Earning 1.5 million in half a year, big shots from investment banks and funds switch to selling insurance — is the financial circle quietly shifting?

When the elites in an industry start to change careers in batches, it is a signal in itself.

Since the beginning of this year, more and more financial practitioners around Sister Ba have left their once glamorous "battlefields". However, they are not switching to another institution to continue the intense competition, nor are they taking the civil service exam to secure a stable job. Instead, they are flocking to an industry that was previously considered to have "low entry barriers" and a "low - profile" image - insurance.

They don't admit that they are at the end of their ropes. But when project shortages, salary cuts, job transfers, and locked - in job ranks become the norm, "leaving" becomes a decent retreat.

Sister Ba had a chat with several of them about the embarrassment when leaving, the awkwardness after changing careers, the criticism from those around them, and how a person should "price" themselves after the halo of the platform fades.

"After working in investment banking for several years, I've never experienced this feeling before after changing careers."

34 years old, a 985 university finance master, middle - level investment banker

Sister Lin

Sister Lin's workstation was originally on the upper floor of a Grade A office building in Lujiazui. Through the floor - to - ceiling windows, one could catch a glimpse of a corner of the Huangpu River. On the day she was laid off at the beginning of the year, the HR only gave her half an hour.

At 34, a 985 university finance master, with a background in investment banking and having led the largest merger and acquisition deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars for an enterprise, all these labels became just a few "weightless" lines on her resume the moment she walked out of the company.

In the first two weeks after leaving the investment bank, she still got up at 7:30 every morning to put on makeup and then sat in the living room in a daze. After being in a daze for more than half a month, the pressure of the mortgage came crashing down. Although her savings plus the severance pay could last for a year or two, what about after that?

Becoming an insurance agent was not a well - thought - out decision for her. As she put it, "It's like a drowning person grabbing the nearest floating object at hand." A former colleague who went to work as a manager in a foreign - funded insurance company invited her to "give it a try", and she went.

During the one - month training, she was among a group of new employees aged from 22 to 45, listening to the lecturer on the stage "spit and fly" about the differences between critical illness insurance and annuities. At the same table was a full - time mother who had just given birth to her second child, and across from her sat a small business owner who had closed his milk tea shop. Sister Lin lowered her head to take notes in a notebook issued during her investment banking days.

Sister Lin said that the most difficult part was not learning about the products, nor the daily morning "motivation meetings", but the moment she picked up the phone. "In the past, when working on projects, the corporate CFO would chase after me to ask about the progress of the plan, and I would reply to messages at my own convenience. Now? I have to actively make appointments with people. I might send three WeChat messages, and the other person might only reply to one. Out of three appointment requests, I might be stood up twice."

When Sister Lin was telling Sister Ba about these things, her tone was quite calm. "The most uncomfortable time was when I went to see a former client. In the past, he invited me to a Western - style restaurant in Guomao. Now, I waited downstairs at his company for forty minutes. Finally, we had a chat at Starbucks. He bought two cups of coffee, and I forced myself to talk about a family insurance plan for twenty minutes. He was very polite and said he would go back and discuss it with his wife. But I knew in my heart that it was a polite rejection."

But Sister Lin has something that many career - changers don't have - she really understands assets. After working in investment banking for several years, she can talk eloquently about family asset allocation, tax planning, cross - border inheritance, etc., which is several levels higher than ordinary insurance agents.

The turning point came from an old client.

The client was the boss of a company planning to go public. He had "two children" (one from his ex - wife and one from his current wife), and the property relationships among them were very complicated. The client had been worried about this for several years. He had consulted private banks, but they couldn't really solve his problems. Sister Lin spent two weeks thoroughly researching the client's family relationships, the company's equity structure, and potential legal risks, and came up with a more than sixty - page plan covering insurance trust, voluntary guardianship, and cross - border asset isolation, etc.

She said that when doing this, she felt as if she was still working in investment banking.

