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February 20, 2024 at 01:40 PM
What You Need to Know
- Experior Financial formed in 2014 and moved into the United States in 2019.
- The firm has about 4,100 agents, one quarter of whom are new to the business.
- One common incoming agent weakness: narrow product knowledge.
Agents with the drive to keep talking to prospects can still do well in life insurance, health insurance and annuity sales.
That’s the message that Jamie Prickett, the chief executive officer of Experior Financial, is trying to convey to people who might want to affiliate with the company as independent agents.
Experior came to life in Guelph, Ontario, in 2014, opened an office in Cheektowaga, New York, in 2019 and now has about 4,100 agents in Canada and the United States.
Prickett jokes that the firm is looking for “PhDs”: not people with doctorates, but people who are “poor, hungry and driven.”
Success in retail financial services sales “is all about how many people you’re communicating with,” Prickett said.
What it means: Starting an independent financial services firm may sound like something that used to happen in the 1970s, but big new distribution firms are still forming and expanding.
Experior: Prickett started out wrestling and studying to be a machinist. He also managed a Primerica office for 10 years.
He and his wife, Lee-Ann Prickett, started a financial services distribution firm in 2012, sold it, and then formed Experior.
The firm sells life insurance, annuities, critical illness insurance, wellness programs and other products from about 40 vendors, including such insurers as American Equity Life and Transamerica.
Most of the agents have commission-based compensation arrangements, and they serve clients at all income and asset levels.
The company offers consumers advice about how to find a good insurance agent on the front page of its website, and its “about us” page offers a discussion about the values that a good insurance agency should embody.
“If your gift is serving others, serve them well,” Experior says. “If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.”
Experior plans to build on its agents’ connections, Prickett said, by expanding into countries like Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam and, possibly, India.
Distribution network construction: About three-quarters of new Experior agents are experienced agents and one-quarter are newcomers.
