Thursday, April 15, 2010

Experience of an insurance agent

Dear Mr. Tan,
As im currently a new agent with one of the big insurance companies in Singapore, im finding its a lot different from what I was told or expected.
For example at the start we were told to emphasize needs based selling in order to meet the needs of our clients (basically what the MAS regulations said). Later I found out that nobody does needs based selling and all we do is get clients to sign on empty forms so we can go back to the office to fill them up later. End result : Client is clueless about what their needs are and how we are meeting them, if at all. Instead of talking to them about what THEY want, we spend our time giving presentations about interest rates and talking about how our relative racked up a huge hospital bill without insurance to pay for it.


The commission structure is also highly flawed and contributes to the high turnover rate of agents in the industry. There is absolutely zero incentive or point for agents to recommend products with lower commission rates. In fact, meeting a client to sell a term plan actually loses an agent money(unless it is a very big term plan) because the commission rate is simply not high enough to pay for the time + bus/MRT fare involved.

In my case, neither I or my colleagues were ever given product training on anything but the products with the highest commission rates. Also, this is actually a job that requires you to spend money in order to make money. The problem is that for most new agents, they will not be able to set sufficient appointments or close enough cases to make money for the first 1-2 months at least, unless they have a lot of contacts who are interested. The end result is they spend hundreds of dollars in food and transport expenses, and in the end all they keep hearing is "I'm not interested", and quit because they are heavily in the red and still can't find people who wants to buy insurance. It would be better if new agents were given a basic allowance of $400-500 for living expenses till they are seasoned enough to close cases on a regular basis.

With the high turnover rate of agents in the industry there is a high incentive to simply not train agents properly since a manager is spending too much time training someone who, according to statistics, will quit in a month or two anyway. Simply give them basic training, send them on whatever appointments they can make, and see if it works out. If not, oh well, go recruit more people. I was given a few days of training total, only a few hours of which was product related, and was told to go to my first appointment with the aim to do a presentation and simply convince him to buy and not ask questions. I ended up making stuff up when the client started asking about things I was not taught about. I felt pathetic.

As it is I am currently in the unenviable situation where I spend money travelling back and fro my office, making phone calls, doing surveys, doing coldcalls, mainly to hear phones ringing that people never seem to pick up (I never had any idea how under-utilzied handphones were in Singapore before) and I am not even able to set a single appointment because people keep postponing or simply dissapear off the radar and never pick up their phones again. All of this is costing me money and worst of all I cannot see a way to improve my situation. I do not have any senior agents I can look to for guidance since they are all busy rushing to meet quotas and my manager just keeps telling me to go out, do more surveys, make more phone calls, find and meet people, etc, but it is simply not working.

I have no clue where, exactly, I am supposed to find people interested in buying insurance or doing investments since almost everyone i meet simply recoils in horror at the mere mention of "savings" "investments" "protection" or any other key word that you can possibly use.

A scary amount of middle aged adults still believe themselves immortal and that they cannot possibly get hospitalized or worse, affecting their ability to provide for their family. Most young working adults simply go from paycheck to paycheck, saving $0 every month and heading straight for disaster the moment a situation calls for usage of emergency funds which do not exist, or they just dump a token amount into their bank account every month that dissapears into the newest xbox or ipod the moment they get enough. Most young working adults do not even have a clue what medishield or medisave is, other than that it is something CPF related.

I feel like im constantly rolling dice and seeing if I can get a lucky combination just to find a single interested person. I would like to continue on in this line of advising people on financial planning, but I do not see how as most people simply want to go through life without any financial planning or insurance protection at all. And actually I don't even know whether what im doing can be considered financial planning anyway.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

How true are your words!

I've been through what you have been before and have since quit totally because of the "disgusting" sales process which even myself cannot tolerate.

That's is the real world! Agents are still agents who only make a living out of every deal they closed. Yes, consumers speak ill of agents and agents always squeeze consumers. It depends which side you are on.

