In this interview, Pam Hodge shares her experience selling her Medicare book of business to New Horizons and making a clean break into retirement.
Pam talks about:
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John: So, how's it feel to be retired?
Pam: It feels wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah. I mean, definitely some mixed feelings. You know, it was a hard decision, but now that it's happened and everything is, you know, kind of settled down, it was really the right time to retire.
John: Good for you. I mean, just look at me. You can tell I'm dang close if not over. But I ask everybody that now, you know, it doesn't matter who they are, if they're retired or they retired last year. So, how's it going? You know, you glad you did it?
Pam: Yeah. I'm so glad. I have no regrets whatsoever. And I think that was part of my hesitation was what am I going to do with myself? You know, how am I going to keep busy? No problem. I've not had any problem with that. Kids and grandkids in town, so they keep me plenty busy. And just the timing of it was just perfect.
John: Good. So, for everybody, you know, that's listening to this, talking with Pam Hodge from beautiful Terre Haute, Indiana. And how long have we known each other, Pam?
Pam: Oh my. I would say you guys have been my go-to team for I would say maybe 8-10 years now.
John: Yeah. Yeah. I would say probably the same. Yeah. Really wonderful lady. Her husband, Ron, has a financial business. Is he retired now?
Pam: He is not. No. But you know, he's got a lot of freedom there, too, because he can work remote now. Our succession plan for his side of the business – for the financial side – was our son and son-in-law. So, it's a family business, small community. And so, they've taken over that side of it, and he's taken on more of a supervision position with his broker-dealer.
So, a lot of freedom. So, we get to travel a lot. So, loving that too. Just really loving it. So he'll probably work for several more years because he's got all that freedom.
John: Good for him. Yeah. You know, we're just talking all over the place here, but you're RV people.
Pam: Yes. Right.
John: I know when we were talking about this – we closed on her book last May. And so we were talking, like in February and March, just trying to figure everything out and get her book appraised and all of that. And when I would be talking to her, an awful lot of the time, you were in the RV down there in Florida somewhere. So, you already had a good jump on it.
Pam: Yeah, we really did. The last couple years, we wintered down there. And again, the decision, you know, I've thought about it for – I don't know, John, I think I talked to you probably two or three years ago. You know, I got that email about your company even buying books of business. I had never heard of that. I never even knew that that was an option.
You know, you get busy with the day-to-day grind, and you're not thinking about, okay, my own succession planning, what am I going to do? I got that email that just said, you know, hey, let us take a look at it and value your book. And yeah, up until then, I had no idea.
And then I definitely was not ready to pull the trigger at that time. You know, I just really thought I'd probably go closer to 65, 70. But you know, some personal things happened. You know, the whole story with my mom. You've been great about that. And it just seemed like the timing – I thought at that time the timing is right. Little did I know the timing was excellent.
I took care of a lot of other people's parents for a long time on the Medicare side of things and loved my job. It was more of a ministry to me. But then it came time to take care of my own mom, and to be able to have that time to concentrate on her and just enjoy that last season of her life – couldn't have been any better.
John: Beautiful. Well, you know, it's funny, but as I've done this and then in my own experience just with my own age and everything, how not only how quickly things can change – we all know that – but how quickly our minds can change, how we think.
Pam: Yes.
John: Because I can remember telling Kirk here – Kirk and I have worked together for 23 years or so. This is like eight years ago. I'm not ever retiring. I mean, I'm gonna go till I'm 76. Me, too. Me, too.
Well, as time goes on, you know, I for sure don't think that way anymore. And there does come a time, and I'm glad like in your case, where you were really ready to make a clean break, you know, and said it's time to do it. I think that's the best. But you know, anymore we have a lot of books that we've bought in the last few years where they sold their book, but they've stayed in it a little bit, like with a plan to stay in for maybe two or three more years and kind of transition out.
Pam: Yeah. I discussed that with you. I thought, okay, I'll go ahead and sell my existing book, but then I'm going to stay contracted and I'll kind of, you know, toy around in it for a little bit. And even that changed for me. And I think that changed because of Joe and his team.
You know, again, we're from a very small community. So, I'm taking care of people that I see every day, or I see their kids every day, going in and out of the Dollar General, and it's just a small community. So, just to let go of that grasp I had on all those clients for all those years, I just didn't think it would be a smooth transition, honestly. I thought, who can do this as well as I do?
John: Nobody!
Pam: So, it was just really hard to let go of that grasp on those clients. But, it was so much smoother than I thought it was going to be. And then I started getting phone calls of, "Oh, I love Joe." And I'm like, "Okay, whatever." And the transition for them was so much smoother than I thought it was going to be.
John: That's so good. So, thank you for saying that, and that's well said. And so, for everybody to kind of fill in here a little bit, Joe is one of the guys here that manages these books that we buy, and he's just an outstanding guy, man. He really is. So, with this little video that we're doing, everybody's going to be requesting Joe now, you know.
Pam: And they should. They should. He's just amazing.
John: Yeah. Yeah, thank you for saying that.
Pam: Back to that hometown – they're like, "We're used to being able to stop in any time. We're used to dealing with you being available all the time." And Joe was just spot on. I mean, if they called, if I called, he was back with them that same day, just like they were used to. And so, that made the transition so easy.
John: Man, that's so good. That's so good. Well, now that you've done it, what advice would you give to somebody else? They're just not sure if it's the right thing or timing. You got any words of wisdom that you'd give to them?
Pam: Boy, that's a tough one. I mean, outside of just do it. Just do it. It's going to give you so much more freedom to enjoy what you've worked for all your life. I mean, honestly, I started working when I was 12 and 13 at our church. So, I had worked literally all my life. And so, now to have this time to spend with Ron and to travel, go see kids and grandkids – yeah, it's time.
I see so many clients that just kind of drag their feet for the same reasons I did.
And yeah, unfortunately, you know, a lot of times we run out of time to do some of the things we've planned on doing all of our lives. So, I would just say pull the trigger. Just do it. I don't think you're going to regret it for a minute.
John: Yeah. Really great counsel, great advice. I don't really have anything else. Just great catching up a little bit. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it. Got anything else, any parting words you want to share?
Pam: Nope. I just can't say thank you enough. I really can't. John, your team, you've got an amazing team there. You're a very fortunate man.
John: Thank you. I am. I am. Thank you so much.
Pam: And thank you for everything that you guys did for us. Thank you.
Other interviews in this series:
Pam's advice is simple: "Just do it."
After working her entire life and hesitating about letting go of her clients, she found the transition was smoother than expected – and retirement is everything she hoped it would be.
If you're considering selling your Medicare book or want to learn more about succession planning, schedule a discovery call with us today.