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For new-to-Medicare and experienced agents, this guide will tell you what you need to know to get certified and ready-to-sell every year.
All Agents
Key resources for both new and experienced agents.
Take the AHIP
Take your certifications
View our guide to completing certifications for each carrier.
Contracting with Spark
Select your carriers
If you need help selecting new carriers, please visit our data studio to see the most-popular carriers. We recommend that you represent at least 3 major plans to start, and add additional ones as you grow your business.
Get contracted
View our guide to completing contracts for each carrier.
Get contractedUnderstand your contract status
You can view your contract status for each carrier directly in the Spark platform. In some cases your carrier will be pending. Please use this guide to understand what your status means.
Understand your contract statusReleases & Important deadlines
You can obtain a release by requesting one from your current upline. If you don’t know who your top-of-hierarchy is, call the carrier directly (if the release is not signed by your current top-of-hierarchy, it can cause delays in processing the transfer and may be denied until the correct release is obtained). The fastest way to transfer your contracts is with an immediate release from your current upline. Otherwise, you may be subject to waiting periods or carrier blackouts. We recommend starting the transfer process immediately and afterwards requesting the release.
Requesting a releaseIf you currently have your contract under another top-of-hierarchy and want to transfer it to Spark before this year’s AEP, you must transfer it before the deadlines below. If you delay, you will not be able to move until Jan 2, 2024. Just request the contract on the Spark Platform to initiate the transfer process.
- Aetna: 6/30
- Anthem: 6/30
- Cigna: 6/30
- Devoted: 8/14
- Humana: 7/10
- Scan: 9/15
- Wellcare: 9/20
- United Healthcare: 5/31
New-to-Medicare agents
For agents who need to take the pre-licensing course, state license exam, purchase E&O insurance, and take AHIP for their first time.
View our detailed step-by-step guide
Xcel solutions:
- Go to: www.xcelsolutions.com
- Total cost: $85
- Apply discount code "SPARK"
- Alternative option here: https://scribehow.com/shared/ExamFx__7PPcZri8Sq6igxzhVKaoIg
Exam FX:
- Priced at $99 with the discount code (enter "byron@sparkadvisors.com),
- https://scribehow.com/shared/ExamFx__7PPcZri8Sq6igxzhVKaoIg
Note for agents: The required E&O for Medicare is $1m per claim // $1m aggregate.
Note for agencies: If you have an agency, you can typically use the agency’s E&O for yourself as the Principal (in addition to the agency), and for your downline agents if they are employees and assigning commissions to you. If you have street agents, those street agents typically need to purchase their own E&O. Before purchasing agency E&O, ask your personal E&O carrier if you can add your agency name to the certificate of insurance rather than purchasing an agency policy. If they allow it, it may save you several thousand dollars. If they don’t allow it, you can purchase agency E&O with the link here: https://mga-eo.com/apply/nd/lha-eo
Experienced agents
For agents who need to add state licenses, set up their agency or take continuing education course.
Track existing licenses
You can export your Producer Report from NIPR following the instructions here. This will enable you to view all your licenses, their expiration dates, and your company appointments. You are able to download a free report one time per year.
Add new licenses
Add licenses directly on NIPR. If you are adding more than 5+ state licenses, we recommend working with a service to manage your new and renewing licenses. Spark works with Supportive Insurance Services and has negotiated a 10% discount for anyone referred by Spark. Email our contact ckrick@supportiveis.com and note Spark to get started.
We strongly recommend working with Supportive Insurance Services if you are an agency adding a non-resident appointment in New York, Florida, and/or California. When adding the New York license, make sure you are adding the Agent (LA) license and NOT the Broker (LB) license. You need the LA license to sell Medicare. Details here.
Set up your agency
Business is good, and it's time to bring on additional agents! You want to make sure that you get credit for the agents you bring in. In order to do that, you need to create an agency. Here are the general steps to doing that: [First, a disclaimer: this is not legal advice, just a rough guideline of what you should do. Consult a lawyer in advance!]
- You must create a business entity, such as an LLC, and register it with the state. See LegalZoom and Stripe Atlas to get started.
- You must get the agency licensed in the state(s) in which you will be doing business. You'll want to sign into NIPR as a business entity. Go here.
