A new day is coming for your insurance agent. Your insurance agent may be looking for a new career unless he or she learns to adapt. Most agents do not realize that their clients can go to the web, request quotes or even buy insurance without them.

People laughed at Charles Schwab and his discount brokerage idea for the independent thinker, who wanted to place a stock trade. However before long, brokers at many wire houses saw their clients fleeing them, or taking some of their assets to Schwab. Ironically, you can trade without a broker now at most wire houses. Who would have ever thought such a thing? Are we seeing this same trend for insurance?

Enter the new age of insurance. Now you can bind car insurance through a select number of insurance companies online. Just about every major insurance company has a website, where people can request an insurance quote. Where do insurance agents think their company leads are coming from, people calling the 1-800 number; they are going to your insurance company website!

The insurance agent feels pretty secure because there will always be people who will always want to work with someone they can see. This is very true, however you will continue to lose business to the internet if you do not adapt. Most insurance agents we have talked to, think going to the web and requesting insurance quotes or buying insurance does not happen. Yet according to Overture, a pay per click search engine, more than 2 million people in May 2003, looked for a term related to insurance quotes of some type. We are sure at least one bank did not want to have ATM machines, however they realized they were convenient to use when the bank was closed, and the competition had them.

Insurance agents must begin to realize that the internet can slice into your client base. Do not be ignorant that your clients may not be wooed by those agents of XYZ company, it might just be they visited their companies' website with that free insurance quote. However, many agents will not know until it is too late. Either get a real good referral system or clients that are your relatives to stay in the insurance business. Otherwise in 15 years when your clients will be binding coverage on all insurance products, on the internet, do not act like you are shocked.

Our lives have become more automatic now. People are buying books, CD's, stocks, and clothes online. What makes you think insurance will not be the next big thing? The only type of insurance that will be tough sell online, maybe, group insurance, but other than that, it can all be bought with ease. If you are an insurance agent beware of "the new age of insurance."

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