Does anyone really get "rich" selling Medicare

[MedicareWAA]

I will push back on a few points. First yes indeed the market is smaller but there is a lot more congestion and competition with Medicare. For every ten agents near me who sell Medicare there are two or three also offering ACA. This is a huge advantage as many early retirees are often one of ACA for a few years and the other right into Medicare.
Second, by building your ACA business you’re also long term building your Medicare business as clients age out of ACA and into Medicare. Plus many of my ACA clients are newly disabled and within two years will be DSNP eligible.
Third, I found ACA to be very lucrative especially when family plans are sold and adding in ancillary plans. For example, a family of five will be $100 per month, on average, plus add in dental, vision, gap and life it becomes very worthwhile.
Fourth, it just adds another referral source offering both. They feed each other.

Yeah, I mostly agree with you. We might agree to disagree on the attractiveness of the economics due to “slippery” BORs. Depends on the market segment you’re targeting.

I sell ACA mostly to people 60-64. It’s a wonderful Medicare feeder and essential to selling a high value Medicare policy to the older spouse.

The family sales are wonderful. If I focused on ACA, that would be the segment I chased.

Walter

 

[somarco]

sit at my desk turn on the phone and the calls come pouring in

Seems so simple . . .

 

[bluediamond]

Hey everybody, thought i'd put this out here for general discussion and to share my thoughts.

We all know what a Medicare renewal pays, approximately $300 per year. To gross $90,000 a year you need approximately 300 clients, then you have business expenses like marketing/leads, office space, CRM, and other general business expenses.

I understand those things are the cost of doing business but a small office space could easily cost you $6,000 a year. My point being, that even if you were to say achieve a remarkable client base of 1,000 individuals you're only making $300,000 a year and having to service all of these people. Then factor in churn of 10% a year between switchers/death/moving/adverse events. Now you're needing to still add 100 additional new clients a year just to keep pace.

Now while $300,000 is nothing to scoff at it takes a lot of time and resources to even reach that 1,000 client mark in the first place.

Then at that point you ask yourself do I need to hire staff to help handle renewals and service calls? Another expense.

I was brought into this business in a MLM life only outfit and sold the dream. It just seems almost impossible to scale your way to $500,000 $600,000 $700,000 $1,000,000 a year without becoming some faceless call center. With overrides going away you can't really hire 1099 agents anymore and collect a small override on there book either.


Is there anyone here with a large book (500+) who could give this situation some clarity? I don't want to work a salary job my entire life but when you look at cost of acquisition + how many people it takes to make a decent living it makes you wander.

Hell, I am filthy rich and do most of my business while sailing on my yacht.

 

[rmhaire]

Seems so simple . . .

Actually it is that simple ... when the calls coming in are bill collectors.

 

[DonP]

1000+ clients earned me $280,000 in 2023.
I’ll break 300K in 2024. And in about 4 more years I should be over $400K. I’m very pleased with this situation and I’m able to do it as a sole proprietor. I don’t have any staff or other agents, employees.
At some point I may hire someone to help with calls and other service issues.
I keep in touch with my clients: I send out letters annually, send texts to clients, I’ve started a bi-annual newsletter, and I have a Facebook page for clients. I advertise in 3 local church bulletins weekly, I do direct mail to T65 and other prospects and I even do a television spot during AEP on one of the local stations here in town.

What % of your book in mapd . My book is little bigger than yours and i got there in 4 yrs but the amount of work to maintain it is killing me . Mostly because about 50% of my book is dnsp/lis . But to keep those mapds in 2025 with just 1 person is going to be crazy hard . Aetna and Humana 2 of the 3 biggest carriers have both said they only care about profit margins and are cutting their plans to pieces . It could require moving a large % to keep them . 1 person doing that is near impossible

 

[DonP]

That’s awesome it’s just not me. No risk on my shoulders. I just stay certified, sit at my desk turn on the phone and the calls come pouring in. When I’m done I shutdown the pc til the next day. Just hit 11 enrollments for the month as of tonight.

Those are mostly dsnp/lis no doubt . You’re selling better benefits on the phone . Go look at go health or ehealth’s stk prices . Both fell big the last 2 days as they’re losing big money as 2 of the biggest call centers .Stats speak for themselves . Call centers lose 40-50% of their clients a yr . Those are facts . You say you’ve written 32 mapd plans on the phone on call ins with no doubt 90% low income and lost zero? No disrespect as i find that that hard to believe . I and many agents i know all save a min of 3-5 a month from low income clients flipped . Let’s talk in a yr . If you can do it your a star .

 

[MedicareWAA]

Those are mostly dsnp/lis no doubt . You’re selling better benefits on the phone . Go look at go health or ehealth’s stk prices . Both fell big the last 2 days as they’re losing big money as 2 of the biggest call centers .Stats speak for themselves . Call centers lose 40-50% of their clients a yr . Those are facts . You say you’ve written 32 mapd plans on the phone on call ins with no doubt 90% low income and lost zero? No disrespect as i find that that hard to believe . I and many agents i know all save a min of 3-5 a month from low income clients flipped . Let’s talk in a yr . If you can do it your a star .

He doesn’t own the company. He’s an employee. It doesn’t matter to him.

 

[DonP]

He doesn’t own the company. He’s an employee. It doesn’t matter to him.

Correct but he’ll be nothing but a churning ham and egger employee at these places . He said he makes renewals so I’m assuming chargebacks hit him financially.

 

[selfgen]

What % of your book in mapd . My book is little bigger than yours and i got there in 4 yrs but the amount of work to maintain it is killing me . Mostly because about 50% of my book is dnsp/lis . But to keep those mapds in 2025 with just 1 person is going to be crazy hard . Aetna and Humana 2 of the 3 biggest carriers have both said they only care about profit margins and are cutting their plans to pieces . It could require moving a large % to keep them . 1 person doing that is near impossible

My book is probably 60% MAPD, 40% Medigap. I know AEP is going to be unlike any other and I don’t know how I will get all the work done. Now, my wife is a licensed agent so she will likely help out this year. She hasn’t worked in 15 years but we always kept her license up to date so that she can step in and help out when needed.
I don’t have much DSNP business; maybe less than 10%. I agree that retention with DSNP business is more difficult.

 

[redknght83]

I used to be an independent agent on the life side and I’m well aware that the comp is completely different when w2. As a w2 agent I have no overhead, licensed in over 25 states, on my way to 50 and have 10+ carriers to offer. I don’t have to do any prospecting. I get residuals as well. I don’t have to pay to get appointed. I have an hourly pay and get overtime every week.
I have worked in many industries and I have realized that the ultimate sales jobs is one where it’s all inbound, no prospecting. It’s not for everyone. I closed out the month of July with 20 enrollments and they are all active as of today. This month I’m already at 6 enrollments. 3 Thursday and 3 friday. I have many more opportunities than a field agent because the number of states and contracts I have. Exponentially more. It also works for my family because we homeschool and are tight knit. I have done many deployments while my 2 oldest were little now i get to be home with them everyday. Any how, to each their own.

I am curious what is your job title?