My Medicare Advantage Experience Thus Far...

[rousemark]

I guess? I don't know much about it that's why I'm asking. All I'm hearing is positives about it I want to hear the negatives.

Sometimes the positives are so overwhelming, you just don't see any negatives..

 

[KRobby]

I will also mention that my 5 year projection shows an income of around 6k not 10k. That's on about 100 sales per year MAPD only. Our top guy did 32 in his first full month last month...I trained him over the last week of March.



The negatives are as follows:

You have to get out of bed
You have to go to work
You have to get recertified EVERY year
You have to take the occasional call
Sometimes plans will move and you have to rewrite beneficiaries
You have to go to work

Ouch, I'll pass.

 

[NSRH]

I really wished you knew what you were talking about. You would actually be contributing something of value in this conversation.

You say you were into Medicare before you did the call center thing, but your words say that you are just clueless.

Its apparent that you've never seen a plan cancel on your book of business, and had to scramble to catch all your clients. I was in Medicare before Part D came around. I was in Medicare when they slashed our commissions in half. There was a time (not too long ago) when we were selling MA's and didnt even know what our comp was because CMS hadnt given the carriers guidance!

I understand the new fad. And you can make money at this, but its just a fad. Many of the selling agents will learn to focus on one or the other. And when they stop getting certified, their renewals will stop too.

Apples to apples, Final expense is much more lucrative long term, and shifting your focus will hurt you long term.

But its no skin off my back, I wish y'all the best of luck, its just not a business plan I'd follow.

Todd,

Your reply to my comment may lead new agents to believe that what I wrote is not true. Can you please correct any falsehoods specifically.

Are you saying that MA carriers never pull a plan from an area? Are you saying that there was never a time when agents were selling MA plans and didnt know their comp?

I get my point of view may not be popular, but that doenst mean that the facts I outlined are untrue. It may have been a while ago, but I did sell face to face, and the scenarios I outlined happened to me.

 

[Biggin]

Todd,

Your reply to my comment may lead new agents to believe that what I wrote is not true. Can you please correct any falsehoods specifically.

Are you saying that MA carriers never pull a plan from an area? Are you saying that there was never a time when agents were selling MA plans and didnt know their comp?

I get my point of view may not be popular, but that doenst mean that the facts I outlined are untrue. It may have been a while ago, but I did sell face to face, and the scenarios I outlined happened to me.

You argue that because it happened to you years ago that it will happen to agents now. I don't care what you do with your biz and what you peddle to your agents. None of my business. But, I know dozens of agents personally CURRENTLY that have had a great experience with medicare. If (worst case scenario) a carrier cancels it's contract that I have hundreds of clients with. Do you think those clients are lost? I write them up with someone else. They "have" to make a new choice and since I stay in contact with them they figure I'm the only guy in the world that CAN help them. I won't presume to try to tell you what the positives and negatives of Medicare sales were back when you wrote it (before partd) but somehow you understand it completely now that you don't sell medicare. Now I know you won't understand that but this is meant for other agents that DON'T wear like 40 grit underwear.

LOL

 

[Todd King]

Todd,

Your reply to my comment may lead new agents to believe that what I wrote is not true. Can you please correct any falsehoods specifically.

Are you saying that MA carriers never pull a plan from an area? Are you saying that there was never a time when agents were selling MA plans and didnt know their comp?

I get my point of view may not be popular, but that doenst mean that the facts I outlined are untrue. It may have been a while ago, but I did sell face to face, and the scenarios I outlined happened to me.

I wasn't talking about plans that get pulled or agents not knowing what the comp was (I think that happened once a few years ago). Those particular points, while true, are just a small part of the big picture and don't have much weight in this conversation. I personally think you're just grasping at straws to try and prove you're right.

The main thing you said was, "Apples to apples, Final expense is much more lucrative long term, and shifting your focus will hurt you long term."

That one thing right there shows that you have no clue what you are talking about.

I'm not taking away your knowledge of an FE call center. You are obviously good at that. It's just the rest of the senior market that you don't know, but you think you do. Just stick with what you know and you won't come across as a child just making up stuff to try and prove your point.

 

[Rirwin]

I wasn't talking about plans that get pulled or agents not knowing what the comp was (I think that happened once a few years ago). Those particular points, while true, are just a small part of the big picture and don't have much weight in this conversation. I personally think you're just grasping at straws to try and prove you're right.

