Future of Individual Health for Brokers

[pahealthquotes]

Atta Boy cmbilt. Tell these ole timers how its done. You see there are a few here on this forum that believe they KNOW everything about individual health,Medicare ,Medicare Advantage and so on. They know who they are.. and guess what? I'm gonna keep doing whatever they're not doing for the rest of my life and become very successful doing so. I hope you do the same. DOOM AND GLOOMERS.. Please exit left .. thanks very much. Cha CHING

 

[djs]

There is a difference between doom and gloom and simply planning on adjusting with the flow.

Most people on here tend to be wanting to make some adjustments, moving forward without blinders on. Some think its okay to just go day to day and never look up.

Both ways have their merits. If I was a health producer, I might be a bit depressed while I look to broaden my horizons. In the meantime, if you can survive the recent pay reduction, there is probably business to gain.

It would help if there was clarity to plan for in 2014. The agents who are going to leave, the sooner they leave, the better for everyone. The ones who are staying, the sooner they commit, the better for everyone.

Personally, I see a lot more P&C agencies doing health in the future. Easier for them to do a volume business, they have a lot of the infrastructure in place. I think low volume single agents have a tough road in front of them, but that is just my reading of the tea leaves.

Dan

 

[cmbilt]

One way to make an impression is to use proper grammar and spelling.



You are not doing very well . . .

Wow this makes me laugh. If I was writing my dissertation I would have gone back and used spell check. This is a forum right? I mean that was the only thing you could come back with? By condescending my grammar, that makes you a GURU on this site. Sounds like you need a life outside this forum -- 12,000 post? Really...

 

[djs]

It can take an hour for a family app now, but when it goes GI in 2014 (if there are no changes before then) the app might consist of little more than census data. I don't know if that will happen but if so, you could bang out quite a few per hour.

Correct, if you only count time for the app, not time answering questions, explaining options, dealing with late (or missed) appointments, marketing, etc.

Yes, putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is the short part of the process. At no point will that be the only thing of the job. To average time for apps, you have to add the rest in.

Most agents I know hope to write 5 apps a week. Figure 40 hours, that is 8 hours per app when you burden the app with the other ancillary stuff.

Dan

 

[Guest]

I'm gonna keep doing whatever they're not doing for the rest of my life and become very successful doing so. I hope you do the same. DOOM AND GLOOMERS.. Please exit left .. thanks very much. Cha CHING

There is a lot of truth to the above and to the precept that 10% comp for IFP is the end of the health agent's career as we know it.

Assuming that it is true and a third to a half of agents will leave the sector, it seems to me there is going to be opportunity for those who remain.

However, those who remain AND become successful will not be doing IFP business the "old" 20% way. It will be a totally new business model/paradigm based on volume, technology, and both drip and "local-mass" marketing to drive clients to phones or websites. There will be no more P2P or B2P and no more long, educational phone conversations with prospects.

If I were younger and had the energy and interest of those of you in your 30s and 40s, I'd be working my butt off to develop this new model. There will be trials and errors and fits and starts, but eventually a method to make good money selling health insurance will emerge... at least until 2014... and probably with some kind of supplements after that.

Listening to the gray-beards here is entertaining but is only instructional in what NOT to do. Many of you will succeed because it's a new ball game and there are no rules yet... in other words, there is no one to tell you that such-and-such won't work... because no one has tried it yet!

I enjoyed the old person-to-person biz model. The fun of the business was meeting and getting to know the people. That's not how it is going to be in individual health and so I'm leaving because I am not interested in the new model. I can get what I like in this biz from life, DI, LTC, and annuity as there is still some need for F2F interaction at the basic level and a lot more of it at an advanced level.

Most of you would be well-advised to discount the gloom and doom you hear from the Bob Vs and Rick Bs and ins Ds. here and instead figure out your own method to make money at reduced comp. You are not going to do it the way it has been done in the past... and these guys don't know any other way (or if they do, they are not telling!)

It's a great time to be young, energetic, entrepreneurial, and technically astute in this sector... because someone is going to figure out how to fill the void left by the old guard (like me!) leaving for different pastures.

My best advise is illegitimi non carborundum. Google it... understand it.

Al
Invenias, me

 

[cmbilt]

There is a difference between doom and gloom and simply planning on adjusting with the flow.

Most people on here tend to be wanting to make some adjustments, moving forward without blinders on. Some think its okay to just go day to day and never look up.

Both ways have their merits. If I was a health producer, I might be a bit depressed while I look to broaden my horizons. In the meantime, if you can survive the recent pay reduction, there is probably business to gain.

It would help if there was clarity to plan for in 2014. The agents who are going to leave, the sooner they leave, the better for everyone. The ones who are staying, the sooner they commit, the better for everyone.

Personally, I see a lot more P&C agencies doing health in the future. Easier for them to do a volume business, they have a lot of the infrastructure in place. I think low volume single agents have a tough road in front of them, but that is just my reading of the tea leaves.

