Liberty National Ben Hasting Agency Hastings Agency A very slack organization West Columbia South Carolina

I believe I'm entitled to post a review of my personal experiences with The Liberty National branch office located on 440 Knox Abbott in West Columbia. I've been a broker since 2010 and wanted to look into a possible career with a reputable company.

So I looked around for this Company, to find they had no office here in Columbia (First red flag since it's the capital of SC). After having to call several offices around the state and eventually the home office, it took almost 3 weeks just to get a call back. (Second red flag. Who takes almost a month to call back a licensed experienced agent?) Once they called me back, finally, I sit down with the Agency Owner who states "I have no interest in hiring you today". I respect that as a business person who shouldn't move too fast.

That turned into being delayed into another week to attend a "mass recruiting" event which I was told that I'd receive an overview of the business model, pay structure, etc. This meeting turned into an hour long speech about his family, career with LN, short term in bible college before he dropped out, and homes we own in Rome, GA as well as here in Columbia. Needless to say, I'm getting ready to get started considering I've waited an entire month almost to get back started into clients.

After that I'm set up for a third interview (for what Idk) in order to finally be offered contracting paperwork. Now spilling over into October, i'm set up with yet another appointment to download my laptop with quoting software. Not to mention I'm being trained by a secretary that has no insurance experience, no product knowledge, and haven't even set up one agent at all. I was used for her training practices. On several occasions, I had to help her help me since only thing she had that I didn't was phone numbers of other people to call.

Then to get started, I'm given a list of 300+ business owners to call with a one page script and no training try to set appointments with them. After a few days of foolish pointless calling, I tell the agency owner about the objections in which I'm set up with another appointment in which he only tells me a one-liner in how to overcome any objection. (About 6 weeks wasted and a no training).

In all I wasted about 7-8 weeks of my life even considering that as an opportunity:

RED FLAGS:
1. Secretaries were friends who made recruiting and admin calls from this elaborate office from their cell phones.

2. The admin assistant (a young attractive woman) addressed the owner (a young attractive guy) by his first name on several occasions and opened his office door while in meetings with me a few times.
*I've seen that situations a few too many times to know any better.

3. Me as an new agent with this organization was paired with an excited agent to find out she wasn't even licensed at the time (REALLY)

4. It's obvious this man's paycheck is salary versus commission because he's so lax it ridiculous.

*My purpose is just to give a non-biased preview of my experience with this particular agency.

Torchmark seems to be the same ole motto. "Through all the crap up against the wall and see what sticks"