Drew Gurley, Founder of Redbird Advisors and EVP of Growth for Senior Market Advisors, a Medicare FMO.
Make no mistake, the insurance and retirement industry has a decision problem disguised as a trust problem.
Every day, millions of consumers are making high-stakes decisions around Medicare, life insurance and retirement income. These can be both small and large purchases that come with heavy consequences. These decisions directly impact how someone retires, how their family is protected and how long their money lasts.
And when you look at how consumers are choosing who they work with, it’s pretty fragmented. A Google search, a few scattered reviews, maybe a referral from someone who “knows a guy.” That’s not a system, it’s just the way things had been done before AI came storming into everyone’s life.
Where This Breaks Down
Here’s what most people never see. The insurance industry has a significant quality gap between professionals. There are highly competent, ethical agents or advisors who understand product design, underwriting, long-term planning and compliance. And there are also those who may not fully understand what they’re selling or are incentivized to prioritize commissions over outcomes.
What’s crazy to believe is that to a consumer, these two people can often look identical online. Same types of listings. Same generic reviews. Same keywords. So what happens? Consumers default to who answers the phone first, who sounds the most confident, who shows up at the top of search results or has the most followers on their social media.
Not who is actually best equipped to help them. That’s the real problem that I’m certain AI will quickly begin to solve.
Reviews Alone Don’t Solve This
Other industries solved discovery. Real estate has Zillow, healthcare has Healthgrades, restaurants have Yelp. But insurance and financial services aren’t a restaurant decision. You don’t get to easily “try again” if it goes wrong. Reviews tell you if someone was nice, but don’t always tell you if the advice was right.
Add in government-funded plans like Medicare Advantage or subsidized healthcare plans through the ACA marketplace, and that gap really matters. Consumers deserve a system that helps them identify the best performers, not the best marketers.
The Missing Layer Is Verifiable Credibility
What’s missing is a simple, yet complex solution. Consumers deserve a system that quickly answers key questions.
• Is this person properly licensed and certified right now?
• Are they actively contracted and in good standing with the specific types of insurance companies?
• Do they really specialize in what I actually need?
• Are they still operating at a high level today, not just five years ago?
• Are they an active thought leader in their area of expertise?
That’s a very different standard than “4.8 stars from 27 reviews.”
This is where platforms like Agent Review are starting to move the industry forward from visibility to verified visibility. It’s the only platform I can find that appears to have prioritized trust monitoring over search engine optimization.
When you combine structured data (licensing, appointments, specialties), ongoing third-party validation and real customer feedback, you create something much more valuable than an insurance agent directory. It’s a trust system that updates in real time and brings accountability to the forefront when a consumer is looking for a recommendation. “Trust system” is a term I continue to tell insurance agents and agency owners to get to know well and get to know fast, because it will sit at the center of how consumers find them in the future.
Think about this. Imagine how differently consumers would be supported and how agents would perform if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) decided to bring the same level of accountability as the Medicare star rating program for plans to the actual performance of the writing, licensed agents? Accountability at scale with the consumer’s best interest in mind!
This parallel standard of excellence isn’t here yet, but it’s coming.
AI Exposing The Gap
Here’s where this gets more serious. AI is now becoming the front door to discovery. In fact, I recently read here that there are 500 million users per week. People aren’t just searching anymore. They’re asking AI:
• “Can you recommend a Medicare agent near me?”
• “What plan should I choose?”
• “What’s the best option for me?”
AI is making recommendations based on the data it can access. And if that data is incomplete, outdated or unverified, recommendations are flawed and risk can potentially be amplified. But if the data is structured, verified, continuously updated? AI becomes a powerful filter instead of a risk amplifier. That’s the fork in the road the industry is approaching.
The Real Opportunity For Agents
When this happens, it will be a separation point for what I like to call the “professional agents.” Right now, all the professional agents and advisors are lumped together as average, creating a couple of problems: Consumers can’t tell the difference and top agents get commoditized.
The solution: a verified trust layer. Something that, prior to AI, didn’t exist at scale, and will likely become table stakes for the industry. It allows serious professionals to prove credibility without relying on marketing, stand out based on actual qualifications and build long-term positioning, not just short-term leads.
What’s Next?
Every major industry eventually converges around a default trust platform. Insurance hasn’t fully reached that point yet. But it’s getting close. The combination of increased regulation (especially Medicare and ACA lines of business), AI-driven discovery and consumer skepticism is forcing industry evolution faster than ever.
Online trust for insurance will soon be built, measured and continuously verified. The platforms that understand this and execute on it at scale will lead the charge for the next evolution of insurance marketplaces. The agents and agencies that embrace this as their new standard of excellence will continue to grow with stronger customer loyalty.
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