Changing mindsets: Millennials as successful insurance financial advisors

The face of the economy is rapidly changing and at its core are millennials who are raising the standards for their careers, seeking greater purpose and incentives that are beyond the nine to five grind.

Ysabel Victoria Benitez is one such millennial. She stepped on the gas right from her first day of work. She drove towards her dreams, only to find herself burned out at 23. Now at 27, she is living her life goals. Joining the world’s top financial advisors at the Million Dollar Round Table, she shares in the new path of success millennials enjoy, paved by Insular Life.

Millennial challenge

Ysa had high hopes when she joined the corporate world. From a young age, her dreams were crystal clear. “I want a three-bedroom house with a two-car garage in Pasig or Quezon City. I want to travel once or twice a year. I want to get married at age 30,” she said. But after less than five years of working long hours, she found herself face-fallen and dreading the future.

“When I look at my dream board, when I look at the things I want to achieve and the salary I’m getting every single cut off, I knew, that it would take me years and years and years to actualize them,” she said. Eventually, her restlessness grew and compelled her to explore other career options. Luckily, she didn’t have to look far; her mom, Elvie Benitez, provided her a life’s worth of reasons why an insurance career is the best choice.

The deliberate choice

“My mother is a single mom. Life insurance has been her bread and butter. Imagine all three of us siblings went to private schools and no one was left wanting. On Sundays, we even eat out in nice restaurants. The life insurance business is very generous to its agents.”

Her respect from her mom’s career had taken root right then, for she experienced first-hand the honesty, sincerity, and real impact of the insurance business on the lives of its partners. Today, she experiences Insular Life’s generosity, herself.

In less than three years, she has earned her qualification to the Million Dollar Round Table, an elite organization comprised of the top five percent of the world’s financial advisors. Joining other top-performing financial advisors, she took part in the annual conventions hosted in Toronto and New Orleans.

But for Ysa, nothing beats the fulfilment that her new career brings. “A child will be going to college, a couple will get to retire comfortably, there’s that fulfilment that you can rest your head at the end of the day and feel that your clients achieved their goals. They were able to plan for the quality of life that they wanted, and I played a part in making that happen.”

Taking the reins of the future

This millennial financial advisor now leads a team of 25- to 39-year-olds in building a career in insurance. She is urging them to start their own dream boards and explore the vast opportunities in the business.

Ysa holds big hopes for her team, seeing in them her own drive for success. “We’re a very passionate generation. There are a lot of things that we really want to do and I think these are big-ticket items. With big ticket dreams, you need a career that can support them.”

With Ysa’s coaching, her team of millennials applies financial planning and are making their personal finances a model for their clients. They continue to hone their know-how with conventions and trainings offered for free to Insular Life advisors, adding to the success stories their team are composing at Insular Life.

One advisor managed to completely wipe out her family’s debt. All of them are leaving behind old habits of “one day millionaire spending” in favor of building real, tangible wealth. Most of their team members are themselves Insular Life policyholders, baring their trust in the products and the company that they now share with their clients. Just recently, their team has committed to make the journey to 10,000 — an effort to reach 10,000 millennial clients in three years’ time.

Exhilarated by this new mission, Ysa and her team continue to set more goals: “We’re seeing a lot of houses and cars in our dream boards, and very common also is to slow down at age 50. We’ve set our retirement funds already. We’re looking at a lot of traveling too.”

Personally, she has had fruitful three years in the insurance business. “I haven’t been able to cross off the house yet because we’re actually building my mom’s dream retirement house. I owe that to her. For the longest time, she’s sacrificed so much for us, and it brings me so much happiness to be able to do that for her.” Her dream reveals the other face of millennials—a group that is caring, generous, and purpose-driven.

Ysa Benitez brims with happiness as she tells their stories. She has lived the promise of Magandang Araw. Today she and her team are on a mission to bring others to their Magandang Bukas.