Reed Financial Group

The insurance job market is on full swing as it is one of the hottest career options of 2010. People today are financially aware about insurance, they have access to resources (read the Internet) which tell them how to make comparative analysis between various insurance products. This means, insurance companies by themselves have become very competitive, are looking for hiring the best talent that can give them a higher market share.

General insurance companies and life insurance companies recruit people who have the go-getter attitude and confidence to explain to people about their insurance products. Training is provided but it has always been seen that the text book approach has limited effect. The insurance agent has to be a people’s person, give a plan that can work best for the customers.The plan should be so good that the prospect should get 70 percent idea from looking at the plan. The insurance agent can clarify and confirm a few additional questions that the prospect may have. So, it is very important that the insurance agent has a good knowledge of the plan he is selling, the inclusions, the coverage amount, investment returns (if any) the exclusions, disclaimers etc. The agent is paid a handsome salary and there are commissions for targets met or exceeded.

Life insurance companies employ freelancers, retired people, students and part-time professionals to work for them. People who are selected are given adequate training and company material which they can use while showing plans to people. Life insurance is basically a thing of trust and though people should go by rationalist thinking, our human nature makes us say ‘yes’ to people whom we trust. This is the reason life insurance companies ask freelancers to work for them, so that they can reach out to their near and dear ones and show them the insurance plan.

Of course, there are good number of perks and financial incentives. There are many people who have earned a sizeable amount of residual income which runs into more than five figure through life insurance, as freelance life insurance agents. The insurance agent’s career can be lucrative and self-fulfilling. The field of insurance is such that an individual has unlimited earning potential, there is no capping of income, you can earn as much as you want to, if you are good at your job. For the person who is working in an insurance company, he can steadily climb the corporate ladder if he or she is good at the job. Also it is recommended to have an MBA or a financial degree, because that definitely helps you in getting a high position in the company. You can also take independent insurance agency jobs as a freelancer where you can work for multiple insurance companies as you are not officially employed by them. You definitely up your stakes to get higher income here.

Apart from this, the pleasure of being self employed as an independent insurance agent is quite satisfying. However there is a downside because you have too many insurance carriers in your hand, and you have to take that extra effort to get training and become abreast with the latest developments happening with every insurance company that you are working for. If you can do it, then nothing like it! An insurance agent can be expected to earn between $30,000 to $40000 in the start and then move to $40,000 to $70,000 mid-career with people having good amount of experience can earn more than $100,000

By: Arunraj V.S.

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The secret in real estate business is to use other people’s money. This is how most real estate tycoons are made. Unlike traditional residential real estate mortgages, real estate financing offers much broader financial options, including lending or financing from various financial institutions. Transactions like these call for above-average negotiation skills.

It’s not advisable to invest your own money in a real estate as for a few very important reasons. First, you you tend to give most of your profits away by not leveraging your investment. Second, real estate is a very risky business – you don’t want to jeopardize everything you have.

This is not to say that real estate investment is all about losses. On the contrary. if you know how to make money work for you, you may actually garner a great deal of money in return for your investment.

Here’s how:

If, for example, you purchase a $100,000 property that increases an average of 7 percent per year (in reality that number could be higher or lower), you would see a net profit from renting your property resulting in an approximately 15 percent return.

If you’re content with little return of investment, you might settle with your 15 percent return. But if you really want to earn on your investment, consider the possibility of what leveraging can do for you. At present, a typical real estate investor can find financing as high as 95 to 97 percent of the purchase price. There even some instances where you may be able to get a 100 percent financing but we won’t use this for our example as it’s an inadequate comparison.

So, if you’re are an investor who is already content with a smallreturn of investment then 15 percent sounds like a lot. But for those who really want to make it big in the real estate, 15 percent is far from being considered a noteworthy return.

How does leveraging work?

Let’s assume that the rental income will cover all your expenses, including the mortgage payments. Taking the same example, a 7 percent appreciation of your property results in a $7,000 profit per year. With a 95% financing in place, you’ll be able to get a $7,000 return on $5,000 (your 5 percent down payment on a $100,000 real estate property). This will provide you with a 140 percent return on your investment. Not only that, with the same $100,000 you can go out and purchase 20 investment properties, finance 95% percent of them, and make an amazing $140,000 profit a year. This totally beats the $15,000 profit with an all-cash transaction.

