Interview With Alan Town - $22,752,532 In 2017 Final Expense Production

[NSRH]

Just the model of exploiting niches as practiced by many on here. If companies experience adverse selection because they have low rates for smokers, or take certain medical conditions when others won't, etc., they start getting hammered with bad business. They then raise rates or tighten underwriting and agents start running out of places to go.

You see it on here. Guys will use certain companies for this and that then send all the healthy people to the price busters. Very short sighted as they've been killing the golden goose. A company needs a mix of good and bad in order to keep offering the niche.

This is exactly why I sell for one company (with an exclusive product). Its not good business to jump from one carrier to the next, and alot of IMOs have to do this because brokers exploit certain products.

At one time, AmAm would allow someone to be ROP if they currently had cancer that never spread. Well that didnt last very long, brokers sent so much of it their way they cut it off within a couple of years.

 

[rousemark]

Just the model of exploiting niches as practiced by many on here. If companies experience adverse selection because they have low rates for smokers, or take certain medical conditions when others won't, etc., they start getting hammered with bad business. They then raise rates or tighten underwriting and agents start running out of places to go.

You see it on here. Guys will use certain companies for this and that then send all the healthy people to the price busters. Very short sighted as they've been killing the golden goose. A company needs a mix of good and bad in order to keep offering the niche.

That is the reason some companies restrict certain percentage of an agent's total production.

 

[Rirwin]

Just the model of exploiting niches as practiced by many on here. If companies experience adverse selection because they have low rates for smokers, or take certain medical conditions when others won't, etc., they start getting hammered with bad business. They then raise rates or tighten underwriting and agents start running out of places to go.

You see it on here. Guys will use certain companies for this and that then send all the healthy people to the price busters. Very short sighted as they've been killing the golden goose. A company needs a mix of good and bad in order to keep offering the niche.

When you see carriers now having their own captive team, doesn't it get you to start to wonder when they will soon kick us out of the deal?

I've thought this since I found out their are carriers that I use, like trans that has their own direct captive team.

 

[NSRH]

When you see carriers now having their own captive team, doesn't it get you to start to wonder when they will soon kick us out of the deal?

I've thought this since I found out their are carriers that I use, like trans that has their own direct captive team.

Brokers are a necessary evil in the carriers eye.

 

[rousemark]

When you see carriers now having their own captive team, doesn't it get you to start to wonder when they will soon kick us out of the deal?

I've thought this since I found out their are carriers that I use, like trans that has their own direct captive team.

Trans includes Monumental which had a debit operation

 

[Rirwin]

Brokers are a necessary evil in the carriers eye.

Since it's necessary, are you suggesting that the broker model will exist forever?

 

[Rirwin]

Trans includes Monumental which had a debit operation

Is this where they give the agents 70% and an existing book of business?

 

[NSRH]

Since it's necessary, are you suggesting that the broker model will exist forever?

I dont see carriers cutting off brokers, but I do see brokers production slowly decreasing in the FE industry due to increased lead cost. The captive model will begin (and likely already has) to grow steadily. Production for SL and LH is on the rise, and its not new agents in the industry fueling this.

 

[VolAgent]

I was taught that the insurance business is a three legged stool.. It has to be good for the company, the agent and the client.. If either leg is missing, the stool will topple over.. That means that the plan being offered may not be the lowest premium or pay the highest commission.. There has to be a balance..

Amazing how many agents don't get that. Yes, you do need to sell competitive products. But you don't have to be the cheapest, you simply need to deliver enough other value to make the combination more attractive.

Also, you are dead right on spread. No agency can survive on paper thin margins, not if they want to provide any value. If someone is just a contract whore, then sure they can give away the farm. But if the agency has any real value and is going to last any length of time, then it needs a reasonable margin so as to provide service and be profitable.

The question is, what is reasonable and what value is the agency providing?

 

[PA Bill]

When you see carriers now having their own captive team, doesn't it get you to start to wonder when they will soon kick us out of the deal?

I've thought this since I found out their are carriers that I use, like trans that has their own direct captive team.

Maybe not, Rirwin. United American has been operating on a dual system for a long time now. Granted they're not much for FE and are high priced on their med supps. How much of those high priced supps are being sold by independents I don't know.

At one time they were an independent favorite. The service and comp was second to none! But things are a lot different nowadays.