Typical life and health agents who belong to the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors have told NAIFA that, in their world, sales commissions are still the dominant form of compensation.
About 83% of the NAIFA members who answered a NAIFA survey question about compensation said that sales commissions are their primary form of compensation.
Roughly 40% said they are collecting fees based on assets under management, and about 10% said they are earning a salary. But, in spite of all of the media reports about financial professionals moving away from commission-based compensation models, only about 30% said they have seen any shift toward fee-based compensation over the past five years.