Good company but poorly structured - Agent/Owner Shelter Insurance Employee Review

3.0
Jan 11, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Being a Shelter agent was a great experience from the actual Agency/Owner aspect. You are able to keep a good work/life balance if you can keep up with your workload. If you have a good District sales coordinator (which I did) they will help you with any problems, questions, or concerns you have. You can work anytime you would like even outside your normal office hours so your performance and pay is truely based off of how much work you’re willing to put in but earning potential is unlimited. You are given a monthly base pay which includes the commission you make off of sales which helps in keeping a solid financial cushion. You are able to hit bonuses and earn extra money several times throughout the year. The company will typically split any advertising with you 50/50 down the middle. Your counterparts and managers are nice and eager to help for the most part. They are focused a lot on their agents and are always asking for feedback.

Cons

Shelter is very behind on the times when it comes to their actual quoting system/software making it difficult and frustrating to use. Most of the time you feel like you are utilizing a quoting system from the early 2000’s. Their billing system is a joke. Underwriters are next to impossible to get ahold of usually getting back with you on a question you have 1-2 days later at the earliest after reaching out to them. Underwriter turnover rate is high and new ones come and go making it confusing to even know which underwriter you should be dealing with. Their cancellation policy on insurance products will lose you a lot of business , if a customers policy cancels to reinstate they have to pay what they owe then also pay another month down even if missing payment by one day in order to keep policy active. The bonuses are attractive but the structure is a mess. I was told that by my 1st full year in office I would be able to write commercial policies through shelter in the state of Ohio which was a lie, I had to write commercial policies through a 3rd party my entire time at Shelter making the quoting process longer and frustrating. Shelters agent turnover rate is high with some agents only making it a couple months making it hard to network with other agents in your district. They are always pushing life insurance constantly and 80% of your bonuses depend on life insurance sales. I felt like I had more success getting drivers with poor driving/credit history than individuals with good driving/credit history due to Shelters high and non competitive rates. Shelter is not competitive at all with other companies in the market especially the big mutual companies like State Farm, Allstate, etc making sales hard to come by which in return makes you work harder. People are very unfamiliar with Shelter as their advertising and ads are next to non existent. Their life insurance application process can be a nightmare for customers and yourself as an agent.

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Shelter Insurance Response
2y
We read all of our reviews and take the comments and feedback for improvement seriously. We work hard for our customers and provide top notch service that they deserve. Our agents play an important role in this process and we strive to provide support, guidance, and encouragement for all of them. Thank you for sharing your feedback with us.

Explore other reviews about Shelter Insurance

5.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company tends to always do the right thing for the consumer and its employees. Tends to rank high in customer satisfaction studies

Cons

Have to sell on value instead of pricing because it will never be the cheapest.

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Shelter Insurance Response
19h
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We're glad to hear you value our commitment to doing the right thing for both our customers and employees, as well as our strong customer satisfaction ratings. We appreciate you taking the time to recognize these strengths and share your perspective.
2.0
Apr 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing team members, some of the kindest, smartest and most resourceful people I've ever met. There are people at this company that have worked here for decades, the amount of company/business knowledge you can pull from this is absolutely beautiful/inspiring.

Cons

I’ve always disliked when companies describe themselves as “like a family,” but for a long time that actually felt accurate here until about a year ago. Since then, the culture has noticeably deteriorated. The environment has become increasingly corporate, cold, and transactional. Employees, including long-tenured staff, are treated as interchangeable resources rather than experienced contributors. There is an unspoken expectation of consistently working beyond 40 hours, with weekend availability treated as normal rather than exceptional. The return-to-office mandate was handled in a rigid and dismissive way. Employees who were barely outside commuting thresholds were given no flexibility or meaningful consideration. At the same time, there appeared to be a growing cultural preference against remote workers, despite clear evidence that remote employees were still delivering strong results. In contrast, relocating to the office was quietly rewarded with promotions, raising legitimate concerns about fairness and consistency in advancement. Work is frequently assigned without regard for existing workload or operational reality. Teams are overloaded with competing priorities, leading to confusion, duplicated effort, and avoidable system instability. New tools and processes are often introduced before older ones are fully stabilized, resulting in constant disruption rather than improvement. Overall, the company has shifted from a collaborative and people-focused culture to one that feels reactive, poorly coordinated, and increasingly indifferent to employee experience.

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Shelter Insurance Response
2mo
Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful and candid reflection on your five years with us. We’re glad you found a strong community here, but it’s disheartening to hear that our culture has recently felt cold and transactional. Your feedback on workload, the return-to-office transition, and the need for better work-life balance is invaluable. We are committed to ensuring our long-tenured experts feel valued as people, not just resources. If you have any concerns, or would like to discuss further, please don't hesitate to contact our People Resources Team.
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