Description: This 1978 session focused on persistency and agent retention. Questions addressed: 1. What are the current industry practices and experience with regard to the recruiting, training and retention of agents? 2. Are there ways of building the marketing system that can ease the cost impact of loss because of terminated agents? 3. To what extent are agents directed to markets that will allow them to survive ? 4. Are policy persistency studies valuable in helping general agents and managers identify poor markets? 5. Are persistency studies made that relate to the profile of the insured, in addition to relating to policy characteristics? 6. What uses are made of persistency data by agency to improve results? 7. How effective are persistency incentives in compensation plans for agents and home office field management?

Description: The purpose of this paper was to examine the job and compensation of the ordinary life insurance agent in relation to commissions and expense regulation and to examine how well the industry responds to customer needs, and consider how the system might be changed. The paper establishes some criteria for evaluating appropriateness of systems of both agent compensation and expense regulation. The paper is followed by submitted discussion papers