Quick answer: "street level" is the standard baseline commission rate a carrier pays an individual writing agent — the published going rate "on the street." Uplines (agencies, IMOs, FMOs) hold higher contract levels and earn overrides paid by the carrier on top of your rate, not out of it. A legitimate upline gives new agents street level from day one; a below-street contract means your upline is skimming your commission, and it's the single most expensive thing a new agent can sign.
How the hierarchy actually works
Carriers don't recruit agents one by one — they distribute through a pyramid of contract levels. A simplified final expense example:
- Writing agent (street): commonly quoted around 100–120% of first-year premium, depending on carrier and product.
- Agency / GA level: street + an override margin.
- IMO/FMO level: a higher band still; the FMO earns the spread between its level and yours.
The critical mechanic: the carrier pays every level directly. When your FMO earns its override, your commission doesn't shrink — the carrier funds both. That's why "we take a cut of your commission" is never how a legitimate hierarchy works (what an FMO actually is).
Below street: the quiet tax on new agents
Some uplines contract new agents below street — say 80% where street is 115% — and pocket the difference as an extra override. On $100,000 of first-year premium, that gap is $35,000 out of your pocket for identical work. It's usually justified as "you're new" or "that's the training cost." It isn't. Training is what the normal override already pays the upline for.
How to check: ask for the commission grid, per carrier, in writing, before you contract. Then compare against what other IMOs offer for the same carrier — street level is fairly consistent, so an outlier is telling you something (the full IMO checklist).
Can you get above street?
Yes — production earns it. Proven producers and agency builders negotiate street+ levels, and hierarchy promotions (building a downline) raise your contract band. But that's a year-two conversation backed by numbers. Day one, the right ask is simpler: street level, in writing, with a release policy (why the release matters).
Medicare is the exception that proves the rule
Medicare Advantage and PDP commissions are CMS-capped ($694 initial / $347 renewal nationally in 2026), so "street" is effectively the FMV maximum and most carriers pay it. The override hierarchy still exists — carriers pay FMOs separately — but your rate has a federal ceiling and floor dynamics of its own (the Medicare comp guide). If a Medicare upline offers you less than FMV, that's the same below-street skim wearing different clothes.
The takeaway
Street level is your baseline, overrides are the carrier's cost of distribution — not yours — and the two questions that protect your income are "what's my level, per carrier, in writing?" and "what's your release policy?" Any upline that dodges either has answered you anyway.
Bridgepoint contracts every agent at street level from day one, in writing, with an open release. Apply here.