Becoming a broker

Leapyear

I was hoping to get some advice to see if what im thinking is a pure pipe dream or if it something i should persue. Anyone who has gone down the same path im particulalry interetsed in hearing from you.

I have been working for a life insurance company for the last three years as a customer service advisor. This mostly involves dealing with customers in relation to their life cover, income protection pensions and investments. Im QFA qualified and keep a close eye on the industry and im frustrated refering people back to their broker/financial advisors for advice as i feel that most of the time i could give them the advice that they need.

I feel that their brokers are only keen on making the initial sale (there are a lot of great ones so im not tarring them all with the same brush), collecting their commission and give vey little regard to follow up service/reviews/advice.

Over the coming months i may have to make a big choice about staying where i am or moving on to pastures new. I have been thinking of setting up myself as a self employed broker. This is clearly a big step as it would mean leaving a salaried position but it would allow me to grow a business of my own which has always appealed to me.

The questions i have that i would like help on is:

Is it possible to (for the first few years at least) run this type of business from home? Ie meet your clients in their homes/work place/nutral location.

Apart from your own network or collegues, family, friends etc what method could be used to generate introductions to new clients?

Starting afresh how long does the process take to become licenced by the central bank as a Multi Agency Intermediary?

Is it easy to gain agencies from the life companies or are they selective in who they grant agencies to?

Is there a lot of software needed to provide quotes or are they provided directly from the life companies.

If you’re willing to work hard, provide excellent service to new and existing customers is it possible to earn a living wage from the business in the first 12-24 months?

I appreciate that a number of the questions are tecnical and only people in the business would be able to tackle them but i really would appreciate some feedback, perhaps some stories about the business methods used by their existing broker and feedback as to how you think they could improve their service.

Thanks in advance

murra

Just out of curiousty, did you end up going down this route and if so how are you getting on with it?

Apologies in advance for bringing up old thread, but be very interested to see how it worked out for you, as I am in a similar position.

cheers