Currently in a corporate job and considering job switch to being an Insurance Agent/financial advisor?

Hi there,

Some companies have disallowed random cold calls already with PDPA concerns and with the current COVID-19 situation, it's unlikely That door knocking and street canvassing will be allowed too. So the prospecting methods for cold clients are now drastically reduced. A lot of prospecting now happens through referrals or digital marketing. Some forms of prospecting are free and may require a bit of thick skin (referrals) while some comes with a cost. Digital marketing is not entirely fool proof either and its highly saturated.

For starters, this is a people's business so there is a huge element of service and advisory but its also a sales job. Not every financial advisor is an extrovert (I'm an introvert btw) and everyone has a different style. Some are highly salesy, some are extremely competent in advisory and knowledge so in all thints, capitalise on your strengths!

Ultimately, don't go in just because of the monetary attraction because that will likely be the wrong premise for you To even begin this job, for starters because no client fancies an agent who is, keyword, merely out there to sell for the financial benefit And you do not want to be in the place where you are driven to grind the numbers. Psychologically, it's not a good place to be in. It helps for you to know truly what you're in for before you embark on this. The industry does come with a particular stigma and that's something you will have to learn to deal with and overcome.

So yes there is no straightforward answer to this. You will have to count the cost and know what the job truly entails. You can have all the knowledge but where are your prospects going to come from? What are you going to do on months where you're surviving on minimal? These are difficult questions but hopefully this helps!

Hi anon,

I won't say I make a good amount of money. Good, is relative. Some people are happy making $50K/yr, while some people chase that $500K/yr salary. As for the news that the industry did well last year, well, I do know advisors who did worse, so it's really on the individual.

In fact, it may surprise you to know that in the first year, I was digging into my savings while building my client base. I didn't do a single cold call. And to feel better about myself, I ate $2.20 Ananas Chicken Rice/Nasi Lemak (set B, no chilli!) regularly and allowed myself to add an extra ingredient or extra meat whenever I earned a little extra for that week or that month. This was the discipline which I kept to, in order to revisit the frugal days and re-abosrb the fact that money is not easy to earn, but easy to spend. I nearly quit in the first year. Imagine that! Despite best intentions at providing advice, I still need to feed myself, my family and pay my bills. Perhaps it's just how I started, but those days are now behind.

But money was never the motivation to join in the first place. I was actually not satisfied with the quality of financial advice I was given from my previous advisor, and after some conversations with him, I started realising that there's a very big difference between a sales person, and an advisor. I kid you not, this sounds cliche, but there are subtle differences. And I also realised that my personal finance knowledge was likely better than his. I spent my entire corporate life trying to maximize every cent of my salary for 7 years, and that was a lot of hard knocks and penny pinching and such.

So when a window of opportunity presented itself, I decided to make the switch. I may not have the gift of gab, but I certain think that I would have enough knowledge (and I also picked up a lot more as I moved along) to give meaningful and sound advice, and that is the core of being a financial advisor. You give advice and perspectives. Not everyone agrees with you or buys into your suggestions and recommendations. That's ok (as long as they remain polite about it). My current director told me to just do good work, and the rest will follow. He did tell me that this is not the industry to join if you just want to make a lot of money, because the wrong motivation behind the purpose will lead you down a very different road that might end in failure.

I certainly don't do Instagram, FB or TikTok; although I do have @ handles for most of those, but most of my time is already taken up by my work. I'd rather spend time with my clients, talking to them, planning for them, etc, than trying to jump on the latest meme. And on the topic of motivation, if it comes from an external source, will eventually be unsustainable. It has to come from within. And for me, motivation comes from within, because I really do feel that the standard of financial advisory in Singapore has tons of room for improvement. So here I am, at 330am, telling you this: Join this industry if you truly have burning desire to improve the financial situations of people. Only then can you have a chance at surviving for the long run.

Good luck!​​​