It’s very confusing for a new agent when choosing who to contract through. It seems like each company would just contract you directly and cut out the middle-man and pay you more commission. Even though that seems logical, it doesn’t work that way.
The reason most insurance companies don’t want to contract you directly is because they don’t have any way to train you and they don’t want to spend any time talking to people who aren’t already making them money. Some will contract you directly but they will USUALLY pay you a LOWER commission than you can get through an FMO.
Choosing the right FMO is a huge step in your success selling Final Expense Insurance
So you basically need to decide which kind of FMO will serve you best.
There are three main types of FMOs. We’ll call them Type 1, 2 and 3
- Type 1– The LARGE Agency with dozens of employees and lots of companies covering all types of insurance.
The good part about Type- 1 FMOs– They have lots of staff that can always answer the phone during business hours. They can help you with your contracting forms and always send you any brochures or forms you need. They usually have training webinars to teach you about the products they carry. They will usually offer you street level (or slightly below) commissions.
The bad part about Type-1 FMOs- They usually don’t have any real understanding about final expense or how to make a living selling it. They DO answer the phone anytime you call (during business hours) but there will be no one in the building that can really say that they have ever focused on FE and made a great living at it. They don’t really understand why everyone doesn’t just buy term life insurance.
Type 1 FMOs will usually be in the middle on the commission level they give you. They will give you what they call street level but it’s usually less than the Type 3 street level. You will have a real hard time getting above that for building your agency.
The BOTTOM LINE about Type 1 FMOs- I don’t think ANY agent who wants to focus on FE as a main part of his business should contract to one of the “jack-of-all-trades, master of none” FMOs. I get calls EVERY day from agents who have TransAmerica or UHL through one of these places and can’t figure out why they are always getting declines or other agents replacing their business.
- Type 2 FMO’s- They are the full hands on training, FE focused organizations.
The GOOD part about Type 2 FMOs is – They usually DO know what they are doing. They have agents who HAVE made a successful living selling FE. They have a system that has been successful for many agents (although more will fail than succeed). They will actively stay on top of your success or failure and make every effort to turn you into a high producer. They usually sell you leads at a subsidized cost per lead (around $15-$20) rather than a cost per mailing.
The BAD part about Type 2 FMOs is- Mainly lower commission levels and you give up SOME of your independence. With some of them you CAN’T move your contracts when you want to leave and go on your own (it will be tied up for a year.) Some agents sign up under the WRONG guy in these agencies and are stuck with lower quality training and support than the other agents may get through different upline channels.
Type 2 FMOs will often make you sign a contract that all the leads they sold you (including the ones you sold policies to) can be resold by them to a 2nd and 3rd agent if you leave them or simply don’t perform to their satisfaction. There is a LOT of profit for the FMO to resell leads that an agent already paid the freight on. Your own team (or former team) can become your worst enemy if you accept a clause like this in your agreement.
Type 2 FMOs will pay you lower commissions than the other types. They do give you MORE training and a lower cost lead program. But you pay for that with lower commissions AND reduced renewals. This might be OK in the beginning but definitely not once you know how to sell FE.
The Bottom Line about Type 2 FMOs is- Definitely the right choice for a lot of people IF YOU CHOOSE A GOOD ONE. If you really have no clue about what to do and need ongoing hands on training AND/OR it scares you to death to pay for lead drops and take all the risk whether you will get many lead returns…the type 2 is right for you.
- TYPE-3 FMO- The FE Focused, one or two person agent/FMO
The Good about the Type 3 FMO- These FMO’s are usually a very successful FE agent who contracts downline agents and mentors them. (If you haven’t already figured it out…we are one of these.) We give higher commission contract levels than the others because we have much less overhead. We are one of the best resources to guide you on where to buy leads, how to run your business and get your sales going. When you call us with questions…we know the right answers. You have a direct connection to someone who really CAN help you rather than give you lip service and spam you to watch training videos that teach you little more than how to fill out the paperwork (meaning the Type 1 FMO training.)
