Independent agencies are getting bigger while there are fewer of them. The Big I 2026 Agency Universe Study, with 1,376 respondents, counts 37,000 independent insurance agencies, down from 39,000 in 2024, and average staffing of 9.9 people across all positions, up from 8.2 two years earlier, with roughly one agency in three reporting an increase (Insurance Journal, 24 September 2026).
That is consolidation, not a hiring boom, and the people the extra headcount is meant to support are not multiplying. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 572,600 insurance sales agents in 2025 and projects 3% growth to 2035, about 43,100 openings a year once retirements and other attrition are counted in, at a median wage of $62,280 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: insurance sales agents). The administrative layer underneath them is going the other way: secretaries and administrative assistants are projected to decline 2% over the same decade, a fall of 75,300 positions, at a median of $48,310 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: secretaries and administrative assistants).
So a growing book lands on a producer whose support bench is harder to staff every year. The usual answer is to rent hours from a virtual assistant agency. The less obvious answer, and the better one once the work repeats every renewal cycle, is to employ your own person abroad. The constraint that decides how far either can go is not cost or time zones. It is the producer license, and it bites on the first task you delegate.
What the two models actually are
They get sold with the same two words and they are different purchases.
A VA agency rents you hours. You buy a number of hours a week from a pool of assistants employed by the agency. People rotate across the agency's clients, cover each other's absences, and leave without you hearing about it. The relationship is with the agency, and so is the employment.
Your own offshore hire is one named person on your team. You recruit a specific assistant, they work your hours in your agency management system, and they are employed for you in their country through an employer of record (EOR), which is the legal employer on paper while you direct the work.
Agencies win for overflow, seasonal renewal spikes, and work you cannot predict a month out. Your own hire wins once the work is continuous, because in insurance the value compounds in someone who knows your carriers' quoting quirks, which endorsements your underwriters bounce, and what your top twenty accounts renew on.
Which agency roles travel, and which do not
The work that moves cleanly is the work that is already documented and already happening in a system.
Travels well:
- Data entry into the agency management system, and the cleanup nobody gets to
- Quote preparation: gathering the information a producer needs before they advise
- Application intake and document collection from the insured
- Policy checking: comparing the issued policy against what was requested
- Renewal list preparation and reminder sequences
- Claims paperwork and follow-up with adjusters on status
- Certificates of insurance, loss runs, and other repeatable document requests
- Calendar, inbox triage, and CRM hygiene
Does not travel:
- Anything that counts as selling, soliciting, or negotiating insurance (see the next section)
- Recommending coverage, explaining what a policy will or will not pay, or binding anything
- Judgment calls on a claim's merits
- Relationship work where the insured expects a licensed person on the other end
The split is the same one every vertical hits: the parts of a job that are procedure move, and the parts that are licensed judgment stay. An insurance assistant can prepare the quote. A licensed producer has to be the one who advises on it.
The hard limit: what an unlicensed assistant may not do
US insurance producer licensing is state law, and most states enact some version of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Producer Licensing Model Act (#218). The model requires a license of a person who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance in that state, and each of those three words is defined in the act rather than left to intuition.
The exemption that unlicensed support staff rely on is in Section 4.B of the model. It covers an officer, director, or employee of an insurer or of a producer, provided that person receives no commission on policies written or sold to insure risks residing in the state, and that their activities are executive, administrative, managerial, clerical, or a combination of those, and are only indirectly related to the sale, solicitation, or negotiation of insurance.
Read that as three conditions, all of which have to hold:
- No commission, and no compensation that varies with the policies sold.
- The work is administrative or clerical in character.
- Its relationship to the sale is indirect.
An offshore assistant doing data entry, policy checking, and renewal preparation sits comfortably inside that. An assistant who talks an insured through coverage options, or whose pay rises with what the agency writes, does not, and the exposure is the agency's license rather than the assistant's.
Two cautions before you scope the role. The model act is a template: every state enacts its own version, and the wording of the exemption and the limits on what staff may do differ from state to state, so check the statute and the regulator's guidance in each state you write in. And where someone sits does not change the analysis. The question is what the person does and how they are paid, not whether they are in Manila or in your Tampa office.
Contractor or employee?
