We live in a world where customer service has become a thing of the past. Unfortunately, soft skills (how we treat others, communicate, manners, being on time, dressing appropriately, etiquette, etc.) are rarely taught anymore. Walk into any fast-food restaurant, and 8 times out of 10 you will have a young person with an attitude like he or she’s doing you a favor by serving you. However, veterans are a different breed, regardless of their age. That’s why veterans make the best insurance agents and earn well.

The Value of Soft Skills

If the younger generation knew how much soft skills are worth, they would become customer-service gurus. Here me clearly, soft skills in the right hands are worth millions of dollars! If you have a great work ethic, discipline, can organize well, care about others and have the soft skills to deliver this service, it will reward you handsomely.

The Market

As our population grows older, we have a huge pool of people needing help with their retirement benefits. Did you know that Baby Boomers are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 per day, and will continue to do so until the year 2030? That’s a lot of people needing to be serviced. And, of course, being a generation raised on manners and etiquette, they expect a certain level of care and respect (…remember, respect your elders?).

When they find someone who shows them dignity and serves them genuinely, well, not only do they want that person to be their agent for life, but they will also tell everyone they know. What this equals is a book of business that pays yearly for the life of your client, and CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) increases the pay by +5% annually on average, making it inflation proof. In 2022, the increase was 6.3%.

The Veteran Market

Within this market, is the veteran market. Did you know there is a huge need in helping our fellow veterans who are disabled, or turning 65 with or without Veteran healthcare, even those with Tricare For Life? And, while non-veteran agents try to fill that role, many fall short because, quite frankly, they don’t understand veterans. They don’t understand:

• The challenges
• The system
• The needs
• The character (bull headed but loyal to a fault)
• How to communicate with them

The result is many veterans are in hardship because they made bad decisions based on hearsay. This led to having 20% to 90% lifetime penalties, so they forego their benefits because they can’t afford them due to the penalties. That’s why my agency specializes in veterans, and strives to help by educating them, getting them dental, helping to get rid of these penalties and/or reducing the expense drastically, at $0 cost to the veteran.

Understand that Medicare beneficiaries must choose a plan and they know it. Other than the $170 Medicare deducts each month for Part B, which everyone must pay, unless they qualify for certain programs, most Medicare Advantage policies are $0 premium. In other words, you don’t have to ask for money, the biggest obstacle in any business. They are going to choose a policy from someone, and what decides from whom it will be are the soft skills. People buy from people they like.

The Veteran Agent

Veterans, who have been trained in soft skills, discipline, organization, leadership and have a business mentality, are uniquely qualified. They not only have the ability to serve others at a high level, and command the respect and appreciation of their clients, they also have the leadership ability to build teams and form agencies.

Now, this is where soft skills show their value! A good insurance agent who cares for his or her clients and decides to build a team can grow a book of business worth $1.25 million dollars or more, in about five years on average. While this is not a guarantee and individual and team effort determine the earning potential, there aren’t many careers one can start at any age that will offer this kind of potential.

The best part is if an agent decides to sell his or her book of business and retire, it is worth five (5) times what it earns annually. If it earns $500K annually, it’s worth $2.5 million. The more it earns the higher the value – you can do the math.

The best part is you get to work from anywhere. You can work from home, you can meet people at a Starbucks or go to their homes. The flexibility of your work environment and time is one of the best benefits.

Find Out If a Career in Insurance is the Right Move for You

If you’re a veteran who’s transitioning from active duty to civilian life, are in between careers, have received a 30% disability rating or higher and have the vocational retraining benefit, and are interested in getting the information to see if you might be the right person for an insurance career, check out this webinar. It will share the reasons why. Also, you can contact me (Eddie Velez) directly, and I will send you an informational package discussing the benefits and possible compensation.

So, whether as an insurance agent or something else, just know that as a veteran, you are a valuable person and commodity. After all, fewer than 1% serve in the military at any given time, and around 10% of our population is comprised of us. That’s a very select group indeed. Wear it proudly and thank you for your service!