By Justin Brock
Before I built anything at BROCK, I spent five years at kitchen tables and personally enrolled more than 2,500 beneficiaries. I didn’t keep those clients because I had the best pitch. I kept them because they knew I’d pick up the phone in July too.
Today we train more than 20,000 licensed insurance agents through BROCK, and those with the strongest books all have one thing in common. Their clients call them first.
That’s worth thinking about as more beneficiaries go direct.
There is a moment in every AEP when the retention battle is either won or lost, and it rarely happens in October. It happens in August, when you reach out to a client you have not heard from in months. It happens in September, when you send a plan review before anyone else has called. It happens before the season starts, when a client decides whether to work with you or explore their options through Medicare.gov.
The Online Enrollment Center (OEC) enrollment data from the past two years should make every working licensed insurance agent think carefully about that question. But it should also prompt a more honest one: Why are beneficiaries going direct in the first place?
The honest version of the story
When AEP OEC enrollments grew 67.9% from 2023 to 2024 and another 53.6% from 2024 to 2025, reaching roughly 540,000 enrollments through Medicare.gov during the October through December window of 2025, that growth was not coming out of thin air. Those were real beneficiaries completing real enrollments without a licensed insurance agent involved.
Some were new to Medicare. Some were switching plans. Some were likely existing clients who had not heard from their licensed insurance agent before the season started. And some were beneficiaries who had been shown options that served the licensed insurance agent’s commission more than their coverage needs, then decided they were better off on their own.
I’ll add one more reason, and it’s one our industry doesn’t love talking about.
A lot of beneficiaries came into their current plan through a giveback ad or a food card pitch. They were enrolled by someone they’ll never speak to again. If that’s their only experience with a licensed insurance agent, why wouldn’t they try Medicare.gov next time?
Transactional marketing produces transactional clients. We see that churn every AEP. The most effective response is not simply a better outreach cadence, though cadence matters. It’s a commitment to client-first advice, delivered consistently, including when the best plan for a client’s needs is a non-commissionable one.
The retention conversation before it becomes a retention problem
Top-producing licensed insurance agents know retention is not a December conversation. It is a year-round posture. In a high-OEC environment, that starts well before AEP opens.
In August, you’re not selling anything. You’re checking in, asking how the plan worked during the year, whether there were coverage surprises and whether anything changed in the client’s health or budget picture. You are reminding clients that you are already paying attention. If the right move involves a plan that does not generate a commission, the licensed insurance agent with the integrity to say so is the one the client remembers and recommends.
In September, you’re doing the pre-work. You review current coverage against what is coming for the plan year, identify clients facing material plan changes, network shifts or drug coverage issues and build the list of conversations that need to happen before October 15.
In October, you’re executing and not scrambling.
A beneficiary who finds their way to Medicare.gov in November often does so because someone did not do the work earlier, or because the work done for them benefited the licensed insurance agent more than it benefited the client. Both point to the same solution: year-round advocacy that treats every client as a relationship worth protecting, not a policy worth placing.
Why personal conversations still matter
Medicare.gov is accurate, accessible and improving. But it cannot tell a client that the plan they are selecting excludes the cardiologist they have seen for years. It can’t flag a drug tier change that will cost them more each month. It can’t ask about the knee replacement scheduled for February or the spouse’s coverage that needs to be coordinated with their own.
You, however, can do all these things. The best local licensed insurance agents I know already do a lot more than that, and most of it is unpaid. Chasing down a denied claim. Verifying a chronic condition so a client gets the SSBCI benefits they qualify for. Validating an SEP. Fixing a late enrollment penalty. Getting a client reimbursed for a prescription.
None of that pays a dime. All of it is why that client never opens Medicare.gov. And when clients know that from experience, they do not go to Medicare.gov first. They call you.
That kind of trust comes from consistent proof that you put their interests ahead of your own. The licensed insurance agents at BROCK and across AmeriLife who present all available options, including those that may not generate a commission, are not sacrificing income to be noble. They’re building relationships strong enough to withstand plan changes, carrier withdrawals and platform improvements.
Licensed insurance agents who lose clients to direct enrollment are not losing because Medicare.gov is too good. They are losing because the relationship was not strong or trusted enough for the client to reach for it automatically when AEP arrived. The fix is not a better pitch in October; it’s a better relationship in August.
Three retention habits for a high-OEC AEP season
Start outreach earlier than you think you need to. A brief check-in call or email in August establishes the expectation that you’re looking out for clients, and that October 15 is a conversation, not a transaction.
Know your book before the season knows it for you. Review existing clients against upcoming plan changes. Identify whose coverage is being reduced, whose networks are tightening or whose premiums are increasing. Come prepared to show every option available, not just the ones that pay well.
Make your value visible, not just available. Clients call you instead of visiting Medicare.gov when they know from experience what you do for them. That experience is built when you give the straight answer, including the answer that costs you.
Every client in your book should have a concrete reason to reach for you first: a problem you solved, a question you answered or a benefit you caught that they would have missed. That is not marketing. That is advocacy, and advocacy is the most durable competitive advantage in this business.
That’s the licensed insurance agent we want to build around at BROCK. The ones running their book like a concierge practice. Those relationships get more valuable every year, and a website can never replicate them.
