ArticlesThe Kenswick PartnersAlbany, New York
Straight answers on work, money, and the decisions behind a career.
Written from inside financial services and the businesses around it. The same questions come up every week: what a role really pays, what the first year is like, whether the thing someone read online is true. These articles answer them the way they would be said across a table, with the numbers and the sources attached.
Is that insurance agency a pyramid scheme? How to tell
The Federal Trade Commission’s own test, what a legitimate commission hierarchy looks like next to an illegal one, and five questions to ask before the coffee meeting.
What a 1099 contract really means for a life insurance agent
The self-employment tax arithmetic on real dollars, the IRS statutory-employee rule almost nobody mentions, what you now buy yourself, and the questions about your book to settle in writing before you sign.
Life insurance for a business you own: key person and buy-sell
The two structures, the two federal rules that trip owners (section 101(j) and Connelly v. United States), and what to bring to the people licensed to act on them.
What a licensed life insurance agent actually does all week
An honest week, hour by hour, for a first-year agent and a third-year agent side by side, with the government data that frames it.
How life insurance agents actually get paid, one policy at a time
One $1,200 term policy followed from the first premium to year three: the commission, the advance, the chargeback, the renewals, and the override above you.
Leaving a salaried job for commission sales: the first year, month by month
A cash-flow calendar for the move into life insurance sales, with the numbers that belong on the kitchen table before anyone resigns.
One confusing idea at a time, explained with something you already understand.
Four-minute reads. Each one belongs to a long read and links to it.
What are estimated taxes? Explained like four rent days a year
An employee’s taxes come out before the paycheck lands; a contractor is a tenant with four rent days a year and nobody collecting in between.
Median or average? Explained like a pickup basketball game
Ten players, one seven-footer, and why the midpoint of insurance agent pay tells you more than any average an agency chooses to show you.
1099 or W-2? Explained like running a food truck instead of working the grill
The difference between a paycheck and a commission check is the difference between a shift at a restaurant and owning the truck: who buys the propane, who pays both halves of the payroll tax, and who keeps the regulars.
What is an override? Explained like a referral bonus that never stops
The person who recruited you is paid a slice of every policy you sell, for as long as you sell; here is why that is legal, how the slice is sized, and the one place the comparison breaks.
What is a chargeback? Explained like a store return
You sold it, you were paid your cut, the customer brought it back, and the store wants the cut out of your next check: that is a chargeback, with the real dollars.
What is an advanced commission? Explained like getting paid early
An advance is nine months of a bonus handed over on day one, on the understanding that you give back whatever you do not end up earning.
What are renewals? Explained like a subscription you sold once
Being paid a small cut every month a subscription you sold stays active is a renewal, and stacking hundreds of them is the whole case for staying past year two.
What is commission? Explained like a server’s tips
A server’s tips and an insurance agent’s commission work the same way, with one twist: part of the tip can arrive before the table has finished eating.