I cannot totally speak for others, but I will share my own experience with regards to the first part of why so many people join this industry.
Why did I become a financial consultant (disclaimer: my scope evolves around more than insurance as I manage UT and stock portfolios) was really quite a simple one, amongst other factors: passion for bettering financial situations of people. There are other reasons too, but this is one of the key ones.
There's a lot of financial decisions that I could have made when I was younger or that my family could have made that would leave us in a better position financially now, rather than what it is today. I'll quote an example, my mom wanted an endowment plan for my brother's education but was sold a life plan instead. Why did that happen? I guess somewhere along the line, the message didn't get across properly. My parents could have upgraded their Eldershield earlier, but no one reached out to them to explain and protect them from this risk of needing long term care. Now, due to a host of problems, my dad is unable to upgrade, and my mom can only get a small improvement in payouts due to age. Imagine what could have been done to protect them if they had an advisor of heart, who dispensed the right advice at the right time?
We live in an age with instantaneous information flow, clear visibility and access to financial products, and a plethora of things all vying for our limited attention. A good advisor is expected to separate the wheat from the chaff in order to construct a sound and reasonable plan to achieve the client's financial objectives, whether it is wealth protection, wealth accumulation, or wealth drawdown/distribution. So if you find yourself with a good advisor, give due consideration and trust the advice he or she dispenses. It's meant to benefit you, or the advice would not have been brought up in the first place.
I would say more, but then this would become my life story, and it's not my intention to use this stage as a platform for that. But I think you get my point.
On to your questions:
Career development of an agent: You can choose to become a senior agent, and then you would be going along the advisory route, or you can choose to become a manager and later, director, and then you would be in a managerial route where you have to coach and mentor others in their journey. It is possible to progress along the advisory route first till say, senior advisor level, and then later on make the switch to management. As an advisor, more of your time is spent on client contact, but as a manager, you will mentor the next generation while juggling your existing pool of clients.
Requirements: At the very least, M5/M9/M9A/HI for life insurance and health insurance. M8/M8A to advise collective investments schemes (UTs) And for myself, M6 and M6A to advise securities (It is my view that you can't talk about investments without bringing stocks into the picture).
General Insurance: Yes, you will have to take the GI papers, namely BCP, PGI and CommGI. Then you will be a pure GI advisor.
There are additional papers that you can take such as M1A (dual license) or even futures (triple license), but that's beyond the scope of my answer.
CFA and ChFC are also other qualifications that one can have as an advisor amongst others, but in the end it boils down to have an advisor who can listen, whom you can trust, and is ethical, and frankly, you just need a pair of ears and a heart for that, beyond all the paper certifications.
Think I've said enough, but that should give you an idea.
I cannot totally speak for others, but I will share my own experience with regards to the first part of why so many people join this industry.
Why did I become a financial consultant (disclaimer: my scope evolves around more than insurance as I manage UT and stock portfolios) was really quite a simple one, amongst other factors: passion for bettering financial situations of people. There are other reasons too, but this is one of the key ones.
There's a lot of financial decisions that I could have made when I was younger or that my family could have made that would leave us in a better position financially now, rather than what it is today. I'll quote an example, my mom wanted an endowment plan for my brother's education but was sold a life plan instead. Why did that happen? I guess somewhere along the line, the message didn't get across properly. My parents could have upgraded their Eldershield earlier, but no one reached out to them to explain and protect them from this risk of needing long term care. Now, due to a host of problems, my dad is unable to upgrade, and my mom can only get a small improvement in payouts due to age. Imagine what could have been done to protect them if they had an advisor of heart, who dispensed the right advice at the right time?
We live in an age with instantaneous information flow, clear visibility and access to financial products, and a plethora of things all vying for our limited attention. A good advisor is expected to separate the wheat from the chaff in order to construct a sound and reasonable plan to achieve the client's financial objectives, whether it is wealth protection, wealth accumulation, or wealth drawdown/distribution. So if you find yourself with a good advisor, give due consideration and trust the advice he or she dispenses. It's meant to benefit you, or the advice would not have been brought up in the first place.
I would say more, but then this would become my life story, and it's not my intention to use this stage as a platform for that. But I think you get my point.
On to your questions:
Career development of an agent: You can choose to become a senior agent, and then you would be going along the advisory route, or you can choose to become a manager and later, director, and then you would be in a managerial route where you have to coach and mentor others in their journey. It is possible to progress along the advisory route first till say, senior advisor level, and then later on make the switch to management. As an advisor, more of your time is spent on client contact, but as a manager, you will mentor the next generation while juggling your existing pool of clients.
Requirements: At the very least, M5/M9/M9A/HI for life insurance and health insurance. M8/M8A to advise collective investments schemes (UTs) And for myself, M6 and M6A to advise securities (It is my view that you can't talk about investments without bringing stocks into the picture).
General Insurance: Yes, you will have to take the GI papers, namely BCP, PGI and CommGI. Then you will be a pure GI advisor.
There are additional papers that you can take such as M1A (dual license) or even futures (triple license), but that's beyond the scope of my answer.
CFA and ChFC are also other qualifications that one can have as an advisor amongst others, but in the end it boils down to have an advisor who can listen, whom you can trust, and is ethical, and frankly, you just need a pair of ears and a heart for that, beyond all the paper certifications.
Think I've said enough, but that should give you an idea.