According to LIMRA’s most recent Insurance Barometer Study, 54% of all people in the United States were insured by some sort of life insurance in 2020. With so many people interested in insurance, being an life insurance agent is a very good career option.
If you’re considering a career in insurance sales, you could be debating whether to specialize in life and health insurance, property and casualty, also known as P+C, or both. Your decision is yours,
Below we will discuss in short the difference between these two insurance types and the advantages and disadvantages of each:
Health & Life Insurance
You can sell products including Medical, Dental, Vision, Accident, Disability Income, Long Term Care, and Life Insurance as a licensed Health & Accident Insurance (or Health, Accident, and Life Insurance) broker. These products provide benefits in the event that your clients (or their covered dependents) require medical treatment, dental care, eyeglasses or contacts, long-term care, become incapacitated, or want to provide for loved ones in the event that they pass away.
Property + Casualty Insurance
You can sell products that protect the things your clients possess as a certified P+C broker, such as their business, home, automobile, boat, and so on. Fire protection and liability insurance are also covered in this category in case your clients are accountable for an accident that results in an injury to another person or damage to another person’s items or property. You can also sell Workers’ Compensation coverage with this license, which protects employees and businesses in the event of illness or injury on the job. Medical expenses and lost income for employees during rehabilitation, as well as payment of a death benefit if an employee dies as a result of a work-related injury or accident, are examples of this.
More Coverage = More Money
Having the necessary licenses to offer Health, Accident, Life, Property, and Casualty insurance can help you meet more of your clients’ needs while also increasing your revenue.
While gaining the many required licenses will take some time and work on your part – and maintaining your licenses will demand continuous Continuing Education (CE) Credits – being able to sell more items makes you a one-stop-shop for your clientele. It can help you form a stronger bond with them and persuade them to do business with you for a longer period of time.
What advantages are there to life and health vs property and casualty insurance sales?
Selling any sort of insurance has advantages for the individual agent. What do you feel most at ease with and what do you most strongly believe in? All insurance agents, in various ways, deal with the same basic themes of helping their clients find the correct coverage and policies for their unique (or group) needs and situations. In other words, the actual differences in career, duties, and work environment between the insurance lines you issue (or even the company/companies with which you work) can be significant.
The most important factor to consider is what you enjoy doing. Life insurance is for you if you appreciate working with finances, estate planning, family continuation, or business continuity. Medicare Supplement and Long Term Care need, as well as assisting people in obtaining the type of insurance they require to satisfy their medical demands, are all areas of interest in health insurance. Property and Casualty are for the agent who likes to work with tangibles like people’s homes, businesses, automobiles, or boats. It also covers liability issues in order to safeguard persons from potential litigation.
One of the benefits of working in insurance is that, while you may work in a number of contexts based on your company and lines of business, the essential skills and knowledge you develop are easily transferable to other career paths within the same industry. If you decide to change careers later, the move does not always have to be tough.
Final Thoughts
Proper preparation, as with anything else in life, is one of the most crucial elements to finding success in your new career. Success in insurance sales has less to do with the type of insurance you offer and more to do with how you go about selling it.
