Truths behind this industry
Giving you a bit of context, I was in this industry for 6 years, got 4x MDRT, in my late 20s starting a family, due in 3 months. I’ve left this industry because of it’s unscrupulous ways and I am guilty of carrying out these activities. I am here to expose once and for all what they’re all about. If you can’t already guess what industry I’m in, then you’re safe, I guess. For now.
I will have no structure to what I’m going to post, I have not thought of it yet. I’m just going to post whatever that comes to mind.
The sickening part about this industry is not the hard-selling, it’s not the unethical “ghosting” of clients when it comes to claims as you all would imagine. No, it’s much more sinister than that. And it goes all the way to how we approach you. You see, cold calling in itself is annoying, not so much unethical. Just put down the phone, there’s nothing wrong with that. But the sinister thing is how they make their move on you, your closed ones and your families.
Ask around, anybody who worked in this line before will have an introductory line as to why they joined the industry. Usually somewhere along the lines of “I want to help my friends and family because I’ve seen the tragic circumstance of xxx happening to yyy”. That is false. I believe 1% of agents out there truly joined the industry because of this. But the remaining 99% did not. Let me tell you why.
Recruitment events comes in many forms. Dog gathering, drinks in a bar, networking sessions, booking the whole golf course / bowling alley. So on and so forth. Starts off as a harmless invitation, “hey, our company has this event. Come join us, it’s free and just come chill.” Well, it’s true. But then you’ll be in their web once you attend these events. Or they could be honest and say “Join us to see if this is something that is for you.”. Well, that’s fair. But what goes down in these events is that they will ask you a series of difficult questions and tap onto your deepest desires. Once they’ve done that, they lure you in with the prospect of money by telling you how we earn money. But what’s left out is how easy it is to achieve that realistically. They’ll simplify it, they’ll dumb it down, they’ll downplay the difficulty. Now, all these people who then want to join is purely based on money. Why would they then change their tunes? Think about it.
Then there’s ways they pretend they truly care about you. For example, policy summaries. Of course, is it important for you. Sure. I truly believe having a policy summary where you can have one glance at all your policies in a word document or excel sheet is very convenient. But guess what’s the real goal? They take a look at what you have, “identify shortfalls”, and tell you that you need a 300k policy in place. Newsflash – you don’t. The truth is, we can honestly sell you the cheapest plan, let’s say a 100k coverage. If you have enough coverage already, additional coverage won’t hurt. And if you don’t have coverage, an additional 100k won’t hurt. But the truth is without policy summaries, we cannot upsell you anymore than what you need.
Here’s another sinister thing about policy summaries. Some of you might have calls from your agent saying they need to deliver policy details to you. Guess what, you already have it in your email. They only want to deliver it to you, so they can enter your place, and whoever that is around, they’ll try to hook them in, sit down at the table, and deliver the final question – “Do you have something like that as well? I can do it for you too.” And then your sister or brother or mother or father, whoever that is sitting there, is hooked. And they will try to upsell whoever that is. You really think deep down in our hearts, we care about whether your brother has an updated policy summary? We truly don’t.
A few more creative ways they can do this – asking you out for meals or drinks. Asking you updates on life, catch up. Very harmless meet ups. No presentations whatsoever. Then they try to ask you questions on your life. Are you promoted? Did your pay increase? What updates do you have on in your life? Oh, you’re recently promoted with a pay raise. Maybe I can upsell you more since “your financial situation has changed.” Oh you’re buying a house. Maybe I can upsell you more too because “your current life goals have changed.” Tap on their worries. How are you going to afford the mortgage if you get cancer?
Getting random replies on Instagram from instagram stories? Here’s another newsflash. They don’t care which grooming centre you bring your dog to. In another 4-5 replies and interactions, they’ll pop the question to ask you for coffee or a meal.
Here’s another one. Free webinars, books, crash courses, etc. Limited slots only! Limited copies, reserve now! No. There’re no limited slots. It’s a ploy to create a sense of urgency. These webinars they run contain no real useful information. Ask any agents about investments. I’ll bet my savings that the only real advice they can give is DCA and invest in the long term. It’s nothing Google can’t give you. Invest in S&P and you’ll get better results. 100% of the time. Ask them to deep dive into a stock for you. Ask them about the fundamentals, ask them to explain simple things like bull flag or bearish trend and how to maybe identify them. They will not be able to tell you such information 95% of the time. Ask them on the spot and not give them time to study. Yet we call ourselves wealth managers.
I am leaving this industry because I cannot in good conscience continue to do all these and set such an example for my newborn coming my way and let him see that this is how his father conducts business. I’ll start somewhere afresh in engineering for my degree is still relevant. But here’s my warning to all of you. I will not be replying to this thread anymore as I do not wish to be exposed. Take this information as you will.