oh i see. but heard that in banks, their insurance is limited and wouldn't people rather be buying directly from the direct insurance company better? AKA whatever bank sells, insurance company has it (except forex, cards, etc). Whatever insurance company sells, banks has limited products. Investments product both insurance company and banks, what's the main difference actually?
u got it mistaken, whatever the insurance company sells, the bank has it.
whatever the bank sells, the insurance company may not have it.
I was once with with a mighty insurance firm. When certain partner banks launched almost similar insurance products with that company, the agents complained like hell, because there were accompanied by FD and structural products that agents cannot provided. A lot of such products were provided with discounts if purchased with the same insurance pdts u can buy from the agents. What can the agents provide? shopping or movie vouchers lor..
Agents do earn higher commission.
I consider the RM in a bank as a lesser evil, though both are still salesman..
But take advice from lousylah and take advice no.3 and no.4
Do NOT take advice from an existing insurance manager whether this career is good or not.
its like asking a toyota car salesman whether you should buy a toyota car.
What do you really expect him to tell you?
Sigh. there are perks indeed, but till now, i seriously dont think its worth it.
1) high commission
2) tons of travel perks, if u are good enough.
3) ability to plan out ur time.
but these perks are not good enough. if u want to achieve good sales, you lose a lot on your "free time". at my peak, i did not have a single rest day for a few months. you met up with tons of old "friends" because u have to. no doubt some become good friends, but many become superficial. its not good for your social life. Not good for your family life too, because of the different working hours.
lots of travels. i was totally advertised lots of travellings. i was travelling 4-5 times a year, all fully paid.
bad thing? most of the time u travel with your colleagues, people i dont really find it fun to travel with. and there are rules, conventions and restrictions that you should not break. This sucks a lot more than I can possibly write down...
after a few yrs of such travels, u learn to really hate travelling. but by then, due to agency peer pressure, you cant even reject! u cant even not accept such "freebies", imagine this "perk"....
and these trips? there are not free, in IRAS's view. you get to pay a good tax amount on it. SUCKS.
And the pay and bonus, for my age that time, i was a happy go fellow with those high incomes. but no one told me the huge amount of expenditures that I am expected for it.
and while i earn more than my friends in that period, as of today, majority of my friends have caught up with a large salary and better experience in the corporate world, while theoretically, if i had stayed, i had nothing much than sales experience.
You sell insurance, and when u get to management, u sell a career to others.
SALES.
u know what's the straw that breaks the camel back?
when on a certain day of the year, everything resets. You are back to zero. Everything you had done for the past year goes to $0. You start all over again and start qualifying for all the awards... every single level of incentive and stuff.
It is fun and exciting indeed for the 1st few years of your life. It is a senior who whined softly to me, the final straw i had,
"wah tomorrow everything back to zero again....."
