More and more insurance agents are expressing regret at their career choice. At one time, becoming an insurance agent meant you had a few years of hard work and then a comfortable income for the rest of your life. The title "Insurance Agent" connoted experience, dedication and a professionalism that comes with a lifetime devotion to the field of insurance products and service. However, more agents are leaving the Insurance business to pursue other fields.

Primarily, this is due to the change in market conditions. As with the buying and selling of stock, the purchase of insurance can now be done by the consumer directly by phone or through the Internet. No longer is the attention or participation of an agent needed. With automated merchandising comes a reduced need for personnel. Of those agents who maintain an agency, more are reporting that business is much slower and a long-term book is much more difficult to establish. It seems that times are changing. As the old-time stockbrokers disappeared with the advent of online and real-time stock trading, so it seems the same factors are at play in the insurance industry.

Still, the industry is earning more money than ever before. Insurance deregulation during the 1990s allowed insurance companies to offer products that had previous only been sold or brokered by financial institutions. Many insurance companies now offer credit cards, financial planning and investment services.

Other companies have taken traditional insurance products and offered them as "new and improved" or rebadged products, and have been successful in exploiting market niches. An example of this is NAA's "Mortgage Protection Insurance" which is nothing more than traditional term life insurance keyed to the purchase price of the customer's home. While Forester's and Old Mutual are seeing increased sales, the actual number of agents earning money from these repackaged products is very small.

Health insurance agencies are also having a tough time signing up new customers and thus keeping agents on the payroll. With the advent of the internet, many people either sign up online for insurance or take employer-provided packages which are usually offered by large agencies

Again, even with the greater opportunity to offer an expanded range of products, many agents feel the traditional "insurance salesman" job is not something to pursue. Agencies attempt to attract new agents with unlimited free leads of dubious value, spiffs and signing bonuses are commonplace, yet many agents are looking outside the field for greater opportunity. In short, the insurance business is really a business for large corporations which are able to increasingly use websites and phone banks to market their products. For the individual insurance agent, it is a much tougher sale - even with a personal touch and individualized service.