Dan

Well said Dan. Health commissions recently dropped to levels similar to P&C so it would make sense in this broad way as well. They are use to the high volume and lower commission scale like you said. I actually found someone on here who thinks OUTSIDE THE BOX too!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There is a lot of truth to the above and to the precept that 10% comp for IFP is the end of the health agent's career as we know it.

Assuming that it is true and a third to a half of agents will leave the sector, it seems to me there is going to be opportunity for those who remain.

However, those who remain AND become successful will not be doing IFP business the "old" 20% way. It will be a totally new business model/paradigm based on volume, technology, and both drip and "local-mass" marketing to drive clients to phones or websites. There will be no more P2P or B2P and no more long, educational phone conversations with prospects.

If I were younger and had the energy and interest of those of you in your 30s and 40s, I'd be working my butt off to develop this new model. There will be trials and errors and fits and starts, but eventually a method to make good money selling health insurance will emerge... at least until 2014... and probably with some kind of supplements after that.

Listening to the gray-beards here is entertaining but is only instructional in what NOT to do. Many of you will succeed because it's a new ball game and there are no rules yet... in other words, there is no one to tell you that such-and-such won't work... because no one has tried it yet!

I enjoyed the old person-to-person biz model. The fun of the business was meeting and getting to know the people. That's not how it is going to be in individual health and so I'm leaving because I am not interested in the new model. I can get what I like in this biz from life, DI, LTC, and annuity as there is still some need for F2F interaction at the basic level and a lot more of it at an advanced level.

Most of you would be well-advised to discount the gloom and doom you hear from the Bob Vs and Rick Bs and ins Ds. here and instead figure out your own method to make money at reduced comp. You are not going to do it the way it has been done in the past... and these guys don't know any other way (or if they do, they are not telling!)

It's a great time to be young, energetic, entrepreneurial, and technically astute in this sector... because someone is going to figure out how to fill the void left by the old guard (like me!) leaving for different pastures.

My best advise is illegitimi non carborundum. Google it... understand it.

Al
Invenias, me

Wow powerful stuff! Loved it. You could also say the Health Industry = the Pareto Principle. Between now and 2014 you could create a very big niche in the marketplace and become that 20%!

 

[GreenSky]

CA used to pay agents $50 for assisting with the Healthy Families program. Low cost insurance for children. Many of us helped people and not because we'd get rich on the $50.

When the $50 stopped, agents stopped helping. I can't work for free but if someone contacts me, I point them to the web and/or send them an applcation.

In 2014, the exchanges will likely pay agents $50. When the budget get cuts because the insurance costs in the exchange skyrocket, we won't even get the $50.

If you want to bet your future on $50 (or less), go for it. You may make some money over the next few years while others move their careers to products that have a future.

There is an old saying. "The race doesn't always go to the strongest or the fastest, but that's the way to bet." I'm betting that LTC and life insurance is the fastest way to remain in the business.

I'm not willing to bet my future that health insurance will remain a viable career. If anyone else wants to bet on the longshot, good luck.

Rick

 

[cmbilt]

CA used to pay agents $50 for assisting with the Healthy Families program. Low cost insurance for children. Many of us helped people and not because we'd get rich on the $50.

When the $50 stopped, agents stopped helping. I can't work for free but if someone contacts me, I point them to the web and/or send them an applcation.

In 2014, the exchanges will likely pay agents $50. When the budget get cuts because the insurance costs in the exchange skyrocket, we won't even get the $50.

If you want to bet your future on $50 (or less), go for it. You may make some money over the next few years while others move their careers to products that have a future.

There is an old saying. "The race doesn't always go to the strongest or the fastest, but that's the way to bet." I'm betting that LTC and life insurance is the fastest way to remain in the business.

I'm not willing to bet my future that health insurance will remain a viable career. If anyone else wants to bet on the longshot, good luck.

Rick

Rick,

I understand where you are coming from, however, I've always been a contrarian investor myself. When people flee, there's opportunity to be.

If you are willing to bet on LTC, why not Health?

LTC is rather a new product with no track history. Word on the street is that most LTC programs are on path for an inverted bell curve. Claims are starting to come in on those programs and with health insurance cost rising, well, you can do the math.

It seems funny to me that you would head toward LTC with this being the case. Most LTC products when I sold them had COI riders as well as fixed rate premiums or paid up premiums. And then you throw in the fact that most health insurance policies offer an unlimited number of hospice care visits....

The point is every industry has it's flaws. The difference is your moving toward an industry where the majority of the brokers are moving and I am moving toward an industry where the minority of the brokers are staying, with a 30 million population target market.

 

[houcoogster]

You guys are forgetting one major thing with health insurance. That is moving the prospect from the "thinking about it stage" to the "writing a check for it stage".

Insurance companies hate us... but they need us! We make them money we close deals. Everything else is pie in the sky BS that does not help the quarterly earnings. Then the "Big Boss" aka shareholders get pissed and changes are made.

I look to see the proliferation of stripped down major med plans with networks hitting the market place real soon. You know the kind 300k max benefits no maternity no mental no drug rehab ect. I know, I know, time will tell but that is my call.

 

[Franz Kafka]

Ah~ the stench of positive spirit ...