by interest rates we pay for things like mortgages & cars, as well as interest rates that the Feds pay on Treasury Notes to investors) are at near historic lows because of the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary policies. This offers both an incentive for companies & an opportunity for you as the soon-to-be retiree. Back in 2006 with the passage of the Pension Protection Act, funding mechanisms were scheduled to change over a number of years, from calculating funding requirements based on long term Treasuries over to the higher paying (and higher risk) corporate bond rates in an effort to lessen the burden to these companies for plan benefits. Even so, since 2006 we've seen interest rates on both US Treasuries & corporate bonds fall to historic lows. For this reason, companies must now set aside more money at today's low interest rates to cover their pension liabilities. This presents a unique opportunity for you. Your company may be willing to offer a higher payout today than it will offer in a few years to get you to accept their offer. If future interest rates return to more normal levels, your employer may then be able to offer a lower lump sum settlement to you in lieu of taking the lifetime pension benefit.
In addition to this carrot, there is also a possible stick to consider that might push you toward choosing the lump sum payout option. In the latest Omnibus bill, Congress just passed legislation to take the heat off of some 1400 financially distressed multiple-employer benefit plans that are in danger of defaulting on their pension obligations. How? Rather than throwing the burden on the grossly underfunded Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund, they may allow these plans to reduce income benefits to their employees. Indeed, many local governments like Detroit have cut benefits to their retirees in an effort to restructure their shaky financial house, but allowing corporations the same escape option would be a watershed moment for defined benefit plans in the private sector. While the current legislation only affects these multi-employer plans (typically negotiated by unions), the barn door has been opened. What is now to prevent companies with single-employer plans to seek shelter under similar legislation?
So the question you need to ask yourself is this. Can you take their offer & create more income for yourself than you could with their pension? Well, that depends on several factors. First, how important is the monthly payout to meeting your required monthly expenses, after subtracting income from Social Security & other sources? If it is very important to you, then the next question is how confident you feel that you could take this lump sum and produce the same, or hopefully more income than you could by taking the monthly payout. This is more complicated, but let's break down your options by first determining how much money you could produce on your own. Let's say that your monthly payout for both you & your spouse is $2500 a month, or $30,000 annually. In lieu of this, your company is offering a lump sum of $600,000. In order to produce this much income on your own, you would need to earn 5% on your principal. (To calculate this, divide $30,000 by $600,000). Can you produce a better result on your own? Again, that depends. You may not feel qualified or even interested in making investment decisions on your own. If you did, you might be able to achieve results similar to those obtained in the Market over the recent history.
As an indicator of Market performance, the S&P 500 index-which tracks the performance of the 500 largest corporations in the US-enjoyed an average return of 7.3% over the past 10 years, and 9.2% over the past 20 years. If you achieved those results, you would definitely come out ahead. Over the other hand, you would not need to look back far to remember that it's also possible to lose 40% or more of your portfolio value due to Market downturns like we experienced in 2008-2009. If you are more averse to this kind of risk, you might want to consider some type of income annuity or deferred annuity that could produce the same or better income payouts without Market risk. Annuities are offered through insurance companies as, you guessed it, a form of insurance. While you buy life insurance to protect your loved-ones against the likelihood of dying too soon, annuities are designed to provide longevity insurance. Many of these products offer the same guarantees, along with greater flexibility than that offered through your company's group annuity (e.g., monthly income). It definitely pays to talk with a qualified financial professional familiar with these products before making your decision on taking a lump sum payout.
About the author: Neal Angel is president of AngelRoyce Wealth Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisory firm in Greenville, South Carolina. Neither AngelRoyce or its affiliates offer tax or legal advice. To respond to this article, email Mr. Angel at neal@angelroyce.com
INSURANCE AGENT CAREER - GET LICENSED!
VISIT AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRAINING
So you are getting ready to take the gold watch & call it a day on the last forty years of your working life. On the way out the door, your employer dangles several appealing options regarding your pension benefit. Stop! Don't make a move until you've carefully considered the issues & implications for each option. You may just find that you have options that you hadn't considered when it comes to your pension benefit.
