Entering Senior Market

[Gary from Dallas]

I have a decent practice managing client mutual fund portfolios, but as you might imagine with the market down so much it is very difficult for an independent advisor such as myself with very limnited marketing $$$ to gain new clients.

I work well with seniors and would like to enter the medicare supplement/ medicare advantage market. I know very little about it. I am trying to figure out what would be the best place to position myself to get the training, yet also to have ownership over the clients if I want to sell other products. I have no conflicts with my broker dealer as long as I make disclosure of outside business activities. Would I be best to work with 1 companiy or go with one of the independent marketing organizations like Senior Market Sales? How about a local agency that specializes in the senior market? What medicare products would be the easiest to sell? Where would I receive good training?

I appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[Todd King]

Gary, It would seem that since you are already affiliated with the senior market somewhat (at least that's the way I understood it), you would be looking at the safety of annuities. Especially since you are familiar with the mutual fund market. Medicare supps and Final Expense is very easy but not if you don't know what you're talking about. The very 1st place I would go if I were you is to Medicare.gov and download the Medicare and You handbook and learn it front to back. By the way...learn the MA's, but don't sell them unless you absolutely have to.

 

[GreenSky]

How quickly would you lose your investment clients if you placed them in an MA plan that fails to perform? I would stick to med supps - it's hard to screw that up once you learn what you are doing.

Many of us are avoiding MAs for the next year or so to see what happens.

Rick

 

[insuranceexec]

All great advice. Nothing to add here; on to the next thread.

 

[jacobtn]

If you're not familiar with the Medicare business (MA/Med Supps), screw those and focus on fixed annuities. You will be a ton more and have a shoter learning curve to boot. My 2 cents.

 

[EasyWriter]

If you're looking for the easiest products to sell in the senior market, they're Medicare Supplement and final expense. They're simple and inexpensive, qualities your clients will love.

They are easy to sell in tandem too. Mutual actually has an app where you can write both on the same application--same underwriting too.

 

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

Gary,

Stay with asset based products - Annnuities, etc.

Any health-based product is going to get you into trouble if you are not familiar with it.

 

[sman]

Sorry Bob, I disagree. We all had to start somewhere. If he has senior clients, it's a natural cross sell. If they trust him with their life savings, they'll definitely trust him with their Medicare Supplement coverage. All he has to do is spend some time learning the product and get a knowledge of Medicare. The supplement itself isn't that complicated. And if you get a question you don't know the answer to, I've found the client has no problem with you saying, "I don't know the answer to that, but I will find out for you".

I am securities licensed and my income is about 50/50 between investments and insurance. I've gotten around $1,000,000 a year in rollovers each of the last 4 years just from my Med Supp clients.

Gary, I say get the knowledge, use someone like SMS, and start marketing Med Supps. Not only will it provide some additional income, if you market yourself right, you should get some additional rollover dollars (whether it's managed money, mutual funds or annuities).

Good luck!