The part of your income a carrier can't change
If you've been in a room with other brokers lately, you've heard it. Plans going non-commissionable. Footprints shrinking. Networks shifting under clients who picked a plan to keep their doctor.
Some of that is noise. Some of it is on the record.
Here is what's on the record.
The federal rule on broker pay sets a ceiling. It does not set a floor. Under 42 CFR 422.2274, a Medicare Advantage carrier "may pay" compensation up to the fair market value CMS publishes each year. Nothing in it says a carrier has to pay anything on a given plan.
In July, UnitedHealth Group told investors how it plans to protect Medicare margins in 2027: "benefit adjustments and selective changes in market participation." The same report said its Medicare Advantage membership had contracted by 965,000 since the end of 2025.
None of that is a scandal. Carriers are businesses, and they plan one year at a time. That's exactly the problem for you. The biggest line of your income is decided in someone else's planning cycle, and you find out what it is when the bulletin lands.
You would never tell a client to hold one stock. Your book deserves the same advice.
The line you're already working for free
You don't have to learn a new market to diversify. Look at the questions your clients already ask you.
"When should I take Social Security?" comes up at the Medicare table because it belongs there. The two decisions touch each other. IRMAA reads the tax return from two years back, so the year a client turns on Social Security can move their Part B premium two years later. You are the one talking to them about Medicare costs, which makes you the one positioned to catch it.
Most brokers answer that question informally, for nothing, because it's the right thing to do. That's generous. It's also a service line nobody has put a price on yet.
Two ways to make it pay
There are two kinds of broker in this business, and both are right.
If you charge for your time, Social Security planning stands on its own. It isn't Medicare work, so it isn't capped by a commission schedule. A single claiming analysis bills at published advisory rates, so the market has already put a price on the work.
If you give everything away, keep doing it. A free Social Security review is still income, it just arrives another way. It brings in people before they turn 65, when they're choosing who to trust with Medicare. And it gives the clients you already have one more reason not to leave, which matters when every client who stays is a renewal.
Either way, the income comes from the relationship you built. No carrier can reprice that.
Why now
AEP opens October 15, and after that nobody has time to build anything. The next natural moment comes in the new year, when IRMAA letters are in clients' hands and the questions start.
Tomorrow's not promised, in this business or any other. A contingency plan is always welcome. The best time to set one up is before you need it.
If you want to see what this work looks like on one household, the replay of our IRMAA session is here: https://myssagent.com/webinar.
Patrice Ayling
More for Medicare brokers: https://myssagent.com/medicare-brokers
Sources
- 42 CFR 422.2274 — eCFR, current as of 9/23/2026
- UnitedHealth Group Q2 2026 earnings remarks and results release — July 16, 2026
Related reading
- Social Security Software for Medicare BrokersAdd a Social Security conversation to the appointment you're already having — client-ready, with a Registered Social Security Analyst® on complex cases.
- To Charge or Not to Charge? Social Security Advice for Medicare BrokersTwo honest answers brokers give about Social Security advice, both right: how the claiming decision lands in your book and how to offer it, free or paid.
- Social Security Claiming Timing and the IRMAA LookbackOne dollar over a threshold applies the surcharge for the whole year — decided by a tax return from two years ago. How claiming feeds in.
- The IRMAA Cliff Your Retirement Plan IgnoresDrop 04 — a two-year lookback and a full-year surcharge make IRMAA a planning variable, not a footnote.
- Social Security Software for Financial AdvisorsClient-ready claiming strategies from the real earnings record, with a Registered Social Security Analyst® available on complex cases — the Social Security layer planning software lacks.
- Credentialing Requirements for Social Security Claiming AdviceDoes an advisor or broker need a special credential to give claiming advice? The regulatory framework, for advisors and compliance officers.