- First, you'll need a resident license. That's the home state where your business entity (e.g. LLC) is based out of. Submit the application and fees associated with the resident license. Note the approval time will vary by state. As the licensed agent, you will be the agency "principal".
- If you want to add non-resident states, see the section below.
- Tell your upline that you've added an agency, and you want to get the agency appointed with the carriers they support. For example, if you write as an individual agent for UnitedHealthcare under Spark, and then add an agency, let Spark know and we'll get your agency appointed.
- Lastly, you'll receive an agency writing number, and for most carriers, a separate login for your agency so you can see your downline production.
Great! Since you've already created a business entity AND you've licensed your agency in your resident state, the steps to expand into a new state are relatively quick.
View the walkthrough (or read below)
Here's how to get started:
- Get the agency licensed in the new state with a non-resident license. You'll want to sign into NIPR as a business entity. Start here. If you want to see the fees and requirements in advance, search your state here.
- With the exception of California and New York, you can add a non-resident license in less than a month. In a few cases you'll be asked to provide additional documents detailing ownership of the agency and your DBA name.
- If you have full-time w2 employees working in the new state and/or are adding a physical office presence, you should register your business entity with the state as a "foreign business". To register, navigate to the State's Business Registration website. You can find it by searching "[state name] + [register foreign business entity]" on Google.
- Note many states do not precisely define what constitutes "transacting business" within a state, which would require you to register the business. For example, having a downline 10-99 "contractor" living in another state may not constitute "transacting business." Speak with a lawyer or play it safe and register your business anyway.
- Note if you add a w2 employee you'll have to register for withholding tax specifically.
- Let your upline know that you've licensed your agency in a new state so you can get appointed for that state with the carrier.
- Note for some carriers, such as UnitedHealthcare and Anthem, you may have to pay an appointment fee.
Selling additional products
If you plan to sell annuities or certain forms of life insurance, you may need to take an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) training or annuity training.
[username = NPN, password for first-time users = your last name in lowercase; select “forgot your username” for more info]
Select “Register Online” and create a profile
Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Contracted
Once the contracting link is completed, most carriers (besides medicare supplements) also require their product certifications to be completed to become ready to sell. Generally, it may take 1-2 weeks for certifications to be verified by the carrier. You can find carrier certifications here.
- Transfer with Release: Your current upline has signed a release stating that you are free to move your contracts to a different upline.
- Transfer No Release: Also known as a delayed release, this means that you are not able to obtain a signed release from your upline.
You can obtain a release by requesting one from your current upline. If you don’t know who your top-of-hierarchy is, call the carrier directly. If the release is not signed by your current top-of-hierarchy, it can cause delays in processing the transfer and may be denied until the correct release is obtained. See Here for additional information including a list of carriers that require a specific release form.
Helpful hint: The fastest way to transfer your contracts is with an immediate release from your current upline. Otherwise, you may be subject to waiting periods or carrier blackouts.
Spark receives weekly reports from the carriers. Once received, we’ll update the contract status in your platform account to reflect the new data. We appreciate your patience as you wait for status updates to reflect in Platform. However, if it’s been over a week and the status was not updated, please submit a support request. We will investigate with the carrier and respond to your inquiry. You can view your current contract status within your platform account by following the walkthrough here.
For troubleshooting technical issues, your best course of action would be to reach out to the carrier directly. Check your Spark Platform account for carrier contact information. Please check it out here.
Some carriers can take up to two weeks to confirm your certifications and update your Ready-to-Sell status. We will update your contract status to Ready-to-Sell as soon as we receive confirmation from the carrier. You can check the status in your Spark Platform account (see here for instructions).
• We have step-by-step guides for each of the carriers to access certifications in the carrier portal. Please check them out here.
- You’ll receive access to your Sunfire Quote and Enroll account as soon as you are “Ready-To-Sell” with an Medicare Advantage contract with a carrier that supports enrollments through Sunfire (see a list HERE). As soon as your Sunfire account has been activated you’ll receive an email notification from the Spark team.
- Please note there is roughly a 5 business day turnaround from when you are confirmed as Ready to Sell and when you can expect to receive your Sunfire account.
