Growing Life and Annuity Distributor Seeks 'PhDs'

Jamie Prickett: Credit: Experior Financial

Agents with the drive to keep talking to prospects can still do well in life insurance, health insurance and annuity sales.

That's the message that Jamie Prickett, the chief executive officer of Experior Financial, is trying to convey to people who might want to affiliate with the company as independent agents.

Experior came to life in Guelph, Ontario, in 2014, opened an office in Cheektowaga, New York, in 2019 and now has about 4,100 agents in Canada and the United States.

Prickett jokes that the firm is looking for "PhDs": not people with doctorates, but people who are "poor, hungry and driven."

Success in retail financial services sales "is all about how many people you're communicating with," Prickett said.

What it means: Starting an independent financial services firm may sound like something that used to happen in the 1970s, but big new distribution firms are still forming and expanding.

Experior: Prickett started out wrestling and studying to be a machinist. He also managed a Primerica office for 10 years.

He and his wife, Lee-Ann Prickett, started a financial services distribution firm in 2012, sold it, and then formed Experior.

The firm sells life insurance, annuities, critical illness insurance, wellness programs and other products from about 40 vendors, including such insurers as American Equity Life and Transamerica.

Most of the agents have commission-based compensation arrangements, and they serve clients at all income and asset levels.

The company offers consumers advice about how to find a good insurance agent on the front page of its website, and its "about us" page offers a discussion about the values that a good insurance agency should embody.

"If your gift is serving others, serve them well," Experior says. "If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging."

Experior plans to build on its agents' connections, Prickett said, by expanding into countries like Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and, possibly, India.

Distribution network construction: About three-quarters of new Experior agents are experienced agents and one-quarter are newcomers.

Prickett finds that the experienced agents trained by the big career agencies of the 1970s and 1980s tend to have good, broad knowledge.

Today, independent marketing organizations are trying to provide the training and other support services the career agency networks once provided.

Some of those organizations offer to equip new agents with a broad education, Prickett said. But Prickett said that, in other cases, they try to simplify the training process by focusing too much on one product or one set of products.

Agents who come out of those programs may not understand how the product they understand compares with the competition, or how it fits in with other types of products, Prickett said.

When the training is too narrow or weak in other ways, "I think a lot of it comes from the top down; people focus on the commission, not the mission."

But Prickett disagrees with the idea that commission-based compensation leads to bad advice.

"A crook is a crook, and a good person is a good person," Prickett said.

New agents: About one-quarter of Experior agents are new to financial services sales.

The new agents come from all walks of life. Most want to own their own business and have a chance to earn more, Prickett said.

"We let them know it's a hard business," he added.

But new agents can start by working part time, to see if financial services sales is a good fit, and agents can adjust their income by deciding how much to work, Prickett said.

Some full-time agents make just $30,000 per year. One part-timer who works hard is earning $300,000 per year.

Jamie Prickett: Credit: Experior Financial