Insurance Agent = A dying job???

I had heard the above comment since I joined the industry 5 years ago. Is it true that Insurance Agent is a dying job? Over the past years,

1) I had seen many of my peers

* left the industry for good.

* part-timing on MLM and housing agent.

* struggling with their sales and family life due to unstable income

2) Agents image are getting from bad to worse

* The public view us like pest, shoo-ing us away like cockroaches

* Thet get rid of us by saying "I have all the policies already"

3) The Customers are getting demanding

* They wants 100% of our time, no matter how small a policy they bought from us.

* They ask for discount and gifts when they get a policy

4) Commisssion are getting lower due to competition. Recruitment are even harder.

* Lower Commission due to competition and diminishing Image are the 2 factors that make recruitment difficult

Sounds like its true that Insurance Agent is a dying job. Isn't it? Why is Adrian Khiat still in this industry waiting for the death sentence? A graduate with 2 distinctions and prize winner for excellent academic results. Can't he get a better job and start paying tax to the government?

I agree that Insurance Agent is a dying job, but a Financial Planner is not!

Insurance Agent sell an insurance policy without a system in place

Financial Planner adopts the 6 steps Financial Planning Process unlike an agent

1) Establishing and defining the client-planner relationship

2) Gathering client data, including goals

3) Analyzing and evaluating your financial status

4) Developing and presenting financial planning recommendations and/or alternatives

5) Implementing the financial planning recommendations

6) Monitoring the financial planning recommendations

The tarnished Insurance Agent image are spoiling the whole industry, people are not willing to understand what they have and give more respect to a Financial Planner.

A true Financial Planner is like a social worker who sit long hours listening, crack their head to come out with a solution for a problem that a client have. However, the trend is that many Insurance agent is rewarded better than a Financial Planner as a sales is still the end result needed for a Financial Planner to be paid.

The compensation system should be changed. A financial planner should be paid for the time taken to monitor a client's financial plan to ensure that it is on track.

Yes. There are paid financial planners in Singapore. But it forms a very small percentage because Singaporeans generally only wants to get free advice.