If the assistant works your hours, in your agency management system, on tasks you assign daily, with you as effectively their only client, that is an employee in substance almost everywhere, whatever the agreement is titled. The label on the contract is not what a labor authority looks at.
That matters more in insurance than in most verticals, because the Section 4.B exemption above is written for an employee of a producer. Scoping someone as an independent contractor to avoid employment obligations while directing them like staff puts you on the wrong side of two separate tests at once. Hiring one person abroad walks through the decision for a first international hire, and converting a contractor to an employee covers the math and the mechanics when you have already started the other way.
A genuinely independent contractor is still a real option: someone with other clients, their own tools, and control over how and when the work is done. Project-based policy-checking backlogs fit that shape. A full-time renewal coordinator does not.
Where agencies hire them
The Philippines is the default for English-language insurance support work, with two decades of business process infrastructure behind it and a large pool of people who have already worked US account-servicing hours. Hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines covers the three ways to do it and what Philippine employment law requires. India, Mexico, and Colombia are the other common choices, the last two mostly for agencies that want same-day overlap with US Eastern and Central hours.
Whichever country, the employer-side arithmetic is the part firms underestimate. Statutory employer contributions run from roughly 10 to 15 percent of gross in the Philippines to 30 to 35 percent in Colombia, and several countries add a mandatory 13th month on top. Our employer costs by country table has the spread, and 13th month pay by country covers which ones owe the extra payment and when.
What it actually costs
Compare the two models on the same basis, which is total annual cost for continuous work, not an hourly rate.
A VA agency quotes an hourly or monthly rate that already contains the assistant's pay, the agency's employment costs, its margin, and its bench. You buy hours and you stop when you stop. There is no onboarding of your own to do and no employment liability, and that convenience is what the margin pays for.
Your own hire costs the salary you negotiate, the statutory employer contributions in that country, and a service fee for the employer of record that holds the employment. You also carry the recruiting and the management. The trade is that every hour goes to your agency, the person accumulates knowledge of your book, and the cost stops scaling with the vendor's margin.
The rule of thumb across this series holds here. Below roughly half-time, and for work that comes in bursts, the agency is usually cheaper once you count your own time. At continuous full-time work in a role where institutional knowledge matters, and account servicing is exactly that, your own hire usually wins inside the first year.
What it costs through Shor
- Genuine contractors: $19/month each, with contracts, W-8BEN collection, and invoicing built in
- Full-time employees (EOR): $299/month per employee in standard markets including the Philippines, India, Mexico, and Colombia, and $449/month in premium markets, on top of that country's statutory employer contributions
- Your own entity: if you already have one, we run payroll on it for less than the EOR fee
The FX margin is a flat disclosed 2%, charged only when money actually converts. Payouts ride local rails and land same-day in India, the Philippines, Nigeria, and 12+ LATAM corridors. Deposits are country-dependent and quoted up front before you sign. The pricing calculator shows every statutory line per country, and the employer cost calculator will estimate a specific hire.
FAQ
Can an offshore virtual assistant quote insurance for my agency?
They can prepare a quote and gather everything a producer needs to produce one. They cannot sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance, which under the NAIC Producer Licensing Model Act requires a state license. The support exemption in Section 4.B of that model applies only where the person takes no commission and the work is administrative or clerical and only indirectly related to the sale. Check your own states' statutes, because each enacts its own version.
Does hiring an assistant abroad put my agency's license at risk?
Only if you let the role cross the licensing line. Location is not what regulators look at; the activity and the compensation are. An assistant doing data entry, policy checking, and renewal preparation on a flat salary is administrative support. One advising insureds on coverage, or paid on what the agency writes, is a licensing problem whether they sit in Manila or in your office.
Is a VA agency or my own offshore hire cheaper?
For bursty, part-time, or unpredictable work, the agency usually wins once you count your own management time. For continuous full-time account servicing, your own hire usually wins inside the first year, because you stop paying a vendor margin and the person accumulates knowledge of your carriers and your book. Compare total annual cost, not hourly rates.
Can I hire the assistant as a contractor instead of an employee?
Only if the relationship is genuinely independent: other clients, their own tools, control over how and when the work gets done. Someone working your hours in your agency management system on tasks you assign daily is an employee in substance in most countries. That matters twice over in insurance, because the Section 4.B licensing exemption is written for an employee of a producer.