First, you must commit to memory this: Every company has different rules. Very different rules.

If you learn what household discounts Mutual of Omaha offers, you won’t have grounds to even intelligently guess what Aetna does. And so on. Trust me, this is the chaos of insurance that we all just love to hate, but we secretly know is our job security! The system is a mess, the agents are skilled to make sense of it (so stop complaining how crazy these rules are).

  1. United HealthCare is the nation’s largest Medicare Supplement insurance carrier (branded AARP). They offer a 5% discount <<in most states>> when both spouses buy a policy. If one dies, the other will eventually lose the discount. Many companies allow the discount to remain in the event of death.
  2. Mutual of Omaha, the second-largest carrier, has many sister companies that work similarly (United World, United of Omaha, etc.) which give a discount as long as both spouses purchase a plan. The discount can be up to 7%. Again, some states just won’t approve a discount at all.
  3. Medico operates very liberally and allows a discount for a new member who lives with anyone over the age of 18 for at least 1 year. You have a renter? Cool, that could save you up to 12% off your premiums. Some states only allow 7% and again, a few states just won’t approve a discount at all.
  4. Now let’s contrast with most of the smaller insurance companies. Sentinel Security Life, like most small carriers, has no household discount.

 

Talk To Your Clients With Younger Spouses To Plan Ahead For A Potential Discount

If it makes sense for both spouses to purchase from the same company, it can save a lot of money. When quoting a younger spouse, start with the carrier the older spouse currently has. Then see about the viability of moving them both to a different company that may have better rates for the older spouse. In other words, look long and hard at pairing them up somewhere to take advantage of a potential household discount.

Spouses like to be on the same plan but agents are quick to write up the spouse who is aging in and look at that spouse individually and not the possibility of moving the older spouse too.

 

Our Medicare quote engine will allow you to check the household discount box and run accurate quotes with this discount factored in.

Household discounts should be something you are thinking about when quoting Medicare Supplement plans. You might not be asking about the younger spouse yet — so start planting the seed now.

Explain that in a year or two when she is Medicare eligible, he may be able to lower his rates because of this spousal discount! You want them to come back to YOU for the next spouse’s insurance needs (and no, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the other spouse likes to be independent and do things her or his own way. You want to lay the groundwork that working with YOU is their ticket to a very lucrative household discount).

apply discounts

Going into our quote engine is the easiest way to see what the discount looks like on the plans you sell in your area. Use of our quote engine is free and open to all agents (subject to certain conditions). We can see the quotes that agents run and therefore know that you are NOT applying the discounts. When this can save your clients money, you owe it to them to consider every advantage. If you would like a personal tutorial on how to quote Medicare Supplements, call us at 800-388-8342 or go to gordonmarketing.com.

 

___________________________________________________________________

Sylvia Gordon and her sister, Rebecca, run Gordon Marketing, one of the nation’s largest Medicare FMO/NMA offices. They have a team of over 100 that train and support independent insurance agents in all 50 states. You can find Sylvia’s weekly posts on LinkedIn and the sisters' Youtube channel posts 2 training videos each week. Contact Sylvia at sgordon@gordonmarketing.com or 800-388-8342.

x

Call 1-800-388-8342

error

Enjoying our website? Please spread the word :)