Some insurance insiders estimate that 70% to 80% of new producers fail within their first one to two years. That failure rate has mostly held steady over the years, through cycle after cycle of agencies adjusting their approach to recruitment. Too often, the industry's response has been to focus on attracting more candidates or increasing commissions and bonuses to keep them. But most new agents don't leave because the pay isn't competitive. They leave before they've developed the confidence, skills, and understanding of the opportunity that would allow them to succeed in the first place.
I've spent my career trying to solve this challenge, first managing operations at a large HR software company and now in the insurance industry. Across both experiences, I've seen the industry continue to treat a development problem as a recruiting problem. As long as the focus remains on getting people through the door instead of equipping them to thrive once they're there, the outcome is unlikely to change.
What Breaks in the First Few Weeks
In many industries, day one begins with familiar employment paperwork, basic systems access, and a clearly defined orientation. For a new insurance agent, it can begin with state licensing requirements, carrier appointments, product training, compliance rules and several unfamiliar technology platforms. Product knowledge in this business spans a wide range of technical topics demanding extreme attention to detail. Producers have to know availability information by state, pre-existing condition details, coverage limitations, and exception clauses. For someone who walked in energized about building a career helping people, those first few weeks can feel like drinking from a firehose with no clear end in sight.
That's usually where the breakdown begins, and it's almost always rooted in the same gap between what agents were recruited to do versus how they're actually spending their time. Instead of helping clients and building a book, they're chasing down answers to basic process questions, hunting for the right form, trying to decode systems nobody walked them through. Operational friction drains their energy fast, and most agency leadership doesn't see it happening until it’s too late.
I've watched this play out in a specific, recurring way. A new agent is three weeks in, eager, starting to build a real pipeline. A prospect asks a question they don't know the answer to. They go looking for a resource that should exist and can't find it. They ask around, and it's unclear who actually owns the answer, so the question bounces from person to person without resolution. By the time they track down the right information, the follow-up window has closed, and the client has moved on. In one fell swoop, that agent lost a sale and lost confidence that the agency was built for them to succeed.
String a few of those together, and new agents’ mentality shifts. Staying starts to feel more costly than leaving. Over and over, the industry loses people with genuine potential because the infrastructure around them failed at a critical moment.
Why We Keep Solving the Wrong Problem
In my previous position, I observed onboarding processes while running them internally for a workforce of around 1,600 people, and also while delivering onboarding technology to tens of thousands of businesses across other industries. That dual view made it clear to me that onboarding gets treated as an administrative task only by organizations that haven't yet connected it to their own retention and productivity numbers. Well-advised companies, on the other hand, treat it as a business-critical function, with role-specific training tracks, clear 30-, 60-, 90-day expectations, and feedback loops built to surface problems before they lead to attrition.
Insurance largely hasn't made that connection yet. When I moved into this industry, the product complexity didn't surprise me, but what did was the cultural assumption that new agents would simply figure it out on their own — that hunger alone was enough to carry someone through. To be fair, some people do find their own way. But when an industry designs onboarding around the few people who can succeed with little guidance, it quietly writes off many others who could have become strong producers with the right support.
That gap explains why the industry's default response to turnover -- higher commissions and signing bonuses -- keeps underperforming. Compensation matters, but it cannot overcome a chaotic daily experience. Higher commissions do not help an agent locate the correct form, understand a carrier requirement or get a timely answer for a client. Without the training and accountability to support quality production, aggressive compensation can also encourage volume before competence. Without accountability to quality or continuing education, high earning potential is a short-sighted trade. If agents aren't grounded in the value they're supposed to deliver, agencies risk building a culture that rewards volume over outcomes, and that damages clients and agency reputation alike.
If you talk to agents who left in that first year, compensation is rarely what they emphasize. What comes up instead is a distinct lack of early support. “I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing.” “I felt like I was on my own by week two.” A signing bonus doesn't change someone’s daily experience when they can't get an answer and nobody is around to help. It just means they were paid a little more in the short time before they left.
Insurance Can't Afford to Keep Getting This Wrong
The industry cannot keep absorbing this problem. Insurance's workforce skews older than almost any comparable field: 1.4 million professionals are 55 or older, while only 214,000 fall between 20 and 24. Every new agent lost to friction that a better first 90 days would have prevented is more consequential than ever.
Luckily, we have a solution proven across other industries. It's mapping a new agent's experience with the same rigor agencies already apply to a client's journey. It is paying attention to touchpoints, handoffs, and moments that build or erode trust, and closing whatever gaps surface. Fortunately, agencies don't have to invent a new model. Other industries have already demonstrated what effective onboarding looks like. The most successful programs don't overwhelm new hires with information. They create structure, reinforce learning, and remove unnecessary friction before it becomes frustration.
For insurance agencies, that means focusing on a handful of operational priorities during the first 90 days:
- Clarify ownership. Every new producer should know exactly where to go for product questions, carrier issues, licensing concerns, and technology support. Back that structure with a centralized knowledge base and dedicated training resources that provide consistent guidance, reinforce best practices, and help producers build the skills they need to succeed.
- Reduce the time spent searching. Forms, carrier guides, compliance resources, and process documentation should be organized so agents can find answers without relying on tribal knowledge. AI-powered search tools can further streamline access by surfacing relevant answers and resources without requiring producers to know exactly where to look.
- Build confidence before independence. New producers need a defined path to competency, supported by formal check-ins, structured coaching, regular feedback, and opportunities to practice. Clear milestones help ensure they're ready to operate independently rather than being expected to figure it out on their own.
- Measure the onboarding experience. Agencies routinely track sales metrics but rarely measure how efficiently new producers progress through these stages or where they encounter friction. The first 90 days should be managed and evaluated with the same discipline as any other business process.
The goal isn't to eliminate complexity. Insurance will always be a complex business. The goal is to ensure that operational complexity doesn't become an unnecessary barrier between motivated new agents and the careers they came to build.
