3 Reasons Your Clients Need You To Provide Medicare Advice Providing advice on Medicare can help the financial advisor deliver an exceptional client experience. • Brandon Clay
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n my 26 years in the Medicare industry, I have met with thousands of financial advisors to discuss the Medicare opportunity and what I believe is Medicare’s important place in a holistic financial plan. Some advisors are intrigued with the potential — not only the financial potential but the potential that lies in their ability to differentiate themselves in the market. But, to my dismay, many advisors see only the impact (or lack of it) on them rather than looking at the benefits for the clients. Here is what these advisors tell me:
• Medicare is a distraction to my core financial planning business.
• The earning potential is too low. • The workload is too much to balance.
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I empathize with those concerns. I have experienced each one of them at different times in my career. I know those concerns often provided easy ways for me to rationalize that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. But I want to challenge your thinking about whether Medicare should be in your bag. I believe there are many reasons your clients should have someone who already knows their life goals help them through one of the most complicated decisions they will ever make. Let’s look at three top reasons your clients need your help with Medicare. 1. Clients don’t want to trust someone new. How many people does an individual really trust? Some of their family members. A friend or two. And a small number of professionals who help them navigate life’s big decisions. Medicare is a big decision. Many studies have shown how much money individuals left on the table when they did not turn to a Medicare expert for advice. In most
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » January 2022
cases, your clients are on their own to find that expert they can trust. Don’t you think many of your clients would love to have their trusted financial advisor at their side for this decision? 2. Clients just don’t understand health care. And they don’t want to understand it either. They want to be in a system that looks out for their interests. If you have paid any attention to what happens in the roughly 90-day free for all they call Medicare annual enrollment period and open enrollment period, then you probably know a little bit about how Gen. George Armstrong Custer felt at the Little Big Horn. There aren’t many times in a person’s life when they face as big a decision as choosing their Medicare coverage. 3. Clients are petrified they will outlive their money. This is always one of the top two or three concerns of older clients. The thought that this could happen to them influences a broad range of life decisions, health care being an obvious high-impact