Should you decide to take the lifetime pension option, you now must choose between one of several payout options. If you are single, the choice is simple. Take the single-life payout option in order to secure the highest monthly lifetime income. But if you are married, it gets more complicated. Should you take the highest payout that ends at your death with no residual pension benefit for your spouse? Choose this option, and your wife could be left out in the cold with nothing after you're gone, and struggle to pay the bills the rest of her life. If, on the other hand, you choose the option that provides 100% survivor benefit, you sacrifice a large chunk of your monthly pension check. But here's another potential problem that you may not have considered. Statistically speaking, most husbands die before their wives. But what if your wife dies first, and you have chosen the lowest payout with 100% survivorship under the assumption that you would be the first to go? You have now sacrificed the added pension benefit that you could have received for the remainder of your life. Sadly, there are no "do-overs" when you make your decision. Bet you hadn't thought of that, had you?
Just when things were getting complicated, your employer throws another curve ball at you. Rather than taking a lifetime pension benefit, he offers you a lump sum of money instead. This has become increasingly popular with companies for reasons we'll discuss later. Should you take the money & run? Or should you take the easy way out, and go with the monthly paycheck for life? After all, this is the closest thing to the security of a paycheck while you were working.
And you thought retirement was going to be easy, didn't you? Heck, this is too much like work. Rather than get all wrapped around the axle, let's break down the issues & bring a little clarity to your options.
SURVIVORSHIP OPTIONS - First, let's consider the survivorship options, and see if there are some alternatives available to you. Quite often, there are more survivorship options given by your employer than the ones mentioned here, but we'll confine ourselves to these basic options for simplicity's sake. First, your employer has offered the single-life with zero survivorship option. Taking the single-life option ensures the highest payout while you are living, but nothing for your spouse at your death. On the other hand, choosing either a limited (25-75%) or full (100%) survivorship option means potentially sacrificing a significant amount of monthly income for you. To add insult to injury, you may penalize yourself if your spouse dies before you. Perhaps there is a third way. As a matter of fact, there is. It is called pension maximization, or pension-max, for short.
Under pension-max, you opt for either no survivorship or limited survivorship options, then take the added amount over what you would have received for the 100% survivorship option, and purchase life insurance on yourself so that your spouse can then receive either a lump sum or annual death benefit to make up for the lost residual income at your death. As an example, let's assume that your full benefit with no survivorship option is $1500 per month. On the other hand, the payout for the 100% survivorship option is $750 per month. Under pension-max, you opt for the first option, then take the added $750, or some lesser amount, depending on your age & health to purchase a death benefit that will replace the lost pension income at your death.
Before choosing the pension-max option, it is vitally important that you talk with a financial advisor who can help you crunch the numbers in order to determine if this will benefit you & your spouse. There are several important variables to consider that may determine if this strategy makes financial sense for you, including your age, health & insurability, the age & health of your spouse, along with the life expectancy of both you & your spouse. Do you have good genes? Did your extended family members live long lives, or did they die prematurely from some inherited condition that is likely to affect how long either you or your spouse are likely to live? In addition, you need to consider the cost of insurance, your tax bracket in retirement years, and whether any health care benefits from your employer are tied to your pension. These are things that an experienced financial professional can help you sort out.