The so call needs base selling are rubbish, its a requirement by MAS so agents use it to cover their a--. All agents just want to make a deal so company will pay them a commission. They will always push for the highest comm product which is the most profitable to them. Good plans pay low commission and high commission plans will never be good. That will always be the fact!

Anonymous said...

I was feeling a bit sympathetic to that person, until I reached the 2nd part of the account. He/she is falling into the trap of being a salesman with the focus on finding people willing to buy insurance "products". Because of desperation to earn money, it will be 99.5% chance to end up promoting wholelife and endowment due to all the reasons stated.

If you are focus on products, then you cannot survive being a financial planner coz it mostly doesn't involve products. And the "products" that financial planning mostly endorses are low or zero commission ones like inculcating savings habit, H&S insurance, term insurance, ETFs, low cost UTs, FDs, estate planning, cashflow analysis, investment strategy, needs analysis, etc.

Just take a look at Mr Tan's book. Can you survive on commissions if you practice what is stated in the book to advice clients?

E.g. For a client who is a fresh grad just starting work without any dependants, financial planning may mean just H&S insurance and building up a 6-months emergency savings first.

Besides being ethical and having strong multi-disciplinary knowledge of finance, business, insurance, investment, legal, etc. you also need to be a strong entrepreneur as a financial planner, coz it is basically running your own business. Your marketing skills must be top-notch, in order to bring across your expertise to the right target markets. Note that I said marketing skills, NOT selling skills.

You need to be able to communicate effectively how your skills and knowledge can add value to clients. E.g. writing your own blog and volunteer to write articles for popular finance/investment magazines. Coz you have to depend on charging professional fees to survive. Otherwise you will just end up recommending wholelife, endowment and regular ILPs.

Business will be very slow to start up, and you need to consider how you can tide over the first few months or even the first year. E.g. large cash reserves and/or alternate income stream.

Anonymous said...

What the writer writes has truth in it. In this current environment, 99% firms including insurance companies and FA Firms does the same. In some scenario the advisers are at the mercy of the companies ie commissions not paid for both the general insurance and life insurance cases, some citing MAS needs this documents etc etc. MAS should set up a 'hotline' for advisers to contact them 'anonymous' if not they can get blacklisted by MAS and the company, to take note of the practices and if need be investigate.
How not to be the BEST, if MAS just do nothing.
Mr Tan should you set up a FIRM, I am sure people will join you

Anonymous said...

adviser (who only inteested to become an introducer) cannot b trusted.

Anonymous said...

[quote]If you are focus on products, then you cannot survive being a financial planner coz it mostly doesn't involve products.[/quote]

Then can you please tell me how an insurance agent is supposed to survive if he is paid no basic salary, cannot charge professionals fees and receives little to no commission for recommending low commission products like term plans or H&S?

And i don't think insurance agents are allowed to market themselves that way via magazines, etc, as they are tied to a company.

Anonymous said...

Point 1: Nothing changed since the recession.

Lots of talk e.g. regulation, principles etc but Agents still sell the same way as earning high commission is the only way to survive. To make things worst, Company is encouraging it by lack of training or Mgrs strong focus on high commission products.

Point 2: To be better financially informed, better read TKL book then depending on Agents.

Point 3: With world market improving, more "minibombs" are coming. That's the way of life.

Anonymous said...

The solution is pressure MAS to implement the need based approach as compulsory and replace commission with fee.
Only those who advise, competent and honest ones will survive. This will get rid of product pushers and salesmen and women.

Anonymous said...

10 years ago i experienced what you have gone thru 100%.

sad to hear it's still the same senario 10 years later!

Anonymous said...

To be frank, doing away with agents & just selling basic insurance which are easier to understand over customer service counter is good enough.

Anonymous said...

