insurance agent

field agent

Washington National Insurance Company

You will be told that you will always work within 1 hour of your home. You will rarely if ever work within one hour of home and you will need to get a hotel. This all comes from YOUR pocket. You are expected to give gifts to anyone who discusses benefits. These gifts are purchase BY YOU from Washington National's approved list and cost approximately $500.00 just to get started. You will be told that you do not have to find new business. This is almost true.... they will send you to do enrollments at already established sites, but you won't sell a great deal because it's already been picked clean. I've sunk so much $$ into this job that I feel I'm failing if I give up now but frankly, I don't have any more $$ to put into it. When I wasn't working, my family's bills were met. Now, I'm losing more than I am making. While management is very supportive & helpful and they only hire professional agents, there's SO much you are not told. Right away, they'll send you to an enrollment or two where you make BIG bucks. That's only to hook you. That's when you'll be expected to begin ordering your gifts & other supplies and once you're invested you will be sent to do re-service groups. If you want to go out and open new groups, you can make a lot more $$. However, I was very upfront in saying that I did not desire to find new business and was promised I wouldn't have to...and I don't have to if I'm content with selling a policy or two a week but still driving lots of miles and putting in LOTS if time & $$$$$$$$$$$

The job would be great if you weren’t at the mercy of terrible people in authority above you.  There is an obvious MLM angle to the business, as the senior agents repeatedly said phrases alluding to ‘training your guys.’  That was the first sign I wasn’t in a serious job.  Apparently the turnover is very high as well.  This company might very well be the best example of the predatory insurance company.

My handler was actually hostile from the very first moment I spoke to him on the phone, and it only escalated when I showed up to work.  I thought it wasn’t going to be too bad to deal with at first, but it quickly devolved to the point that the whole job felt more like gang initiation than work.  I think the goal was to make me act subservient to show that I knew my place.  

I will say that my trainer was loaded and he talked about it a lot, but I found it unseemly.  The worst part was that no one would even spend any time helping me learn the material.  I left the company because of the leadership and I would warn everyone that you are gambling with your time and money if you come here, so understand the risk.  You also need to be prepared for when you witness criminal activity, so understand that in many states you are liable for what you see your coworkers do.  

My experience has been a positive one so far. Yes there are a few things that I wish would happen while working for this company but the potential of the job is unlimited. The first 6 weeks you get $500 ($3000 in total) but you have to pay it back, and before that 6 weeks is even up they start taking your commission! To make matters worse I didn’t receive a payment of my $500 for two straight weeks and I still have to pay that 1000 back even thought I didn’t receive it! Other than that the only other “issue” I might have is there’s no base pay to cover your expenses so if you have a slow week there’s a good chance you’re losing money. Everything else has been a positive experience. I like that I can travel my state and meet new/interesting people! 

If you're friends with the right people, you can go somewhere quickly, or if you're on the right team, you may get lucky. There's a lot of lifting and transporting to each location you work, which is always different. You have to buy a lot of items, like gifts that you raffle off at the work location as well as buying lunch or breakfast for large staff in the hopes that it will bring people in to see you and purchase insurance products. Can't even say how many times I witnessed and experienced buying all these lunches only to have not one sale after sitting at a location for 8 hours or more. Sometimes you've driven more than an hour away from your home to these locations. Sometimes you have to get there as early as 4:30am or work an overnight shift.

This type of sales position is not for the weak.  It definitely takes a strong disciplined individual to succeed.  Having the proper training and preparing yourself with the material prior to coming to the field will increase your odds of success.  I have seen many new agents come unprepared and this becomes their demise.  On the other hand, folks who understand the game and have a positive outlook will out perform those who don't.  The career offers new agents with  many challenges and obstacles to overcome because of the 100% commission and expenses incurred.  If you are one of the few that make it, the career will offer more financial freedom and flexibility than most can imagine.

Work there for a little bit of time. And right work there right after finishing my job at a fast food joint and I ended up spending almost all of my savings going out to a different state to sell for a week. Only spending 2 days at home and whenever I told them I couldn't afford to keep going out to a different state. They told me that I needed to manage my finances better even though I was spending upwards of $400 a week just to go out to that state for them. Even with that, whenever I was talking to management they were very unprofessional blaming me for everything even going. As far as to say that the position and responsibilities I had were up to me, which I understand part of it was on me but when you're training somebody you need to actually train them.

Have deep pockets before starting this job.
 No warm leads as inquires only current customers to sell more to and hope for a referral. Time spent driving around making appointments instead of pre-set appointments or inquiries. Managers tell you where you can and can't sell which makes it difficult if you have a referral out of your selected area. Potentially great income but between self funded hotel stays, gas, and no guranteed appointments let alone sales the deficit adds up quickly. If you can manage making the appointments and selling above the cost to operate this job there is potential and commision yearly from renewing sales.

As in any other type of commission based career, this job is a 100% commission. You’ll quickly realize that the lead system put in place is outdated and nearly impossible to reliably trust. The whole negative aspect of this company is its reliably to its customers and employees. More times then not you’ll be disappointed at finding out that you’ll be sitting down with the same folks who get seen way too frequently and you’ll have no background information if a new lead has been contacted before in the past or really any kind of information. Overall, do yourself the favor and read both the upsides and MOST IMPORTANTLY READ THE DOWNSIDES!

Finally, I am compensated directly based on my own work ethic. Unmatched policies, great existing database of customers to build from, that you don't pay for. Incredible money. 4 day work week.  I learned the policies, the process, and worked hard and have been promoted twice In my first 2 years.   Not only phenomenal pay. Also, good for the soul to know you are truly helping people with these policies. I consider myself truly blessed to have found this career opportunity.  Not a good fit for the Lazy, extreme introverts, or very insecure.

PMA USA, headquartered in Dallas, Texas is a national company that provides insurance benefits solutions and markets voluntary insurance products. 

PMA USA is a company with more than 100 years of service to its policyholders. Washington National has $3.2 billion in assets under management and $2.5 billion in policy reserves. In all, Washington National has paid out more than $1.1 billion in claims to help protect customers from the costs of illnesses, injuries and accidents, and nearly $2 billion in return-of-premium and cash-value benefits.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Insurance agent 2 salaries reported	$80,000 per year
Field agent 1 salary reported	$175,000 per year

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