2025-MAPD & PDP what does your Crystal Ball say?

[bluediamond]

Anyone who is sick of this business isn’t making enough. If Medicare is gone I don’t know where else I can make $300k+ a year.

 

[bluediamond]

Making plenty. So let me know when you hit 76 if you just don't get tired of regs and bs year after year.

 

[Special Agent]

How long did that take you to reach?

Took me 6 years from 2006-2012 but that was when full commissions started at 400 and there was no renewals for the first couple of years.Anybody remember that? On the plus side way back we would the full commission on all sales were not charged back unless member termed before 3 months.

 

[Chazm]

How long did that take you to reach?

I started at 29 and mostly partied and I was no where I am today. I’d like to say that in 2017, at age 37 I decided to buckle down and make money. So, it took about 6-7 years to get it going but I’ve been in the biz 15 years. If I did then, what I do now, it wouldn’t have taken 15 years.

 

[Chazm]

Making plenty. So let me know when you hit 76 if you just don't get tired of regs and bs year after year.

None of these regs worry me. If anything, it’ll keep the new guys, who want to make a quick buck, out.

 

[sshafran]

I started at 29 and mostly partied and I was no where I am today. I’d like to say that in 2017, at age 37 I decided to buckle down and make money. So, it took about 6-7 years to get it going but I’ve been in the biz 15 years. If I did then, what I do now, it wouldn’t have taken 15 years.

We've had a similar path and probably similar pace. Never crazy numbers, but steady.

Sometimes I sit back and think: this is crazy, it actually worked.

 

[newbie2001]

I started at 29 and mostly partied and I was no where I am today. I’d like to say that in 2017, at age 37 I decided to buckle down and make money. So, it took about 6-7 years to get it going but I’ve been in the biz 15 years. If I did then, what I do now, it wouldn’t have taken 15 years.

You seriously over 40? I always thought from your profile pic you were like 35 max. Anyways I appreciate the timeline. I think 6-7 years with the right marketing and retained business I should have 800-1000 clients

 

[sshafran]

Sell door to door pest control . lol . You can make it selling p@c . The key to both Medicare and p@c is the residual income . If you maintain the same work ethic thru 5-10 yrs your residuals are growing yearly even if your first yr comp flat . That said once you get to 1000 mapd it becomes very difficult to grow fast due to 2 reasons . First the service work in mapd much more intense than sups . First there’s many more moving parts with many benefits and copays and deductible questions . What you really need is a loa to be able to answer many of these questions and write some additional business . But to get someone really good that’s going to cost $80 k plus a yr .

We hear all these story’s of 1000’s of agents making big 6 figs in Medicare on face book groups . I don’t believe it . 90% of agents work leads . Only 10-15% of total Medicare written a yr is t-65. That means you’re stealing business from somebody . But there trying to steal from you also . It’s why you see these crazy app #’s of 40-60 a month . But what there not saying is out of that 40 3 -5 the old agent saves or the person gets cold feet . Also since sold on phone there’s no personal connection which means persistency horrid . I maintain about 90-92% mapd persistency over a 12 month period . The only reason why I get face to face connections and I spend a lot of time saving people flipped . People selling over the phone never try to save . The reason I know I’ve rarely had leads I wrote were the app was cancelled . If I sold low income people over the phone I’d be lucky to gave 65% persistency . This business is crap if you can’t build relationships for persistency and referrals

I think I can say with some level of accuracy that my MAPD clients don't really take as much service work as my Med Supp + PDPs.

But I will also say that they take more time when they want to make a change. Gotta do provider lookups. Gotta compare non-standardized plans. Have to remember that Plan XYZ has $2,000 dental but XYZ2.0 has $2,800 dental but no OTC (or whatever - you get the point - there are a lot of moving parts and it's non-standard).

Point being when someone wants mapd it does take more time because if I think the OOP being low matters, but they (stupidly) think free toothpaste via OTC is the only thing that matters, I might lose them in 3 months because of OTC.

I could say oh well they aren't my kind of client since they changed over something dumb, but frankly I like $26/mo and I'd rather be smart enough to get that person in the plan that they'll stick with.

So... It takes more questions, more digging, more comparing...... More time.

Whereas med supp and pdp are more cut and dry as to which carrier to go with... Not saying there is no nuance but much less nuance.

 

[Chazm]

You seriously over 40? I always thought from your profile pic you were like 35 max. Anyways I appreciate the timeline. I think 6-7 years with the right marketing and retained business I should have 800-1000 clients

Well the pic was taken about 8 years ago but I hope to think I don’t look much different. I’m 44 now.
I can only suggest having a reason to make it. For me it was a wife and a child. I focus on T65’s and try to add 150 new clients a year with my educational events,

I hope to have a better retention than someone who picks up people during AEP.

 

[DonP]

I think I can say with some level of accuracy that my MAPD clients don't really take as much service work as my Med Supp + PDPs.

But I will also say that they take more time when they want to make a change. Gotta do provider lookups. Gotta compare non-standardized plans. Have to remember that Plan XYZ has $2,000 dental but XYZ2.0 has $2,800 dental but no OTC (or whatever - you get the point - there are a lot of moving parts and it's non-standard).

Point being when someone wants mapd it does take more time because if I think the OOP being low matters, but they (stupidly) think free toothpaste via OTC is the only thing that matters, I might lose them in 3 months because of OTC.

I could say oh well they aren't my kind of client since they changed over something dumb, but frankly I like $26/mo and I'd rather be smart enough to get that person in the plan that they'll stick with.

So... It takes more questions, more digging, more comparing...... More time.

Whereas med supp and pdp are more cut and dry as to which carrier to go with... Not saying there is no nuance but much less nuance.

You said the key words “ when they want to make a change “ . We’ve had rising mapd benefits the last 5 yrs .Everything’s been calm . Mark my words . All hell breaks loose in 2025 . I’ve been reading every article this earnings season on carriers .CO’s being pinched hard by rapidly rising claims . Cms basically gave no premium increase for 2025 . A perfect storm hitting . Humana which agents have written the most the last 4 yrs has been blindsided by heavy claims . In their earnings report there saying maintaining margins more important than adding members . That’s the key word for there going to slash benefits and increase copays . Means there could be a big division between plans in 2025 . Means agents are going to have to move there humana book . How much do benefits matter to members ? Look no further than Aetna. They crushed all carriers in the benefit dept . They added 500k members during aep more than the next 7 carrier combined . People jumped ship big for more benefits .