4 Ways Insurance Agents Who Have a Financial Designation Excel and Grow

If the competitive landscape wasn’t already rampant among insurance agents, robots have also started providing insurance advice. In 2016, the Buyonic Insurance Agency opened the first robot-run insurance agency where customers receive financial planning services from an actual robot in a brick-and-mortar building. The Insurance Journal reported that some studies claimed automation may replace up to 25 percent of insurance jobs within the next 10 years. Now, in addition to differentiating services and value from your industry peers, you must find ways to stand out from the automated competition.

To do so, insurance advisors must be perceived as the most knowledgeable and reputable sources in addressing the financial needs of diverse individuals, businesses, and professional clients. By pursuing a Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) designation from The American College of Financial Services (The College), you can achieve what's considered by many to be the most respected designation of insurance expertise available. The CLU® signifies your commitment to providing elite and ethical advice to your clients. Investing the time to earn a CLU® designation strengthens your insurance business in these four vital ways:

1) Maximize Earnings

According to The College’s 2013 Designation Outcomes Study, financial advisors with a CLU® earn 22 percent more than their non-credentialed colleagues. One reason for greater earnings potential is that a CLU®designation prepares you to suggest more sophisticated strategies beyond just basic insurance products and transactions. This training equips you to provide a deeper level of service and guidance to clients than other insurance agents without specialized education. As the CLU® curriculum covers the latest market information and case studies on individual life insurance, life insurance law, estate planning and more, you broaden your financial background while positioning yourself as a trusted, capable expert.

Offering a diverse menu of electives, the CLU® curriculum allows students to customize their education program.  Expertly created elective and required courses offer specialized training like how to serve niche audiences such as disabilities or special needs clients. You become more than an insurance generalist by learning to address diverse needs and in turn, can capitalize on current and future insurance-related planning opportunities.

2) Leverage Elite Status for Better Prospecting

As with any other business, a major challenge of growing your insurance practice is maintaining a competitive edge. As a CLU®, you achieve instant elite status in the insurance market as "fewer than 5 percent of those in the field have qualified to earn this designation". The CLU® designation also signifies your commitment to ethical practices, reinforcing the message that you follow the highest fiduciary standards in providing financial advice.

By promoting that you are a CLU®, clients and prospects can understand your dedication and drive to be the best investment advisor possible. You can then demonstrate or discuss how you will apply that same level of energy, drive, and devotion necessary to complete the CLU’s® comprehensive requirements to accommodating their unique needs. While experience is critically important, you can also showcase your advanced education to help convince prospective clients’ that you’re the best advisor to help them. The confidence you’ll  feel and carry with these elite letters after your name will put the proverbial “pep in your step” during insurance-centric conversations with clients or prospects and enable more productive and potentially lucrative outcomes.  

3) Establish the Strongest Reputation

Credentials do matter to customers. Following the advice of industry sources such as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), individuals and businesses look for the most qualified insurance advisors and often utilize the Internet to research the credentials of different agents. In many cases, your credentials will automatically attract new business. The quality and range of financial planning and insurance services you’ll be equipped to deliver after earning your CLU® designation may even encourage clients to refer you, their trusted advisor, to friends, family members, colleagues and neighbors.  

4) Retain Clients Through Trust

A survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that only 37 percent of insurance consumers trust their insurers highly or very highly. Trust substantially impacts client retention. While you want to grow market share with new customers, it’s less costly to retain existing ones and retention greatly impacts the balance sheet as well. Forbes notes that retaining clients is a critical component of a successful advisory practice.

CLU® courses offer vital instruction on retaining your existing client base. Rather than just selling insurance policies, you’ll learn how to take a more holistic and comprehensive approach to addressing the specific planning needs of customers. With a broader, more diversified background, you can offer more services than the average insurance agent, increasing your potential value in the eyes of clients. Ultimately, you can reduce the likelihood of customers seeking another advisor, because you’ll repeatedly prove value as you naturally advise in a confident and comprehensive way only empowered by true expertise.

Whether you are new to the insurance field or a long-time professional, a CLU® can take your business to the next level. You can read more about how advanced financial designations are a fundamental and lucrative way to grow your practice. Download 5 Ways An Advanced Financial Designation Helps Strengthen Your Insurance Business.