Insurance Sales Agents
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OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Sell life, property, casualty, health, automotive, or other types of insurance. May refer clients to independent brokers, work as an independent broker, or be employed by an insurance company.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($73K): Finance
Largest undergraduate program (13.1% of workers): Business Management and Administration
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
InsuranceAgentSalesRepresentativeSpecialistFieldSpecialAccountGroupHealthSalespersonSolicitorLifeBondWriterBurialCompensationDebitDistrictEnrollmentEstatePlannerMarketingServiceInsideBrokerProducerSalesmanNetworkContractorOutsidePensionAssociateUnderwriting
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Responsibilities and activities

Insurance sales agents typically do the following:

  • Call potential clients in order to expand their own customer base
  • Interview prospective clients to get information about their financial resources and discuss existing coverage
  • Explain the features of various policies
  • Analyze clients’ current insurance policies and suggest additions or other changes
  • Customize insurance programs to suit individual clients
  • Handle policy renewals
  • Maintain electronic and paper records

Insurance sales agents commonly sell one or more types of insurance, such as property and casualty, life, health, and long-term care insurance.

Property and casualty insurance agents sell policies that protect people and businesses from financial loss resulting from automobile accidents, fire, theft, and other events that can damage property. For businesses, property and casualty insurance also covers workers’ compensation claims, product liability claims, or medical malpractice claims.

Life insurance agents specialize in selling policies that pay beneficiaries when a policyholder dies. Life insurance agents also sell annuities that promise a retirement income.

Health and long-term care insurance agents sell policies that cover the costs of medical care and assisted-living services for senior citizens. They also may sell dental insurance and short-term and long-term disability insurance.

Agents may specialize in selling any one of these products or function as generalists providing multiple products.

An increasing number of insurance sales agents offer their clients—especially those approaching retirement—comprehensive financial-planning services, including retirement planning and estate planning. In addition to offering insurance, these agents may become licensed to sell mutual funds, variable annuities, and other securities. This practice is most common with life insurance agents who already sell annuities, but many property and casualty agents also sell financial products.

Many agents spend a lot of time marketing their services and creating their own base of clients. They do this in a variety of ways, including making “cold” sales calls to people who are not current clients.

Potential clients often use comparison shopping tools online to learn about different policies and get information from insurance companies. Clients can either purchase a policy directly from the company’s website or contact the company to speak with a sales agent.

Insurance agents also find new clients through referrals by current clients. Keeping clients happy so that they recommend the agent to others is a key to success for insurance sales agents.

Insurance agents may work for a single insurance company or an insurance brokerage.

Captive agents are insurance sales agents who work exclusively for one insurance company. They can only sell policies provided by the company that employs them.

Independent insurance agents work for insurance brokerages, selling the policies of several companies. They match insurance policies for their clients with the company that offers the best rate and coverage.

Salary
Median salary: $52,180 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $37,590 and $79,200.
$52K$0$50K$100K$150K
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for insurance sales agents
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
$54K$38K$54K$53K$48K$44K$53K$53K$26K$0$50K$100K$150K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
Number employed
020K40K60K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
About Insurance Sales Agents
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of insurance sales agents who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
  • Time Pressure (100%)
  • High Conflict Frequency (53%)
  • Consequence of Error (34%)
  • Unpleasant or Angry People (34%)
SOURCES:
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Insurance Sales Agents? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Analytical skills
Insurance sales agents must evaluate the needs of each client to determine the appropriate insurance policy.
Communication skills
Insurance sales agents must be able to communicate effectively with customers by listening to their requests and suggesting suitable policies.
Initiative
Insurance sales agents need to actively seek out new customers in order to maintain a flow of commissions.
Self-confidence
Insurance sales agents should be confident when making “cold” calls (calls to prospective customers whom they have not contacted before). They must speak clearly and persuasively and maintain their composure if rejected.
Injury and Illness
About 15 insurance sales agents become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 50% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Bruises and contusions
Soreness and pain
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by insurance sales agents
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), insurance sales agents typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as insurance sales agents as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for insurance sales agents

A high school diploma is the typical requirement for insurance sales agents, although a bachelor’s degree can improve one’s job prospects. Public-speaking classes can be useful in improving sales techniques, and often agents will have taken courses in business, finance, or economics. Business knowledge is also helpful for sales agents hoping to advance to a managerial position.

Details: Licensing and certification recommended for insurance sales agents

Insurance sales agents must have a license in the states where they work. Separate licenses are required for agents to sell life and health insurance and property and casualty insurance. In most states, licenses are issued only to applicants who complete specified courses and who pass state exams covering insurance fundamentals and state insurance laws. Most state licensing authorities also require agents to take continuing education courses focusing on insurance laws, consumer protection, ethics, and the technical details of various insurance policies.

As the demand for financial-planning services increases, many agents also choose to get licensed and certified to sell securities and other financial products. Licensing and certification requires substantial study time to pass an additional exam—either the Series 6 or Series 7 licensing exam, both of which are administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The Series 6 exam is for agents who want to sell only mutual funds and variable annuities. The Series 7 exam is the main FINRA series license, which qualifies agents as general securities sales representatives.

A number of organizations offer certifications that show an agent’s expertise in insurance specialties. These certifications are not required for employment, but they can give job candidates an advantage over other applicants. Certifications also can be a source of continuing education credit. For details on specific designations, contact The Institutes and The American College of Financial Services.

Education level of Insurance Sales Agents
Only 47% of insurance sales agents have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by insurance sales agents
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 46% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
  1. Business Management and Administration
  2. Business/Commerce
  3. Finance
  4. Marketing
  5. Communications
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College majors held by insurance sales agents
This table shows the college majors held by people working as insurance sales agents. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
$41K$73K
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click the program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Program
Number of degrees awarded in 2018
Education
Education level of awarded degrees
Assoc./Cert.
Bachelor's
Graduate
Gender
Gender of graduates
Men
Women
Race/Origin
Race/origin of graduates
White
Minority
International
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as insurance sales agents, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
Expand degrees
Business Management ...General BusinessFinanceMarketingCommunicationsEconomicsPsychologyAccountingPolitical Science an...English Language and...All other degreesThis jobTop 10 majors
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Insurance Sales Agents per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most insurance sales agents? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as insurance sales agents. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where insurance sales agents earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
  • In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for insurance sales agents compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
  • Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for insurance sales agents.
We hope the ratio allows perspective about how salaries may compare to the regional cost-of-living.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which insurance sales agents earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Insurance Sales Agents (ACS)
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Employment
10% of Insurance sales agents are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 10% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 55% of careers.
10%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of insurance sales agents by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
$47K$45K$50K$68K$52K$43K$0$50,000$100,000$150,000Self-employed not incorporatedSelf-employed incorporatedLocal governmentPrivate not-for-profitPrivate for-profitAll
Gender
Insurance sales agents and gender
With 49% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 60% of careers.
Gender of Insurance sales agents
Men (51%)
Women (49%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
$42K$54K$0$100K$200K$300KWomenMen
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
49%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women by 19%, and the difference for insurance sales agents tops that, with the median salary for men 28% higher than the median salary for women.
28%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Insurance sales agents
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Insurance sales agents.
Race/origin of insurance sales agents
White (81% )
Black (9% )
Asian (4% )
Other (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
$37K$38K$40K$42K$42K$49K$50K$0$50K$100K$150KOtherHispanicBlackAmerican IndianMultiracialWhiteAsian
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.