What Young Agents Think

This issue of Insurance Journal features exclusive results from the 2022 Young Agents Survey where nearly 300 young agents nationwide shared their views on the insurance industry and their experiences as agents.

This annual report also features the professional stories of five young agents. They describe their own journeys into the insurance world, share why they enjoy being an agent, and offer a few tips on what it takes to make it today as an independent agent.

But let’s not overlook the industry’s veteran agents. One of the biggest challenges for independent agency owners today is recruiting and retaining talent, writes Tony Caldwell in his monthly Insurance Journal column. To help combat this dilemma, Caldwell says it’s critical that agencies re-engage the ready-to-retire and rehire the retired.

“Older workers have a great deal of hard-to-find (in new workers) knowledge,” Caldwell says. Also, older workers at all agency staffing levels have “an intangible attribute that younger employees cannot match — wisdom,” Caldwell writes.

And young agents and agency staff need their older peers to learn and grow. Of those young agents responding to this year’s survey, 69% have relied on an older agent mentor during their career.

While young agents remain optimistic about their place in the insurance industry, they do have concerns over the economy, technology advancements, the industry’s ability to attract new talent, hard market conditions and the need for more diversity in the agency system.

Here are 10 things that young agents responding to the survey say they’d like to change when it comes to the insurance industry or their own career.

1. More diversity overall in the industry.
2. Technology progress from the preferred carriers that have been around for many years.
3. I would also love to see more young talent and I think the industry as a whole could do better about educating and appealing to young people.
4. I would like to see people understand the true purpose of insurance as being to protect your family and assets. Too many consumers just want to buy on price.
5. Transparency in pricing to end users.
6. More women.
7. Better benefits and compensation.
8. D&I. I am one of two women producers under 40 at my agency. While I love what I do, working in a “boys club” environment is very isolating.
9. I think overall the insurance industry has a negative perception from the public. I think if our ethics improve as a whole, we can change that perception.
10. Technology please. It’s 2022 everyone!

Topics Agencies