Abstract

The author, who has chosen to remain anonymous, describes the installation of an insurance agent specialized in estate planning. We see how the insurance company recruited and trained agents, and how it made them loyal despite difficulties and disappointments. Although their personal finances were often in an unsatisfactory state five years after installation, nearly a third of these recruits stayed on. Their commitment is hard to explain in terms of pure economic rationality. Other explanations are needed to understand why they pursued a career that turned out to be much less attractive than what they had expected.