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

Description: This concurrent session took place at the 1975 Society of Actuaries Spring Meeting in New York, held in April. The presenters addressed various aspects of agency compensation and consumerism including the objectives of a compensation system, the services performed by the agent, how consumers view agent compensation, how the commission structure affects an agent’s advice, the impact of inflation on agents’ earnings, possible improvements to agent compensation, and regulation of “fair value” of insurance.