The challenges facing a broker new to the benefits industry, especially voluntary benefits, can be daunting. Finding the right product mix for a client, knowing which carriers have those products, understanding which carriers have the back office that can handle the business, and navigating specific carrier mine fields are all important for a broker with 10 years experience, as well as the insurance neophyte.

Discovering this information on top of what sometimes can be the most difficult task, finding clients, is difficult for any one broker to do alone. Having someone to help navigate through these issues can make or break a broker's career in the industry. The landscape is littered with the carcasses of failed agents who never had the benefit of that guidance.

There are carriers out there who prefer to have captive agents. They can help train the prospective agent and send them out in the world, peddling their products and providing some administrative help. Companies have had a tremendous amount of success this way and have fed the industry a large number of brokers, many of whom get their start in such an organization and then branch out to their own level of independence. Often, these brokers are at an early stage in their development, as they have learned the company way of doing things, and have yet to develop a fully independent broker's mentality or knowledge base. Finding an MGA they can trust, and that knows the business, frequently provides these new independents a means of succeeding in the independent world.