LUMP SUM VERSUS LIFETIME ANNUITY OPTIONS - Recently, more & more companies are offering the lump sum payout option to their retirees in lieu of income for life. Why is that? A little context might be helpful. Pensions were at one time the de facto retirement benefit offered by companies as a way to entice loyalty on the part of their employees. During the past twenty years, however, that trend has reversed. Rather than offer lifetime pension benefits (also known as defined benefit plans), companies began closing these plans to new members & replacing them with either newer & leaner "cash balance plans"; or alternatively, with defined contribution plans, also known as 401(K)s or 403(B)s (for employees in non-profit organizations). These plans were first introduced by an act of Congress in 1978, but have become increasingly popular, while defined benefit plans have become the modern equivalent of the corporate dinosaur. Why is that? According to Moshe Milevsky, finance professor at York University in Toronto, Canada, and a noted expert in North American retirement planning, 82% of defined benefit (pension) plans in 337 of the S&P 500 companies were under-funded as of 2006. When you combine the fact that lower interest rates since then have only made it more difficult for them to meet their liabilities, along with the fact that people are living longer these days, it's easy to understand why companies might want to shift this risk off of their balance sheets and onto the balance sheets of their employees. In addition, the cost of insurance for companies participating in the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation insurance program is scheduled to increase by between 30-50% in 2015, with even more increases proposed for 2018, making it more expensive to maintain these plans, and further exacerbating their unfunded liabilities.
It's important to understand that your company assumes all the investment risk for benefits provided through defined benefit plans, whereas the employee assumes all investment risk with defined contribution plans. In addition to closing plans to new members, many companies have also attempted to further avoid the risk to current plan members by offering lump sum payouts. After all, we are living in a time when interest rates (both defined by interest rates we pay for things like mortgages & cars, as well as interest rates that the Feds pay on Treasury Notes to investors) are at near historic lows because of the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary policies. This offers both an incentive for companies & an opportunity for you as the soon-to-be retiree. Back in 2006 with the passage of the Pension Protection Act, funding mechanisms were scheduled to change over a number of years, from calculating funding requirements based on long term Treasuries over to the higher paying (and higher risk) corporate bond rates in an effort to lessen the burden to these companies for plan benefits. Even so, since 2006 we've seen interest rates on both US Treasuries & corporate bonds fall to historic lows. For this reason, companies must now set aside more money at today's low interest rates to cover their pension liabilities. This presents a unique opportunity for you. Your company may be willing to offer a higher payout today than it will offer in a few years to get you to accept their offer. If future interest rates return to more normal levels, your employer may then be able to offer a lower lump sum settlement to you in lieu of taking the lifetime pension benefit.
In addition to this carrot, there is also a possible stick to consider that might push you toward choosing the lump sum payout option. In the latest Omnibus bill, Congress just passed legislation to take the heat off of some 1400 financially distressed multiple-employer benefit plans that are in danger of defaulting on their pension obligations. How? Rather than throwing the burden on the grossly underfunded Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund, they may allow these plans to reduce income benefits to their employees. Indeed, many local governments like Detroit have cut benefits to their retirees in an effort to restructure their shaky financial house, but allowing corporations the same escape option would be a watershed moment for defined benefit plans in the private sector. While the current legislation only affects these multi-employer plans (typically negotiated by unions), the barn door has been opened. What is now to prevent companies with single-employer plans to seek shelter under similar legislation?
So the question you need to ask yourself is this. Can you take their offer & create more income for yourself than you could with their pension? Well, that depends on several factors. First, how important is the monthly payout to meeting your required monthly expenses, after subtracting income from Social Security & other sources? If it is very important to you, then the next question is how confident you feel that you could take this lump sum and produce the same, or hopefully more income than you could by taking the monthly payout. This is more complicated, but let's break down your options by first determining how much money you could produce on your own. Let's say that your monthly payout for both you & your spouse is $2500 a month, or $30,000 annually. In lieu of this, your company is offering a lump sum of $600,000. In order to produce this much income on your own, you would need to earn 5% on your principal. (To calculate this, divide $30,000 by $600,000). Can you produce a better result on your own? Again, that depends. You may not feel qualified or even interested in making investment decisions on your own. If you did, you might be able to achieve results similar to those obtained in the Market over the recent history.
