{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/insurance-sales-agents/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Insurance Sales Agents",
    "soc_code": "41-3021",
    "category": "Sales",
    "us_employment": 479100,
    "median_annual_wage": 62280
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 45,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 7,
    "embodiment": 5,
    "liability_shield": 11,
    "trust_premium": 13,
    "judgment_accountability": 9
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Rating quotes, running an ACORD 125, comparing three carriers' declarations pages, and re-soliciting a 6-month renewal are all structured data entry that Progressive's and Lemonade's own funnels complete unattended — the 7 rather than 4 reflects the discovery conversation that surfaces the teenage driver, the home office, the boat, and the umbrella gap a form never asks about.",
    "embodiment": "A 5 covers the physical minority of the job: property walk-throughs and photos on a homeowners inspection, driving to a small-business owner's shop to write the BOP, and the community-lunch prospecting that still generates referrals — everything else happens from a desk on an AMS and a phone.",
    "liability_shield": "An 11 sits at the floor of the licensed band because the state producer license, appointment, CE hours, and E&O policy are real and revocable, but the carrier underwrites and issues, so a denied claim usually lands on the policy language rather than on you unless you failed to offer or document a coverage.",
    "trust_premium": "At 13 the relationship is genuinely the product for life, disability, and commercial book-of-business clients who call your cell after a fire and renew for fifteen years — it is not higher because a large share of personal-lines premium moves on price at renewal regardless of who wrote it.",
    "judgment_accountability": "A 9 reflects discretion within carrier appetite guides and underwriting rules: you choose liability limits, deductibles, endorsements, and whether to place a risk in the standard or E&S market, but you do not set rates, approve binds, or adjudicate the claim."
  },
  "rationale": "Most of the day — quoting, comparing carriers, filling applications, chasing renewals, answering coverage questions — is text and form work that comparison engines and direct-to-consumer carriers already do without an agent, and personal auto/home lines have been eroding for two decades. What holds is the state producer license, the E&O-backed recommendation on complex risk, and the fact that people buying life, disability, or a commercial package for a $4M business want a named human who picks up the phone at claim time. Scoring the modal agent (heavily personal-lines and captive); commercial and employee-benefits producers sit meaningfully safer than this number.",
  "outlook": "Personal-lines commission volume keeps draining to direct and embedded channels, headcount thins, and the agents left are commercial, benefits, and complex-life specialists carrying larger books.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State adoption/enforcement of the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Reg (best-interest standard, now in ~48 states) plus NAIC's AI Model Bulletin extended to producer-facing tools, requiring a named licensed producer to attest to and personally own suitability documentation for any AI-generated recommendation in life/annuity/LTC — making the signature non-delegable to a carrier's engine",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "A DOL fiduciary-style rule or state equivalent extending best-interest duty to rollover and life-insurance-as-investment sales, with E&O carriers (Utica, Swiss Re producer programs) writing exclusions for recommendations issued without a licensed producer's documented review",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: personal auto/home quoting fully absorbed by carrier direct channels and embedded distribution, leaving the surviving book as commercial package, benefits, and complex life — risk-capture interviews, loss-run interpretation, coverage-gap arguments with underwriters. This raises the score only for the remaining agents, and shrinks headcount while doing it",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Growth of the agent-as-claim-advocate role: when a denial lands, the producer who bound the policy is the person who fights the adjuster and eats the E&O exposure if a coverage gap was missed. Hard-market conditions in property (FL, CA, TX admitted-market withdrawals) and E&S placement push more decisions onto the producer's judgment about carrier solvency and non-admitted forms",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Commercial and benefits buyers formalizing willingness to pay for a named human — RFPs from mid-market employers specifying a dedicated licensed service team, and fee-based (not commission) advisory arrangements for benefits consulting under CAA 2021 broker compensation disclosure",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Personal-lines captive agents have essentially no route up: the liability shield sits with the carrier, the product is commoditized, and no buyer pays extra for a human to sell them a $1,400 auto policy. The levers above mostly describe commercial/benefits producers, who are a different job wearing the same SOC code."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 386320,
        "wage": 49710
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 393830,
        "wage": 50600
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 410050,
        "wage": 50940
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 409950,
        "wage": 52180
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 422600,
        "wage": 49840
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 445540,
        "wage": 57860
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 457510,
        "wage": 59080
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 469480,
        "wage": 60370
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 479100,
        "wage": 62280
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 24,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "real-estate-brokers",
      "title": "Real Estate Brokers",
      "verdict": "EXPOSED",
      "risk_resistance": 62,
      "median_wage": 73220,
      "overlap": 66,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Quality Control Analysis",
        "Management of Financial Resources",
        "Management of Material Resources",
        "Active Learning"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}