[gen220]

I’ve observed this, but I don’t think that any carrier has successfully figured out a way to grow that doesn’t involve brokers (digital or physical). They have a death grip on the market, with a very high percentage of potential members held behind their gate.

Like you, I’m not convinced that the value they add to the chain justifies their expense, but they’re legally and economically entrenched.

My only hypothesis for their eventual dissolution is that unit commissions will get smaller and smaller over time, as more brokers use tech to manage bigger books of business with lower employee headcount requirements, and brokers become more indistinguishable from carriers.

Or maybe some consortium of carriers will get together to build THE comparison shopping site, like healthcare.gov, and offer some ridiculous bonus payment to you the member for shopping there.