Helen Hogan is a financial advisor with Professional Economic Growth Group in Edison, NJ. Although her primary clients are high-net-worth couples, she works with a wide range of clients and portfolio depths. In addition to health insurance, she has experience selling long term care insurance, life insurance, and other financial planning products.
Q: Tell us about yourself. How did you get started in health insurance?
Helen Hogan: After my mom passed away in a nursing home in 2002, I decided I could take all that I'd learned about insurance and make a living out of long term care insurance. I quickly realized that in order for me to help people around long term care, I needed to be working with them early on so their financial plan could include it. As I started my business, health care insurance was a way to get in to see small-business owners.
Q: What is your favorite thing about your job?
HH: Getting hugs from my clients when I've been able to help them. Whether it's health insurance they can afford (sort of) or a financial plan that shows them they can retire, I love the feeling of helping someone.
Q: What do you think the biggest challenge facing health insurance agents is today?
HH: Before the reform package – and still – the cost is mostly prohibitive for small businesses. If a person is laid off or divorced, the individual packages are minimal and expensive. Now with reform out there, nobody knows what to do. And they still can't afford it. My clients have experienced 25 to 45 percent increases this year. Personally, I believe health care is a basic right, just like education. Those of us who want better access just pay for extra health insurance. It has to be disconnected from employment, in my opinion.
Q: What is your most common objection, and how do you overcome it?