In terms of the additional 20 properties, expect to have a hard time getting financing for them since usually only five or six new rental property mortgages are the maximum that lenders presently allow. Which is why you need to have an above-average negotiation skills.

By: Stu Pearson

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The world is changing at a staggering rate and technology is considered to be the key driver for these changes around us (Papers4you.com, 2006). An analysis of technology and its uses show that it has permeated in almost every aspect of our life. According to Tero et al (2004) many activities are handled electronically due the acceptance of information technology at home as well as at workplace. Internet can be seen as a truly global phenomenon that has made time and distance irrelevant to many transactions. According to Heikki et al. (2002), the transformation from the traditional banking towards e-banking has been a ‘leap’ change.

The evolution of electronic banking started from the use of automatic teller machines (ATM) and has passed through telephone banking, direct bill payment, electronic fund transfer and the revolutionary online banking (Alter, 2002). The future of electronic banking according to some is the acceptance of WAP enabled banking and interactive-TV banking (Petrus & Nelson, 2006). But it has been forecasted that among all the categories, online banking is the future of electronic financial transactions. The rise in the e-commerce and the use of internet in its facilitation along with the enhanced online security of transactions and sensitive information has been the core reasons for the penetration of online banking in everyday life (Papers4you.com, 2006). According to the latest official figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS, 2006) indicate that subscriptions to the internet has grown more than 50% from 15 million in 2000 to 35 million in 2005 in the UK. It has also been estimated that 60% of the population in the UK use internet in their daily lives.

The fundamental shift towards the involvement of the customer in the financial service provision with the help of technology especially internet has helped in reduce costs of financial institutions as well as helped client to use the service at anytime and from virtually anywhere with access to an internet connection. According to theorists (Walfried et al., 2005) customer evaluation of the electronic services is influenced by attributions of success and failure in inter personal service situations. The use of electronic banking has removed the banking personnel that facilitate the transactions and has placed additional responsibilities on the customers to transact with the service. Although the use of E-banking is provided for the benefit of the customers but these changes require increased work or involvement on the part of customers. These and other factors might be seen as lesser service provided in terms of customer service. But these assumptions would be wrong if the customer knows the value of using the electronic service.

Thus it can be concluded that a fit between task i.e. the banking; technology i.e. the user interface and its reliability; and individuals i.e. the customers and their knowledge about using the service, is the key to successful E-banking services (Zigurs & Buckland, 1998).

References:

Alter, S. (2002), “Information Systems” 4th Edition, Prentice Hall

Heikki Karjaluoto, Minna Mattila, Tapio Pento (2002), “Factors underlying attitude formation towards online banking in Finland”, International Journal of Bank Marketing; Volume: 20 Issue: 6; 2002 Research paper

ONS (2005), “Office of National Statistics”, http://www.statistics.gov.uk

Papers For You (2006) “C/B/93. Dissertation. Will online business replace the traditional business in the banking industry in UK?”, Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtfina35.htm [17/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) “P/F/174. Dissertation. Adoption of Online Banking”, Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtfina35.htm [18/06/2006]

Petrus Guriting, Nelson Oly Ndubisi (2006), “Borneo online banking: evaluating customer perceptions and behavioural intention”, Management Research News; Volume: 29 Issue: 1/2; 2006 Conceptual Paper

Tero Pikkarainen, Kari Pikkarainen, Heikki Karjaluoto, Seppo Pahnila (2004), “Consumer acceptance of online banking: an extension of the technology acceptance model”, Internet Research; Volume: 14 Issue: 3; 2004 Research paper

Walfried M. Lassar, Chris Manolis, Sharon S. Lassar (2005), “The relationship between consumer innovativeness, personal characteristics, and online banking adoption”, International Journal of Bank Marketing; Volume: 23 Issue: 2; 2005 Research paper

Zigurs, I. & Buckland, B. (1998), “A Theory of Task/Technology Fit and Group Support Systems Effectiveness”, MIS Quarterly, Sep98, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p313-334, 22p

By: Verena Veneeva

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