When you’re just starting your career as an insurance sales professional, after getting your license, a good next step is getting appointed with insurance carriers.
Here are some useful tips.
Choosing the Right Insurance Carriers
Ask yourself, what products are you interested in selling? Who are the leading carriers offering those products? If your focus is employee benefits, you may want an appointment with one or more statewide carriers and at least one of your state’s top regional health plans, if applicable. You may want to add a leading Ancillary insurer, too. You’ll need an Accident and Health or Sickness license to sell group benefits. If you want to offer Life Insurance, too, you need a Life license, too.
For additional guidance, read our blogs, A 6-Step Guide to Getting Your Health Insurance License and Understanding the Difference Between Captive and Independent Health Insurance Agents.
It’s your choice whether you become a captive agent or an independent broker. If you work as a captive agent (rather than as a broker), you most likely will be asked to commit to selling only one or two insurance companies’ products. As an independent broker, you are able to sell products and services from a variety of insurers.
How to Get Appointed With Insurance Carriers
You must be appointed with each company for whom you plan to sell. However, before making application, you have some other things to consider.
1: Who are your market’s leaders, and what opportunities are available to you?
In deciding what health plans and carriers you want to write business for, it’s helpful to know the popular plans in your region. For example, in California, Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, CaliforniaChoice, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, and UnitedHealthcare write coverage statewide. Regional California plans include MediExcel Health Plan, Sharp Health Plan, Sutter Health Plan, and Western Health Advantage. If you’re a California agent or broker, keep these in mind when considering your appointment choices.
If you want to offer Dental, Life, Disability, Vision, or other Ancillary – or supplemental coverage – you will want to look at the options available from your health plan partners and specialty carriers that serve your market niche(s). Do any of the companies you’re considering have production requirements? Are they actively recruiting new producers? How do other agents and brokers rate their customer service? These are all things you should consider.
In Nevada, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Prominence Health Plan are market leaders, but other options exist, too. Kaiser Permanente recently announced a partnership in Northern Nevada with Renown Health, the parent of Hometown Health.
It’s important you have confidence in your portfolio, the carriers you represent, and the pricing on products and services you offer. If you pick the wrong carriers, you run the risk of losing out to other brokers and companies because they offer more competitive products.
2: Do your preferred carriers have a record of success?
Another thing to think about is your carriers’ history. That includes not just how much business they’re writing, but whether they are profitable and growing. Look at several years’ results.
The California Department of Insurance offers carrier market share reports that may be of interest. Other information is available from the California Health Care Foundation. The Nevada Division of Insurance offers comparable information in its annual report to the state legislature. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) publishes an annual “Experience Report” for Accident and Health. The 2024 report is available in pdf at the NAIC website.
3: If you plan to work with a General Agent (GA), your GA can provide you with valuable appointment assistance.
This could factor into your carrier choice and your selection of a GA partner. The more partners your GA works with, the greater the number of options you have to choose from to address your clients’ diverse needs. Word & Brown can help relieve you of the more routine administrative tasks associated with our business. That includes quoting, comparing products, enrollment meetings, and more.
Understanding Just-In-Time (JIT) Appointments
A word about “Just-in-time” (JIT) appointments: States allowing JIT appointments permit carriers to delay an appointment until the producer is actively writing business or has executed a carrier contract. This practice enables carriers to control their costs by only appointing brokers who are actively writing business. Timelines vary by state.
In California, JIT appointments are allowed for agents and brokers writing Life, Health, and Annuity business only. Carriers must submit JIT appointments within 14 days of the agent’s or broker’s first business submission to the carrier. This contrasts with property and casualty producers, for whom an appointment must be submitted to Department of Insurance within 15 days of the appointment effective date.)
In Nevada, JIT appointments must be submitted either within 15 days of when the agent/agency contract is executed, or within 15 days of the first piece of business submitted to the carrier.
Get Help With Insurance Carrier Appointments
Word & Brown works with more than 20 Small Group Medical carriers and administrators in California and more than 15 Large Group carriers. In Nevada, we work with 10 Small Group insurers and 10 Large Group insurers.
When it comes to Ancillary (Dental, Vision, Life, Disability), working with us you have dozens of carrier options from which to choose for your California clients. In Nevada, we offer a similarly large roster of Ancillary carrier and administrator partners. Link here to see our full carrier rosters.
Contact your Word & Brown representative today to get started. If you are not working with us yet, call 800-869-6989, or register online.
