Anybody else Experience the Starmark Bait and Switch?

LGilmore

Guru
1000 Post Club
For the past couple years I have tried to use Starmark small group for quotes.

The quotes look fantastic, extremely competitive, so you get committment and work towards final rates. Final rates come back and they've changed by 30% in the wrong direction, making them the most expensive option.

Has anybody else had any success with them or is this circle jerk the norm for dealing with them?

Not going to invest anymore time in carriers who quote one set of numbers and come back with a big different number... And yes, I understand medical underwriting and changes for less than perfect health conditions. But it seems anything minor or major is a major markup.

Is this just happening with my guy or does anybody else have the same story?
 
For the past couple years I have tried to use Starmark small group for quotes.

The quotes look fantastic, extremely competitive, so you get committment and work towards final rates. Final rates come back and they've changed by 30% in the wrong direction, making them the most expensive option.

Has anybody else had any success with them or is this circle jerk the norm for dealing with them?

Not going to invest anymore time in carriers who quote one set of numbers and come back with a big different number... And yes, I understand medical underwriting and changes for less than perfect health conditions. But it seems anything minor or major is a major markup.

Is this just happening with my guy or does anybody else have the same story?


I have been writing small group self-funded plans (Starmark and others) for years. Yes, this does happen, sometimes the rate-up is even higher. But I would not define it as "bait and switch" by any stretch of the imagination.

The use of individual medical disclosures are the best way to identify and quantify the risk of a group regardless of their size. So, to work around this issue we use form fire as an intake for our medical disclosures. That way we bypass "street rates" and go right to medical underwriting and we eliminate the need for multiple medical disclosures.

Good luck.
 
Smaller companies are going to cherry pick. That is how is always been. Starmark is one of those smaller carrier.

I had a block of biz with them but that was a few years ago.

It's important to understand how the carrier underwrites. Certain SIC codes, certain conditions, and so on. Once you have this knowledge then you can really estimate if the carrier is going to to complete.

If a 15 life group has a complicated diabetic who is going to give them the best rate? Starmark is not.
 
The use of individual medical disclosures are the best way to identify and quantify the risk of a group regardless of their size. So, to work around this issue we use form fire as an intake for our medical disclosures.

what is form fire? I'm not familiar with it, and it sounds like it could help us...
 
For the past couple years I have tried to use Starmark small group for quotes.

The quotes look fantastic, extremely competitive, so you get committment and work towards final rates. Final rates come back and they've changed by 30% in the wrong direction, making them the most expensive option.

Has anybody else had any success with them or is this circle jerk the norm for dealing with them?

Not going to invest anymore time in carriers who quote one set of numbers and come back with a big different number... And yes, I understand medical underwriting and changes for less than perfect health conditions. But it seems anything minor or major is a major markup.

Is this just happening with my guy or does anybody else have the same story?

I have partnered with StarMark for a few years now.

They are not bait and switch. I would say their sweet spot is 10-20 lives. The problem is I one employee in the group has a serious illness than the entire group will be rate up a lot.

The key to selling this plan is to try to identify if there are any "sick" employees. Difficult to do which is why the sweet spot is with smaller groups.

Hope this helps.
 
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