The main thing you said was, "Apples to apples, Final expense is much more lucrative long term, and shifting your focus will hurt you long term."

That one thing right there shows that you have no clue what you are talking about.

I'm not taking away your knowledge of an FE call center. You are obviously good at that. It's just the rest of the senior market that you don't know, but you think you do. Just stick with what you know and you won't come across as a child just making up stuff to try and prove your point.

You’ve lost your right to accuse anyone as acting as a child when you threw a hissy fit over the fact that you can’t offer as high of commissions as other IMO’s. If I were you, I’d keep my agents off this forum too, they’d jump ship.

 

[Todd King]

You’ve lost your right to accuse anyone as acting as a child when you threw a hissy fit over the fact that you can’t offer as high of commissions as other IMO’s. If I were you, I’d keep my agents off this forum too, they’d jump ship.

If you think I can't get an agent just as high of a commission as these other IMO's you are sadly mistaken.

 

[NSRH]

You argue that because it happened to you years ago that it will happen to agents now. I don't care what you do with your biz and what you peddle to your agents. None of my business. But, I know dozens of agents personally CURRENTLY that have had a great experience with medicare. If (worst case scenario) a carrier cancels it's contract that I have hundreds of clients with. Do you think those clients are lost? I write them up with someone else. They "have" to make a new choice and since I stay in contact with them they figure I'm the only guy in the world that CAN help them. I won't presume to try to tell you what the positives and negatives of Medicare sales were back when you wrote it (before partd) but somehow you understand it completely now that you don't sell medicare. Now I know you won't understand that but this is meant for other agents that DON'T wear like 40 grit underwear.

LOL

Again, Im not sure why the facts are this controversial. Anything regulated by the government as heavily as Medicare is going to be volatile. Look at underage health insurance as another example of what Im talking about.

Again, Im not saying it cant be done, Im just saying its not a business model I would follow. Been there done that, I've learned from my mistakes.

 

[NSRH]

I wasn't talking about plans that get pulled or agents not knowing what the comp was (I think that happened once a few years ago). Those particular points, while true, are just a small part of the big picture and don't have much weight in this conversation. I personally think you're just grasping at straws to try and prove you're right.

The main thing you said was, "Apples to apples, Final expense is much more lucrative long term, and shifting your focus will hurt you long term."

That one thing right there shows that you have no clue what you are talking about.

I'm not taking away your knowledge of an FE call center. You are obviously good at that. It's just the rest of the senior market that you don't know, but you think you do. Just stick with what you know and you won't come across as a child just making up stuff to try and prove your point.

Todd, I stand by all my comments, and you've confirmed they are facts. As a marketer, I understand the need to paint things in a certain light, Im just simply sharing my personal experience which does not match your rose hue on the situation.

As to "coming across as a child", I find it odd how respectful and professional you are in private messages with me, but feel the need to take a different tone on the public forum.

Its nothing personal Todd, I simply think you're wrong on this one.

 

[Rirwin]

You argue that because it happened to you years ago that it will happen to agents now. I don't care what you do with your biz and what you peddle to your agents. None of my business. But, I know dozens of agents personally CURRENTLY that have had a great experience with medicare. If (worst case scenario) a carrier cancels it's contract that I have hundreds of clients with. Do you think those clients are lost? I write them up with someone else. They "have" to make a new choice and since I stay in contact with them they figure I'm the only guy in the world that CAN help them. I won't presume to try to tell you what the positives and negatives of Medicare sales were back when you wrote it (before partd) but somehow you understand it completely now that you don't sell medicare. Now I know you won't understand that but this is meant for other agents that DON'T wear like 40 grit underwear.

LOL

It’s obvious from Jim’s post that Medicare can be lucrative long term. I tend to agree with what he did, cross sell your med customers final expense instead of the opposite. Though it can be done either way, I’d rather copy the guy that’s making almost 120k a year that has no skin in this conversation rather than the recruiters on here.

Since Medicare is government regulated the truth is thy will always make changes/adjustments bc the government is (fill in the blank) to think otherwise would make you naive. But Someone shouldn’t back away out of fear bc of what changes could potentially happen, that’s silly.