How Much Do Insurance Agents Make?
Insurance agents are associated with an insurance company, responsible for selling insurance policies to clients.
Insurance Agents
An insurance agent is responsible for representing their company in selling insurance policies to potential clients. Insurance agents and brokers who specialize in property and casualty insurance help small business owners obtain insurance coverage from insurers at a reasonable price (or premium). Agents and brokers are licensed in their states and must comply with all governing statutes and regulations.
Insurance agents and brokers can specialize in offering one form of small business insurance. Or they can provide many different types, including:
- General liability insurance
- Business owner’s policy
- Errors and omissions insurance
- Professional liability insurance
- Commercial property insurance
- Business interruption insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Commercial auto insurance
What do Insurance Agents do?
An insurance agent is not just responsible for selling insurance policies to clients, but is also responsible for retaining those customers with satisfactory services.
Insurance Agent Job Responsibilities:
- Offers support to customers’ changing insurance needs by selling life, health and car insurance.
- Builds up profitable working associations with customers.
- Creates a base for long term customers.
- Aggregates arrangements of possibilities.
- Decides customers’ specific requirements and monetary circumstances by planning immediate coverage action and long-term strategy implementation.
- Finds out customers’ drawn out objectives.
- Speaks with agents.
- Obtains underwriting approval by completing an application for coverage.
- Completes coverage by conveying strategy, arranging future subsequent visits, and assessments of necessities.
- Offers proceeding with assistance by giving direct store structures, processing changes in beneficiary, and analyzing policy loan applications.
- Provides death benefits by conveying strategy and reconsidering customer needs.
- Updates work information by partaking in educational training, keeping up close to home organizations, and taking an interest in expert associations.
- Enhances insurance agency reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests and exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
Insurance Agent Qualifications/Skills:
- Prospecting skills
- Meeting sales goals
- Motivation for sales
- Product knowledge
- Organizational skills
- Attention to detail
- Strong communication skills
How much do Insurance Agents make?
Insurance agents make good money throughout the country, earning the most in Washington. Here is a breakdown of what an insurance agent makes annually, monthly, weekly and hourly.
| State | Annual Salary | Monthly Pay | Weekly Pay | Hourly Wage |
| Washington | $94,614 | $7,885 | $1,820 | $45.49 |
| Maryland | $93,411 | $7,784 | $1,796 | $44.91 |
| Nebraska | $91,463 | $7,622 | $1,759 | $43.97 |
| Virginia | $90,262 | $7,522 | $1,736 | $43.40 |
| New York | $90,156 | $7,513 | $1,734 | $43.34 |
| Delaware | $87,446 | $7,287 | $1,682 | $42.04 |
| New Hampshire | $87,219 | $7,268 | $1,677 | $41.93 |
| Oklahoma | $85,007 | $7,084 | $1,635 | $40.87 |
| California | $84,695 | $7,058 | $1,629 | $40.72 |
| Massachusetts | $83,550 | $6,962 | $1,607 | $40.17 |
| Vermont | $82,248 | $6,854 | $1,582 | $39.54 |
| Hawaii | $80,884 | $6,740 | $1,555 | $38.89 |
| Wyoming | $80,657 | $6,721 | $1,551 | $38.78 |
| Idaho | $79,608 | $6,634 | $1,531 | $38.27 |
| Connecticut | $78,652 | $6,554 | $1,513 | $37.81 |
| Maine | $78,560 | $6,547 | $1,511 | $37.77 |
| West Virginia | $78,353 | $6,529 | $1,507 | $37.67 |
| Pennsylvania | $77,974 | $6,498 | $1,499 | $37.49 |
| Rhode Island | $77,527 | $6,461 | $1,491 | $37.27 |
