About Insurance Agent
In general practice, the insurance agents provide information of various/particular insurance products and services offered by an Insurance company or various insurance companies. Insurance agents are employed by the insurance companies. Such insurance companies impart necessary training to the agents viz. promoting and selling of insurance policies, aggressive marketing strategies to be pursued, handling of doubts and queries raised by the customers, customer-oriented issues, tackling of critical issues, giving financial advice to the prospective customers, generating business for the insurance company(ies) etc.
Insurance agents are found in both - life insurance as well as in non-life (General) insurance sectors. In common parlance, insurance agents are generally referred to as insurance sales agents. These insurance agents help and advice their clients to choose insurance policies that suits their individualistic needs and requirements. An insurance agent’s client list includes individuals and their family members as well as businesses or corporate houses. There are basically two types of Insurance Agents as follows:
a) Captive insurance agents
b) Independent insurance agents
Captive insurance agents: Such agents work for a particular insurance company and sell only those insurance products and services offered by that insurance company.
Independent insurance agents: Such agents or brokers, represent several insurance companies. Types of insurance policies dealt by such independent insurance agents include property and casualty, life, health, disability, long-term care insurance etc policy covers. Such insurance agents sell mutual funds, variable annuities and other securities.
Majority of the people prefer an independent life insurance agent to purchase their insurance policies as well as to get sound financial advisory services. Usually most individuals have their first contact with an insurance company through an insurance agent. These insurance agents assist individuals, their family dependants including business or corporate houses in choosing and selecting insurance policies that provide the best or maximum protection for their individual lives, health and property and provide the required guidance as desired by the clients.Such insurance agents prepare daily tracking reports, monthly reports, annual reports, sales reports, target reports, maintain records in an orderly manner, reach out to new prospective clients by exploring new strategies or new avenues and in the event of an insurance claim submission, assist the policyholders regarding the submission of required documents.
Nowadays, increasingly, in-order to withstand the cut-throat competition, many insurance agents offer their clients with financial analysis or provide advice regarding methods of minimizing the risks as well as guidance regarding investment strategies especially pertaining to insurance based on customary needs.
In life insurance policies, based on the customer’s needs and requirements, a cash-value policy can be designed and customized based on an individual’s requirements to provide varied benefits viz. retirement income, funds for the education of children, paying compensation to the family dependants due to unexpected demise of the policyholder and other benefits. In addition, life insurance agents sell policies that guarantee a retirement income.
Health insurance agents sell health insurance policies that cover the costs of medical care, critical illnesses, accidents and loss of income due to an illness or injury. In addition, such insurance agents may sell dental insurance, short-term and long-term-disability insurance policies.
To sum it all, when an individual plans to buy an insurance policy for himself/herself or his/her family dependants, the first thing to be pursued is to get in touch with a reliable insurance agent. The policies that these insurance agents sell range from life insurance to health insurance to disability, long-term care, short-term care, casualty, property, theft, fire etc.
In addition to offering insurance policies, insurance agents are beginning to sell more diversified financial products such as mutual funds, retirement funds, NSC’s (National Savings Certificates) etc. This is due to relaxation of strict rules and implementation of more liberal rules by IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) Act. The appointment of insurance agents is governed by IRDA Act enacted especially for insurance agents.
While dealing with the insurance agents, trust is an important factor that comes into play. Be it a captive agent or an independent one, he/she must be trustworthy and worth reckoning even from an investment perspective. If an insurance agent is not trustworthy, he/she tries to promote his/her interests from where he/she can make a quick big gain. It is therefore, not worth buying an insurance policy cover from such an individual.
