How this works
This page is the detail behind every other page on this site. It is the same for everyone, whatever you do for a living — so it lives in one place rather than being repeated four times.
These are from the company's most recent published income disclosure. They're worth reading before you decide anything.
From the most recent published income disclosure
These figures describe agents who earned something. Everyone who earned nothing is excluded from them. We will send you the full document before you decide anything, and we'd encourage you to read all of it.
Because that number isn't random, and it isn't bad luck. There’s a specific, boring reason for it, and the reason isn’t the products or the company.
We don't know why each of those people earned what they did — the disclosure reports what people were paid, not why. Here is what we have watched happen, and it is an observation rather than a finding. Almost everyone who signs up has no clients. They sign on at a Saturday event, they get licensed, and then they're told to write down every person they know. They call their sister, their neighbor, two people from church — and in about three weeks they run out of names and quietly stop.
That's the 44%. It isn't a story about how much people earn. It's a story about where people start.
You get licensed as an insurance producer in your state. You keep your tax practice exactly as it is — this is something you add, not something you switch to. When a client's situation calls for protection or a retirement vehicle, you're able to handle it instead of referring it out and never hearing about it again.
You're an independent contractor. You carry your own license. You're paid on what you write, not a salary, and nobody hands you customers.
You're not adding a product. You're getting permission to act on what you already know.
Most people assume this is one product and one awkward conversation. The shelf behind it runs from term and permanent life through living benefits, long-term care and disability, annuities, IRAs and 401(k) rollovers, college savings, supplemental health and debt solutions.
Two of those are worth naming to you specifically. Tax resolution work — clients with an IRS problem you currently watch walk down the road to somebody else. And debt solutions — you already see who is carrying balances and interest they can't get out from under, because it's on the return in front of you. Neither of those is a cold conversation. They're the same client, the same problem and the same afternoon.
As we understand it — and you should confirm it with your own advisor — no federal rule and no rule in California or Nevada stops a tax preparer from holding a life license or from serving their own clients, and Circular 230 contains no commission ban. There are real disclosure rules about using tax return information — we'll walk you through them, and the timing of those rules is the reason we're having this conversation now rather than in the middle of your season.
Two things. That's the whole list.
| What | How much | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Platform access | $199 | The company, once |
| Your state license Coursework, exam, fingerprinting |
~$185–600 | The state, not us |
That is everything to get started. No starter kit, no monthly software subscription, no lead package to buy.
Once you're licensed there are ongoing costs. Every licensed professional has them, and they're small next to what you already pay to stay in your own field — but you should see them before you start, not after.
| What | How much | How often |
|---|---|---|
| E&O insurance Errors & omissions cover |
~$255–450 | Yearly |
| State licence renewal California $188 · Nevada $185, plus a $5.60 filing fee |
~$194 | CA every 2 yrs NV every 3 yrs |
| Continuing education CA 24 hours · NV 30 hours, online |
~$40–100 | Each renewal |
Roughly $375–850 a year in California and $360–780 a year in Nevada, once you're running. Most of that is the E&O.
One thing worth knowing about E&O: neither California nor Nevada requires it by law to hold a life licence. Almost every carrier requires it before they'll appoint you, so in practice you will carry it — but anyone who tells you the state demands it is wrong. Selling annuities adds roughly $60–85 a year to the premium; variable products add more.
Nobody will pressure you toward a decision on a first conversation. If you've read this page, asked your questions and you already know you want to start, you can do that on the call rather than waiting a week — and you'd be walked through exactly what it involves first. If you'd rather think about it, you think about it. Both are normal answers and neither one is the wrong one.
There isn’t one type of person who does well here. The ones who do have something in common, but it isn’t a job title.
What they share isn’t a profession. It’s a group of people who would take their call.
We can't tell you what you'll earn. We can tell you that you won't do this by yourself.
It's a fair question and you should ask it of anyone who calls you. Here's the honest answer: you get paid on the insurance you write. Like most agencies, there's a structure where people who build a team also earn on that team's production — and we'll explain exactly how that works if you ask. But nobody earns anything from building a team alone, and nobody at Helping Hands is paid any part of the $199.
The licensing itself is a few weeks of study and one exam. After that it's genuinely up to you — some people write a handful of cases a year for clients who obviously needed it, and some build something much bigger. Both are normal.
Then you stop. You keep your license, which is yours and not ours, and you're out the $199 and the licensing cost. There's no contract locking you in and no penalty for leaving.
A small, family-run practice based in San Diego County. We work with independent offices — tax practices, broker shops, small firms — rather than with the public. Our role is helping people get licensed and get started; the licensed work itself is carried out by licensed agents.
Twenty minutes, no pressure, and you'll come away knowing whether it fits the work you already do.
Book a 20-minute call