What makes FexContracting.com stand out from the other IMOs?- FexContracting.com (National Underwriting Service, llc) is owned by two successful Agents with over 30-years experience between them selling life insurance to Seniors. Most IMOs are run by guys who never wanted to sell, or were not successful selling. When you are an FexContracting agent, you have two built-in mentors to help you not only sell your policies but also answer any questions you have about running your business. We have created a business model where we can we do a group agent call every week and agents can ask and discuss any question on any topic from underwriting, leads, appointment setting, budgeting, or anything to do with final expense. On these calls we don’t sugar coat anything. These are real discussions with successful agents NOT marketer hype and nonsense. Listen to a sample call right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InDU51EchLQ
In addition, if you want to come ride for a day with Travis Tubbs in the field, he has a standing guarantee that if you will see him sell over $2,000 in FE premium that day OR he will pay you $100 cash. Travis has had dozens of agents ride with him and he has never had to pay out the $100 yet. Travis is the master at selling FE and working in an organized and productive manner. Most agents succeed with no field training at all. This is not a difficult business to understand. But if you want the field training, you have access to the best in the business.
The most successful agents with FexContracting are on our weekly lead program. These agents get their choice of 20, 25 or 30 brand new direct mail life insurance leads every Friday at a set cost of $26 each. These are brand now leads that were mailed to seniors between the ages of 55-79 to lower income household in the counties that YOU select. You choose the areas you want to work and how many leads you want each week. Can you make over $100,000 after all expenses on a program like this? No one knows if YOU can but I can guarantee you that we have had many agents who do that and much more. We have agents who write over $200,000 annually that only get 20 leads per week (we recommend getting 25 per week.)
The Bad about Type 3 FMOs- Most Type 3 FMOs don’t have staff to answer the phone every time you call. You DO have to leave messages. But as FexContracting has grown we have added two support staff. Mark Stover was a regional Manager with Assurity for many years. We are proud to have him on board now as our agent support manager. And we have Vanessa to handle everything to do with your agent contracting. And if you have a need during the week to assist with a case that Mark is not able to assist you with, you always have accesss to Travis and Scott’s cell phones. Plus you have a scheduled call every Friday morning with not only Scott and Travis but many top producing FE agents around the country. On these calls you can listen in to detailed conversations about everything an FE agent deals with in this business from leads, appointment setting, presentations, objection handling, closing, field underwriting and company selection, and more. You can sit back each week and just listen but we encourage you to participate even when you are new with every question you have live during the calls or by sending them to us by text.
BOTTOM LINE ON TYPE 3 FMOs- Perfect fit for the guy who is a self-starter, quick learner and willing to buy leads every week. You have the greatest opportunity of making the MOST money (higher commission contracts) BUT if you don’t learn what to do, the biggest contracts won’t do you any good.
Type 3 FMOs (like us) will be where you get the highest commission levels. You will always get true street level commissions (110-120%). We have lower overhead and you benefit from that. If you don’t need daily hand-holding but can learn from successful agents who explain each week exactly how to do what they do then you can reach greater success like many agents already have.
At fexcontracting.com our goal is to be the BEST of the Type 3 FMOs. We try to give you the best mix of knowledge, lead sources, web resources PLUS the highest level commission contracts with the MOST sellable FE companies in the industry.
No other IMO that we know of gives you the selection of the cream of the crop companies that FexContracting offers and gives you the highest commission levels. Transamerica, Oxford Life, Settlers Life, Security National Life, Royal Neighbors, KSKJ Life, Trinity Life, Christian Fidelity Life, Lafayette Life, Mutual of Omaha, Gerber Life, Family Benefit Life and more! As a FexContracting agent you will be loaded with the best and can NOT be beat by rates or by underwriting advantages.
All we ask is that if you want everything we offer, put ALL your FE contracts contracts through us. It’s frustrating to help an agent who calls for case guidance when he has final expense companies scattered around everywhere. You need to have ALL your main companies at the same place. That way your upline can give you the best guidance with no bias as to what companies he will advise you to place your business through. And with us, you get training calls with some of the top producing Final Expense Agents in the country, high commission contracts, the best lead programs in the industry and the best selection of FE companies. You also get the extra support of Agent Groups, Lifeline Texting, detailed underwriting cheat sheets, and our annual company meeting with classroom training and networking.
