It would be nice to hear what other SF agents are doing to prepare for new contract changes. Set the bi--hing aside since many of us feel like venting. What is your business approach to the drastic changes to compensation.
54 replies (most recent on top)
Over a decade in claims, never once told not to pay something unless it was a inactive/nonpay or exclusion....or just didnt have to coverage. Never once. In fact most managers would highlight to pay what the policy allows.
Now...does the company as a meta-policy under staff and under train in order to delay settlements.....now thats a case i think you could make. As a claim handler, its never an issue if i can justify the payment, never, and i dont know a single claim handler who has a thought process of saving SF money on settlements.
Stuff like this is how we can tell a lot of you posters dont even work here, or are commenting on a part of the company your ignorant of.
@2yv Always has. I did Claims for 7 years, as many many agents did.
You conveniently ignored the part where State Farm decided to just not pay you.
"Imagine a Claim Rep being told they can’t pay claims, they’re going to get yelled at all day because of it"
bless your heart............................this is literally what's happening today as we speak and has been for a while.
Spoke to an agent who has been around since 1981 the other day. He cares less about new business. All he cares about is what business he has. I am sure there are tons more like him. This should tell you the direction the company is going.
You're paid what you are worth. State Farm had decided that all agents are being paid more than they are work and is changing the contract to align with the company view of agency value. Corporations don't have a soul, there is no feelings in Bloomington on making this huge shift if agency value. Agents have two choices, wrap their arms around it and accept it, or leave. I'm leaving.
@11f isn't that why they reimbursed some premiums across the country last year. Mutual Company!
6@25w People talking out of both sides. To be fair, it’s probably out of ignorance.
What I mean is that you all regularly trash seasoned agents for (to use corporate jargon) “not being engaged” or not being sales machines. But then you turn around and slam agents for not being insurance product experts.
The fact is—older agents, especially Agency 2000, really WERE policy/product experts. At the time, the company valued knowledge of product and company culture as the best way to serve customers. We had all that from our extensive training and experience inside SF.
The newer “engaged producer” agents receive no such training and have no such history. They are not product experts, they are sales machines, which is not their fault. State Farm doesn’t want them to be and doesn’t prepare them to be.
There really are two completely different types of agents. State Farm created that. It was never realistic to expect people to completely change what they do by changing who they are.
@25x tell me you don't understand the agent model without telling me you don't understand the agent model.
It's striking how many people claim to work for this company that have no clue how agency even works.
Now, unfortunately you all kind of see what they did to the claims department 7-8 years ago. Do more work for less.
We busted our a-s in claims and were always trying to be more efficient and manage cost knowing 10-15% was going to the agents on old contracts. To stay competitive we had to scale up because we had agent expenses higher compared to other companies. My agent did not even know what a non-owned policy was when I tried to get one years ago. I enjoyed my career w the farm but the job turned south after Covid.
@1gk BINGO!
@c1 I guess you don’t understand the dinosaurs stated scratch with no pay, required to have at least ability to be able to access $200000 in debt. Spent 5 years trying to break even and then 5 more to payoff debt. Before you could pay bills out of earrings. Told if you worked hard you could enjoy your later life and what we built.
NOw your given what we built without earning any of it and you want to diss us for enjoying the success we made? We are independent contractors that were told we could run are business any way we wanted.
The problem is not us. If we are wrong the business model will take us out, But what you’re forgetting is our clients are us baby boomers that like to come in and pay
, have a cup of coffee and talk.
When you run us off, they will walk also. It’s a big segment of consumer still with a lot of wealth. AARP and Hartford are gonna love them
Is an agent "buyout" being offered? If so, what is that?
@1en Agent doesn't have to do sh*t! Quit! Close and lock doors then walk. Something I should have done.
@19w agent has to notify before the end of 2026 and be gone before the end of 2027
@16h EXACTLY RIGHT!!!
“Fool me once (1996) shame on you. Fool me twice (2027) shame on me.”
@173 Agency expenses are not decreasing and getting 50% less income to cover those same expenses make the business model a non-starter for me.
@19w it’s my understanding that AA4 agents need to retire prior to Jan 1, 2028 to get their Extended Term Pay. Whether SF will allow an “exit date” of Dec 31, 2027 is at their discretion.