The worse year was when CPF was liberalised in 2001. It was the time when the true color of insurance agents was seen. Greed and unscrupulous practices reared their ugly heads. It was robbery at broad daylight and legalised. Many CPF memebers's balance was wiped clean to buy endowment products and churning was openly taking place like stock exchange.
Today, 87% of CPF members balance is still running at a loss. Is it a wonder why many cannot have $20K to buy CPFlife? If MAS doesn't do anything to stop the unethical and rogue insurance agents from further robbing consumers I see gloom and doom in the near future.
Insurance agents must be stopped from investing for CPF members. These salesmen are robbers and not qaulified . Dont' let them steal your dream of the golden years.
It is sad that MAS is idling, I wonder for what.

Anonymous said...

MAS MD reports to MAS Deputy Chairman who in turn reports to Chairman who is the SM.

As long as the threesome believe that MAS is the National Financial English Centre [NFEC] to ensure high english standard of products'prospectus e.g. Pinnacle and little emphasis on the product true nature then it is their fault that we, the retail investors, again and again fall into the traps of bogus and dangerous products and company.

People from China and Malaysia are not facing such problem thanks to their regulators who are paid a fraction of our threesome.

Bottomline is we, victims and the paymasters, rewarded handsomely the threesome to do a lousy job in protecting us.

So who to blame? OURSELVES......

limejuice said...

I wish to offer an alternative view to the writer.

1) It is possible to make a living by recommending good and low commission plans.

2) Contrary to many negative comments about the commission system, I'd like to highlight that commission is not the problem but rather it is the attitude and values of the agent.

An ethical agent will benefit from providing sound advice and recommendations even if it means getting a low commission because

- he knows in his conscience that he has done the right thing and this provides him the motivation to do the same for others.

- and his clients will appreciate his thoughtful analysis and sound recommendation thus would want to refer his services to his friends or families.

Only when you do things the right and proper way, then you'll start to see more and more business through increasing referrals. This process is slow but it is a must if you want to survive in this career.

Agents who want to earn a quick buck via shortcuts and etc may be successful in the short run, however in the long run, he or she will loose the purpose and conviction of why he or she is in this career.

3) A term plan does not necessary mean that the agent loses money if you do a proper needs based analysis. Do you know that many Singaporeans are easily UNDERINSURED by about $500,000 or more?

4) People are increasingly aware of the need for financial planning and there is a demand for quality advisors. There are still needs that are yet to be filled.

5) If you are serious about joining the financial planning industry, instead of waiting for your manager or company to give you training, I suggest that you do your own reading and study on financial planning. Someone who is serious about his work will take ownership and not wait for things to happen.


My advise to those thinking of joining this industry is to first manage your expectations. Do not join this industry just because of the quick money and etc. The truth is, to be an ethical advisor, the first few years is definitely NOT a bed of roses. You'll have to deal with rejections and skeptism, however only those who perservere and keep doing things right will succeed.

Many business owner fail during the initial years because they give themselves exhorbibant pay during the startup years thinking that they are now the boss and can command their own salary. However, the truth is, successful business owners either take very little or no pay duing the initial years and invest the earnings back into their businesses so as to continue and keep growing it. Only when the business become stable and profitable, then they'll pay themselves. Likewise, during the first few years, do not splurge whatever you've earned but live within your means and invest the rest of the money on knowledge and skills upgrading for the benefit of your clients and the long term success of your career.

Anonymous said...

I have seen people make money from CPF investments though.

Ultimately it is the funds you choose. If you choose poor performing funds you lose money, no surprise there.

There are some people who less than 10 years later have made two fold or higher profits on their CPF investments due to their fund performance.

Anonymous said...

Just to digress a little...
"Most young working adults simply go from paycheck to paycheck, saving $0 every month and heading straight for disaster the moment a situation calls for usage of emergency funds which do not exist, or they just dump a token amount into their bank account every month that dissapears into the newest xbox or ipod the moment they get enough. "

I think this is very true of our young Singaporeans now, maybe all primary and secondary schools should teach compulsory financial planning

Anonymous said...

I find that generally insurance agent, Financial Planner, IFA or whatever you call them tends to be rather unprofessional.

