Health Insurance Brokerage
The shortcut: ACA Marketplace clients pay you $15-$26/month per enrolled member in commission — Medicare Advantage clients pay $300-$600 in year one and ~$300/year in renewals after that. Build the Medicare book on purpose; treat ACA as the pipeline that ages into Medicare in 5-15 years.
Industry: Finance & Insurance | Investment level: Small — $3,000-$10,000 | Time to launch: 8-14 weeks (state L&H exam + ACA Marketplace registration + carrier appointments gate the launch)
Best for: Former captive agents, HR benefits admins, or career-changers who can sit at a kitchen table for two hours, walk a family through deductible math without their eyes glazing over, and not flinch when a 64-year-old asks whether their oncologist is in the Humana network. What you'll likely make: $500-$1,500 month 3, $2,500-$5,000 month 6, $5,000-$10,000 month 12. Math is in Section 4.
Market Opportunity
It's a Tuesday in late October and a family of four just got a letter from HR: employer coverage ends November 30, fourteen days before the kids' next pediatrician appointment. The dad is on HealthCare.gov at midnight trying to figure out whether the $400 silver plan with an $800 tax credit is actually cheaper than the $0-premium bronze with a $9,200 deductible — and he's getting it wrong, because he doesn't know what "advance tax credit" means or how the reconciliation works at tax time. His wife is texting her sister. Nobody in that house has your phone number yet. That's the gap you fill.
The buyer is not shopping for "insurance." They're trying to make a decision they don't feel qualified to make, on a deadline, with their family's health on the line. Federal law under 42 USC §300gg-18 (ACA Section 2718) requires carriers to spend 80-85% of premium on medical care — broker commissions come from the carrier's admin overhead, not added to the consumer's premium. Every unassisted buyer is paying for a service they didn't receive.
The market is the 50,000-person metro where three or four solo brokers handle the self-employed, small employers, and 10,000+ residents aging into Medicare each year. ACA Marketplace enrollment hit 24.3 million in 2025 CMS press release. Roughly 65 million Americans are on Medicare and 11,000 turn 65 every day. The wedge is returning the call the same day, not the call center that puts them on hold for 40 minutes.
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
