Exactly. I have only moved about 5 to 10% of my book in any given year, and that was almost always because of network changes.
Adding Medicare to FE Sales
- Thread starter mbiallas
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Exactly. I have only moved about 5 to 10% of my book in any given year, and that was almost always because of network changes.
- 3,247
The big turnoff about MA is that you have to re-certify every single year in order to get renewals.
I had to take a good look at myself and face the reality that the certification and testing is definitely not for me, especially if I have to go through that every year!
I had to take a good look at myself and face the reality that the certification and testing is definitely not for me, especially if I have to go through that every year!
- 1,206
The annual recertification process gets easier every year but just so we are clear it really sucks. We have 4 or 5 carriers we were for and each had their specialized training courses then you have to pass AHIP which is the worst. My wife and I basically take one week to do only certifications and it sucks big time. But it is a big part of our annual income so we put up with it.
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- #14
Is it possible or reasonable to skip the annual open enrollment circus and still be successful with MA? The whole seminar thing seems really hokey to me.
- 6,994
No seminars. You just ask who they have for their med supp and switch em over. 48 hours later of course. You will obviously be busier during AEP.
- 1,206
There are lots of other ways, other than seminars. Once you get rolling you will like seminars imo. We used to use direct mail and had a couple wall Mart booths during AEP. Once your established people will come to you too so that helps. Then you could open an office to attract walk in business.
MA and Med Supp can get you out of the FE rat race but what you will find is there is still a lot of work involved. So the way to work it is to push hard for a couple yrs then let what comes to you come and service the existing book. I think of the MA comp as free lead money
Any way you can keep your clients from calling someone else is a good thing.
Why let them call someone for Medicare and have that person try to sell them FE too? Or Dental? Or whatever?
FE is an easier sale, but imo its FAR worse persistency than MA or MS.
FE is a great short term cash generator--FE sales is like hunting
MA/MS sales is like farming. Lower commissions, better persistency (in MY experience) and far far better residuals.
So hunt and farm.
Why let them call someone for Medicare and have that person try to sell them FE too? Or Dental? Or whatever?
FE is an easier sale, but imo its FAR worse persistency than MA or MS.
FE is a great short term cash generator--FE sales is like hunting
MA/MS sales is like farming. Lower commissions, better persistency (in MY experience) and far far better residuals.
So hunt and farm.
- 591
Adding MA and Med Supps are a no brainer in my opinion. Yes you have to work for them, but you're already in front of the very same people on your FE appointments. The key is to be compliant on the MA and learn the various techniques to create SEPs. Is it easy no, but you will build a much more stable income than relying on FE alone.
- 18,988
Everyone has to find their niche but I couldn't disagree more with the sentiment that MA is more stable than FE.
I wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 MA plans. I ditched MA in Feb, 2009 and never looked back.
And my income took off when I became laser focused on FE.
Travis wrote more MA plans than I did. He also dumped them in late 2008. He's never looked back either.
I don't want to add MA plans back to my artillery nor have I ever regretted dumping them.
I still write med sups but that opportunity is limited when you run FE leads. Most of my med sup writes come from referrals. Not from FE leads.
I refer out the MA business when I'm asked about it. Same guy I send all my PDP business to.
It would be wrong for me to tell others to not write MA plans. Just as it is wrong for someone to tell others to write MA plans.
Most of the heavy hitters I know in FE do not fool with MA plans. I know some that do that Humana AOR thing just to pick up free money. If any company deserves that stuff going on it's Humana.
- 591
I'll sum it up this way JD. Write 200k in FE and earn 11k per year in renewal starting month 25 with a 80 percent persistency.
Pick the low hanging fruit and also write 1 MA plan a week for the year to earn the same amount by month 13. Take the AOR, but I wouldn't walk away from a sale, especially if I'm getting up money by helping someone onto LIS.
I think that we agree on Med Supps where we can find them. Your mileage may vary but I'm getting plenty in my more rural areas.
Pick the low hanging fruit and also write 1 MA plan a week for the year to earn the same amount by month 13. Take the AOR, but I wouldn't walk away from a sale, especially if I'm getting up money by helping someone onto LIS.
I think that we agree on Med Supps where we can find them. Your mileage may vary but I'm getting plenty in my more rural areas.
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