As an indicator of Market performance, the S&P 500 index-which tracks the performance of the 500 largest corporations in the US-enjoyed an average return of 7.3% over the past 10 years, and 9.2% over the past 20 years. If you achieved those results, you would definitely come out ahead. Over the other hand, you would not need to look back far to remember that it's also possible to lose 40% or more of your portfolio value due to Market downturns like we experienced in 2008-2009. If you are more averse to this kind of risk, you might want to consider some type of income annuity or deferred annuity that could produce the same or better income payouts without Market risk. Annuities are offered through insurance companies as, you guessed it, a form of insurance. While you buy life insurance to protect your loved-ones against the likelihood of dying too soon, annuities are designed to provide longevity insurance. Many of these products offer the same guarantees, along with greater flexibility than that offered through your company's group annuity (e.g., monthly income). It definitely pays to talk with a qualified financial professional familiar with these products before making your decision on taking a lump sum payout.
About the author: Neal Angel is president of AngelRoyce Wealth Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisory firm in Greenville, South Carolina. Neither AngelRoyce or its affiliates offer tax or legal advice. To respond to this article, email Mr. Angel at neal@angelroyce.com
INSURANCE AGENT CAREER - GET LICENSED!
VISIT AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRAINING
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Pennsylvania Life and Health License Training Help - PA Life and Health Agent Course Information
Become a Pennsylvania licensed insurance agent for life and health
Online Course—Online Study Tools, Review & Certification Exams
Our new Pennsylvania Insurance Licensing offering is a completely redesigned exam prep package providing a comprehensive solution for your Pennsylvania insurance pre licensing needs. The Essential Online Package will make your study time more efficient and effective, leading to greater success on the pre licensing exam. Based on our proven learning strategy, Prepare · Practice · Perform®, this study package is designed for those who prefer the mobility and flexibility of self-study online. It is ideal for the self-directed individual who is on-the-go and prefers to work without the help of an instructor.
The Essential Pennsylvania Life and Health Online course includes:
Instruction
- Online exam prep course
Study Tools
- NEW! Videos to provide a classroom experience (online)
- NEW! Cram Sheets (online)
- License Exam Manual (PDF)
- State Law Supplement (PDF)
- Audio Review with closed-captioning functionality (online)
- InsurancePro™QBank (online)
- Study Calendar with task-based benchmarks to ensure you stay on track (online)
- InstructorLink™ via email
- Performance Tracker (online)
Exam Prep Review
- NEW! Checkpoint Exams to provide student remediation at key intervals throughout the course (online)
- Mastery Exams to align with the state exam (online)
- Certification Exam** (online)
TAKE THE COURSES HERE: PENNSYLVANIA LIFE AND HEALTH TRAINING
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
What it's like to be a Life Insurance Adviser - Agent
roles and responsibilities of life insurance agent
Delnaz Thompson
Many people are still under the impression that the polices are still practiced the old ways and are uncertain about taking an insurance policy for the simple fact that they feel they will have to go through a lot of formalities for this. Now days the process of getting an insurance has changed and it is made a lot easy to get a policy. There are two ways by which you can get a insurance policy. One would be by getting it yourself via the insurance broker website and the other option would be to hire a good agent to finish the deal for you.
Now a days, there are many people who are choosing as a career option because the income is steady and good. When you have decided to choose life insurance as a career, you need to be aware of few key aspects. Life insurance agents also referred to as sales agents. There are many people who don't like to be called insurance sales agents because of the word 'sales'. Like any other sales person, the insurance agent is also a sales person for the company.
The same time the agents are not merely sales persons unlike the sales persons they do not try to sale or push off the product the insurance agents also give good advice to their customers. So, it can be concluded that the insurance sales agents can be termed both as a sales person and a financial adviser. And because of this many feel that they will need to have a financial background to become an insurance agent. This is not a must but it is often preferred if the person is well-informed about the finances and the finance domain. An agent will have to gratify a wide range of customers.
The job of an insurance agent is not only to give financial advice or sell insurance to individuals, but an insurance agent often deal with not only individuals but families and corporate businesses too. There are two categories of insurance agents, the first category is the one who deals with captive insurances and the second category is the independent agent. When you wish to pursue your career as a agent then you can choose the category you will want to specialize in. Many people prefer the second category of the independent insurance agent.
