Choosing the Best IMO for Life Insurance: 6 Questions to Ask

If you have searched for the best IMO for life insurance, most of what comes up looks the same: carrier lists, commission promises, and vague praise about “unmatched support.” None of it actually helps you figure out what separates a strong partner from one that will leave you selling the same product the same way for the next ten years.

This guide walks through what actually matters when evaluating an IMO, with specific questions to ask at each stage.

Is This IMO Selling Product, or Building Full Financial Plans?

Insurance isn’t the plan. It’s a planning tool. The real value you bring as an independent advisor isn’t tied to the policy itself—it’s This is the first and most important question to answer before anything else. Most IMOs are structured around moving a single product, usually IUL, term, or an annuity, and the conversation starts and ends there. You get a carrier, a quote, and a script to run with clients.

A smaller group of IMOs work differently. They start from a client’s full financial picture and treat life insurance as one piece of a larger planning conversation, not the whole point of the meeting. That distinction shows up quickly once you start asking questions, and it shapes everything else on this list, from the training you get to the size of case you end up writing.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• What percentage of your advisors’ business comes from planning-led cases versus straight product sales?
• Does your training focus on a specific product, or on planning around a client’s full situation?
• Can you walk me through a case that involved more than a single policy sale?

Does the IMO Have Advanced Planning Strategies, or Just Products to Sell?

This is where most IMOs fall short, and it is worth slowing down on. Ask a typical IMO what advanced planning strategies they support beyond the product itself, and you will usually get a short pause followed by a pivot back to commission rates or carrier ratings. Strategy is not their business. Product is.

An IMO built around holistic planning should be able to hand you a real library of advanced strategies to pull from, not just one product with a few riders attached. That can include things like retirement plan rescue strategies, IRA rollover alternatives, and other approaches that go well beyond a standard life insurance sale. Assurance Ally, for example, works from a library of 50+ Advanced Planning Strategies that advisors draw from depending on the client sitting in front of them. That kind of depth is uncommon, and it is worth asking any IMO you are evaluating to show you their strategy library, not just describe it.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• Who helps me apply a strategy to a specific client situation, and what does that process look like?
• How many distinct advanced planning strategies do you actually support, beyond the core product?
• Can I see examples of strategies used with real clients?

Does the IMO Have Access to Enough Carriers?

Carrier access is table stakes for the best IMO for life insurance, but it isn’t the differentiator most advisors think it is. You need an IMO with contracts across enough top-tier carriers to fit whatever a client’s health, age, and goals require, rather than being boxed into one or two companies that may not be competitive for every case.

That said, carrier access alone does not tell you much anymore. Nearly every IMO in the space can point to a long list of carrier logos. That is the floor, not the differentiator. The more useful question is what happens after a carrier is selected, when the case actually needs to be designed and underwritten.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• What happens if a case does not fit any of your top carriers well?
• How many carriers do you hold contracts with, and are any of them exclusive?
• How do you decide which carrier fits a specific client, versus defaulting to a preferred partner?

Who Will You Actually Be Talking To?

This is one of the most overlooked parts of choosing an IMO, and it deserves more attention than it usually gets. When you call for help, are you getting a real person who knows your book of business, or a generic support queue that starts from zero every time you call?

Ask directly whether you get names and direct phone numbers, or a shared inbox and an 800 number. Ask whether there is a dedicated person whose job is to help you grow, not just process paperwork. At Assurance Ally, that role belongs to an Advisor Success Manager, someone who works directly with advisors on strategy and growth rather than handling support tickets. Whatever IMO you are looking at, get specific about who you will be talking to once you are a client and not a prospect.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• Will I have a direct point of contact, and can I get their name and number now?
• What does ongoing support actually look like after my first few cases?
• How do you help advisors grow their business beyond processing new contracts?

How Does Compensation Actually Work?

Compensation matters, but the way it is usually presented does not tell you much on its own. Almost every IMO will tell you they offer competitive or above-street payouts. That claim alone is meaningless without understanding the structure behind it, including how overrides work and what, if anything, you give up in support or flexibility to get there.

The better question is not “who pays the most,” but whether the compensation structure and the level of support behind it actually work together. An IMO that pays well but leaves you to design every case alone is not necessarily a better deal than one with a different structure and real strategy support behind it.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• What support comes bundled with this compensation structure, and what costs extra?
• How exactly is my compensation structured, and how does it compare to street level?
• Are there conditions or minimums attached to higher compensation tiers?

What Is the IMO’s Average Case Size?

Here is one question that tends to cut through a lot of the marketing noise: what is your average case size?

Most IMOs are built around transactional sales, and industry data reflects that, with average case sizes commonly running under $10,000. An IMO built around advanced, holistic planning should be able to point to a meaningfully larger number, because the strategies themselves are designed to produce bigger, more comprehensive cases rather than a single policy sale. Assurance Ally’s advisors average $36,974 per case. It’s one of the clearest ways to tell whether you’re looking at the best IMO for life insurance agents who want to do bigger, more sophisticated work, and the answer is hard to fake.

Questions to ask your IMO:

• What is your average case size, and how do you calculate it?
• How has that number changed over the last few years?
• Can you connect me with an advisor who can speak to their own case size growth?

Red Flags to Watch For

A few warning signs are worth watching for as you compare options:

• Vague or shifting answers about how compensation actually works
• No real case design support beyond product placement
• Pressure toward a single carrier or product line regardless of the client’s situation
• Generic support lines with no consistent point of contact
• No clear answer when you ask about strategy depth or average case size

Frequently Asked Questions to Find the Best IMO for Life Insurance Agents

What is the difference between an IMO and an FMO? 

Both connect independent agents to carriers and provide marketing and back-office support. IMOs tend to focus more on life insurance and annuities, while FMOs often have a broader footprint that includes Medicare and health insurance products. The distinction matters less than what each organization actually offers once you are contracted.

Is a higher commission always better when choosing an IMO? 

Not on its own. A higher payout with no case design support or strategy depth behind it can leave you worse off than a slightly different structure paired with real training, a dedicated point of contact, and a broader set of planning strategies to work with.

What questions should I ask before switching IMOs? 

Ask about strategy depth beyond the core product, who your direct point of contact will be, how compensation is structured, and what the organization’s average case size looks like. Those four questions surface most of what separates a strong IMO from one that is mostly marketing.

How big of a factor should average case size be in choosing an IMO? 

It should be one of the more heavily weighted factors, since it is one of the few numbers that is difficult to inflate with marketing language. An IMO with a meaningfully higher average case size than the industry norm is a strong signal that its strategy support is real, not just advertised.

The Bottom Line

Choosing the best IMO for life insurance is not really about who has the longest carrier list or the highest advertised payout. It comes down to whether the organization is built around moving product or built around helping you do bigger, more sophisticated planning work, with real strategy and real people behind it. Ask about strategy depth, ask who you will actually be talking to, and ask for real numbers. The best IMO for life insurance agents who want to grow past transactional sales will have straightforward answers to all of it.