Insurance Agent Job Description
You’re driving down the road on a cool summer night, when suddenly, a badger runs out in front of your car. You spin out of control and end up hitting a light post, but you’re alive and are able to reach for your phone to call your insurance provider to assess the damage. Luckily, you called that insurance company and set up a plan before this accident occurred, and the person who helped you with this is called an insurance agent.
An insurance agent is somebody who sells some type of insurance, whether it is of the life, car, property, home, or health variety. Unexpected things happen to everyone, and having insurance is a relatively easy way to safeguard your belongings by having a protection plan.
What Do They Do?
An agent works for a company who specializes in a certain type of insurance, and their main objective is to sell an insurance policy to their client. Clients can either be businesses or individuals, and insurance agents work with the client to determine the best type of policy plan for their lifestyle and budget. Agents not only sell insurance, but they also maintain records of their clients and prepare reports. When one of their clients has an incident where they need to claim their insurance, the agent is responsible for helping them to settle the claim and get them reimbursed for what they lost from the damage.
Types of Agents
There are essentially two types of insurance agents. One type works for one specific company, and they are called captives. Captives typically have a contract with the company that they work for. The second type is called a broker, and they act as liaisons between their clients and different insurance companies. These liaisons work as a type of freelance broker by comparison shopping for their clients to determine which company has the best price for the type of policy that they are looking for.
Requirements
There is no education requirement to become a sales agent, although most agencies like to hire people who have a college degree in business or economics. Sometimes, high school graduates are even hired if they show that they have the ability to sell. Although there are no education requirements, agents are required to obtain a license before being able to work.