In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):
Just about everyone in retail does it.
In reply to Stefan (Not Bruce):
Just about everyone in retail does it.
Datsun310Guy wrote: my dad was given some Allstate stock that he grew big time. He sold his Sears stock right when Kmart bought them - he was finished with Sears except for the Allstate stock.
My dad was an Allstate insurance agent for thirty years and he was able to retire at 56 with a nice pension, life insurance, and health insurance supplement.
It turns out that the life insurance and health insurance supplement programs were voluntary (rather than being contractual obligations) and Allstate has scaled them back over the years (even to existing retirees) to the point that they’re pretty much gone now.
When my dad first started with Allstate, they located him in a Sears store (later he moved to a regular office) and I remember being taken to visit him. Oh, the visual and olfactory heaven that was the snack counter…those freshly roasted cashews, slathered in salt and basking under the warm glow of the heat lamp; good times.
Today, I don’t imagine Sears could get a health permit to serve food what with the rats and all.
They never should have given up the name to their Tower. I mean come on! They had a fricken tower!
(Still called the Sears Tower to anyone who is from Chicago. I walk past it every day)
In reply to RX Reven':
Our guy was in Oak Brook, IL under the escalator on the bottom floor - same spot by the nut and candy counter. Then he went to a small Sears catalog store in Downers Grove, IL. Pete Murray.
He retired and I got a rep the was on the north side of Chicago and my rates seemed to go way up. I'm now with State Farm but I still encourage Allstate to run profitable since I still own a bunch of shares.
Datsun310Guy wrote: He retired and I got a rep the was on the north side of Chicago and my rates seemed to go way up.
Unless you changed reps a long time ago, the rate increase was probably just coincidental as agent skill has largely been supplanted with automation….agents get to the top today by excelling at sales / marketing rather than being SME’s on all the possible options and what the underwriters are likely to accept.
My dad was one of those SME’s that relentlessly saved his clients every possible penny and he got a reputation for it resulting in his being the go-to guy in the Malibu, CA area.
I think by the time he retired, he only had around 100 clients and most of his income came from the top 20 or so as they were huge net worth Hollywood types…do the math, insuring one 20M home yields the same commission as insuring 50 average homes.
Anyway, thanks for the trip down Memory Ln…I clearly remember my dad squeezed under an escalator behind a little booth with pamphlets and stuff neatly laid out.
You'll need to log in to post.
