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Actually, I was pretty well set on keeping my independence when I wrote the post, and I was ptting feelers out literally all over the place jst to make sure I made the best decision for my family. The only one I found that came remotely close to what I was expecting, told me they would give me free live transfer leads in exchange for a 90% contract, and a promise that I'd remain independent. After praying about it and getting no response from the people I was dealing with, I knew I had to go another direction. Funny thing was, I actually found your website, Chris, and I watched a couple of webinars u put on YouTube. I've been in this business 11 years, been burned a couple times. Not to say my experience has not been valuable, but I can't afford anymore "burns" by greedy agents. Your video convinced me to focus on med supps. Thanks for the great info, Chris.I believe you're circling around the solution, but haven't quite found it.
I strongly recommend not trying to start selling final expense by phone, due to the chargebacks alone. Medicare Advantage prospects cannot be cold called and you're very limited in the ways you can contact them, then the regulatory environment surrounding every conversation, etc. can be a nightmare.
To be an independent agent, though, selling Medicare Supplements by phone means you can get the full commission, be truly independent, control your own lead generation (quality, cost, etc.) and build a great residual income with virtually no chargebacks (98% persistency). I've been doing this since 2008 as my focus and it's very much worth it.
The folks you'll be dealing with are not the lowest income (final expense and some MAPD) and this also opens other avenues of cross selling because they have the resources to secure coverage they feel they need. The referrals that come from savings folks money on Medicare Supplements are a tremendous bonus that I never expected when I started out, but are flowing after just a few years in the business.
Lastly, I recommend NOT assigning your commisions to anyone. Remain independent. Do not sign on as an employee, building someone else's empire for them.
This week I got a message from an agent who is working for a "friend" for the last few years. This agent was given a predictive dialer account and a list of T65's (turning 65 seniors) and told to dial for dollars. Nothing wrong with that, but his cases were assigned 100% to the friend's agency. This agent made just $150 one-time for each case secured.
My encouragement was to make his own way, go independent, and build a significant residual income, especially since he's mastered the art of cold calling and has consistent business coming in. The difference can be up to $1,800 over 6 years, per case, instead of $150 one-time.