Insurance Agents is a dreaded word today. Everybody wants to avoid them, still gets into their trap. Are they mis selling or are we mis buying? I do not know but I am getting a lot of SMS these days to buy a new insurance policy and SMS  say like this:

Pay 4000/- per month for 15 years

Get Rs. 5000/- per month after 25 years throughout your life.

Please reply “Yes” to this number 123456789.

Seems to be very attractive if you are not a smart investor.

I replied “Yes” to that particular number and my suffering started. I got a call within five minutes that one of their insurance agents will contact me.

Five more minutes and I got another call from one of their  insurance agents. He started explaining about the plan. The conversation was something like this(after greetings ):

Insurance Agent: Sir, I am very happy that you choose to buy this plan.

Me: I said, why you are happy?

Insurance Agent: Sir, to tell you the truth, our company is selling this product to only privileged customers. This product is not for everyone.

Me: ok

Agent: Sir, one more thing I want to tell you, we are going to close this product by next month.

Me: why? If it is a good product, why you are closing it?

Insurance Agent: Sir, you know IRDA has come with some new regulations, so our company is coming with new products and closing old products.

Me: ok

Insurance Agent:Sir, when should I come to collect the cheque?

Me: Come and meet me on Sunday, explain me the product, then I will decide.

Insurance Agent: Sir, you do not worry about the product. It is the best product in the market. I will come to collect the cheque on Sunday.

The phone went off, beep was still in my mind…. Thinking

Am I being trapped? I did not ask to collect a cheque. It was just an enquiry.

Sunday came and so one of the insurance agents. He started explaining the product details. It was a traditional retirement product with horrible returns. I just asked him one question: Have you bought this product for yourself ?

His face was blank. I must admit, the guy was very smart, he said yes. I asked him, show me your policy and I will buy the same plan for the same amount. Come and meet me next Sunday with your policy and we will finish the deal. He never came back. I still do not know whether he was planning for his retirement by earning high commission or my retirement.

Do Insurance Agents buy what they sell?

In normal circumstances, the answer is no. In some cases, the answer is yes. Let me explain some cases

Normally when a person go and meet the manager of an insurance company to become an advisor , the manager tries to take advantage in 2 ways

1. He will try to sell the concept of becoming an advisor to an insurance company.
2. He will also try to sell some policy to him or his family member.There are some cases where the person buys the policy and later becomes an insurance agent.

So he may be trapped in the same way.

Conclusion

Please beware and check the returns even if the insurance agent has bought the policy. Also, may be an insurance agent can not buy all policies of its company but he will definitely buy the best one. So ask him, which policy has he bought for himself?

This is only one way to check and may not be a perfect way, but you can definitely try this.

I am not in favor of any traditional policy except term plan. The above concept is good only if you want to try.

Do not get into the trap of buying any endowment or money back policy. Insurance Agents are very smart in showing high returns in any kind of policy.

Now, I want to ask a few questions from my readers, as everyone must have faced the similar situation at some point of time

Do Insurance Agents practice what they preach? What is your experience with insurance agents? Can you suggest any other way to check  if the policy is worth buying?

Insurance Agents: Though not an article from India, but will definitely help you