About
A quiet firm, in a loud category.
Medicare marketing is the noisiest thing that happens to an American in the year they turn 65. We built the opposite of that on purpose.
Why we exist
Because the mail arrives before the questions do.
In the three months before a 65th birthday, an average household receives dozens of pieces of Medicare marketing. Almost all of it is accurate, none of it is complete, and every single piece is written by someone who benefits from one particular answer.
We started in 2011 because we had both spent years inside that machine and could see the gap it leaves: nobody was being paid to sit down and go slowly. Not to close, not to convert — just to read the Annual Notice of Change out loud and answer the question underneath the question.
So that is the firm. Big type, long conversations, and a standing instruction to every advisor here that the words “that plan is not one we sell, and it is the one you want” are always available to them.
The numbers
Stated plainly, including the unflattering one.
- 2011 Founded Started by two former plan-side analysts who had read too many Annual Notices of Change.
- 38 States licensed Not fifty. We say so rather than implying otherwise.
- 31 Carriers appointed A broad shelf, and still not every plan in your county.
- 24 Licensed advisors Salaried, with no individual sales targets attached to any carrier.
The people
Four names, and what each one is for.
This is a demonstration site. These people are invented, as is the firm. The structure they describe — salaried advisors, no per-carrier targets, a compliance read on every page — is how a carrier-neutral agency genuinely has to be built for the claim to mean anything.
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Ingrid Halvorsen
Founder, principal advisor
Twelve years on the plan side building Star Ratings submissions before deciding she would rather explain them than write them.
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Ray Odum
Head of advisory
Trains every advisor on the same rule: state the case against a plan before the case for it.
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Priya Raghunathan
Formulary lead
Runs the drug-by-drug comparisons. Has an unreasonable memory for tier placements.
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Marcus Bell
Compliance
Reads every page of this site before it ships, including this sentence.
How we are paid
The whole mechanism, in one paragraph.
When you enrol in a plan through a licensed agent, the carrier pays the agent a commission. CMS caps that commission and sets it at the same level across comparable plans, and it is not added to your premium — you pay exactly the same whether you enrol through us, through the carrier, or through Medicare directly.
Because the number is the same whichever plan you choose, there is no financial reason for us to steer you. That is the entire basis of the claim on the front of this site, and it is checkable: ask any agent what they are paid for each plan they have shown you. If the answer is not “the same”, ask why.
$0 What our advice costs you, whether you enrol or not.
Required disclosure
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.
Come and be unhurried at us.
The first conversation has no plan names in it at all. It is four questions about your life, and then we go away and do arithmetic.