going on my own

[Guest]

I work in the market of senior health insurance under a brokerage. I am one of the top agents in the north east for one of the carriers that we represent. Which, in my opinion, pays the highest commissions and has the best product in this niche in my state. My brokerage won't release agents from there contract with the brokerage. Meaning if I go on my own the owner of the brokerage says I won't be able to sell for that carrier anymore. I want to go on my own and continue to sell for this company. Anyone out there been through a situation like this? I have considered talking to the VP of sales at the insurance company I want to continue to do business with but I am conserned that our conversation would get back to the owner of the brokerage that I work for.

 

[jerrykramer64fan]

If your biggest concern is how much your commission will be , then do everyone a favor and get out of the insurance business now, or go work for Mega.

Now if you are serious about being an agent that cares about your customers, then you will need to sell multiple companies with multiple products.

You would have a hard time proving to me that that one company is the best there is. In most cases there is no best product, but there is a best product for each client. Give us some more details about the product and company. It's hard to give advice with limited information.


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[Guest]

It's not the money as much. The reason I want to continue to sell for this particular company is that it has a great reputation with providers and I handle problem for my clients if they occur, such as a bills not getting paid or they need help getting medical equipment, and I know that from doing this for so long that this company is good at taking care of problems fast. So I feel good about putting clients in this company. And as far as the commissions, what I ment was they pay them promptly and there are very few problems. I have seen companies that have held back commissions for very long periods of time causeing independants to sink deep into debt from overhead and thats not good for anyone. By the way I routinly recommend insurance companies to my clients that I do not represents.

 

[jerrykramer64fan]

I have had little or no problems with any of the 20 or so companies that I represent when it comes to paying my commissions. I also have had decent luck with claims and getting customers problems fixed. What is the company? There may be a few agents here that have had experience with them directly or through working with clients. sometimes things look great when your on the inside, but........from the outside?

Glad you recommend other companies when you can't help them. But why lose those $$$$? If you sold the other companies you wouldn't be giving another agent the commish. I'm also a little concerned for you. Recommending other companies without the inside info that you get by selling that company, might come back and bite you in the buttocks.
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[theinuranceguy]

I can say from experience that some MEdicare Advantage companies can take weeks even months to get paid.... I have seen agents not market specific companies because they dont want to wait 8 weeks to get paid.

 

[jerrykramer64fan]

Yeah, there are a couple out there that tend to stretch it out. luckily for me the companies that represent the majority of my sales pay within 4 weeks of entering the application. Medicare season is always a biotch. It seems to take forever for Medicare to move things along on their end.
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[Guest]

We had an agent go on his own with another company to sell MA and MAPD plans..he lost tens of thousands in unpaid commissions and that was a big company....but I guess back to my original question....if an agent leaves a brokerage and starts his or her own...do companies cut ties with that agent for good? Or by obtaining a brokers license does that open a door for the agent to contract with the insurance company?

 

[Guest]

I guess I just find it hard to believe that just by going under this guy's brokerage years ago that now when I am going on my own I cannot contract with any of the companies that I wrote for when I was under him.

 

[jerrykramer64fan]

I'm not a lawyer but..I haven't seen anything anywhere in any of my contracts with the insurance companies stating that if I left my brokerage, I couldn't sell that company. However, the contract that you signed when you went on board with the brokerage could put all sorts of non-compete clauses in the contract and if you signed it....that's where the lawyers stuff comes in and my advice stops.

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[xrac]

This is a classic illustration of Rule #1. Always begin with the end in mind. It is not enough to understand how to get into this business with a company but we need to also understand how to get out. Everyone of us should read the fine print carefully and understand what we are committing to.