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An insurance manager is responsible for sales, administration, and ethical compliance. They recruit and train agents, handle customer complaints, and generate new sales. Administrative tasks include managing staff and budgets. Experience in the industry is required for the role.
An insurance manager is responsible for all functions in the branch of an insurance company. The sale of insurance policies is the most important of these, but the manager is also responsible for all administrative, personal and other problems that may arise in the branch. The insurance manager is usually paid from three sources: a direct salary from the insurance company, substitute sales made by agents working outside the branch, and personal production – sales made by the manager himself.
A highly competitive industry, insurance sales have historically had a very high turnover. Some agents move from company to company, changing offices every two years; other agents will simply leave the industry. Because an insurance manager’s compensation includes replacements—an amount based on his agents’ commissions—a good manager spends a lot of time recruiting good agents, training them well, and keeping them. Typically, agents are trained in the actual insurance products the company sells, sales techniques, and ethical and legal compliance issues they face when selling insurance. As an incentive for retention, many managers also offer free training that provides agents with the continuing education credits needed to renew their insurance licenses.
A good insurance manager doesn’t just read agents’ weekly sales reports and identify those with the highest numbers as the best in the office. Instead, she’ll study the reports closely to find out why some agents do better than others. Some agents, for example, may be successful selling only one or two types of policies. A good manager will work with these agents to help them sell a wide range of policies, accompanying them to sales appointments and assigning them to work with other agents on sales of these other types of policies.
Ethical issues and compliance with laws and regulations are important elements of the insurance manager’s job. She is also responsible for the actions of agents under his supervision; therefore, customer and potential customer complaints are your responsibility to resolve and resolve. If an office develops a reputation for ethics or compliance issues, the manager will not last long on the job. This is another reason why a good manager spends time in the field with his agents, to have the opportunity to see them in action and evaluate their presentations in terms of ethics and compliance.
Most insurance companies require their managers to generate new sales every month. Most managers handle some sales themselves, but most managers fulfill most of this duty by periodically accompanying their agents on their sales calls. This can take one of two forms: accompanying new agents, or those who are struggling, to train and train them, and accompanying agents who have requested their manager’s assistance on a complex presentation. Commissions earned on these sales are usually split, although many managers are comfortable taking less than half of the commission because they will also receive an override on the agent’s commission. This practice of accompanying agents to sales presentations helps an insurance manager fulfill many of his responsibilities simultaneously.
Administrative matters can take up a good amount of an insurance manager’s time. Insurance offices need administrative staff capable of learning and applying the rules covering the entry of new insurance applications into their system, assisting with recruiting new agents, which is an ongoing process, dealing with clients and customers that appear on the office, purchasing office supplies and equipment and arranging services for that equipment. Members of the administrative team are paid from the office’s operating budget, which is set annually based on sales by the office’s agents. The manager’s effectiveness in keeping administrative costs within budget is rewarded or penalized in a way that will ultimately affect his or her compensation. However, if the administrative staff is inadequate for the workload, the manager may need to devote more time to administrative issues, reducing the amount of time available for other responsibilities.
Most insurance companies will not consider appointing someone to the position of insurance manager who does not have long and successful experience in the industry, often including intermediate steps on the management ladder. Those who are appointed can expect a stressful job juggling the many responsibilities discussed here. The compensation, however, is very rewarding by most standards, which is justification enough for most who take this job.
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