There are many general policies that a agent can sell in addition to the policies and there are:
Casualty insurance
Health insurance
Disability insurance
Long-term care insurance
Life insurance agents may also be found selling other financial packages such as variable annuities, mutual funds and other securities. The opportunities for the are endless and sky is the limit. The earning potential varies from one agent to another agent. The more the agent sells, the more that life insurance agent will earn. An agent must be aware of the market conditions very well and he or she must be able to guide the customer properly.
If the customer has asked for the best term life insurance prices, a insurance agent must strive hard to give that customer what he or she wants. Respecting the sentiments of the customer is very important. Some customers may not be able to afford the whole insurance prices so they may ask for the term life insurance prices. The main goal of the agent is to sell the insurance policy that is right to the customer.
Selling the term life insurance policy to the customers is sometimes very easy because of the low term life insurance prices. However, when the customers ask about the investment part, most agent fumble and get nervous. Although the term life insurance prices are low, there is no cash value accumulated at the end of the term period.
In a situation like this a life insurance agent should be ready to offer a solution of other saving scheme. A life insurance agent should be thought all the selling techniques in how to handle customers who are apprehensive and not sure if they really want the policy, the agent should know how to convert this objection into deals. Captive agents are constrained by the rules and regulations of the company. These terms and conditions should first be conveyed to the customer.
To get the most competitive life insurance, check out Delnaz Thompson's site. She specializes in the different cheap life insurance. Visit her site for more information.
INSURANCE AGENT COURSES
Delnaz Thompson
Many people are still under the impression that the polices are still practiced the old ways and are uncertain about taking an insurance policy for the simple fact that they feel they will have to go through a lot of formalities for this. Now days the process of getting an insurance has changed and it is made a lot easy to get a policy. There are two ways by which you can get a insurance policy. One would be by getting it yourself via the insurance broker website and the other option would be to hire a good agent to finish the deal for you.
Now a days, there are many people who are choosing as a career option because the income is steady and good. When you have decided to choose life insurance as a career, you need to be aware of few key aspects. Life insurance agents also referred to as sales agents. There are many people who don't like to be called insurance sales agents because of the word 'sales'. Like any other sales person, the insurance agent is also a sales person for the company.
The same time the agents are not merely sales persons unlike the sales persons they do not try to sale or push off the product the insurance agents also give good advice to their customers. So, it can be concluded that the insurance sales agents can be termed both as a sales person and a financial adviser. And because of this many feel that they will need to have a financial background to become an insurance agent. This is not a must but it is often preferred if the person is well-informed about the finances and the finance domain. An agent will have to gratify a wide range of customers.
The job of an insurance agent is not only to give financial advice or sell insurance to individuals, but an insurance agent often deal with not only individuals but families and corporate businesses too. There are two categories of insurance agents, the first category is the one who deals with captive insurances and the second category is the independent agent. When you wish to pursue your career as a agent then you can choose the category you will want to specialize in. Many people prefer the second category of the independent insurance agent.
There are many general policies that a agent can sell in addition to the policies and there are:
Casualty insurance
Health insurance
Disability insurance
Long-term care insurance
Life insurance agents may also be found selling other financial packages such as variable annuities, mutual funds and other securities. The opportunities for the are endless and sky is the limit. The earning potential varies from one agent to another agent. The more the agent sells, the more that life insurance agent will earn. An agent must be aware of the market conditions very well and he or she must be able to guide the customer properly.
If the customer has asked for the best term life insurance prices, a insurance agent must strive hard to give that customer what he or she wants. Respecting the sentiments of the customer is very important. Some customers may not be able to afford the whole insurance prices so they may ask for the term life insurance prices. The main goal of the agent is to sell the insurance policy that is right to the customer.
Selling the term life insurance policy to the customers is sometimes very easy because of the low term life insurance prices. However, when the customers ask about the investment part, most agent fumble and get nervous. Although the term life insurance prices are low, there is no cash value accumulated at the end of the term period.
