MGA acquisition moves insurer into new business

A key acquisition is giving advisors the opportunity to get into the business that the country’s leading insurers have been spending billions on.

Risk Management News

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A key acquisition is giving advisors the opportunity to get into the business that the country’s leading insurers have been spending billions on.
 
Advisors will have the chance to follow the lead of leading insurers by entering into the wealth management business thanks to Financial Horizon’s acquisition of Excel Private Wealth and Certika Investments Ltd.
 
“Advisors have been asking us for a platform for the money business and we are excited to finally offer one to them,” John Hamilton, president and CEO of Financial Horizons said to the Insurance and Investment Journal.
 
Financial Horizons will now have approximately $2 billion in assets under management in the Quebec and Ontario markets thanks to the two deals.
 
Over the last few years Canada’s leading insurers have been acquiring wealth management businesses in order to lessen the effects the low interest rate environment is having on their insurance operations. The most recent example was Sun Life’s acquisition of Bentall Kennedy, a premier real estate investment manager. But Great-West Life and Manulife have also been active in this regard.
 
Financial Horizons is currently in talks with numerous other mutual fund firms as the MGA is looking to expand this business across Canada, with a goal of reaching $8 to $10 billion AUM, according to Hamilton.
 
Financial Horizons had acquired the life insurance business of R.G. Packman and Excel in previous transactions, but held off acquiring their mutual fund divisions.
 
This deal won’t impact the MGA’s roughly 3,000 dual licensed advisors, as the MGA has no plans to aggressively pursue dual licensed advisor’s mutual fund business, according to Hamilton.
 
Nevertheless, it is likely that demand for UBI and the discounts it provides will grow. Younger homeowners will begin to influence the market, and the use of surveillance technology by insurers may gradually become more accepted.
 
As such, Deloitte concludes that “the genie is out of the bottle.”
 
“The industry as a whole is not likely to go back to relying on its traditional methods of assessing auto risks,” the analyst said in its report.

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