Not sure if you have access, follow our Getting Started guide
Ready to Sell
You can find a list of available carriers here.
See here for instructions on how to view your contracts in your Spark Platform account.
You can view your contract statuses here in your Spark platform account under "My account".
- The carrier may not support Quote and Enroll in Sunfire at this time. See a list of supported carriers HERE.
- You may not be certified to sell that carriers policy in the corresponding state or plan year. You can confirm your current carrier and state appointment status’ in your Spark platform account HERE.
- Your ready-to-sell status has not been reported by the carrier and needs to be verified before being added to your account. You can confirm your reported contracting status in your Spark platform HERE. Please note: it may take up to a week after you complete your certification for Spark to receive your updated ready-to-sell confirmation.
- Helpful hint: Forward your official email from the carrier confirming your certifications were completed or a screenshot from your carrier portal with the following information visible-> the carrier name, your writing number, and appointed states. Please include this information in this form.
Still not seeing your carrier appointment in Sunfire? Submit this form and include the carrier and zip code for your plan search and our team will troubleshoot further.
New States & Carriers
- Please submit a new state appointment request via your platform account (See instructions here).
- If you don’t have platform access please submit your request via this form.
Approximately one week. In the meantime, you may use the carrier enrollment portals to submit enrollments!
You can request a new carrier via the Spark Platform. See here for details.
Carriers have two ways to appoint you in a state where you are licensed. Either (a) they can pre-appoint you in the state such that when you submit your first application, you are already appointed (b) they can wait until you submit your first application in a state, and then appoint you “just-in-time” as they process the application. The benefit of the “just-in-time” approach is that the carriers and the agent don’t have to pay any state appointment fees until an application is actually submitted. Most states and carriers have moved to just-in-time appointments. That means you just need to be licensed to submit the application. Just-in-time states include AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA,HI, IA, ID, IL, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, RI, SC,SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA ,WV, and WY (leaving pre-appointment states: IN, LA, MT, OK, OR, PA, WI).
One problem that arises is that the carrier may not authorize you to use their enrollment tool - or Spark’s enrollment tool - until you are appointed in a state, which creates a catch-22 for just-in-time ones. Another issue is that you might think you hold the proper license but do not. For this reason, we highly recommend using Spark’s “request a state” feature to avoid these mistakes.
Please visit the Data Studio aka Looker here.
Licensing
If you are adding more than 5+ state licenses, we recommend working with a service to manage your new and renewing licenses. Spark works with Supportive Insurance Services and has negotiated a 10% discount for anyone referred by Spark. Email our contact ckrick@supportiveis.com and note Spark to get started.
Florida licensing is a big catch-22.
- In order to get an agency-appointment in Florida, you need to be appointed with a carrier in Florida individually.
- To be appointed individually, you need to write a policy in Florida because it’s a just-in-time-state (meaning, the appointment isn’t triggered until the policy is sold).
- Carriers won’t appoint you individually if your agency isn’t already appointed so you’re stuck.
What you need to do is have a carrier appoint you even though you haven’t written a policy. Not all carriers will agree to do that, but if you are appointed with Humana (agencymgt@humana.com) or Devoted (agent-support@devoted.com) or Cigna (CARL@cigna.com), email them the following: “I <name, npn> would like to be pre-appointed in Florida so I can receive my agency license. As it is a just-in-time state and I do not write business personally, I need to get appointed with the state now and do not want to wait to write business. Please confirm”
You need to apply for the LA license. You can read more here: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/apps_and_licensing/agents_and_brokers/lic_app_la_lb
You can sell Medicare Advantage as long as you have the Health license in the state, with the exception of North Carolina where you need the 35-Med. Supp/LTC license in addition to the health one. See the grid below for details.
← Previous
Next →
- Contracting
- All Agents
- Take the AHIP
- Take your certifications
- Contracting with Spark
- Select your carriers
- Get contracted
- Understand your contract status
- Releases & Important deadlines
- New-to-Medicare agents
- Experienced agents
- Track existing licenses
- Add new licenses
- Set up your agency
- Selling additional products
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Getting Contracted
- Ready to Sell
- New States & Carriers
- Licensing