I have experienced over the years several of these so-called "Finance expert". The first one was from a listed insurance company here many years back. Sold me a Life Policy and then disappear forever. In the initial years, I still received some brochures and name cards, but seems to have all gone these couple of years. I have no idea whether is she still with the company, still in this industry or is she still alive.

I have also met some IFAs, you know those "I will look after the interest for my clients first" type. Two of them are well known bloggers. The first one, rather green in this trade, made some extensive fact finding in our first meeting. After that he produced a very elaborate financial plan for me. However he just disappear after that citing that he does not know how to execute them as basically he found out that I am an "uninsurable case".

The second IFA one even better. This one is an old hand in the industry and even claim to have mentor several other well known IFAs. In our first meeting, I indicated to him I wanted a HOLISTIC COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING. However he did not bother to do any fact finding at all but merely took down my health condition. He strongly recommending Aviva Myshield plan to me as it has the moratorium function so confirm acceptance. I took up the plan for myself, my wife and son. Since then after the plan was incepted, he totally disappear as well, ignoring all my other enquiries. He probably had found out that my condition is not insurable with other insurance companies so he gave me up together. So much so for being a veteran in this IFA, I think he ought to be ashame of himself! This is also why I remain skeptical on the quality of IFA even when they claim that they are the new breed of financial adviser.

Anonymous said...

I think we should make insurance companies pay agents a minimum salary. That way, they will think twice before churning agents, and instead spend more time on skills upgrading of existing agents.

Anonymous said...

I once had the opportunity to speak to one so-called "director" of an MNC insurance company.

He told me he was happy everytime Singapore went into recession. Cos during the last recession in 2003 (SARS), he managed to recruit a bumper crop of agents (mostly the retrenched engineers and out-of-service SAF regulars). He made use of these agents to approach their friends and relatives to buy WL insurance. And he earns ver-riding commissions from every policy they sell.

We should make sure insurance companies pay minimum wage, to send a message to such people that if you recruit a person, you must guarantee his livelihood.

Anonymous said...

[quote]1) It is possible to make a living by recommending good and low commission plans.[/quote]

Is not.

You want to make $100-200 per month? Because thats how much you are going to get if you sell term plans.

And selling term plans to singaporeans is ridiculously hard in the first place. Think about it : "You die your family gets money you dont die nothing happens". Who want to buy? Very few people are smart enough to realise that term plans are good for them because they are cheap, even fewer are good enough to go invest the difference on their own.

Btw if you sell term plans you cant even meet your quota, i can guarantee you your boss will be screaming at you everyday and you will get fired VERY quickly...plus no insurance company will hire an agent that sells only term plans + hospital insurance...

Anonymous said...

I think there are good and bad points for an insurance plan, depending on individuals.

Example one of the post highlight ""Most young working adults simply go from paycheck to paycheck, saving $0 every month and heading straight for disaster the moment a situation calls for usage of emergency funds which do not exist"

Let's say if you advocate the young person above to buy a term plan, if he is living from paycheck to paycheck, then when times are desperate,other things will take priority. It will be the time he give up his term plan.

Let's say if he has a whole life plan which already has cash value, then it can still be put on Auto premium loan, no need to pay premium for the time being but he continue to enjoy the protection.

For so many years in the past, there has been whole life and term policies. All these are catered for different individuals. Not everybody will appreciate a whole life plan, and also not everybody will appreciate a term plan.

Anonymous said...

