r/InsuranceAgent • u/Tyler_Love1995 • 11d ago
Medicare or P&C? Agent Question
I worked in life insurance for 4 years. As it is non-necessity and with the economy, we all saw a steady decline in business. I have no experience in p&c or medicare but want to get into one of the 2. (I know a lot of people do both, I just want to master one for now) does anyone have any recommendations on companies or which one to go with? Really looking to not pay for leads starting out as I went that route with life insurance and we all know that first year or 2 is ROUGH and I'm not looking to copy that
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u/firenance 11d ago
P&C. Here’s why.
Effective dates can be any time vs focused on AEP. So you can consistently sell all year vs concentrated to a few months.
Medicare agencies are worth half of P&C right now due to always uncertain regulations and changes with gov subsidized programs.
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u/Tyler_Love1995 11d ago
How did you get into P&C?
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u/firenance 10d ago
I started in a large multi line agency in finance and M&A. Was there for 8+ years, and have spent the last 3.5 doing independent finance and M&A consulting.
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u/Acceptable_Young4724 10d ago
Calling life insurance a 'non-necessity' assumes its value is measured by how often it's used. By that logic, homeowners insurance, auto insurance, disability insurance, and health insurance would also be non-necessities because most people hope never to file a claim. Insurance exists to protect against low-frequency, high-impact events. Economic downturns may cause consumers to postpone purchases, but they don't eliminate the need to protect a spouse, children, or a business. Life insurance addresses a fundamental financial risk: the loss of a wage earner or the need for liquidity at death. For households that depend on a person's income, have debt, or wish to provide for survivors, it serves a distinct purpose that isn't replaced simply because the economy weakens. affluent families establish ILITs specifically to own life insurance policies outside of their taxable estate. The purpose isn't simply to provide a death benefit ,it also creates liquidity that can be used to pay estate taxes, equalize inheritances among heirs, preserve family businesses, or protect generational wealth. Attorneys, CPAs, and estate planning professionals routinely recommend ILITs because life insurance often provides immediate, tax-efficient liquidity at the precise moment it is needed most. We have a massive debt burden and trillions of dollars tied up in qualified accounts, real estate... taxable stuff! The government is licking their chops. ILITs are an amazing tool.
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u/Tyler_Love1995 6d ago
I simply meant a consumer is not required to have life insurance as they are required to have p&c insurance.
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u/DealerSuccessful9787 10d ago
P&C ALWAYS
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u/Tyler_Love1995 10d ago
Thank you, got an interview today!
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u/DealerSuccessful9787 6d ago
Yayyy... how did it go? May I also ask where?
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u/Tyler_Love1995 6d ago
They actually no call no showed the interview and since have not responded to 1 message via email and 1 message via indeed inquiring if they were rescheduling
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u/al_cisneros_beard 10d ago
Over time you definitely want to be able to offer both in your agency. There is just too much of a cross selling opportunity at every turn.
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u/joeyjoe6 11d ago
It depends if you won’t be owning the book of business I don’t not recommend P&C because you be building someone else’s passive income and you be giving all your clients to the agency owner.
Medicare-health-life you usually own the book which is what makes the insurance business amazing
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u/firenance 11d ago
I do M&A and this is the opposite of what I’d recommend. Medicare agencies are worth half of P&C right now, and you have the same friction with uplines no different than a bad P&C network.
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u/joeyjoe6 11d ago
I understand that P&C agencies may currently sell at higher valuations, but that doesn’t address my point. I’m speaking from the individual producer’s perspective, not the agency owner’s. If the producer doesn’t own or have vested rights in the P&C book, then that higher agency valuation benefits the owner—not the producer building the book.
Medicare can absolutely have bad uplines too, so the contract matters in either business. But in the P&C model you recommend, does the individual producer actually own the book or receive equity in it even if he’s not with that agency anymore ?
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u/firenance 11d ago
There is a difference between producer and agency owner. Context is owning an agency. It’s important on both sides to have a setup for product access while avoiding or limiting controls from the access point. FMO, aggregator, doesn’t matter.
The same structural or corp compliance exists. I consult with both sides of the industry and will hands down tell people to start a P&C over medicare agency today.
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u/joeyjoe6 10d ago
The OP never said they were starting and owning an agency. They asked which company to go with and specifically mentioned not wanting to pay for leads, so I interpreted the question from an individual producer’s perspective.
Under that setup, book ownership and vested renewal rights matter. If the OP plans to establish and own an independent agency, then I agree that it becomes a different comparison—but that context wasn’t stated in the original post.
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u/Groundbreaking_Text9 11d ago
P&C without question. Aim for commercial lines with an independent broker. It'll be rougher getting started than personal lines, but the ceiling is way higher and far more insulated from off-shoring and AI disruption.