In a world where Medicare’s complexities leave many seniors bewildered, Joseph Ritter has spent two decades perfecting something remarkable: the ability to transform confusion into clarity. As President of Insurance You Keep and the newly established Valley Forge Medicare, Ritter has built his reputation not on sales tactics but on transparency and genuine client relationships.

“I’ve always been a creative problem solver, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of helping people untangle the complexities of Medicare and retirement,” explains Ritter, who is celebrating his 20th anniversary in the insurance industry this April. His approach stands in stark contrast to typical insurance interactions. Rather than representing specific companies and their products, Ritter operates as an independent broker, putting client needs first.

With over 2,500 clients served throughout his career and recognition as a top 1% financial professional by the Million Dollar Round Table, Ritter’s methods clearly resonate. But what truly distinguishes him is his unwavering commitment to transparency in an industry often criticized for its opacity.

From agent to independent broker: Ritter’s professional journey

Ritter’s entry into insurance wasn’t exactly planned. After graduating college, he uploaded his resume to CareerBuilder and received a call from Banker’s Life. “I actually thought it was a bank,” Ritter recalls with characteristic candor. “I went into the career briefing and they’re like, ‘Well, this is insurance sales to seniors.'”

Despite the surprise, he recognized an opportunity and spent seven formative years at Banker’s Life absorbing everything he could about insurance principles and client service. By 2014, armed with extensive training and a clear vision, Ritter took the leap to independence by founding Insurance You Keep.

This transition marked a fundamental shift in his professional approach. “The agent that works for the company, their responsibility lies with the company that they work for, whereas my responsibility lies with my client or my future client exclusively,” he explains. “I don’t care about the insurance company, I just want to match them up with what’s right for them.”

The freedom to choose from multiple carriers allows Ritter to truly prioritize client needs over company interests. “If you’re an agent for State Farm, you can only sell State Farm, whereas I can sell everything,” he notes, adding that this independence created “a huge competitive advantage” over agents tied to specific companies.

Simplifying Medicare’s complexities

Ritter has earned a reputation for making Medicare comprehensible to even the most confused clients. His approach strips away unnecessary jargon and focuses on what matters to each individual.

“It really makes me feel good when people say, ‘Thank you, Joe, for making everything simple and easy to understand,’ because it’s not something people do, so they don’t understand this world. But I do. I know the game and all the players,” Ritter says. “I’ve been doing it for 20 years and I have a very specific skillset at this point.”

Rather than overwhelming clients with technical terms and complicated charts, Ritter focuses on understanding their specific needs through targeted questions. “I use my decades of experience to ask them questions and do what they call needs-based selling,” he explains. “I’m finding out as much as I can about this individual so that I can make sure they find the right coverage.”

This efficient approach often surprises clients accustomed to lengthy, confusing presentations. “I’ve only done this 3,000 times,” he jokes, “and whenever I tell people that, they laugh because they know I’m not going to ask them a whole bunch of irrelevant questions. I don’t want to waste their time. I don’t want to waste my time.”

The clarity he provides leaves many clients astonished at how straightforward Medicare decisions can be. “At the end, people always say the same thing,” Ritter notes. “They’re like, ‘That’s it? What else do I need to do? It can’t possibly be that easy.'”

The transparency advantage

Central to Ritter’s philosophy is an unwavering commitment to transparency—particularly around compensation. “A lot of people don’t realize that brokers like me are compensated by the insurance companies, not by my client,” he explains. “That means no hidden fees or surprises.”

This arrangement creates a unique value proposition: expert guidance without additional cost to the client. “The great thing about what I do is you can delegate this task to a professional,” Ritter says. “And the best part about it, it doesn’t cost you anything to do that.”

It also aligns incentives in a way that benefits consumers. “If you’re not happy, you’re going to leave. We get paid when we do a really good job and you tell other people about what we do,” he notes. This structure encourages ongoing service excellence rather than just focusing on the initial sale.

Ritter believes transparency is increasingly rare but desperately needed. “We live in a world that’s built on lies. Everywhere we look, people aren’t who they say they are,” he observes. “People are doing things that are really in their best interest, not yours. And then you find that out later—false advertising, bait and switch, go with this plan, the best plan. And then it turns out not. It creates a lot of distrust.”