Vets Please Tell Me

[Russ]

How do you indicate their medicare number 6 months in advance? Do you guess?

Rick

Find out if they've worked all their lives(or a good portion of it or recently), and if so, use their SS# with an A after it. If the spouse(usually a male), has been the one working, use the spouses social security # with a B after it.

Then again, even if they have worked all their life or a good portion of it or recently, if their opting to wait on drawing SS(not at age 62), their Medicare # will be their SS # with a T after it because they won't start drawing it at age 65 now(born 1943 to 1954...age 66). I just had this happen with a couple that just turned 65 and is waiting until age 66 to draw SS. They had their Medicare cards.

I've never had a problem with doing this with MoO.

 

[GreenSky]

So in other words, you take an educated guess when they don't have their cards. You are probably okay 95% of the time. What happens when you are wrong?

Rick

 

[Frank Stastny]

Frank Stastny said......

"I would love to know what you are doing differently that enables you to be so successful selling to T65 seniors. All the T65 seniors that I have called have been inundated by calls from agents when I contact them. Are you fortunate enough to be the first agent to talk to them? If so, how are you doing that?"..........



Mutual of Omaha allows you to write them up to 6 months before turning 65. Most other companies, it's 3 months. I get a jump on most other agents.

If I'm not mistaken all companies will allow someone turning 65 to apply for a Med Supp six months in advance of the first day of the month in which they turn 65. Many companies, Antex comes to mind, will also allow someone who already has a Med Supp to have an application submitted six months prior the the effective date on the application.

All companies will allow the effective date for someone switching their Med Supp to be three months following the date on the app.

Very few of the seniors I have talked to will make that commitment six months in advance. Especially when the first month's premium is deducted from their checking account at the time the app is submitted.

 

[Russ]

If I'm not mistaken all companies will allow someone turning 65 to apply for a Med Supp six months in advance of the first day of the month in which they turn 65. Many companies, Antex comes to mind, will also allow someone who already has a Med Supp to have an application submitted six months prior the the effective date on the application.

All companies will allow the effective date for someone switching their Med Supp to be three months following the date on the app.

Very few of the seniors I have talked to will make that commitment six months in advance. Especially when the first month's premium is deducted from their checking account at the time the app is submitted.

I wrote a lady Nov. 2nd that is effective March 1st of 2010 and I had been talking to her 2-3 weeks before that.

I wrote another lady Nov. 1st that is effective February 1st, 2010.

You're only talking about 1 months premium that they would pay no matter when it was applied for.

AARP won't allow you to write someone until 90 days before their part B effective date. Same with Bankers Life and those are the 2 most competitive companies, compared to MoO, in this area.
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So in other words, you take an educated guess when they don't have their cards. You are probably okay 95% of the time. What happens when you are wrong?

Rick

I've never had a problem on one. I'll call MoO the first of next week and find out what happens when you list an incorrect Medicare #. It must not be too big of a problem since I've never had one to call me on this....or else I've been correct every time, which I admit, is hard to believe.

 

[allhealthandlife]

Spot on! I have written a lot of Med Supps simply because the prospect if fed up with trying over and over again to talk to their agent and not getting any response.

I only attempt to contact seniors between the ages of 67 and 78 for that very reason. I gave up a long time ago of trying to market to T65.
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Excellent advice.

One of my favorite sayings is, "You never learn anything when you are talking".
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That has always been my experience also.

I liken them to a 16 year old boy. At sixteen he knows "everything", his father is typically the dumbest person on earth. However, when he begins to mature he wakes up one morning and says to himself, "self, maybe dad was right about that, maybe he is a little smarter than I thought he was."

That is kind of like I have found most seniors who are turning age 65. That's why I wait to contact them until they are 67. They have "matured" by then and are willing to listen to what I have to say.
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I have tried several times to market to T65's. I have always been successful in selling Med Supps to them but I have found it so much more difficult and time consuming that I really don't spend much time doing it anymore. I can sell several policies to those between 67 and 78 during the time it takes me to sell one to a senior who is T65.

I would love to know what you are doing differently that enables you to be so successful selling to T65 seniors. All the T65 seniors that I have called have been inundated by calls from agents when I contact them. Are you fortunate enough to be the first agent to talk to them? If so, how are you doing that?

That is the part of working the senior market that I have never been able to master.
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Med Supps are almost as easy to understand as FE insurance. The policies themselves are "cut and dry". It's understanding Medicare and how Med Supps work that is what the agent needs to know to answer questions and dispel objections. However, that is not that difficult either.

