In this period of economic downturn, we have witnessed many who lost their jobs, while others who aren’t as unfortunate received a cut. Many other have to resort to doing multiple jobs to survive as the cost of living continues to rise. 

Have some of you thought about becoming a general insurance agent? Either as a second source of income or a main. It is a market that is still widely untapped by Malaysian. As of today, are over 39,000 general insurance agents in the country and over 80,000 Life insurance agents.

What is General Insurance?  According to Wikipedia, General insurance is non-life insurance, including automobile and homeowners policies.  They provide compensation depending on the loss from a particular financial event.  General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determined to be life insurance.

Unlike life insurance agents, who can only represent one insurance company, each general insurance agent can represent 2 insurance companies (also known as principals).  A large general insurance agency (through partnership with other agents), are able to offer solutions from more than 2 insurance companies.

 

Below we have outlined the requirements and procedures on how to become a general insurance agent:

1. You must posses a minimum SPM/O Level or higher qualification.

2. Sit and pass the Pre-Contract Examination for Insurance Agents (PCEIA) conducted by The Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII). You can read more about the exam’s FAQ if you came across  more questions.  There are plenty of general insurance training courses that are available in MII that you can take to be prepared for the exam. 

Here are sample questions of the Pre-Contract Examination for general insurance agent.  Try it and see whether you know the answers. 

3. Choose your preferred insurance company and submit an application to become an agent.  Study what are the requirements to be an agent of the company.  Different types of companies have different requirements.  Take a look at these 2 examples from Amassurance and Allianz.  You need to fulfill different steps and procedures to be an agent.

However, there are two common steps for registration to become a general insurance agent, they are:

1. 1. Application for Agency
   2. Application for PIAM

 

How much money can you make as an insurance agent?

The general insurance market grows by 6-9% each year.  General insurance agents earn between 10% and 25% in commission when they sell an insurance product.  In average, a general insurance agent makes RM30k – RM50k a year from sales commission.

 

See below to understand how this figure is achieved:

Let’s estimate an insurance agent has 100 friends and contacts.   Commission for motor insurance is 10%, so if an agent sells a car insurance policy for RM700, he will receive RM70 in commission.   For travel insurance product, agents earn 25% in commission.  So if an agent sell RM200 worth on travel insurance, the agent earns RM50.

So to make RM2,500 a month which roughly is the salary of fresh university graduate, an agent needs to sell about RM2,500/70 = 36 car insurance policies.  A little more than 1 car insurance per day.

 

With the information we have shared in this article, we hope that those of you out there who have an interest to become a general insurance agent get an idea of the steps and procedures that are required. Should you have any inquiry, please feel free to drop us a comment, or a message via our Facebook page.  

 

Some useful links for your reference.

http://giassignment.blogspot.my/

http://www.piam.org.my/2016/08/24/general-insurance-industry-achieves-moderate-3-growth-in-first-half-2016/

http://www.asiainsurancereview.com/News/View-NewsLetter-Article?id=35210&Type=eDaily

http://www.alantanblog.com/insurance/35-of-insurance-agents-earn-above-rm20000-a-year/