MONEY OBEDIENCE

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Insurance agents are professionals, through whom you can buy insurance products such as life insurance, disability insurance, homeowner's insurance, and car insurance. The insurance business is a state regulated business, which means that each state sets its own rules about various aspects of the insurance business. One of the common features of these rules is that all insurance agents have to be registered with a state's insurance commission. In order to register, insurance agents have to fulfill certain requirements like passing state-issued exams and regularly completing continuing education courses.

Insurance agents are supposed to work in the best interest of a client, as is the case with all financial professionals. Unfortunately the reality is such that insurance agents and other financial professionals are often swayed by the commission they receive for selling you, the client, certain financial products like an insurance policy. The problem comes in when they push you to buy a product that may not be suitable for you, but one that provides the insurance agent with a handsome commission.

As a client, you have the right to ask an insurance agent to tell you the amount of the commission he or she receives for selling you one product or another. If you do not understand the impact your insurance agent's commission has on your insurance policy and your financial well-being, ask the agent out right. You will quickly find out how forthcoming he or she is about answering such sensitive questions. If you get the sense that your insurance agent is not honest, trust your instinct and get help and advice from another agent. Be aware that there is nothing wrong with an insurance agent or any other financial professionals to get paid for his or her services to you as long as he or she gets paid for a service valuable to you, the client.

Should you ever run into a problem with an insurance agent, you may want to contact your state's insurance commission to get some help. This link will help you locate your state's insurance commission: http://www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm>www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm