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It means the agency is not owned by, and does not work for, a single insurance company. A captive agent can only show you what their one carrier sells, so every situation has to be solved with that carrier’s products. An independent agent can compare options across the companies they are appointed with and explain how they differ. No agent has access to every product on the market, and any agent who tells you otherwise is overselling — the honest claim is a choice of options rather than all of them.

Nothing. There is no fee for the conversation, no charge for a review of coverage you already have, and no obligation to buy anything at the end of it. If you do take out a policy, the agent is paid a commission by the insurance company that issues it, which is how nearly all insurance distribution works. It does not add a surcharge to your premium.

No. Sending the form starts a conversation and nothing else. It does not begin coverage, it does not change coverage you already have, and it does not commit you to an application. Plenty of these conversations end with someone deciding to keep what they have, or that they do not need anything at all — which is a legitimate outcome, and a faster one to reach with someone who can read the policy with you.

Medicare runs on fixed windows rather than being open all year. Most people first become eligible in a seven-month Initial Enrollment Period around their 65th birthday, and there is an Annual Enrollment Period each autumn when existing coverage can be changed for the following year. Certain life events — losing employer coverage, moving out of a plan’s area — can open a Special Enrollment Period outside those windows. Missing a window can mean waiting a full year, and in some cases a late-enrollment penalty that lasts for life, so the dates are worth checking early. Confirm the current dates for your situation at Medicare.gov or by calling 1‑800‑MEDICARE.

There is no single right number, and anyone who gives you one before asking about your circumstances is guessing. The usual method is to add up what would still have to be paid if your income stopped — the mortgage, other debts, the years of income your household relies on, anything you want to leave for education — then subtract what already exists, including savings and any group coverage through work. What is left is the gap. Working through that arithmetic together usually takes one conversation, and it is worth doing before anyone talks about products.

Often, yes — and a review is not the same thing as a pitch to replace it. Policies are bought for the circumstances of the year they were bought in, and circumstances move: rebuilding costs, salaries, who depends on you, whether a mortgage is still outstanding. A review reads what you actually hold, what it pays and does not pay, and where a gap has opened since. Sometimes the answer is that your coverage is fine and needs nothing.

You get a reply the way you asked to be reached, at roughly the time you said suited you. The first conversation is about your situation rather than a product — what you already have, what you are worried about, and what you can comfortably budget. Nothing is quoted, applied for or signed in that conversation.