Posted On: June 25, 2008, 5:09 pm CDT

Posted By: Gill Fin

You make my point, kind of. Its not about products, its about people. And who's guilty of poor judgement - not products but people. And thats my point.
When the effort to provide low cost insurance, perhaps at a rate that is unsustainable, works its way down to personnel decisions, including compensation, then we don't get the best candidates for our profession. Thats what I told the human resources people who stood before us and asked us to refer friends and family for agency. They lowered commissions for new hires, and subsequently don't get (in my opinion) the caliber of agency candidates that they used to. For expample, when I hired on 16 years ago, they were interviewing for agency a bank president, a former professoinal football player, a doctor, etc. It was really hard to get appointed. Now, they don't even require a college degree. My thoughts were not really about regional insurers as much as the industry as a whole. Lastly, 16 years ago we offered about 1/3 the number of products. So I can make the case that the job is harder than ever, with a commission structure that is lower than ever. Whats up with that, dog?