Med Supp Cost/Pricing

[Norwayguy]

My thoughts are now this....I don't want to do med supps. Like many have said, they may very well be easy to learn and I would probably pick it up very easily, however I don't want to add "medical insurance" of any type to my practice. When our clients need P&C advice, legal advice, accounting advice, I bring the appropriate professional into the picture. I would like to do the same thing with med supps, so I would simply have a "med sup broker" who I run all this business through.

I guess my question is if you don't want to bring this into your practice why are you doing the app with the client? Why not when you set this second appointment up bring the agent in to actually do the transaction, that way if an issue comes up down the road your not playing telephone with the client calling you and then you needing to call the agent because you are not the agent of record.

I could see your idea of seperate professionals working fine but I wouldn't complete the transactions for them.

 

[CFP83]

I guess my question is if you don't want to bring this into your practice why are you doing the app with the client?

.....To make sure they complete the application asap and the conversation is an open and closed one. I could imagine how if the med supp agent mailed the application to the client how sometimes it could just be tossed aside. Also, to further clarify, I wasn't imagining me actually doing anything to the application. In the ideal situation the med supp agent would send/email me the application as "prefilled" as possible" so the client is just answering their questions and signing it
What's your feedback there?

 

[Frank Stastny]

In the ideal situation the med supp agent would send/email me the application as "prefilled" as possible" so the client is just answering their questions and signing it.
What's your feedback there?

That is all the selling agent does. Fill in the contact information, mark the answers to some questions about Medicare, check the answers to the health questions and have the prospect sign the application.

There is a very logical reason why I made the decision several years ago that I was going to stop selling everything else and specialize in Med Supps and cross sell FE. I don't have to convince them they need it, they already know that. I just have to show them that what I'm offering is a better investment of their premium dollar than what they currently have. I educate them and I sell the one thing that I know more about than anyone else, ME.

If the prospect successfully answers the health questions correctly then the agent can tell the prospect, at the time of the sale, with a great degree of certainty, that the company will issue the policy and it will go into effect on the date requested. The agent really is the underwriter. I don't remember the last time I submitted an app that wasn't issued.

It is so simple anyone with a sharp crayon can complete the app and consummate the sale. Even I can do it.

 

[VolAgent]

It is so simple anyone with a sharp crayon can complete the app and consummate the sale. Even I can do it.

But what if my crayon breaks?!

 

[Frank Stastny]

But what if my crayon breaks?!

That would be a very bad thing. You won't get any milk and cookies before nap time.

 

[CFP83]

Many of our clients are about to retire or are already retired. Naturally, we do a lot of investments and also a good deal of life insurance with these folks. Long-term care insurance is another area where we help these clients protect their assets.

In following the advice of a long time mentor of mine, I am moving closer to "cloning myself" and finally bringing on another agent to work within my practice. This agent will help service my existing clients as well as serving as my in-house "Senior Insurance Specialist", focusing on being the product specialist in the areas of LTC, and Simplified Issue cases as they arise. I will continue to handle the overall financial planning, investments, life insurance and disability insurance areas through completing a clients financial plan.

Obviously I would be the one training this new agent and giving them all their knowledge on these two product areas, however once they are up and running when a clients situation calls for SI or LTC I tee it up for my client to meet with our in house specialist while I move on to meet with another client.

Well, now that I have gotten some of this feedback from you all here regarding Med Supps I'm seeing some opportunity here to add this line of business to this younger agents focus. In doing some quick math it wouldn't take that large of a med supp block of business for med supps to subsudize my overhead costs of adding this additional person.