Chances this new rule goes through? Estimated effects? Future?

[DonP]

We do not have LOA's. A large chunk of our revenue goes to the Managers / Coaches who train and support their teams in a variety of ways every single day.

I guess there will always be detractors who haven't the faintest clue as to what it takes to run an FMO..

We are contractually obligated to recruit, train, market and supervise, not to mention monitor a little thing called compliance of rour downline. There are real costs associated with all these things. So, at the end of the day., I see a small fraction of the dollars we recieve from Carriers in overrides and other incentives.

If CMS mandates this radical change, we will no longer pay for the weekly trainings, AHIP reimbursements, E & O Reimbursements. All the fairs and trade shows we do ( and pay for) will cease. Marketing and leads we provide will stop and few new Agents will enter this business - because recruiting will be a challenge.

If you thing most Agents will start paying for all these things out of their earnings, I have a bridge in the Sahara to sell you.

I just noticed that many posts on here tend to be negative towards FMO's and my guess is that most of these Agents have never actually owned and FMO, so I was just pointing out that there is another side of the equation.

I get it, not all organizations work the same way we do, but it is unfair to lump all together.

We take these financial risks in hopes of making a profit.

Time will tell how this all shakes out. Thankfully, we have a back up plan.

Soap box over :

I know many mga’s making $150-$175 an app recruiting agents with very little overhead . They work out of their house and do some zoom training . They provide leads to agents but 80% of that comes directly from carriers . You might be different having offices and managers . But what your not saying is you even have 7 k renewal policys on the books that’s near $1 million a yr . Even if the $250 per app override only covers all your expenses that’s $1 mil profit . And I dint believe for one min $100 plus out of the $250 an app isn’t pure profit . You keep mentioning all this marketing you pay for ?Your getting big marketing money from carriers to cover much of all this.Why do you think there’s been a gold rush into Medicare the last 5 yrs ? There’s so much money in it that’s why . The govt has funded this gold rush in mapd and aca

 

[axeman462]

We do not have LOA's. A large chunk of our revenue goes to the Managers / Coaches who train and support their teams in a variety of ways every single day.

I guess there will always be detractors who haven't the faintest clue as to what it takes to run an FMO..

We are contractually obligated to recruit, train, market and supervise, not to mention monitor a little thing called compliance of rour downline. There are real costs associated with all these things. So, at the end of the day., I see a small fraction of the dollars we recieve from Carriers in overrides and other incentives.

If CMS mandates this radical change, we will no longer pay for the weekly trainings, AHIP reimbursements, E & O Reimbursements. All the fairs and trade shows we do ( and pay for) will cease. Marketing and leads we provide will stop and few new Agents will enter this business - because recruiting will be a challenge.

If you thing most Agents will start paying for all these things out of their earnings, I have a bridge in the Sahara to sell you.

I just noticed that many posts on here tend to be negative towards FMO's and my guess is that most of these Agents have never actually owned and FMO, so I was just pointing out that there is another side of the equation.

I get it, not all organizations work the same way we do, but it is unfair to lump all together.

We take these financial risks in hopes of making a profit.

Time will tell how this all shakes out. Thankfully, we have a back up plan.

Soap box over :

You're right, a lot of agents won't pay for compliance, leads etc.. out of their own pocket.
As a result the Medicare bubble may finally pop. The arena is saturated right now with lazy agents.
Bring on the flush, and weed out the weak!

 

[wehotex]

When all the FMOs (I'm under at least 4) started sending emails begging us to help them by signing stuff I put the same effort into it that they put into (a) stopping the requirement to read the disclaimer and (b) stopping the resurrected 48 hr rule.

They should thank me to the same extent that I should thank them.

Those types of uplines are the reason why relatively few agents took the time to advocate against the changes. I like your comment though.

 

[Jim Wright]

You're right, a lot of agents won't pay for compliance, leads etc.. out of their own pocket.
As a result the Medicare bubble may finally pop. The arena is saturated right now with lazy agents.
Bring on the flush, and weed out the weak!

Hopefully, it will push newer agents to learn from veteran agents instead of trying to go it alone just to get 100% of the comp. I work with a lot of brokers who have been doing ACA and Medicare for a long time and they can't find anyone to work for them.

I would love to say that I'm a fountain of knowledge to the brokers that write through us but the fact is, they are all smarter than I am. Training through your FMO can be beneficial but training with a pro who has been out there for years is much more valuable.

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

We do not have LOA's. A large chunk of our revenue goes to the Managers / Coaches who train and support their teams in a variety of ways every single day.

I guess there will always be detractors who haven't the faintest clue as to what it takes to run an FMO..

We are contractually obligated to recruit, train, market and supervise, not to mention monitor a little thing called compliance of rour downline. There are real costs associated with all these things. So, at the end of the day., I see a small fraction of the dollars we recieve from Carriers in overrides and other incentives.

If CMS mandates this radical change, we will no longer pay for the weekly trainings, AHIP reimbursements, E & O Reimbursements. All the fairs and trade shows we do ( and pay for) will cease. Marketing and leads we provide will stop and few new Agents will enter this business - because recruiting will be a challenge.

If you thing most Agents will start paying for all these things out of their earnings, I have a bridge in the Sahara to sell you.

I just noticed that many posts on here tend to be negative towards FMO's and my guess is that most of these Agents have never actually owned and FMO, so I was just pointing out that there is another side of the equation.

I get it, not all organizations work the same way we do, but it is unfair to lump all together.

We take these financial risks in hopes of making a profit.

Time will tell how this all shakes out. Thankfully, we have a back up plan.

Soap box over :

I have no issue with FMO's. I find many to be very good at helping the agents. Maybe they make a little too much. Fine, that argument can be made. I think the main thing I'm really sick of seeing from CMS is a complete lack of common sense and extremes as the "solution" to everything.

They think FMO's make too much. Okay, fair enough. Their solution? Let's just stop paying them entirely. Like, wtf???? They (and the federal government) do this crap CONSTANTLY, which is one reason why a regular small agent is now classified as a "third party marketing organization," and has to record damn-near everyones telephone calls.

I for one refuse to do it, and I will not do it. That rule should've already been changed, because enough time and discovery has happened to realize the problem was huge call center mills, and not the average small agent. I know for a fact that commie-led NGO think-tanks that just hate private insurance are behind a lot of this extremist ridiculous policy.

They are constantly writing Congress and CMS about changes that should be made that are beyond extreme. One Medicare "charity" (I use quotes because their CEO makes $250k per year, and most of their employees are upwards of $100k per year) just did this a few weeks ago. They're called "The Medicare Rights Center."

They would love for nothing more than to see all agents, all insurance companies, and all FMO's go away right now, simply due to their faulty Marxist ideologies of total government control. And with a current administration that's full of commies, it's much easier for them to get their ridiculous ideas passed though.

This is why I stress to join NABIP and communicate with them constantly about our issues. It's absolutely VITAL that we have STRONG lobbying power in Washington D.C., because these commies are never gonna stop. We need to stop playing this game back on our heels, and go on the offensive in a STRONG way. Try to get some of our own people secretly inside CMS would be one strategy I would deploy, for example.