About Insurance advisor
An insurance advisor is an intermediary who brings together the insurance company and the customer and helps in generating a sale. Furthermore, the advisor is tasked with advising clients on the right product, assisting in filling up of forms, helping clients at the time of a claim, etc. Thus, an advisor plays multiple roles.
Why people choose a career in insurance?
Individuals favour a career in insurance because of the various benefits it has. As a financial advisor, individuals can –
- Be their own boss and work as per their own will
- Have an opportunity to earn unlimited income
- Earn rewards and recognitions beyond the attractive commission earned on the policies
Thus, due to these benefits, people want to become an insurance advisor.
Steps to become an insurance advisor with a specific insurance company:
As per the guidelines laid down by the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority), there is a process of becoming an advisor. To become an advisor you have to register yourself with a particular insurance company, undergo a specified insurance training, sit for an examination at a specified venue and pass the examination. Once you follow this process and clear the examination, you can become an insurance advisor.
Let’s understand the process in details –
- If you meet the qualifying criteria, you have to enrol for the agency.
- You have to submit your KYC details and documents and register with an insurance company whose advisor you want to become
- After you have successfully registered, you have to undergo a training program of a specified duration. The duration depends on the type of agency which you want. This training is a class-room training which should be taken offline
- There is an examination held after your training. This examination is prescribed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). You can take the exam online or offline through online exams are more popular.
- If the exam is cleared you can get your license and become an advisor.
Once you enrol with any insurance company to become an advisor, you need to clear an IRDAI exam as well, to get your license to sell insurance policies.
What does TurtlemintPro offer?
TurtlemintPro facilitates you become an authorized Point of Sales Person (PoSP) for Turtlemint i.e. provides you with a license to sell insurance policies as per the PoSP guidelines of the IRDAI.
So, as a PoSP , you can operate as an insurance advisor, provide insurance solutions to your prospective clients and also sell insurance policies of both life insurance and general insurance products like health insurance, car insurance, two-wheeler insurance, etc. and that too from a single license!
POSP Insurance advisor certification eligibility and process
As laid down by the IRDAI, there are two specific eligibility criteria to become a PoSP advisor:
- You should be at least 18 years old
- For your educational qualification, you should have passed at least Class 10
Anyone who fulfils these basic criteria can enrol to become an insurance advisor as a PoSP . Thus, the insurance industry can provide jobs for freshers, jobs for fresh graduates, part time jobs for graduates, jobs for college students, even housewives and retired individuals. Let’s understand the process stepwise. Once you follow this process and clear the examination, you can become an insurance advisor.
- If you meet the eligibility criteria, you can enrol for the training program
- Submit your KYC details and documents
- Undergo a training program of a specified duration
- There is an examination held after your training. You have to appear for the examination and clear it
- Once the exam is cleared you can get a PoSP license to sell insurance policies as per the PoSP(Point of Sale Person) guidelines.
Why PoSP certification is the best way to become an insurance advisor?
PoSP (Point of Sale Person) is a new type of license for insurance advisors that was created by the IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India) in 2015. It is now the best way to enter insurance advisory career. Why?
Insurance advisors are tied to a single company and can only sell products from that one insurer in the given category, i.e. life or non-life. But customers today demand more. They want to know all their options, of different insurance plans offered by multiple companies and look for advice from advisors on choosing the best product.
A PoSP (Point of Sale Person) license or certification lets you do just that. As a PoSP (Point of Sale Person) you can sell policies of multiple insurance companies, across both life and non-life categories, such as term life, ULIP, endowment life, motor, health, personal accident, home and travel. This can be done from multiple insurance companies and thus provide a complete solution to your prospective client with a bouquet of products, instead of suggesting policies from a particular insurance company only!
Thus, PoSP (Point of Sale Person) is a much wider concept than a traditional insurance agency.
Therefore most individuals now choose the PoSP (Point of Sale Person) path for their advisory career.
Can a Point of sale person (POSP) delete their TurtlemintPro account?
Point of sales persons are onboarded on the TurtlemintPro through a rigorous onboarding and KYC process. Turtlemint Pro facilitates POSPs to sell insurance to their customers digitally. Since the users (POSPs) of TurtlemintPro are regulated, it has certain responsibilities towards them. For the following reasons it is not possible to delete the account and related information of the POSPs:
- It needs to maintain all the crucial details of a transaction that has happened on the platform which includes the details of the POSP
- It is required to furnish the details of the POSPs who sold a policy through our platform to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) regularly
- In case a POSP commits a fraud by selling an invalid insurance policy, we should be able to reach out to the POSP
Having said that, if a POSP wants to deactivate his account with us, he can do that. We have a process that is in line with what the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has suggested. Following are the steps that a POSP has to follow in order deactivate their account on TurtlemintPro:
- Drop an email to our support email id – pospsupport@turtlemint.com
- We deactivate the selling rights of the POSP on the platform.
- We send a No objection certificate to the POSP.
The traditional way of becoming an insurance advisor with an Insurance company
Another alternative, besides the PoSP certification, is to become a traditional insurance advisor with a particular insurance company. As a traditional insurance advisor, you would be able to sell the insurance products of that particular insurance company only with which you enrol.
To become a traditional insurance advisor also, there are two specific eligibility criteria to become an advisor:
- You should be at least 18 years old
- You should have passed at least Class 10 if you live in a rural area and Class 12 if you live in an urban area.
Anyone who fulfils these basic criteria, can enrol to become an advisor with any insurance company. Thus, insurance agency promises jobs for freshers, jobs for fresh graduates, part time jobs for graduates, jobs for college students. Even housewives and retired individuals can opt for an insurance agency.
After fulfilling the eligibility criteria, you can enrol with a particular insurance company. If you wish to become a life insurance advisor, you need to enrol with a life insurance company and if you wish to become a general insurance advisor, you need to enrol with a general insurance company.
After clearing the mandatory IRDA exam, you get a license to sell insurance policies as an insurance agent.
Note: Life insurance agency will provide you with a license to sell life insurance policies ONLY and a general insurance agency will provide you with a license to sell general insurance policies ONLY. A composite license provides you with a license to sell both life and general insurance products. However, you can become an insurance agent from only 1 life insurance company, 1 general insurance company and 1 stand-alone health insurance company.
What does an insurance advisor earn?
An insurance advisor earns a commission on the amount of premium generated by him. Different insurance plans have a different commission structure. As an insurance advisor, you can earn a commission ranging from 5% to 30% of the premium you bring in from different insurance policies.
Other than commissions from your first year premiums, you would also be able to earn from your renewal commissions. Each and every company has a different structure for their renewal commissions for insurance advisor, which depends on the products as well. Life insurance advisor would have a completely different renewal commission structure from general insurance advisor.
Moreover, there are rewards and recognition programmes for advisors who perform well. These programmes allow insurance advisors to earn extra commissions, gifts, gift vouchers and also international trips.
There is an international forum called Million Dollar Round Dollar wherein you can qualify as an insurance advisor. This is a very prestigious forum for an insurance advisor which everyone endeavours to qualify. However, there is a criteria every year for each and every country which an insurance advisor would have to fulfill to be able to qualify.
For example, in the year 2019-20, if you earn:
- INR 17,30,000 from your first year insurance commissions, then you can qualify for MDRT
- INR 51,90,000 from your first year insurance commissions, then you can qualify for COT (Court of the Table) and
- INR 1,038,000 from your first year insurance commissions, then you can qualify for TOT (Top of the Table)
Other than increased income, this is a very prestigious forum for an insurance advisor and qualification would enhance the confidence as well.
Also, read about Vehicle insurance advisor commission structure.