New blood needed in insurance industry.

The July Best's Review edition article "Recruiting Centers," touched on a topic very critical to the insurance industry. A crisis exists in our industry. This is not a looming crisis, an impending crisis or an inevitable crisis. This is a crisis whose onset began decades ago and has now reached such a critical level that industry representatives have no alternatives but to act immediately. I'm referring to the diminishing number of representatives adequately prepared to serve and assist today's population in assuring that population's financial and emotional security. In a nutshell, recruiting and retention in the basic segments of our industry have fallen to numbers that will not sustain even modest levels of growth necessary to meet today's challenges.

First, as to our industry: Are we product pushers? Commissioned sales persons? Fee-based advisers? Insurance agents? Financial consultants? Work-site marketers? Captive agents? Independent advisers? Business-continuation experts? Wealth-transfer advisers? Retirement planners? Wealth-accumulation specialists? You get the idea. We comprise an industry that is growing and evolving daily, becoming more complex and whose products and services are in greater need than at any time in history.

We're more than financial services--we're really in the business of providing financial security and emotional stability through the varied products, services and advice we offer. Sometimes we're compensated through commissions, sometimes through fees and sometimes we're not compensated at all. We satisfy the needs of our clients in ways that no other industry can.

OK, ours is not exactly a glamorous field. High school counselors are not rushing to recommend graduates consider careers in selling insurance. All but a very few business colleges offer direct paths to careers in the sales or advising sides of our industry Add to that the enormous costs being borne by issuers and current practitioners associated with training and preparing new entrants, and you have a recipe for failure. There are some issuers attempting to attract entrepreneurial spirits and some practitioners are making a stab at hiring newly licensed entrants. But if you can't attract or retain new talent, what is the field's future?

I am calling for those with the desire, to take action today by searching your memories for what worked for you--maybe it will work for others. Perhaps you've had ideas for improvement of this profession but have not had the opportunity to express those ideas. It's possible that the solution could be as simple as reinventing the image of this business. It may be as complex as redefining who best serves the interests of our clients, how those servers are educated and what institutions must be created or refined to fulfill all the recruitment and retention requirements. Consider the various paths now open to career aspirants. Few professions offer the varied opportunities for satisfaction, personal growth and significant compensation as ours.

Lyle Gary

Agent Media Corp.

Clearwater, Fla.