In a situation like this a life insurance agent should be ready to offer a solution of other saving scheme. A life insurance agent should be thought all the selling techniques in how to handle customers who are apprehensive and not sure if they really want the policy, the agent should know how to convert this objection into deals. Captive agents are constrained by the rules and regulations of the company. These terms and conditions should first be conveyed to the customer.
To get the most competitive life insurance, check out Delnaz Thompson's site. She specializes in the different cheap life insurance. Visit her site for more information.
INSURANCE AGENT COURSES
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Virginia Life and Health Insurance Exam Training - VA Life, Health Pre Licensing Course
Earn your Life and Health Insurance License for Virginia with our updated and online training courses.
VIRGINIA LIFE AND HEALTH COURSE PAGE
Virginia Insurance Online Course—Online Study Tools, & Review Exams
American Investment Training and Kaplan’s new Insurance Licensing offering is a completely redesigned exam prep package providing a comprehensive solution for your Virginia life and health insurance pre-licensing needs. Our insurance training will make your study time more efficient and effective, leading to greater success on the VA pre insurance licensing exam.
The Virginia Life and Health Insurance Online Package includes*:
Instruction
- Online exam prep course
Online Study Tools
- NEW! Videos to provide a classroom experience (online)
- NEW! Cram Sheets
- License Exam Manual (PDF)
- State Law Supplement (PDF)
- Audio Review with closed-captioning functionality
- InsurancePro™ QBank
- Study Calendar with task-based benchmarks to ensure you stay on track
- InstructorLink™
- Performance Tracker
Exam Prep Review
- NEW! Checkpoint Exams to provide student remediation at key intervals throughout the course (online)
- Mastery Exams to align with the state exam (online)
VIRGINIA LIFE AND HEALTH COURSE PAGE
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Minnesota Life and Health Training Course - Updated Insurance life training Minnesota
American Investment Training and Kaplan Financial provide the most up to date and approved Life and health insurance license training for Minnesota Agents.
The Minnesota course pairs the structure and interactivity of an online course with the ability to study nearly anywhere, anytime. Prepare, practice and perform with structured instruction on a flexible schedule. Experience the freedom of an online course, while still having direct access to expert instructors with years of industry experience. This package also includes an online certification exam and Certificate of Completion** (required by the state).
The Essential Package includes:
Instruction
- Online Course
Study Tools
- License Exam Manual (PDF)
- State Law Supplement (PDF)
- InsurancePro™ QBank (online)
- Study Calendar (online)
- Video Library (online)
- Audio Review (online)
- InstructorLink™ (online)
- Performance Tracker (online)
- Updates (online)
Exam Review
- Mastery Exams A & B (online)
*The online access period for your insurance licensing course is 90 days. An additional 90 days may be purchased at $49. Please call or email our student support center to request this extension.
**State requirements for completing the online certification exam must be followed precisely in order for a Certificate of Completion to be earned and issued.
Please note: In this state, insurance licensing courses for combined line of authority licenses, like Life & Health or Property & Casualty, are required to be completed separately for each line of authority (Life only, Health only or Property only, Casualty only). As a result, you must also successfully pass separate certification exams in order to obtain a certificate of completion for each line of authority.
This course has been approved by the Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce for 40 hours of Insurance prelicense education.
VIEW MORE:Minnesota Life And Health Course
Monday, January 16, 2017
South Carolina Life and Health Training Course - South Carolina Insurance Licensing
Pass the Life and Health Insurance License Exam for South Carolina. We offer comprehensive training to help you ramp up your insurance career in South Carolina. Be sure to check with your state to make sure you are meeting the requirements in South Carolina prior to enrolling.
The Ultimate Success Licensing Package helps avoid all that by providing all the essential tools plus Instructor Connect that will enable you to pass the State Licensing Exam on your first attempt.
