Insurance sales company hiring 240 agents in Tampa

Tranzact, a direct-to-consumer health insurance sales firm, is nearly doubling the size of its Tampa office.

Steve Stout, director of the Tampa office for Tranzact

The company plans to hire 240 insurance sales agents by September, said Steve Stout, sales director for the Tampa region.

The new agents — along with the 250 or so agents currently at the Tampa sales center — sell Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement plans and life insurance products. The company works with major carriers and leaders in the Medicare space, Stout said.

The rapid growth in the number of people age 65 and over is driving sales increases. Tranzact has grown 30 percent to 40 percent year-over-year for the past four or five years, he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has not slowed sales, according to John Haley, CEO of Willis Towers Watson (Nasdaq: WLTW), which acquired Tranzact for $1.2 billion last year.

“We have not seen a decline in senior buying as a result of this. I think there’s some impact that make some seniors a little less reluctant to buy. But on the other hand, we see more people at home with time to look at these opportunities also. So we don’t foresee that as being a major issue,” Haley said during an April 30 conference call with analysts.

Tranzact, based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, opened its Tampa office, at 4902 W. Waters Ave. about 10 years ago. Stout, who started as an entry-level customer service representative at a predecessor company in northeast Ohio, moved up the ranks at Tranzact and relocated to Tampa in 2019, when the director’s job became available.

The Tampa office has both English and Spanish-language campaigns. There’s a diverse workforce in the area that allows the company to draw from a strong pool of candidates, Stout said.

Insurance experience is not required. The company will pay for training and education if an otherwise qualified candidate does not have an insurance license.

“We are looking for people who are willing to have conversations and care about helping people purchase and wade through all of the insurance options that are out there,” Stout said. “The most successful agents have that ‘X’ factor. They are able to dive into and care about a conversation and the person on the other end of the phone, and really make a connection with them.”

Agents get a base salary of $16 an hour with a $2 an hour increase after six months, and performance-based bonuses with unlimited potential. Top agents earn six-figures, and it’s not rare to see a top performance make $150,000 a year, Stout. Said. The average agent makes about $45,000 to $55,000 a year, much of that from bonuses.

All of Tranzact’s sales center employees have been working from home since March, and the company currently is doing phone and video interviews for job candidates. It also has digital open houses once a week through WebEx, led by a human resources associate.

The new jobs are full-time permanent positions.

Stout hopes to have new agents on board by September, ahead of the fall Medicare annual enrollment period.

“Things definitely get much busier in the fourth quarter through annual enrollment, and in the first quarter through open enrollment, but we are still busy now,” Stout said. “There are people who are just qualifying for Medicare and have to make a decision about their prescription coverage and how they want to pay for their doctors … so we are able to stay busy even in this time of year, and our life insurance programs are stable and busy throughout the year.”

Interested candidates can apply by visiting the career website, tranzact.net/work- with-us/ or by emailing TPA_Recruitment@TzInsurance.com