| Texas | $77,123 | $6,427 | $1,483 | $37.08 |
| Alaska | $77,068 | $6,422 | $1,482 | $37.05 |
| New Jersey | $76,590 | $6,383 | $1,473 | $36.82 |
| Montana | $76,500 | $6,375 | $1,471 | $36.78 |
| Nevada | $76,463 | $6,372 | $1,470 | $36.76 |
| North Dakota | $76,439 | $6,370 | $1,470 | $36.75 |
| Arizona | $75,712 | $6,309 | $1,456 | $36.40 |
| Indiana | $75,227 | $6,269 | $1,447 | $36.17 |
| Minnesota | $74,617 | $6,218 | $1,435 | $35.87 |
| Tennessee | $74,546 | $6,212 | $1,434 | $35.84 |
| Wisconsin | $74,221 | $6,185 | $1,427 | $35.68 |
| South Dakota | $74,207 | $6,184 | $1,427 | $35.68 |
| Ohio | $74,006 | $6,167 | $1,423 | $35.58 |
| Kentucky | $73,652 | $6,138 | $1,416 | $35.41 |
| Oregon | $73,059 | $6,088 | $1,405 | $35.12 |
| Utah | $73,052 | $6,088 | $1,405 | $35.12 |
| Georgia | $73,038 | $6,087 | $1,405 | $35.11 |
| Louisiana | $72,365 | $6,030 | $1,392 | $34.79 |
| South Carolina | $72,255 | $6,021 | $1,390 | $34.74 |
| Colorado | $71,980 | $5,998 | $1,384 | $34.61 |
| Kansas | $71,963 | $5,997 | $1,384 | $34.60 |
| Alabama | $71,330 | $5,944 | $1,372 | $34.29 |
| Iowa | $71,252 | $5,938 | $1,370 | $34.26 |
| New Mexico | $70,518 | $5,876 | $1,356 | $33.90 |
| Florida | $68,838 | $5,737 | $1,324 | $33.10 |
| Arkansas | $67,581 | $5,632 | $1,300 | $32.49 |
| Michigan | $67,551 | $5,629 | $1,299 | $32.48 |
| Mississippi | $67,416 | $5,618 | $1,296 | $32.41 |
| Illinois | $67,214 | $5,601 | $1,293 | $32.31 |
| Missouri | $66,140 | $5,512 | $1,272 | $31.80 |
| North Carolina | $61,572 | $5,131 | $1,184 | $29.60 |
Note: Sample rates have been extracted online, courtesy of ZipRecruiter.
How much do Car Insurance Agents make?
Auto insurance agents earn between 15% to 20% per car insurance policy, according to The Wall Street Journal.
For example, if your annual policy costs you $700 per year, your insurance agent earns between $105 and $140 for your policy. Insurance agents may get additional income for customer retention and policy renewals, but those income sources are generally reliant on the particular insurance company.
Insurance Agent Commission Rates
The average insurance carrier gives captive agents a 5-10% commission of any policy sold, while the average independent agent makes around 15% commission.
An insurance agent will earn more commission when they’re experienced, and to become experienced you must get associated with a reputable insurance company and learn with them. It starts by getting a bachelor’s degree, preferably in business, finance, accounting or economics. Such courses give an in-depth knowledge about the stock market and how market trends change.
After that, a student must do a master’s degree- postgraduate- in an area of specialization to build upon their career in insurance. Relevant experience obviously helps an agent to get better commission rates; internships and working under experienced professional grooms an agent helping them get better clients and better commission rates as well.
Every state requires insurance agents to be licensed. They need separate licenses to sell life and health insurance or property and casualty insurance. In most states, sales agents must complete pre-licensing courses and pass state examinations.
Conclusion
An insurance agent works for an insurance company, and is responsible for attracting clients and selling insurance policies to them. Be it life insurance, health, auto or a mortgage insurance policy, an agent must be able to sell them and retain them until the policy ends.
Insurance agents make a good amount of money annually, which on top of their salary is commission-based too. There is a certain level of academic qualification required to become an insurance agent, and some hands-on experience too. But the most important is to have a valid license to practice being an insurance agent.