A. Online Prep Course
B. Resource Guide
C. Instructor Connect
D. Exam4Caster
A. Online Insurance Course features:
The South Carolina Insurance Licensing Course will allow you to learn and remember the critical insurance vocabulary, concepts and products that will be tested on your State Licensing Exam. You’ll find no fluff, no nice-to-know, no war stories…just the essential information that you will need to obtain your license. This crucial knowledge is presented in easy to read, user-friendly language that is devoid of legal complexities and legislative mumbo-jumbo. We’ve even taken care to clearly define the insurance terms before we use them.
The South Carolina instructional content is reinforced with:
· Interim quizzes in the format of your state exam so that you may monitor your progress easily
· Key Points summary at the end of each chapter that reduces the critical information to less than a page
· An extensive glossary/index that allows you to effortlessly define or locate that important term you simply cannot remember
· A rigorous final exam designed to tell you if you are adequately prepared for the State Exam
· State Law material translated into plain English which simplifies the section of the test that causes 70% of the failures.
Online Course Outline:
Your state insurance regulators built an Exam Content Outline which dictates the information which we must include in the Online Course and Resource Guide. Parts I through III of the Course and Resource Guide make up the “national core” portion (useful in any state). Part IV is the State Law section of your course.
Part I: Property and Casualty Fundamentals
· Chapter 1 Building a Property and Casualty vocabulary
· Chapter 2 Contract Law
· Chapter 3 Basics of Property Insurance
· Chapter 4 Basics of Liability Insurance
Part II: Personal Lines
· Chapter 5 Homeowners and Dwelling policies
· Chapter 6 Personal Auto Policy
· Chapter 7 Watercraft and Flood policies
Part III: Commercial Lines
· Chapter 8 The Commercial Package policy
· Chapter 9 Commercial Property
· Chapter 10 Commercial General Liability
· Chapter 11 Crime and Fidelity Bonds
· Chapter 12 Equipment Breakdown Coverage
· Chapter 13 Other Commercial Policies: Auto, Marine & Farm
· Chapter 14 Business owners Policy
· Chapter 15 Workers Compensation and Employers Liability
Part IV: State Insurance Laws
· Chapter 16 State specific Insurance Law
· Chapter 17 State specific Property & Casualty Insurance Law
· Chapter 18 State specific Property Insurance Law
· Chapter 19 State specific Casualty Insurance Law
B. Resource Guide features:
The Resource Guide mirrors the content, sequence and style of the Online Course. It fleshes out the subject matter, serves as a useful reference and provides a format that can be easily highlighted to organize and reduce the tedium of note taking. Our team of editors includes classroom instructors, insurance company trainers and testing engineers who have actually built insurance exams for use across the country.
C. Instructor Connect:
This valuable resource provides access to a live instructor, for 30 days from date of purchase, who can tutor you on difficult concepts, answer any questions that you may have concerning the course content, work with you on overcoming test anxiety or simply clarify test procedures for your State Licensing Exam.
· Availability:
· Our live instructor is available to you from 8:30am to 4:30pm CST by phone and email (voicemail and email responded to within 24 business hours).
· Exam Remediation:
· If you should fall short on your first attempt to pass the State Exam, you are encouraged to send your results to your instructor. He will analyze your scores and develop a personalized review plan to organize your study and deliver it to you by email. You can then focus your efforts on the material that is most likely to produce a passing score on your next attempt.
4 focused exams designed to be progressively more difficult and linked to specific test objectives.
· Insurance Exam 1 – Terms and Definitions: if student does not master this material they will not pass. 60% of the state exam is made up of terms and definitions.
· Insurance Exam 2- Written at the difficulty level of the state exam and covering similar content. A student scoring 75% or above can feel comfortable about passing the state exam.
· Exam 3, Double Check – for students who did not do well on Exam 2 and need remediation. If scoring 75% they are ready for state exam
· Exam 4, Checkmate (The Beast!) – This exam is not for everyone and is more difficult than the state exam. A score of 60% would be outstanding and is ideal for highly competitive people and those who absolutely must pass on first attempt.
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VIEW SOUTH CAROLINA TRAINING COURSES
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