This article was produced in partnership with Intact Insurance and Magna Insurance.
Desmond Devoy, of Insurance Business Canada, sat down with Seth Parent, business development manager, Intact Insurance, and Chris Sikorski, managing partner, Magna Insurance Group, to discuss how Magna is defining its space in the market.
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The level of expertise on board was immense – the talent was seasoned and came from top-notch carriers and brokerages – but so were the challenges faced by the founders of Magna Insurance Group.
“It was quite scary to strike out on our own,” said Chris Sikorski (pictured), Magna’s managing partner and co-founder. The founders had experience on their side, but otherwise, they were starting out from scratch, leaving behind their legacy books of business.
It’s been five years, and the bold play has paid off, not just for the founders, but also for the insurance needs of their targeted clientele, notably, Alberta’s construction industry.
Sikorski and his team recognized that buying insurance, especially in some industry segments, could be a nerve-wracking experience for customers – and they wanted to change that.
“It was about building something different,” he said. “We take a lot of pride in our industry. Anyone in insurance can tell you there are certain stigmas attached to the industry, and our mission is to work against those stigmas to leave a positive stamp on the industry – while making the clients’ experience as positive as possible.”
Interest in insurance runs in the family: Chris’s father, Ed Sikorski, is one of Magna’s co-founders, serving as the brokerage’s CEO. Chris’s wife, sister, mother and brother-in-law, as well as some cousins, are all in the insurance game.
With so many members of his family involved in the insurance business, Sikorski has had a “unique window” on the industry – though he didn’t always appreciate it as a child at the family dinner table, when shop talk invaded.
“Some of the dinner conversation could get quite boring!” he confessed.
Because insurance is such a family affair for Sikorski, that approach extends to how Magna builds relationships with its clients, community, and each other.
“Establishing high-touch relationships with our clients, our community, and our people is of utmost importance to us,” said Sikorski. “We are not the largest insurance brokerage in Alberta, but we are the hardest working.”
Perhaps that was why Magna was immediately drawn to the hard-working field of construction. The industry is particularly close to Sikorski’s own heart: he considered it as a career option before embracing the family-trod insurance path.
“Their knowledge definitely stands out,” said Seth Parent, a business development manager with Intact Insurance in Calgary, who has worked with Magna since its founding. “In my mind, it’s a first-class brokerage, in both the way they carry themselves and in the way they represent the industry.”
Representing the industry and supporting their clients, at Magna, means working closely together – from the office.
After the pandemic restrictions were lifted, every single member of Magna team opted to return to the office, keen to re-establish the connection and camaraderie that defined their work environment before the pandemic hit.
“We know that we work better together,” said Sikorski. “And, we enjoy each other’s company.”
Community involvement is another critical part of the Magna brand.
“The work we do as a brokerage adds value, and our involvement with our community gives us purpose,” Sikorski told Insurance Business.
One of the ways Magna gives back is through an annual charity golf tournament every year. The key beneficiary is Renfrew Educational Services, which provides support and a learning environment for children with special needs, helping more than 600 children each year.
In the first year of the tournament, which has sold out every year, Magna raised a respectable $37,000. After nearly doubling that amount last year, the brokerage has set a fundraising target of $100,000 for 2023.
“I think we will be able to do it,” Sikorski said.
At Intact, as Parent looks at what Magna’s accomplished in the five years since its founding, he’s impressed and excited to see how Sikorski and team will continue to grow.
“Their trajectory has them very well positioned and their strategy is focused,” he said, pointing to Magna’s boutique coverage of the construction industry. “They have the expertise to compete on the scale with large national brokers, while still maintaining a family-run business culture. They’ve developed strong relationships with their partner markets, and they put their customers’ interests first.”