Anon ,April 18, 2010 11:37 PM,
"I think there are good and bad points for an insurance plan, depending on individuals."
"Depending on individuals" is absolutely correct but the problem is always the individuals are sold the wrong products.
Eg. the poor is sold a wholelife product that is expensive and the poor soul can hardly afford enough to insure his risks. The premium for this wholelife can buy him 10-20times sum assured which is likely the amount he needs and whihc gives him peace of mind while he pursues other plans.. First thing first and that is HE NEEDS PROTECTION FIRST BEFORE HE CAN THINK OF SAVING.
What is the first and very important insurance that everybody needs?
Have you heard of 'emergency fund ' insurance? Many people forgot and insurance agents would not recommend you becuase there is no commission for them. What is it for? An emergency plan is an insurance against a loss of job and IT IS NOT A SAVING PLAN although it incurs setting aside money until it is between 3-6 months of his salary.
You said if a person has a wholelife plan and suddenly he is sacked from his job he has no money to carry on but he can dip into the cash value of his WL plan, right? Wahlow, you have fallen into the trap of the insurance agents and the insurer.
Do you know the implications of 'auto premium loan'? It is the beginning of the end of the policy.
.The happiest person in the world is your insurer when you go on APL.
The insurance company gets a guaranteed return of 5.5% to 8% from lending you the money. And how much return does the company give for your policy if you keep for the next 30 years assuming no APL? Tell us. If you do not know ask your trusted beloved insurance agent or write to your preferred insurer.Let us know what is the net return of the policy if you take a loan.I bet you don't know about your own policies' return.
Friend , either you are still sleeping or you are an unethical and unscrupulous insurance agent.
Let me tell you ONLY THE RICH CAN AFFORD WHOLELIFE AND THEY DON'T MIND LOSING AND THEY DON'T MIND HUMOUR THEIR AGENTS but for the poor the right plan is very necessary and planning is of utmost important. For the poor the first plan is to set up an emergency plan plus a term plan + critical illness if he is married with children and he is the bread winner.The premium he pays if he were to buy a WL can set up all the plans.
Everybody is stupid and not because they cannot appreciate Wholelife or term plan.How to appreciate when they don't know that they don't know about insurance. Just like you. You don't know and you don't know that you don't know becuase what you said betrays you that you don't know.This is a fact and that is why insurance agents can continue to con people and WL continues to be sold to unwary and ignorant people .
Wait till MAS removes commission from all insurance products and you shall see whether WL will be sold or not and whether the insurance agents still sing the same tune about WL.

The Watchman

Anonymous said...

Hello watchman, simple quesiton.

It cost you $6 to go down, meet client, buy him coffee, talk cock, sign forms. It further takes you maybe 4 hours or so in total assuming you are very fast to fill up all the forms, submit all the paperwork, travel time, etc.

You get $2 commission for selling him term plan.

Let me ask you this...will you take the loss of $4 to go and do this?

Remember, you are not in the business of CHARITY. You are not there to provide FREE FINANCIAL PLANNING. You are not there to buy people FREE COFFEE. If you are expecting an agent to do all this not only for nothing but to take a loss, you might as well give me your wallet now.

It is the way the industry is structured due to commission.

Anonymous said...

Anon,April 20, 2010 8:14 AM,
The problem is this is how salesmen think. Why buy from salesmen because eventually this is what salesmen would do , sell a rotten product to cover his cost and not a solution to his clients' problem.
A financial planner thinks and sees differently. A planner sees clients' have problem and need to be fixed.The result is win win and not daylight robbery by insurance agents.
Yes, commission is the cause of all the evils in the life industry.
To correct you.. insurance agents DON"T provide financial planning..they don't know...they plan their commission.

Anonymous said...

How can a agent plan for you if he doesnt earn money? Simple question, please answer.

You might offer to chaffeur me around town for free while paying for the car and petrol yourself.

Anonymous said...

Ladies & gentlemen,

From some of the above comments, likely from insurance agents or RMs or whatever they call themselves, I can only say that it is better not to trust any single one of them.

Much better to spend some time & effort to educate ourselves first. Just spend a few dollars getting Mr TKL's book and empower yourself. Instead of being a blur & deaf frog waiting to be skinned by salesman.

If the insurance agent is a relative or friend, better for you to just give him a lunch treat and give him $50 kopi money. Tell him about true financial planning as found in Mr TKL's book. Get a copy for him to read if he expresses interest. At the end of the day, if the agent simply says that what he does is just the way it is in this industry, then you really have to consider if you still want to associate with him, base on ethics and principle.

