1. Are you licensed, and can I verify it?
Every legitimate agent holds a license from your state's insurance division, and every state lets you look an agent up online — name, license number, and standing. An agent who readily shares a license number is showing you the baseline of professionalism. This is also where you learn whether they are licensed in your state specifically, which matters for snowbirds and anyone helping a parent in another state.
2. Do you live and work in my community?
Medicare is local: plan availability changes by county, and the difference between two plans is often which hospital system and doctor groups they include. An agent who lives where you live knows which networks your neighbors actually use, which plans have friction with a local clinic, and what changed in your county this year. A call center in another state is reading the same plan documents you can read yourself. The Medicare Store is local in the communities it serves, with free, unbiased, personal advice from a licensed insurance agent — and real offices you can walk into on a weekday, not just a phone number.
3. How many carriers and plans can you show me?
Agents can only present plans they are contracted to sell. Some represent one company; others are contracted with many carriers in your market. Neither is automatically bad, but you deserve to know which one you are talking to — and if an agent represents only one carrier, it is fair to ask what you might be missing. Ask directly: how many carriers do you represent in my county, and are there major local plans you cannot show me? The Medicare Store is contracted with most of the carriers in the communities it serves, so the comparison starts from the local market, not from one company's brochure.
4. What does your help cost me?
The answer should be nothing. Carriers pay agents directly, and your premium is the same whether you enroll through an agent, through the carrier, or through Medicare directly. If anyone asks you to pay a fee for Medicare plan guidance or enrollment help, that is a signal to keep looking. Free also means the agent's value has to come from somewhere real: knowledge, comparison breadth, and service.
5. What happens after I enroll?
Enrollment is the easiest part of the relationship. The test is February, when a claim is denied, a pharmacy price jumps, or a bill looks wrong. Ask who answers the phone mid-year, whether the agency has service staff, and whether they review your coverage every year during the Annual Enrollment Period. Plans change every year even when you change nothing, so an agent who disappears after December is leaving you unrepresented for the part that matters. This is why The Medicare Store runs a dedicated Service Excellence Team: anyone who has enrolled in a plan with us can call with Medicare questions all year, even when their own agent is unavailable.
6. Will you check my doctors and prescriptions before recommending anything?
This is the clearest tell of how an agent works. A careful agent starts by listing your doctors, specialists, hospital preference, and every prescription with its pharmacy — and only then compares plans, because networks and drug lists are where Medicare surprises live. An agent who leads with a specific plan before learning any of that is selling, not advising. If you feel pressured toward one plan, treat it as a red flag: some salespeople are chasing an incentive, not your best interests. The Medicare Store's commitment is to do what is right for you — even when that means not enrolling in a plan with us at all.
7. Who can vouch for you?
Look for a track record you can check: public reviews over years, a real office you can visit, local news coverage, community presence, and how long the agency has operated. Check the agency's Google reviews and favor those holding high ratings across many reviews — you can even ask to work with a person a reviewer praised by name. Any single review can be cherry-picked, but a long public history is hard to fake. A physical place of business matters for the same reason: it is peace of mind to know you can walk in during business hours and get your questions answered. And notice how the agent treats the question — a professional expects it and answers with evidence, not offense.