Not such a bad gig

“I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation!” rock 'n' roll icon Joan Jett sang in 1981. And 28 years later, at least one insurance agent agrees with her. Robert Slayton was recently quoted in an article posted on Yahoo HotJobs as saying he uses his title to discourage unwanted conversation. “If I don't want to talk to someone, all I need to do is tell them what I do,” said Mr. Slayton, an insurance agent who owns an eponymous Naperville, Ill., firm. The article, “Good Careers with Bad Reputations,” posted on Yahoo last week, named insurance agent as one of those careers. The public often has a poor impression of insurance agents because of their focus on sales, Mr. Slayton said in an interview with InvestmentNews. “The typical view of a life insurance agent is, "Hi, how are you? Let me sell you something,'” Mr. Slayton said. Some agents “just want to sell you something and not help the client,” he added. Such perceptions have dogged insurance agents for years, one industry participant said. “A lot of it goes back to the days when your insurance agent came around each week to collect a quarter” for a policy that was not tangible, said Madelyn Flannagan, vice president of education and research at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America Inc., a trade group in Alexandria, Va. She credits the Internet for making today's consumers somewhat savvier about insurance, especially as part of a financial plan to protect property such as homes and cars. Mr. Slayton stressed that a career as an insurance agent has many positives, including the ability to own your own business, a residual income and having a form of income that is predictable, even during a recession. The four other professions rounding out the Yahoo list of good careers with bad reputations were mortgage broker, executive recruiter, publicist and tax collector.