Future of Small Group Benefit Brokers/Advisors

[somarco]

"Universal" health care, socialized medicine, single payer, etc has been predicted and debated ever since LBJ tried to create The Great Society and gave us Medicare.

Group insurance was going to put health insurance agents out of business.

Then Medicare came along and brokers who were writing health insurance on folks 65+ thought it was the end of the world.

SSDI would eliminate the LTD market

Medicare Part C would eliminate original Medicare

Obamacare would . . . never mind. Obamacare screwed everyone.

If you think the sky is falling you are not the first, nor will you be the last.

 

[David Block]

If you believe it to be true, then it is; the reality of healthcare will never be known until the time our nation is united on a future. What that means for now, is those that are in the business or considering the business can still earn a very nice living. To me, the secret is to not be a "one trick pony". Do not just concentrate on group medical but work on the life, disability, dental, enhanced benefits, etc. If you can learn about individual life and disability, since you have the ear of CFO (at the very least and often the President/Owner, etc.) you can often earn as much if not more by recommending executive benefits.

Be more than a single solution and you make yourself even more valuable to the employer. Plus, even if the small group market collapses, you will continue to work with employers and their key employees.

 

[somarco]

Cool truck and office you have @ Insurance-Specialties.com, Candler, NC

 

[David Block]

Yeh ... it's not the correct picture. I don't know where that came from but they found some building and said ... that's Insurance Specialties !

 

[somarco]

Are you saying Google is wrong?

 

[David Block]

I know right? Just not possible ... but they are !

 

[scagnt83]

"Universal" health care, socialized medicine, single payer, etc has been predicted and debated ever since LBJ tried to create The Great Society and gave us Medicare.

Group insurance was going to put health insurance agents out of business.

Then Medicare came along and brokers who were writing health insurance on folks 65+ thought it was the end of the world.

SSDI would eliminate the LTD market

Medicare Part C would eliminate original Medicare

Obamacare would . . . never mind. Obamacare screwed everyone.

If you think the sky is falling you are not the first, nor will you be the last.

I never said the sky was falling.

I said that in my opinion, Group Health will not be around 10 years from now.

Some people agree with that, others dont. But most any reasonable adult would say there is at least a 50/50 shot of it happening at this point. Especially considering that around 60% of the country supports it.

This is a totally different paradigm than most of what you mentioned. SSDI was never meant to replace LTD... Group was never meant to cover the entire market (and could be sold by agents) .... Medicare only replaced a small % of the market (and clearly had sales opportunities).

And yes, a small handful of agents make good money off of Obamacare... but we all know Ocare decimated the individual health market and put tons of agents out of business. The current amount of individual health agents is a tiny fraction of what it used to be.

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But this is about making business decisions.

Do you invest time/money/effort into a business that has at best a 50/50 shot of being around in 10 years?
Or do you invest time/money/effort into a business that has a very high likelihood of existing 10 years from now?

Do you invest time/money/effort into a business that has seen HUGE commission cuts?
Or one with stable commissions?

Do you invest time/money/effort into a business that carries large political risks to it's viability?
Or into a business that is not likely to change at the whim of a few politicians?

All of that is why I never started my own RIA and stayed insurance only. All of that is why I am not counting on Group Renewals for my future. And why I only take on new groups by referral.

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Anyone starting out and going into individual or group health... I say proceed at your own long term risk. You have at least 3 or 4 good years ahead.... maybe more... but there is a huge risk imo of it not being around within 10 years.

 

[leevena]

I was at an industry meeting in Atlanta listening to a panel of experts discuss the future of our industry. It was like listening to a death sentence for group, primarily due to the rising cost of premiums and no solution in sight other than government take-over. The estimated cost for family coverage was expected to exceed $100 per month and the year was 1983.

I have no idea of what will or will not happen.

 

[scagnt83]

I was at an industry meeting in Atlanta listening to a panel of experts discuss the future of our industry. It was like listening to a death sentence for group, primarily due to the rising cost of premiums and no solution in sight other than government take-over. The estimated cost for family coverage was expected to exceed $100 per month and the year was 1983.

I have no idea of what will or will not happen.

I agree. No way to tell. All we can do is guess.

Active group agents certainly are not going anywhere until forced to do so.

If this country actually acted on expert guidance, we wouldnt have half of the problems we do now. Unfortunately we act on political talking points.

 

[somarco]

60% of the country supports it.

Odd, since about 70% that are not already on taxpayer funded health insurance have employer group health.

Small group, especially mini group (under 5 - 10 lives) will probably disappear. From 10 - 250 lives will probably remain viable.

I don't see Coca-Cola and other Fortune companies abandoning group insurance for MediCAID for all. If taxpayer funded is expanded it will be more like Medicaid than Medicare.

Be careful what you wish for.

Tyler we agree on more things than where we differ. The point of my post is the speculation by agents for years about how one govt program or another was going to cause them to lose their livelihood.

I have changed more directions than I can count over the last 43 years. The only one that really cost me a lot was Obamacare. Good thing I started in 2010 to move in a different direction. Very difficult to replace a 6 figure income overnight. My income did drop by 60% before 2014 was half over.

I was at an industry meeting in Atlanta listening to a panel of experts discuss the future of our industry. It was like listening to a death sentence for group, primarily due to the rising cost of premiums and no solution in sight other than government take-over. The estimated cost for family coverage was expected to exceed $100 per month and the year was 1983.

I have no idea of what will or will not happen.

Horrible!

Any idea how that movie ended?