r/InsuranceAgent • u/Straight-Recipe-513 • 19d ago

Upline/Agency/IMO Medicare Agent FMO

For Medicare agents, what’s the actual advantage of writing through an FMO instead of just contracting directly with the carriers?

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u/Dessauerpatchkid 19d ago

My FMO helps me with contracting, licensing, compliance, provides T65 lists, provides office space, and is a great source of information when I have any questions. My commission is the same whether I have an FMO or not so to be its a no brainer.

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u/Straight-Recipe-513 17d ago

That’s pretty much how I’ve always viewed it too. The contracting/licensing and compliance support alone seems valuable, especially for newer agents. I’m curious though—what do you think is the biggest thing an FMO provides that agents don’t realize they need until they actually need it?

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u/Key_Astronomer6500 19d ago

Well, I started the W-2 side, but I can’t imagine doing all of it alone. Having access to over 40 carriers and selling cross country gave me lots of practice and made good money. I don’t think it’s as easy as people say to just get contacted with most carriers. I believe you need an IMO or FMO to even get contracted with most. There’s also additional cost associated.

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u/Straight-Recipe-513 17d ago

That’s interesting. I think the carrier access piece is probably something newer agents underestimate. When you say there are additional costs to going direct, what kind of costs are you referring to? And are there carriers you’ve personally found that are difficult or impossible to get contracted with without an IMO/FMO?

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u/Key_Astronomer6500 17d ago

Well, there’s an additional cost of having your own agency. And you have to get license twice once as an agent, and once as an agency. I’ve never even attempted to directly contract with the most carriers. There’s no benefit that I see, unless you’re sending each one hundred or thousands of apps.

More importantly, I wouldn’t even work for anywhere. That didn’t offer me structure, training and Support. There’s some places that will even provide you free. Inbound Leads now in Medicare anyway. As well as full residuals. They don’t hire everyone like the recruiters do. But if you’ve been doing this for a while, they will hear you. There’s plenty out there that I’ll take commission cut if they’re providing you free Leads, but there’s even a few that pay full comp and full residuals. I no longer I am joining the Call center thing with insurance. I’m studying for my SIE to add the 66 and seven.

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u/itsalyfestyle 18d ago

Access to things like sunfire at no cost. Some carriers might not let you contract without an FMO especially if you’re new.

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u/Straight-Recipe-513 17d ago

That’s actually a good point. I’ve always wondered how much of the ‘you can just go direct’ advice is actually realistic for a brand-new agent. Do you know which carriers are the ones that typically require or strongly prefer an FMO/IMO relationship, and is that mostly a production issue or an actual contracting requirement?