@19h I'm a 35 year-long team member here. Agent has 35 years in as well. (I started 2 weeks after he did). Do you know if the agent has until end of 2027 (since new contract will not go into effect until 2028) to take retirement and still get their retirement, or will they need to retire sooner to get their retirement under the old contract?
Upside the new contract isn’t activated until 2028…. downside agency group medical options through SF will not be offered in 2026
•••
State Farm can’t make it on 90% & 92% of the premiums agents bring in…they need 92% & 94% of the premiums agents write. Then they want agents to pay all their own expenses, payroll, & healthcare from that. Sound like an agent problem or company problem?
Taking agent’s money & business profits they’ve poured their lives into for what? Corp greed by definition.
@OP Can someone share the details of the new contracts?
@15w Wake the he-l up. AA97 didn't make more than AA3/4. AA05 didn't make more than AA97. State Farm doesn't make changes to spend MORE money.
@jr you’re an id--t if you think you’ll make more on the new contract
@11f So one season means there will be no more forever. Got it🙄
@10y as available as most of them are today. if you're not on the golf course good luck
@10z climate change is over. Not a single hurricane hit the USA continent last year.
No hurricanes made landfall in the continental United States during the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. This marked the first time the U.S. mainland completely avoided a hurricane strike since 2015.
NOAA (.gov)
@10s That net worth is the safety net to pay for the year (soon to come) when we have record wildfire losses and three CAT5 hurricanes.
@10w And an agent with 5 different offices and 40 staff is going to be available to talk when you walk into one of her offices?
I can’t wait to see the rest & vest/stationary operators/retired in place agents leave. Those agents need to go. The customers need to be with agents that actually show up to work and help their customers. You can’t be a good neighbor if you don’t speak to your customers.
How come when they had the agents all together they did not announce the changes? Right before the Pink concert?
Net worth 2025. 170 bn. 2024 145 bn. 2020 126 bn. 2019 116 bn.
Insurance is ancillary to what this company does.
@c1 I am a team member and a customer. If State Farm flushes my agent out, I am bailing. My family is also only sticking around for the agent. GEICO has a good customer service system. So does AAA, and I get a good discount there. A lot will bail when the agent goes. Mark my words.
@100 I am a newer agent team mate. I completely agree. After just 3 months working at Bankers before this gig, I appreciate how hard it is to start a business from scratch. Also, older agents did everything by hand and really worked hard. They deserve peace towards the end.
@jq Well said, and congrats to you for disciplined savings so you had options. I'm confident that your area manager would have preferred that you had spent that 1/2 on marketing and staff instead of saving it for your departure. Today's message will no doubt confirm that you made a very wise choice by stockpiling some cash so you could escape the Rat Race. New agents don't understand that long tenured agents were once them. We were the ones growing SF. We were the ones investing in the company. If someone on this forum has not been around for multiple decades, going through all the cycles, they should reserve their judgements. I once felt the same way about long tenured agents not growing, but after 35+ years, I know understand their longer term perspective that only experience provides.
State Farm has no where else to go but cut the fat on agency!
@k1 They already pay more customer facing employees than State Farm does.
Someone has to pay for all of these offshore helpdesk reps might as well be agents
I look forward to Monday. I anticipate my income potential is going to rise. For my colleagues that have stopped “working” about half - you have a choice to work again or depart.
@hq You absolutely do not understand agency. It’s always been about making choices and decisions based upon State Farm’s current whims. The goalposts move all the time, and I actually recall one year where we were growing SO fast that in April, they simply shutdown the incentive programs for the year. There was also the actual shutdown of Homeowners sales. I had been writing 80 policies per month, and suddenly we were only allowed to write 4. Imagine a Claim Rep being told they can’t pay claims, they’re going to get yelled at all day because of it, AND they don’t get paid for it.
I retired at 60 a couple of years ago. I was an Agency 2000, AA97 guy. Mid career, I paid and travelled to attend some training to “step it up”………realized what they wanted for me was not what I wanted for me. So I lived on half and saved half for my last ten years and left.
The real deal with Agency is that State Farm is always messing with how agents make a living, and agents are always adjusting to it.