Tyler Insurance GroupWho owns your book of business? A straight answer for Medicare agents
Your book is only yours if the carrier pays you directly at the CMS rate. If your upline pays you, they can keep your renewals when you leave.
One word decides it: assignment. Assigned commissions mean the agency owns the money. Direct commissions mean you do.
Get two things in writing before you sign anywhere: how you are paid, and how you get released. If either is vague, that is your answer.
There is one question that decides whether you are building a business or renting one, and most agents never ask it out loud: if I leave, do my clients and my renewals come with me? The honest answer depends entirely on how your contract is written, not on how friendly your recruiter was.
Direct pay vs. assigned commissions
When you write a Medicare Advantage or Supplement policy, the carrier pays a commission. The only question is who it flows to first. There are two models, and they lead to very different places.
Direct pay: the carrier pays you the full commission at the CMS maximum, straight to you. The FMO earns a separate override from the carrier, on top of your check, not out of it. Your name is on the contract. If you leave, your renewals keep coming to you and your book moves with you.
Assigned commissions, often called LOA or licensed-only-agent: the carrier pays the agency, and the agency pays you a share. The book is contracted under them. If you leave, the renewals can stay with the agency. You built it. They keep it.
How to tell which one you have
- Read your contract for the word assignment, or the phrase assignment of commissions. If your commissions are assigned to the upline, you do not own the book.
- Ask a blunt question: am I paid directly by the carrier at the full CMS rate, or by you? A clear answer is a good sign. A vague one is the answer.
- Ask what happens to your renewals if you leave. If they cannot say plainly that the renewals follow you, assume they do not.
Where release fits in
Owning your book and being able to leave are two different locks on the same door. Even a direct-pay agent needs a release to move a carrier contract to a new upline. A fair FMO states its release policy in writing and does not use it as a leash. Most carriers also let you change your hierarchy once a year without any release at all, around the anniversary of your contract. Knowing that one fact takes a lot of the fear out of the whole decision.
The trap to avoid is an upline that will not put release terms in writing, or buries them, or quietly delays releases for months. If a company needs to hold you hostage to keep you, that tells you exactly what they think their value is.
How TIG does it
We built TIG on the model above. You are paid directly by the carrier at the full commission, your book is yours, and our release terms are in writing. Our brother company, Crowe and Associates, runs on the exact same structure, and Ed has said the same thing in public for years: full commission, paid direct, you own the book. We think that is the only honest way to run an FMO. It is also just good business, because agents who are free to leave and choose to stay are the ones worth building with.
This is the difference between an asset and a job. A book you own is something you can grow, borrow against, and one day sell. A book the agency owns is a paycheck that stops the day you leave.
It also quietly caps your leverage. If your renewals are hostage, every other conversation, about comp, support, or leads, happens from a weaker position. Ownership is what lets you negotiate like a business owner instead of an employee.
- Pull your current contract and search it for the word assignment. If your commissions are assigned, you are an LOA agent and you do not own your book. Now you know.
- Ask your upline, in writing, two questions: am I paid directly by the carrier at the full CMS rate, and what is your written release policy. Save the answers.
- Check your contract anniversary date. For most carriers you can change hierarchy once a year around that date without a release. Put it on your calendar.
- Never sign a new contract until you have both answers in writing. If a recruiter will not put it in writing, that is the fastest disqualifier there is.