In the past six months, Sister Lin's total commission was about 1.5 million. When she mentioned it to Sister Ba, she said, "You think the income is not bad, right? But in the good years before, I could get this amount from a single project. But now, this 1.5 million is the result of running around for more than a hundred days, meeting more than two hundred people, and being rejected dozens of times." She paused, "Also, every penny I earn is willingly paid by others after they recognize my abilities. There is no platform commission, and no leader to give a score. I've never experienced this feeling in investment banking."

Leaving the fund industry, "The biggest gap is the disappearance of career certainty."

36 years old, graduated from a famous overseas university with a bachelor's and master's degree, middle - level public fund employee

Brother Zhang

Brother Zhang's resume is a "template" in the public fund industry: a graduate of a famous university with a bachelor's and master's degree, he joined a leading fund company right after graduation. He worked as a researcher and then an assistant fund manager, and later jumped to a medium - sized public fund company to be a middle - level equity employee, managing a fund worth billions at its peak.

But in the past two years, the public fund industry has been in a difficult situation. Management fees have been continuously reduced, the scale of active equity funds has shrunk, and the company has started to cut back on research and investment. The number of people in Brother Zhang's department has decreased from 10 to 4. Although he kept his position, his job rank was locked, and there was no way to move up.

"In the past, after the year - end assessment, promotions, salary increases, and year - end bonuses were based on performance, and everyone had a clear idea. Last year, the leader told me, 'It's not easy for everyone this year, let's just leave it like this' - no promotion, no salary increase, and the year - end bonus was severely cut."

Brother Zhang said to Sister Ba, "Do you know that feeling? It's like you're rowing a boat desperately, and the captain comes over and pats you on the shoulder and says, 'You've worked hard', but he doesn't know where the boat is going."

He chose to leave voluntarily. On the day of his departure, he posted a photo of his work ID on his WeChat Moments with the words "See you in the arena". There were a lot of comments asking "Which company are you going to?", but he didn't reply to any of them.

Because the answer would be a bit "embarrassing" - to sell insurance.

The gap between managing billions of funds and promoting critical illness insurance and life insurance is not only in terms of income but also in psychology. Brother Zhang said, "The disappearance of career certainty made me depressed for a long time."

"In the past, I would just lean back in my chair, with the Bloomberg terminal open and the sell - side research reports coming in. I only needed to decide what to buy and when to buy. Customers? That was the job of the front - end, and it had nothing to do with me. Now, I have to find customers on my own."

At first, he still followed the "professional" approach. He pulled out his WeChat contact list, labeled them according to occupation, age, and potential needs, and even made a "conversion rate scoring table". Later, he found it was useless. He even laughed at himself, "The calculation results told me that customers in category A had the highest conversion rate. But in reality, I sent thirty WeChat messages, only five replied, two were willing to meet, and the final number of deals - zero."

He gradually realized that selling insurance and making investments are two completely different logics. In investment, the performance curve shows clearly whether it's rising or falling, and the data speaks for itself. But when selling insurance, people are not buying the product but you as a person. Whether you are trustworthy, reliable, and whether you can stay in this industry for a long time - and these have nothing to do with the "Sharpe ratio".

It took Brother Zhang almost half a year to change his mindset and start learning to "bend down". And Sister Ba heard him mention the word "bend down" several times. "In the past, I was the client in the fund company. When I went on roadshows, the channel staff would arrange everything perfectly. Now? When I send a plan to a customer, they don't even lift their eyelids and just say, 'Leave it there'. I leave it and then stand there, not knowing whether I should sit down."

Now his monthly income is about twenty to thirty thousand, which is a far cry from before. But he gradually realized that the investment skills he had accumulated in the past are actually very useful in the insurance industry. Many high - net - worth customers are not interested in pure protection - type products, but they really have a demand for asset allocation, tax planning, and wealth inheritance - and most insurance agents can't explain these things clearly. Brother Zhang can explain them, and he can explain them more deeply than his peers.