The main problem is that there are very few places an agent can go to get the information.

Med Supps are so much easier to prospect for and sell than any other kind of insurance, at least I have found that to be true. I have sold tons of FE insurance and have never once prospected for it. Every FE app I have ever written has originated from a Med Supp appointment.

I save everyone I write a Med Supp for money over what they were paying. I simply suggest to them that they may want to consider reinvesting some of that savings in a FE policy. The key to successfully doing that is that I'm not using any "new money". I'm using money they already have budgeted and have been spending. There really isn't any "selling" involved.

More often than not an agent can double their commission on the Med Supp simply by making that suggestion.

Just curious do you sell any PDP or are you just calling prospects back after selling Med supp to initiate the FE pitch.Seems it would be hard to sell Med Supps without PDP being mentioned or dicussed.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Just curious do you sell any PDP or are you just calling prospects back after selling Med supp to initiate the FE pitch.Seems it would be hard to sell Med Supps without PDP being mentioned or dicussed.

I no longer sell PDP plans, as in actually get paid a commission, for a host of reasons. Yes, it is always discussed and I always offer any and all of the help my new client needs. I have built my business around providing the kind of service and continued support that the majority of my clients tell me they haven't gotten from agents who have sold them policies in the past.

The vast majority of the Final Expense applications that I have written are done so immediately after the Medicare Supplement sale. I want to make that suggestion while the money they saved is still fresh in their mind. I really don't try to sell it, I suggest it. I present logical reasons why they should consider it.

This is a suggestion you may want to consider, it has worked very well for me in the past with new clients who were on the fence about a FE plan when I sold them a Med Supp. If I believe they are truly interested in a FE plan but are simply having difficulty making the decision at that time I tell them it would be wise for them to think about it and then I drop the subject. That usually surprises them. I don't keep "hammering" them with it.

When you submit the application have to policy sent to you, not to them. When you receive it call your new client and schedule a time to deliver their policy. When you deliver it once again make the suggestion about FE and this time present some compelling reasons why they should have a specific policy to cover their funeral expenses.

Final Expense is the only kind of insurance that I would cross sell at them time of the Med Supp appointment. The best opportunity the agent has to write a FE app is when he/she can use already budgeted money to cover the premium.

A lot of insurance companies now have on the Med Supp application a section for the agent to add a FE policy. That really makes it sweet and easy. With one company, I added a small FE policy to over 80% of the Med Supps apps I wrote. It dramatically boosted my first year commission on those apps.

 

[retread]

I no longer sell PDP plans, as in actually get paid a commission, for a host of reasons. Yes, it is always discussed and I always offer any and all of the help my new client needs. I have built my business around providing the kind of service and continued support that the majority of my clients tell me they haven't gotten from agents who have sold them policies in the past.
...

I just called on a couple whose wife had a Med Sup but no PDP. The husband had a PFFS and didn't know what it was. I explained the CCP plan I was offering, making sure they understood the difference between Med Sups and MAPDs, and noted the difference between a PFFS and a CCP.

The wife was extremely disgusted at the agent(s) that sold her the Med Sup, because they only mentioned that she didn't have a Part D plan as they walked out the door. She is now subject to a LEP (Late Enrollment Penalty). I calculated what I thought would be a close estimate of the LEP, reminding her that if she signed up with my MAPD plan she would have this fee added to her plan for the rest of her life.

She and her husband were grateful for the full disclosure and I think they will be long term clients of mine.

I carry a PDP enrollment kit for both states that I sell in my briefcase at all times. If I sell a Med Sup, I make sure they know they need a PDP, and I have one to offer them on hand.

I DO NOT accept appointments for PDPs only. I mail the prospect a pre-enrollment kit and have him call me when it arrives. I then walk him through the plan over the phone and let him mail in the app. Last year I made the mistake of traveling about 100 miles round trip to someone who only wanted a PDP (my appointment setter didn't screen properly). That sale turned out to be the most service intensive sale of the year. .... All for $25, less than my cost for gas. Live and learn!

 

[alphawave2k]

. I explained the CCP plan I was offering, making sure they understood the difference between Med Sups and MAPDs, and noted the difference between a PFFS and a CCP. !

What is a CCP? This is a new acronym for me...got all the other ones, but this one I haven't figured out.

 

[carroll]

What is a CCP? This is a new acronym for me...got all the other ones, but this one I haven't figured out.

I still am trying to figure out what a PDP is.

 

[Russ]

I still am trying to figure out what a PDP is.

Prescription Drug Plan.

I'm not sure what CCP means either?