HUB International has made two leadership appointments to its national Employee Benefits & Retirement (EB&R) team in Canada, both in newly created roles.
Laura Liden becomes vice president of client strategy, and Todd Peryk becomes national leader and vice president of group retirement. Both will report to Terri Botosan, president of employee benefits, retirement and life at HUB Canada.
“These appointments reflect our continued investment in the Employee Benefits and Retirement space, as our clients look for more integrated support across benefits and retirement,” said Tina Osen, president of HUB Canada.
Liden has more than a decade of experience in employee benefits, workforce health and sales strategy. She was previously an employee benefits strategist on HUB’s national EB&R team, where she helped win significant new business and stabilize at-risk client relationships, HUB said. In her new role, she will work with regional teams to develop programs and strategies to help advisors win and keep clients.
Peryk has more than 28 years of experience on both the carrier and advisor sides of the retirement business. He was previously senior vice president of group retirement, individual insurance and wealth management, leading distribution strategy for the Coastal region across group retirement plan sponsors and individual insurance and wealth clients. He will now shape national strategy for HUB’s group retirement practice.
Botosan said the two would help sharpen HUB’s value proposition and develop the next generation of advisors that benefits and retirement clients will rely on.
The appointments point to a shift seen across the broker market, where firms are linking employee benefits and group retirement rather than treating them as separate businesses. Earlier this month, Canada Life introduced flexible workplace savings options letting employees save for short-term goals while their employer match still goes to retirement. Quebec broker Ellipse also launched Ellipse Collective, a combined group insurance and retirement subsidiary.
For employers, the integrated approach means one advisory relationship covering health benefits, retirement plans and, increasingly, employee financial wellbeing.
Creating national roles for client strategy and group retirement suggests HUB wants more consistency across its regional benefits teams, which have been built partly through acquisitions.
For independent benefits advisors, it’s another example of large brokers investing in national specialist teams to compete for mid-sized and large employer accounts, where retirement plans are often the bigger revenue opportunity.
