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By Wendy Swanson
Working in the industry for over 25 years, I have spoken with several types of producers. Some work through brokers while others go through registered investment advisers. Yet others are insurance agents only.
Over the years, I have discovered a trend with some advisors. They don’t care about the idea of ​​offering Medicare products to their customers. They give a plethora of reasons why they don’t offer these products. Some prefer not to bother and just fire this business.
Others can’t imagine why you would bother since the compensation is comparatively less than that of other products and solutions. Whatever the reason, counselors just don’t want to mess around with Medicare products.
Why on earth would I then get a financial advisor to add Medicare to their business? There are many reasons!
• Reason 1: It makes the customer more loyal to you
If you sell a product to a customer, they may or may not stay with you. However, if you sell multiple products to the same household, it is more difficult for them to switch you off for another advisor. Adding Medicare to your practice helps you deliver a comprehensive retirement plan that includes both health and wealth solutions. If the client feels that all of their needs have been met, there is no reason to speak to another counselor.
• Reason 2: It brings more value
Health coverage is a major concern of retirees. You have a lot of competitors who want to steal your customers. If you are unwilling to discuss healthcare costs and your competitors are, you risk losing customers to those competitors. By continually delivering value to your clients, you are constantly reminding them that they are working with the right retirement advisor. It helps protect the customers you work so hard to get on board in the first place.
• Reason 3: It’s important to them
Granted, it can be more exciting for an advisor to talk about things like mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, exchange traded funds, hedge funds, etc. However, you may find that your clients are exponentially more excited to have someone help them navigate through the myriad of potential Medicare solutions. If it’s important to them, shouldn’t it be to you?
• Reason 4: It is the main system that is amortizing
The initial use of Medicare related products is a great door opener to potentially cross-sell with other products you offer. The problem with Medicare and Social Security is that these are matters of great urgency. People want and seek help for both Medicare and Social Security because these are things they know they can only put on the back burner for so long. Decisions must be taken within certain time limits.
These are things we all pay for in our years of work, so we look forward to reaping these benefits. These are fabulous topics for attracting new prospects to your practice while promoting your expertise! For years, I’ve known large agencies that build their assets under management (AUM), life, long-term care, and annuity sales using Medicare as a door opener.
• Reason 5: It can be an important generator of continuous income
Most health insurance products have trailing commissions. Some will limit the years they will offer trails while others will offer lifetime trails. As you add more customers, this revenue stream will continue to grow. I know many in the field who, with time and effort, earn over $ 100,000 a year in Medicare trailing commissions. And that’s before they even get out of bed. Imagine having your AUM Continuous Income Stream and Medicare Income Stream under one roof. You bring more value to your customers as well as more value to your portfolio. How awesome is that?
• Reason 6: Part B bonus guidelines are clear indicators of wealth
When working with Medicare, one of the things you will look at is the premium part B. The premium is based on income levels. Please see the table below to see what it looks like. If your prospects pay any of these bonuses, they probably have money saved for retirement as well. Knowing this aspect of planning your leads helps you better understand where additional sales opportunities may exist.
The bottom line is this: If you don’t offer health insurance to your retirees, you are missing out on the boat to increase your income and fully satisfy your customers.
Wendy Swanson, RICP, CLTC, NSSA Certificate Holder, is Senior Annuity Marketing Consultant at SMS Financial in Omaha, Neb.
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