"I now call myself the 'family CFO', not an insurance seller." He grinned when he said this. "It may sound like I'm boasting, but that's the truth. When customers show you their family's balance sheet, this trust is no less important than when I managed special accounts in the past."

"Leaving the Shanghai financial circle, I've put my traditional Chinese medicine knowledge to use again."

37 years old, a 211 university master, general manager of a financial company

Chengcheng

Chengcheng's resume seems very diverse to others. She studied traditional Chinese medicine at a traditional Chinese medicine university for 7 years, obtaining a bachelor's degree in acupuncture and massage and a master's degree in clinical medicine. After graduation, she interned at a top - tier hospital and obtained the qualifications of a licensed physician and an attending physician. However, she didn't stay in the public - sector system. Instead, she joined a giant pharmaceutical company and then stepped into the Shanghai financial circle, working her way up from a key account manager to the general manager of the Beijing branch.

But in the past two years, she clearly felt that the situation had changed. The strategies that worked well in the growth era have become a burden in the era of a stagnant market. She told Sister Ba, "In the past, during the year - end meetings, after presenting the performance, everyone knew clearly how the budget for the next year would be allocated. But last year, the headquarters leader just said, 'Let's stabilize first', but he didn't even know how long this 'stabilization' would last." At the age of 37, she made a decision - to leave Beijing, return to Shanghai, and find a new path.

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Chengcheng has always wanted to combine "medical care" and "finance". Following this idea, she naturally turned to insurance. The gap between managing a branch company and signing insurance policies one by one is not only in terms of income. But Chengcheng is different. She really enjoys the moment of signing a policy.

She told Sister Ba, "In the past, when studying medicine, the teacher always talked about 'preventive treatment of disease'. Now I finally understand that selling insurance is actually the same principle."

Her years of experience spanning the medical and financial fields have become an advantage that others can't copy. When customers are worried about health problems, she can explain from theory to practice and give some conditioning suggestions on the spot. When talking about asset allocation, she can explain clearly the ins and outs of marriage risk isolation and wealth inheritance. These are things that ordinary agents can't do.

Now Chengcheng is a partner in a family office of a joint - venture insurance company. Although her monthly income has not returned to the previous level, she has found peace of mind. "I now position myself more as a long - term health and wealth advisor for a family," she said. "Although the amount of each policy is not that large now, the important thing is that all the paths I've taken over the years, which seemed unrelated at first, suddenly fit together."

Conclusion: After the halo fades, the posture changes, and the certainty is lost, what's left for financial elites after leaving the platform?

After chatting with these three people, Sister Ba's biggest feeling is not some grand theory about industry rise and fall, but a very specific question:

When you have to leave the platform you've been on for many years, what do you have left?

A few years ago, no one asked this question. When the industry was booming, everyone was moving forward, with projects coming one after another and year - end bonuses pouring in. At that time, no one thought about whether these "external things" were earned by themselves or given by the platform. It was only when the salary cut notice came, the department was suddenly laid off, and the job rank was locked that some people began to think about this.

What Sister Lin has in her hands is the real skills she has accumulated after years of working in investment banking - how to allocate family assets, how to plan taxes, and how to transfer cross - border funds. She can talk about these things off the top of her head, which ordinary insurance brokers can't match.

What Brother Zhang is good at is the feeling he has developed after managing billions of funds. He has experienced market fluctuations, and when talking to wealthy people about money, they can tell at a glance that he knows his stuff.

What Chengcheng can offer is also very special - seven years of medical study, combined with experience in both the pharmaceutical and financial industries. She can explain clearly both the health problems that customers are worried about and the asset problems. These two things combined are something that others can't copy.

So the reason they changed careers to sell insurance is not because this industry is so good, but because this industry has a characteristic:

It's easy to enter, but it's very difficult to do well. How much ability you have will ultimately be reflected in the number of policies. Unlike in the past in large institutions, sometimes you yourself can't even tell how much work you've done, and whether your year - end performance is good or bad depends partly on the leader's mood.

At the end of the chat, the