News and resources for Canada's top financial advisors
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Canada’s insurance industry isn’t shrinking from the proposal for a closer regulatory oversight. But key stakeholders say lots remains to be done to fulfil the regulators’ mandate.
By Vikram Barhat |May 10, 2012
3 min read
In a move that could shake up the insurance distribution channel, Financial Horizons Inc. has bought Force Financiere Excel, creating the country's largest Managing General Agency (MGA).
By Staff |February 29, 2012
1 min read
Market Insights
Read: Our Distributors’ Summit coverage Two of Canada’s managing general agencies have announced plans to merge. The combination of Worldsource Insurance Network Inc. and IDC Financial Inc. would create one of Canada’s largest MGAs. “Worldsource is excited to be associated with IDC,” said Paul Brown, president and CEO of WIN. “It is a firm with […]
By Staff |June 3, 2011
2 min read
Life
The Independent Financial Brokers is encouraging participants in the insurance industry to speak up about the role of managing general agencies in the industry. The call comes in response to the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators’ examination of the distribution model. “This is an excellent opportunity for those who conduct life insurance business under an […]
By Staff |March 11, 2011
The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators has released an “issues paper” on the managing general agencies model of insurance distribution, and is calling on the industry for input into how the market should be regulated. In some ways, the release of the paper is an admission that regulators still don’t have much of a grasp […]
By Steven Lamb |February 11, 2011
For most MGAs, the margins are too thin to afford additional value-added services, and it’s forcing agents to sell lower-commission products, according to industry experts who spoke at our 2010 Distributors’ Summit in Niagara-on-the-Lake. One discussion, entitled “Past, Present and Future,” explored historical trends and factors that have shaped the current state of insurance distribution […]
By Vikram Barhat |June 1, 2010
5 min read
The end is nigh, at least for smaller managing general agencies, as consolidation within the insurance distribution industry appears set to ramp up. Owners might be well advised to sell now while they can, according to the president of one advisory firm. “Smaller MGAs and Associate General Agency (AGAs) are becoming endangered species,” says John […]
By Vikram Barhat |April 29, 2010
Like it or not, managing general agents (MGAs) must accept they have vicarious and even direct liability, and therefore have a duty to supervise the advisors with whom they deal, according to Peter Lamarche, president financial services, Blonde & Little. Speaking at the Advocis Symposium on The Future of Financial Services Distribution in Canada, Lamarche […]
By Steven Lamb |November 27, 2009
Ask an MGA exec what’s troubling their industry and the perennial answer always comes up first: vicious competition is pricing the industry into oblivion. Agencies have been forced into a competitive spiral of higher payouts to advisors—and thinner margins for the MGA. But the somewhat cynical view that advisors will always place their business with […]
By Steven Lamb |August 1, 2009
4 min read
To turn a profit from declining margins, MGAs realize they need scale. In the past, the solution most talked about has been acquisition but at this year’s Managing General Agencies Symposium, hosted by ADVISOR Group, it’s another A word that has people talking — alliance. According to a survey conducted on behalf of ADVISOR Group, […]
By Mark Noble |May 29, 2008
(June 2007)Advisors who place their insurance business through a managing general agency remain satisfied with their relationship, for the most part, according to the latest research by the Advisor Group and NewLink Group. “Advisors report having a good relationship with their MGA still; however, for the first time, this year shows a significant drop in […]
By Steven Lamb |June 12, 2007
Living Benefits
(May 2007) Worldsource Insurance Network, one of the country’s largest MGAs, has hired recognized underwriting veteran Leo Penney as a consultant. Penney’s role is to help Worldsource advisors package proposals to insurers on particularly complex and large cases. The arrangement is not a common practice, the company says, but it has become necessary to respond […]
By Mark Noble |May 11, 2007
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