"Do emails get delivered on Sundays?"

​That's a hilarious caption for the 'Grandma Finds the Internet' meme online. This particular meme features an image of an elderly woman staring at a laptop screen, wondering whether emails get delivered on Sundays. While this meme depicts seniors as a digitally clueless bunch, a 2017 Pew Research Center report says otherwise.

According to the Pew report, 82 percent of 65- to 69-year-olds today are internet users. Two-thirds of this age group have internet access at home, making it easier for them to go online any time they want. Plus, four in ten seniors (adults aged 65 and up) now own smartphones, a rise of 24 percentage points (from 18 percent to 42 percent) since 2013.

​All this data about seniors adopting the internet and smartphones may not be a good thing for their grandchildren who have to deal with every embarrassing (but adorable) comment, tweet, or message from them. But this is definitely good news for a busy Medicare Supplement Insurance agent like you.

The U.S. Census Bureau has declared 2030 to be a demographic turning point as all baby boomers will be over 65 years old. It also marks a decade when the aging population will outnumber children – a first in the country’s history. This rise in the number of seniors aging into Medicare creates a bubble of opportunity for the Medicare Supplements industry.

Selling Medicare Supplements (referred to by agents as Med Supps and by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as Medigap) is one of the most lucrative insurance jobs, and it will likely stay that way for years to come. Despite pending policy changes and the continued risk and uncertainty the healthcare sector is facing, the Medigap industry is still worth capitalizing on.

Life insurance is straightforward: purchase a policy and regularly pay the premium to keep it active. Upon the policyholder’s death, their beneficiaries receive the full amount of their “death benefits.”

Despite being one of the pillars of personal finance, not everyone is convinced that they need life insurance. As an insurance agent, you might’ve encountered a customer or two with the same beliefs.

Agents are no strangers to people who are wary of life insurance because they think it’s too complex or time-consuming. There are also clients who are uncomfortable with discussing the topic of their demise. Some people don’t consider life insurance as an asset and just see it as a monthly bill they have to pay but will never personally benefit from.

On the contrary, life insurance is more than just a death benefit, which is what you want potential and current clients to understand. They need to know about the living benefits so they’ll recognize their need for life insurance.

By educating them on their insurance policy’s living benefits, as well as other available options, you’ll help them see the bigger picture of how they can benefit from it while they’re still alive.

Here are some of the topics you need to discuss.

Being in the insurance industry is an exciting opportunity to serve numerous different clients, but as the industry has evolved so too have the challenges that insurance agents are facing. It’s important to be aware of these obstacles so that you can approach them with an open mind and develop a comprehensive strategy for addressing them.

One of the most challenging things for an insurance agent is finding leads. Even if you know life insurance or any other insurance product inside out, you won’t survive without prospects.

On top of searching for leads, you need to make sure these leads are qualified. It can be difficult, as thousands of agents compete for the attention of a few qualified leads. Getting to these leads before your competitors do is crucial to having a long-term and lucrative career as an insurance agent.