What Young Agents Want

This issue of Insurance Journal features exclusive results from the 2024 Young Agents Survey where young agents nationwide shared their views on the insurance industry and their experiences as agents.

Optimism overall seems to be struggling among the young agents responding to the survey. According to the survey’s results, young agents said they felt less optimistic about the future of the agency system as well as their career choice compared to last year’s survey. The tough insurance market may play a role.

According to the survey, 35.0% of the young agents responding to the survey feel that finding new markets for their clients in today’s hard market is their biggest challenge.

“Finding insurance companies that actually write insurance,” “maintaining business based on budgets,” and “rising premiums and finding affordable coverage” were mentioned by young agents as the most pressing challenges today.

One agent wrote: “My markets have been suffering a lot lately …. I don’t have a positive outlook right now for policies and my ability to maintain them, or to get new policies on the books. Prices are high and my insureds and our books are suffering hard because of it.”

Despite their concerns, more than half (55.2%) of young agents reported feeling “very optimistic” that their income will be greater in 2024 than in 2023 with another 28.4% feeling “optimistic” that their income will rise again this year over last year’s.

Like in previous years, young agents overwhelmingly report each year that they would still recommend a career in insurance to other young people entering the workforce, even with their concerns.

“Everyone will always need insurance and it takes no true schooling to become an agent. Once you get your license what you do with it is up to you,” one young agent wrote.

Another added: “It’s a career with endless income potential that can be shaped to look however you want it to look and can mirror passions you have in any field.”

This issue also highlights five successful young agents and why they chose a career in insurance. Each offer advice for other young agents. College, no college, second careers, and opportunities for working parents – their advice is as diverse as the industry.