Misinformation?

john_petrowski said:
.... and don't clearly define benefits like physical therapy.
unlike Assurant that tells you your screwed.....

Assurant is 3 months inpatient with the policy max and $3,000 outpatient. Compare that to Aetna's $25 per visit/24 visit cap. Golden Rule is a non-issue since they rider everything. On most Carefirst plans physical therapy is "as determined by Carefirst" which means they determine if you get it and how long you get it.
 
john_petrowski said:
You walk up to your manager's face and say "if I ever hear you tell another new agent that Blue Cross will cancel clients due to claims I'll write a letter to the the DOI, Assurant and World and the first one to fire you wins. That's unethical bullcrap and has no place in this business. Agents looking the other way just allows the fire to grow. And I'm not just talking s**t - I went to the Maryland Insurance Administration and had a 6 hour meeting over the practices of Mega Life.

You would be the millionth agent to speak to the state OCI about that company.......
 
john_petrowski said:
As MGAs they simply want all business to go through companies where they get overrides. I feel their pain. I also used to train agents who would have to write Blue Cross cases and obviously I didn't get anything. But that's life. In fact, it's a main reason I'm not hiring anymore. I used to train agents who inevitably have to write Aetna and Blue Cross but I don't get anything. Those companies also don't provide any agent training so my Assurant agents would want to call me and spend 45 minutes on the phone going over how to write an Aetna case and the differences between the Blue Cross plans. I can't have 15 agents calling me all day asking about carriers that I don't get overrides for which is why working through an agency is a failed concept. Just be independent.

What about just recruiting for those companies you can get an override with? You could mention Aetna and Blue Cross, tell them you write business with them, then refer them to the agency services department to get appointed and answer their questions.
 
This is what I've come to realize:

$20,000 AV per week by me is a nice 40 hour week; no nights, weekends or headaches. Average commish is 20% = $4,000 per week. Everything I write gets issued so $20,00 AV submitted is $20,000 paid.

At 5% overrides I need a team doing $80,000 a week of placed business. If you're really good your agents will place 80% so that's $100,000 written. The average agents does $4,000 a week so that's 25 agents. That's also 25 people calling me incessantly and instead of babbysitting 5 or 6 cases a week in underwriting I'm now babbysitting 25 cases a week. And we won't get into how many reps you have to hire and train to get 25 agents who actually submit business.

The irony is you actually work longer harder and longer hours by having people work for you. Then take into account that your hot-shot agents who don't need to be babysat blow out since they realize they don't need to be babysat.
 
Seems the reality is that insurance recruiting is not a "home-based business". Most of the outfits that do this, including the more suspect ones, negotiate TOP contracts and invest a large staff into this. It might be okay to take on a person here and there if you find someone you like that wants in the business, but when it comes to building an agency to provide you with a nice income, it seems like it has to be done on a grand scale, or not at all.
 
What to do about the super agent you have helped

John writes: "The irony is you actually work longer harder and longer hours by having people work for you. Then take into account that your hot-shot agents who don't need to be babysat blow out since they realize they don't need to be babysat."

I believe in loyalty. I believe in fairness. If an agency hires me, trains me, pays me a lower commission in the beginning and it gradually grows as I learn and produce more how much do I own the agent or agency that educated me?

Is there a way John, for you to negotiate with me as an agent working for your agency to keep me? Is there a fair way?

I seem read resentment from you towards the agents that have been educated and trained only to leave the agency. It seems that an agency only has benefit in average agents working for it. Is this true?

Is there a way for the agency to appreciate an agent once the agent attains the knowledge and experience to be as good of a producer as the teacher?

Should the agent not desire to earn more as their skills grow and produce success?

I would want to stay and continue the relationship but of course I would not want to be held in one place.

What would be fair?
 
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