Agents’ Clients Are Consumers

Agents depend on their clients, whether individual consumers or employer groups, for their livelihood. By providing ongoing service and benefit expertise, the value of the agent is always evident.

• Agents Often Support Small Employer Human Resource Departments

Quite often, small employers cannot afford human resource staffing, so agents assist them in many of those functions. Small employers rely on agents to assist them in a multitude of ways in the day-to-day handling of their health insurance and other personnel matters.

• Agents Help the Elderly Understand Their Benefits

Elderly consumers often have problems understanding their Medicare or long-term care benefits, and agents have the ability to explain these in a manner that is easier to comprehend.

• Agents Make Complex Benefit Issues Understandable to Their Clients

Often, state and federal governments pass laws that affect employee benefits; health insurance agents understand these laws and explain them to their clients in a clear and concise manner. There are countless plan options available to employers and consumers; good agents guide their clients through myriad options to the plan that best suits their particular needs.

• Agents Solve Clients’ Problems

Typically, agents are the first to be called when a client’s claim is not paid or when premiums are raised. Because of their expertise, experience and relationships with insurance carriers, agents can often get problems solved quickly and efficiently. Many agents have customer service representatives in their office for the specific purpose of assisting clients with their benefit problems.

• Agents Are Paid a Commission for Servicing and Selling Products

These commissions are integrated into your insurance premium. An employer can replace his or her agent at any time, so it is in the agent’s best interest to provide clients with the best service available. Most insurance companies pay the agent a commission for not only selling a group plan, but also for taking over much of the servicing of that group. There is a true value to that service that both insurance companies and employer groups recognize.

• Agents Represent Millions of Americans

Most insured individuals in this country receive their health insurance from employer groups represented by insurance agents. And many individuals often work with an agent when purchasing coverage because they know that agents have the expertise to help them make healthcare coverage decisions that fit their particular needs.