Solved Solutions vs a traditional FMO
Both are independent distribution, and both get you appointed. The difference is what arrives with the contract, who owns the software you sell with, and whether a stalled submission has a name attached to it.
Quick verdict
Choose a large national FMO when carrier breadth is the requirement: more carriers, more states, more product lines, and the back-office scale that comes with decades of volume. Choose Solved Solutions when the technology you sell with matters as much as the carrier list: dialer, quoting, and exclusive leads included because the companies that build them share our parent, plus a named contact and terms written down before you sign.
Everything below describes the common shape of the traditional independent distribution category rather than any one organization. Where we say a capability is not typical, we mean we could not find it in publicly documented materials.
Choose a traditional FMO
Your production is concentrated with carriers they already hold at a good level, or you need breadth across many states and lines at once.
Choose Solved Solutions
You are paying for a dialer, a quoting tool, and leads separately from a contract that was supposed to support them, and nobody chases a submission when it sits.
Capability by capability
Categories rather than feature counts. No organization is named, no carrier is named, and no commission level appears anywhere on this page.
| Capability | Solved SolutionsFMO plus stacktechnology included | Traditional FMOIndependent distributionpublicly documented |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier appointments for Medicare and final expense | Direct and top-level contractsA focused shelf our field actually places. | The core of the categoryThis is what the category exists to do. |
| Carrier breadth across states and product lines | Focused rather than exhaustiveDepth on the carriers we place. We will say plainly when we cannot appoint you. | The clearest advantage of a large national organizationMore carriers, more states, more lines. |
| Packets prepared and submitted for you | Collected once, submitted for youOne producer profile reused across every carrier. | Commonly documented across the category |
| A named contact who chases a stalled submission | Named, not a shared inboxWe chase the carrier rather than telling you to. | Varies widely by organization and by producer size |
| Dialer and CRM included with the contract | AgentTech Dialer, includedQueues, outbound dialing, client record, recording, AI compliance scoring. | Where a platform appears, it is commonly a resold or bundled third-party subscription |
| Quoting and enrollment platform included | Solved Enroll accessOne client record across Medicare, life, and ancillary. Currently in private beta. | Usually a separate vendor relationship rather than part of the contract |
| Access to exclusive leads from a sister company | Solved Marketing, sold onceGenerated in house, never resold as an aged lead. Priced separately from the contract. | Lead access is commonly a vendor arrangement or a purchase requirement |
| Who owns the software you sell with | The same parent companySupport does not travel through a second vendor, and access does not lapse with a subscription. | Typically licensed from a vendor, so continuity follows the vendor relationship |
| Level and advance terms in writing before packets | Written down firstPlacement, advance terms, and override structure documented before you complete anything. | Varies by organization; commonly discussed verbally during recruiting |
| Statement reconciliation against submitted business | Matched, not forwardedStatements compared against what was written, with the unmatched rows worked. | Forwarding carrier statements is common; reconciliation is not consistently documented |
| Ready-to-sell tracking by carrier, state, and product | Tracked at that granularityVerified against what carriers report rather than inferred from an approval. | Commonly tracked at the appointment level rather than per state and product line |
| Hierarchy visibility and downline reporting | Structure visible as dataProduction, persistency, and readiness by producer across your structure. | Widely offered, particularly at larger organizations |
| Release terms explained before you sign | Explained up frontIncluding when the honest advice is to stay where you are this season. | Release terms exist in every agreement; how plainly they are explained varies |
| Back-office depth during certification season | Extended coverage through the season, at a smaller scale | Scale is a real advantage hereMore people, more product training, more carriers seen before. |
| Longevity across a decade of renewals | Newer organization inside an established group | Decades of operating history at the larger organizationsWorth something when renewals run through it. |
| Agency data access by API and scheduled export | Production, readiness, hierarchy, statementsScoped to your own structure. See the data access reference. | Portal reporting is common; programmatic access is less consistently documented |
Comparisons describe the common shape of each category rather than any one product, and are based on publicly published materials.
Which one is right for you?
Both are independent distribution. The question is what you need the distributor to do beyond getting you appointed.
Choose a traditional FMO if
- Your production is concentrated with a carrier they already hold at a good level
- You need breadth: many carriers, many states, and lines beyond Medicare and final expense
- You already own a dialer, a quoting tool, and a lead source you are happy with
- Back-office capacity during certification season matters more to you than software
- You want a distributor with a long operating history underneath your renewals
Choose Solved Solutions if
- You are paying for a dialer, a quoting tool, and leads separately from your contract
- Submissions sit for weeks and nobody on your upline chases them
- You want your level, advance terms, and override structure in writing before packets go out
- You want statements reconciled against what you wrote rather than forwarded to you
- You run a desk and want readiness, hierarchy, and production available as data
FAQs
Solved Solutions vs a traditional FMO: common questions
Is a traditional FMO worse than this?
No, and the honest answer is that a large national one is better on the dimension most producers care about first. Carrier breadth is structural: an organization placing business at volume for decades holds more contracts, in more states, across more product lines. If the carrier driving your production sits at a good level there, that fact outweighs most of this page.
What is actually different about contracting here?
The technology comes from the same parent company rather than from a vendor. AgentTech Dialer, Solved Enroll access, and access to exclusive Solved Marketing leads are included with the contract because those are sister companies inside Solved Ventures. That changes what happens when the software breaks, what happens to it if your production dips, and who you talk to about it.
How do the commission levels compare?
We do not publish ours and we will not characterize anybody else's. Levels depend on what you write, the carrier and product line, and the structure you sit in, which is why any published table is either disconnected from your situation or a number nobody intends to honor at renewal. What we commit to is putting your placement, your advance terms, and your override structure in writing before you complete a single packet.
Can I contract here for some carriers and stay where I am for others?
Often, yes. Hierarchies are per carrier, so a producer can legitimately sit under different organizations at different carriers, subject to each carrier's rules and any exclusivity in the agreements you have already signed. Read your current agreement first, and the mechanics are described in moving FMOs without stranding your book.
What would make you tell me to stay where I am?
Concentration. If most of your production runs through a carrier we cannot improve on for you, or through one we cannot appoint you with at all, moving costs you weeks and gains you nothing. We would rather say that in the first half hour than discover it together in the third month.
Something else? Contact us
Bring your carrier list and we will be honest about it.
If your production runs through a carrier we cannot improve on for you, we will say so in the first half hour rather than the third month.