As customers, we need to do our due diligence and we are also not in charity to buy an expensive Wholelife or Endowment or Regular ILP so that the salesman can earn $2000 to $5000+ commission. Worse of all, after spending all that money only to find out you got insufficient coverage and the returns barely the same as inflation after 30, 40 years.

Anonymous said...

I am also still waiting for an explanation on why insurance should be provided FOC.

Anonymous said...

People trying to explain insurance is not free = insurance conmen.

While people repeatedly emphasizing buying TKL's book = ???

"so that the salesman can earn $2000 to $5000+ commission."

This is complete and utter nonsense. The only way you can earn such a high commission from these products is if the client is a high networth one with assets over $1 million.

Even with a commission rate of 50%, you are talking about a plan with a monthly premium of $10k+.

Why is it i do not hear you complain that agents spend 4 hours to sell a $30 plan to get $10 commission? It is very interesting how you only emphasize one aspect of the industry.

If not for your negative views i would think you a desperate manager trying to recruit new agents by making ridiculous claims about how much commission you can earn.

"returns barely the same as inflation after 30, 40 years."

Prove it. Find me a list of long performing funds that do not provide a return that beat inflation in the long run.

Anonymous said...

It takes a robber to know another robber.

I am ex-insurance agent (now retired liao), and I can say that life insurance is something that is actually easy to understand and can be cheap too. Don't really need agents or consultants. Unfortunately, insurance companies keep a lot of things hidden and they like to paint an aura of complexity and professionalism around insurance products. This is to maximise profit margins -- just ask any insurance CEO whether term products or par products give higher profit margins?

It is dis-ingenious for agents to claim they only earn 40% or 50% commission. Truth is that for most par products, you earn commission over 5-6 yrs. Total commission is at least equivalent to the annual premium paid by customer. Usually it is 1.5X the annual premium.

E.g. Most of the time I sold wholelife, limited wholelife and endowments. For a 30-yr old customer, a $200K limited wholelife is easily $3+K per year. My first year commission already $1.5+K --- another $1.5K over the next 4 years.

Another example, for somebody interested in investments. I pushed regular ILPs in hot funds -- just show the last 12 months charts and they all salivate already. Many middle-income customers willing to put in $1K every month -- just con them it is killing 2 birds with 1 stone: life insurance + retirement savings at 1 go. Imagine, $12K API -- for certain insurance companies that can be $6K to $9K first year commission liao.

Friend, if you say you never make $2+K commission from a single insurance product, you are either a liar or a lousy salesman.

And yes, I told my kids never to buy par products for insurance cover. At most only certain endowments as a small percentage of their holistic accumulation planning. As much as possible, they all buy insurance online or directly from insurers, bypass the talk-cock-sing-song agents who are 99.5% only interested in lining their pockets with high commissions, and couldn't care less whether the coverage is 10X annual income or not.

Take it from me, coz I used to be one of these conman.

Anonymous said...

"Friend, if you say you never make $2+K commission from a single insurance product, you are either a liar or a lousy salesman."

And like always the problem is finding people willing to pay/with the ability to pay $4000-5000 a month for this kind of commission.

If you are talking about total lifetime commission, then 4-5k is quite achievable.

$2K monthly regular premium is harder. Most people earn 1-3k takehome pay already. Factor in all kinds of expenses and the amount most people can put into insurance is probably $100-200 per month.

Perhaps you can share how you frequently find high level managers, etc with take home pay of $5000-10,000 a month who are willign to sit down and have coffee with you.

I have easily done 200+ surveys. Only two people listed the ability to save $1,000 or more a month and one was lying. The other is probably lying too especially since he keeps postponing appointments or almost never picks up the phone.

I have also easily coldcalled 300+ people. Only one person expressed a desire to meet up to discuss financial planning. The rest insisted they had no desire to do any financial planning or they already had a friend/relative doing it for them.

