What it means when your advisor is a Certified Medicare Planner®
When your advisor is a Certified Medicare Planner®, you will see every plan available in your area, on the screen, side by side, whether or not he or she is paid on it.
That is the whole idea. The rest of this page is the detail.
David Schaeffer, founder and principal advisor. Started in Las Vegas in 2001.
Why David built it
When David Schaeffer started in Las Vegas in 2001, there was no standard for what a Medicare advisor owed the person across the desk. Anyone could call themselves a Medicare advisor.
What he saw was agents learning one or two plans and leaving the rest untouched, because one plan is easier to sell than thirty. If a plan was hard to explain, or not in the briefcase, it never came up. People were sold on emotion instead of dollars and cents, and told that this plan or that one was the best. There is no such thing as the best plan. There is the plan that fits one person’s doctors, prescriptions, budget, and life.
So David did the hard thing. He contracted with every plan available in the market, so he could sit with a family and shop all of them in one place. He made a vow to show every plan available whether he was compensated on it or not. Then he built a firm around that vow.
For years the standard lived in how the firm worked. In 2019 we put a name on it and filed for the mark. It registered in May 2020. The name says what we mean: a planner, not a salesperson.
“David provided a thorough explanation of the various plans and options available, and presentation with side by side comparison of plan cost. I was impressed with his knowledge and expertise, and his willingness to educate me during the initial meeting.”David B., a client of David Schaeffer
What a Certified Medicare Planner® promises you
Hold us to this. Bring it to your meeting.
- 1Every plan available in your area, shown on the screen, whether or not we are paid on it.
- 2Your doctors and your prescriptions loaded before any recommendation. Your prescriptions checked against every Part D plan in your area, your doctors against the networks.
- 3Your five Medicare choices explained first. If you have employer or retiree coverage, a Stay-or-Go Analysis™ before you give anything up.
- 4A review every year. The plans change even when you do not.
- 5No carrier tells us what to show you. We are not limited to one insurance company or one group of plans.
- 6If the plan that fits you best is one we cannot enroll you in, we tell you so, and we tell you how to get it.
“He goes through different companies and finds a company that charges you the lowest premium. He is very customer focused. I look forward each year to have a meeting with him.”Mahesh D., a client of David Edge
What it takes to hold it
Every Certified Medicare Planner® is a licensed insurance agent first. State licensing and the annual Medicare training every agent must complete are the floor, not the standard. David Schaeffer, our principal advisor, is licensed in all 50 states. On top of that floor, the designation requires five modules, mentoring by a senior advisor, compliance training, and recertification every year.
Medicare basics, all of them
Parts A, B, C and D, Medicare Supplement plans, enrollment windows and the penalties for missing them. Proficiency, not familiarity.
Employer coverage versus Medicare
How to compare a group plan or retiree plan to Medicare line by line, and when staying on it is the right call. This is the Stay-or-Go Analysis™.
The 123Easy Method
Our client meeting standard: teach the five choices first, load the doctors and prescriptions, then compare every plan on the screen.
Situational scenarios
Turning 65 while still working, a spouse on a different plan, a move between states, a new diagnosis, a plan that is going away.
Ethical management
Acting in the client’s interest, without bias toward any carrier, and saying so plainly when the right plan is not one we sell.
Four advisors hold the mark
Each one does this every day. Each name links to that advisor.
David Schaeffer
Licensed in all 50 states. Author of Medicare Made 123Easy.
What it is not
It is not a government designation. Medicare does not issue it, and neither does any insurance company. Nobody outside this firm grants it.
It is our own standard. American Retirement Advisors created it to describe how our advisors work: show every plan, teach first, load the doctors and prescriptions, review every year.
Showing and offering are different things. We show you every plan on the screen, including plans we are not appointed to sell. We can enroll you in the plans we represent. If the best plan for you is not one of them, we say so and point you to it.
CMP Certified Medicare Planner® is a registered service mark, U.S. Reg. No. 6,060,742, registered May 19, 2020, of The Medicare Architects, Inc., the Scottsdale company behind our Medicare practice. Certified Medicare Planners® offered as a non-government resource through 123EasyMedicare.com are licensed insurance agents. Clients quoted on this page were not compensated for their reviews.
Frequently asked
Is this a government certification?
Does a Certified Medicare Planner® cost more?
How is a Certified Medicare Planner® different from an agent or a call center?
Can I check that my advisor holds it?
Meet a Certified
Medicare Planner®
In Scottsdale, Las Vegas, or on a screen wherever you are. No cost. No pressure. And on Friday, October 2, 2026, hear three of them in person at the Annual Enrollment Workshop.