A difference between financial rep and insurance salesman

This is in my own words and is not taken from a dictionary, but base on my experience as a Primerica representative.

A financial representative is someone who takes a look at the client's finances and gathers information for a financial analysis. He/she would look at what areas the client can spend less on so that the client can achieve realistic goals. For example, if a client was spending $1000/year on life insurance and the financial representative can offer life insurance that costs $500/year for the same coverage, that would save the client $500/year or $42/month. If the client was spending $2000/month on debt payments and the financial representative can offer a debt program that would cost $1800/month, that would save the client $200/month. That's an extra $242/month savings. The financial representative would then figure out how the client can use the $242 savings effectively. A portion would be applied toward the debt payment and the rest would be invested in one or more saving vehicles (IRAs, college plans, money markets, etc.) This is what a Primerica representative does for clients. The goal of a financial representative is to help the client increase the net worth over time. A majority of my clients don't spend a penny more after I sit down with them. If they are already spending whatever amount they spend a month, my goal is not to have them spend a penny more. Of course, there are some situations where clients do need to save more money and the client would need to cut spending on certain areas (such as entertainment or cable or magazines subscriptions) in order to reach whatever goals they have.

An insurance salesman is someone who tries to figure out what is the client's income and from there, figure out what the client can afford. The primary purpose of the salesman is to sell the product, even if it's not suitable for that client to buy it. Its even worse when the salesman doesn't even own that product him or herself. Why is that majority of life insurance people that sell whole life or universal life or variable life don't own these products themselves, but own term insurance or no life insurance at all? I tell you why. They know that those products are crappy to own and that term insurance is the best life insurance product out there.

Insurance salesman really don't have the same passion as a financial representative. Insurance people are more focus about the commissions. Financial representatives are more focus on helping the client achieve his or her financial goals.