Anonymous said...

No wonder my 60+ yr old ex-clients are complaining to me that younger insurance agents are innumerate, cannot calculate or have selective deafness.

All along I have stressed total commission, and yet you say it is "utter nonsense" to earn $2000 to $5000+ commission for an insurance product.

Then now you say about finding customers who can pay $2000 to $5000 a month in premiums.

Yen-neh, you don't need to find someone who is willing to pay $5000 a month in order to earn $5000 commission!

I give you an example:
20-year Limited-pay wholelife plan $200K for male customer 29 yr old.

The premium for one of the "cheaper" plan in the market is already $5200+ per year, or $450/mth if pay monthly.

What's the commission? You know, I know, the commission over 5 to 6 years is total $5700+.

Now let me ask you, is $200K sufficient for this guy? Don't know right? Have to do financial needs analysis first and consider his financial situation right?
Let me tell you, no need to analyse so much ... if he can afford to pay $450/mth for insurance, $200K is definitely insufficient coverage for his income level.

Finally what is the projected rate of returns, even for the optimistic projection? Using both financial calculator and Excel to confirm, the 40 years return of the above "better value" wholelife is a grand 3.0% per annum. FYI, the projected inflation going forward will be around 3.5%pa. Therefore if you think wholelife is a good savings vehicle, you are actually standing a very high chance of losing out to even inflation.

So you think par insurance products are good deal and not CON jobs?? Even when provide insufficient coverage and the cash values cannot even barely beat inflation rate?!?

2 Rules Of Thumb here: LIA advises adequate coverage of 10X your annual income especially if you have dependants. Secondly, you should NOT spend more than 5 PERCENT of your take home pay to buy that 10X insurance cover.

How right? Impossible right?!? Let me tell you if you can do the above 2 things for your clients, then you are not CONNING them. And I can tell you that customer can cover for $500K with less than $50 a month. Therefore average Joe can more than adequately cover himself as you put it -- most only can afford "$100-200 per month".

If you think, forget it ... cannot earn, eat grass. Then better to sell property -- REALLY. This one all can see, smell & touch the product. Can even flush toilet and on air-con to check. Everything in the open. Maximise your talk cock sing song skills. Willing buyer and willing seller. Nowadays you sell 1 HDB flat can earn $7K to $10K commission. If you kio-tio condo then ho-say-lo can get $25K to $30++K commission. No need to work for 4-6 months liao. Somemore don't have to wait 5 years to collect all commission. This is 1 shot 1 kill method.

Anonymous said...

"Therefore if you think wholelife is a good savings vehicle, you are actually standing a very high chance of losing out to even inflation."

Yea well banks are not a good savings vehicle, neither are fixed deposits. I don't see you screaming at banks accusing them of conning singaporeans...

And yes you make a very good point, it is impossible to earn sufficient to feed family if you only sell term plans...please help to change industry....

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:20am,

You should become property agent. That will definitely help to improve insurance industry.

Banks don't lock up your money for 20-30 years. And they don't charge you 6% interest for using your own money.

And don't use the "better than the bank" BS. Savings deposits, FDs, wholelife and endowment are all different asset classes with their own unique risk/return characteristics and serves different financial objectives & financial needs.

From your writings, it is obvious you cannot even plan for your own retirement, let alone customers'.

So better for you to sell property. But you better strike while the iron is still hot.

deyi said...

if u become the property agent , then do u know how much money u need to spend before sell any house?
u need to advertise on newspaper alteast twice a week(advertising in paper is expensive), do flyers(printing thousand flyers also costing), do online marketing( for better result of marketing ur house, u need spend some montly fees as free advertise will not last u longer online), sms advertising(example ADV77826 ,also expensive cuz u need to buy those technology), telemarketing(u can do it urself if u want save cost), billboard( some adv at bus, taxi and board). And you get commission after all process done,seller handle key to buyer, it take u atleast three to six month to close a case..... this is true experience from my cousin, now he quit.

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