- Thread starter
- #21
KandKsmommy
Super Genius
- 103
Oh yes I was forced to sign the sales contract. I now have my own agency since May. I did get a lawyer and he is going to review my contract and the situation to see what legal grounds we have.
UHC and all my other carriers did allow the book transfer with the purchase agreement.
She knew I couldn't afford a lawyer to review the contract (my son was in a really bad dirt bike accident July 2023 and with his TBI I was financially supporting him at the time). My mom was also going through cancer treatments at the time and my best friends mother had just died suddenly so I was beyond distracted.
It was basically sign or I was unemployed and my clients had no where to go. She knew my clients mean the world to me. I left my last job and took an almost $17,000 pay cut so I could continue to help them because the hospital I worked for now longer wanted to offer SHIP or patient assistance since it didn't bring in any money.
Turns out she has also not fully disclosed compensation she was getting paid for me. Certain carriers didn't allow me access to commission statements so I had to trust that she was reporting the commission correctly. So far I have found $46 a month she had been collecting for Delta Dental and not reporting to me, $20.17 for a UHC supp that for some reason wasn't transferred when she made the switch to an LLC back in 2022. I had access to the commission till the end of 2022 but then I couldn't login any longer and assumed the commission had stopped, nope she just stopped telling me about it (she knew it belonged to me because she had no business with UHC and wasn't even contracted with them). This seems like small amounts which it is but it has me questioning how much other compensation did she not disclose.
She threatened to withhold more compensation which is what ultimately led to me investigating. Turns out she also didn't pay me my last pay and instead used my earned time and cashed out the remainder. My brother in-law had committed suicide the weekend I got that pay and I never thought to check my stub till I started calculating what she had paid me in base verses what she forced me to buy it for.
I was not provided any leads, I paid 95% of my own marketing expenses, bought office equipment, paid half on some of the utilities like our VOIP phones because we only needed to change to it because of call recording. She didn't sell MAPD or PDP so it wasn't something she needed. I spent thousands of my own money supporting my business because it was supposed to be my business.
I initially justified having to buy it because she gave me a base pay but that was until I started looking at what she actually paid me. I do have time sheets documenting some of overtime I was never compensated for (also part of the verbal agreement because I wasn't asking for overtime pay since I was building what I thought was a book that would be signed over).
I meet with a lawyer on the 21st to go over everything but based on what I have explained to him he feels I may have a strong case against her. So until my appointment I am going to keep gathering evidence. The state labor board also may end up getting involved because of the missing compensation since I wasn't paid all of the hours I worked, was never paid overtime and was not paid the states minimum salary to exempt me from overtime. If I am going to be forced to pay her for my books she will be forced to compensate me for all of the hours I worked (which may end up being more than what she valued my book at based on Maine allowing for 3x the wages for unpaid hours and fines).
I made this post as a cautionary tale for other newbies. I also carried it over into my agency. I am going to have a legal document drawn up so that my employees know that I won't do this to them. I am also not allowing them to pay for any supplies or put any money into the business. I give a very generous base pay for our area $20/hr and once licensed they will get commission splits. I plan to do a 50/50 on any clients they bring in.
I pay for STD, LTD, ADD, and Life for them, offer a simple IRA with a 3% match. I am paying their portion of our states new FMLA withholding. I pay all continuing ed and licensing fees. I do quarterly employee bonuses. I take them on employee work trips (they are coming with me this year to Vegas for Medicarians and we are staying a few extra days for a mini team building vaca). I also offer every federal holiday paid but if they choose to work it like veterans day they get those hours for vacation time. I give unlimited sick time, offer flexible schedules, allow them to bring their kiddos if something comes up like daycare/school being closed, and allow them to work from home when needed. They get two full weeks of vacation which will grow based on the number of years they remain with me. I am also planning on an incentive cruise based on sales goals this year for them and their entire family in 2026. My employees know I have their back
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will screw you if it means their money will be impacted 
