As it celebrates its 10th Anniversary, Experior Financial Group announced it has set the goal to serve and attract 10,000 agents. The MGA that combines the features of a multi-level distribution life agency and those of a traditional MGA expects much from fast growing operations south of the border and attractive compensation.
His early years in the business inspired Experior Financial Group Co-founder and Chief Executive officer, Jamie Prickett, to develop the multi-level structure MGA, launched 10 years ago. During an interview with Insurance Portal, he recalled spending his first ten years of his career with Primerica “where I understood marketing networking.”
The 10,000 mark is a bold target when competing against well-established independent distributors, led by the big four MGAs. They are currently considered to be Financial Horizons, Hub Financial, IDC Worldsource Insurance Network and PPI.
Especially when this target means adding more than 6,000 advisors, which is about the number of advisors some of the biggest MGAs reached after many years of operating in Canada. “We have over 2,400 licensed agents today in Canada, and just under 1,600 in the United States,” said Jamie Prickett.
Asked by Insurance Portal about the premiums collected by the agency, Shelden Smollan, Chief Experience Officer, Experior Financial Group, said that Experior agents sold 10,300 life policies, 14,900 travel insurance policies and 2,000 health and dental policies in Canada. Smollan adds that agents sold 6,700 life policies in the United States.
Jamie Prickett says he is convinced that the MGA will succeed. During the interview, he raised the strategic advantages which he believes will allow Experior Financial Group to achieve this target.
Word’s spreading
Among other things, he pointed out that his company name spreads throughout the industry. “The plan to get to 10,000 is pretty simple: more and more people are acknowledging that Experior is not like other companies we’ve been compared to in the past, he says. When the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) report went public in 2023, everyone kind of assumed we were just like Greatway Financial or World Financial Group (WFG)”, Prickett says.
He refers to what FSRA calls tiered-recruitment model MGAs in its Life and Health Insurance Agent Thematic Report published in October 2023. Greatway Financial and WFG were then required by the regulator to fix troubling practices, but not Experior Financial Group, which it also considered as a tiered-recruitment model MGA.
The company defended it’s model in a letter to the editor published on Insurance Portal in October 2022. “We have different layers of commissions, as the other MGAs do in the entire industry,” Jamie Prickett says. Our (distribution) model is also different from the traditional model. Here, there’s an MGA, AGAs and agents. And the AGA provides support to the agent, and the MGA provides support to the AGA and the agent.” In this model, the AGA has the status of executive director.
Added value AGA
Prickett thinks that top shelf agents are questioning AGAs: “What value are you giving me? Why should I just go across town to switch to an MGA and become an AGA myself? As we get our name out there more and more, Shawn Redford is now talking to some contacts he's known for 20 years and plus,” says Jamie Prickett. According to Prickett, these are high level producers in the industry, some from big MGAs, now joining Experior.
Before joining Experior Financial Group in June 2023 as Chief Business Development Officer, Redford was Senior Director, Business Development at SSQ Insurance (now Beneva) for Southwestern Ontario. He held similar roles at carriers like ivari, Assumption Life and Manulife. He also worked for MGAs, among them PPI and HUB.
Redford draws from his experience that most agents are not getting any service from their AGAs, and that the big MGAs struggle to keep up with the task of supervising them. “The MGA might have 2, 5, maybe 10 business development managers whose job is to support the agents. If the MGA has 4,000, maybe 10,000 agents, how can the managers support them, trained them, keep them motivated? It’s impossible”, he believes. Redford emphasizes that Experior’s way of empowering AGAs makes this possible.
Leveraging US operations
If we increased from 2,400 to 3,000 agents in Canada by the end of the year, I will call it a win – Jamie Prickett
Moreover, Jamie Prickett thinks that Experior Financial Group’s fast expansion in the United States is what will contribute the most to achieving the 10,000 agents’ goal. “Most of the growth will come from the USA. If we increased from 2,400 to 3,000 agents in Canada by the end of the year, I would call it a win,” he says.
In the United States, Prickett observes that many agents are moving from multi-level organizations that are in the 10,000 agent size range. “We are the one company that is well positioned to benefit from that, because we have such strong compensation for producers, in addition to the override (bonus). In most companies, you have to sacrifice your commission in order to get good overrides. We found a way to keep 10% (of our revenues) to run our back-office, technology, staff…, and pay the other 90% to the salesforce,” he underlines.
Captive alternative
Experior Financial Group requires all agents to place their business through it. “From a compliance standpoint, that eliminates risks for us, says Prickett. We don’t believe that agents should have multiple MGAs monitoring their business.” He also claims that Experior has access to almost all the providers. Ontario represents a third of Experior Financial Group Canadian operations. The company headquarters are in Guelph.
Many Experior’s recruits are from other MGAs or career agencies, acknowledge Jamie Prickett. “About 90 % of all our agents are from other companies. The majority from captive companies.”
But he also sees Experior as one of the few organisations bringing “greens” to the field. “Last year, we grew our licensed salesforce by a thousand agents. About a hundred of those were greens,” he says.
Shares as an incentive
On its website, Experior Financial Group mentions corporate ownership and equity as opportunities. Experior Financial Group started to offer shares six years ago. In 2023, it paid dividends on its shares for the first time.
On Feb. 1 and 2, 2024, Experior had a meeting with its AGAs, announcing a new promo for its stock program. “Up until now, you could only earn shares by becoming an AGA, says Prickett. We’re now awarding shares based on business volume thresholds for individual producers as well. Now, 25% of the Experior corporate is owned by agents and corporate staff, through a stock program.”
The rest is owned by Prickett and his wife, president of Experior Financial Group, Lee-Ann Prickett, through voting shares. The 25% agents and corporate ownership is mainly through non-voting shares, “except for 10 or 12 persons”, he says. With 75% of the ownership, the two founders have voting majority.
Being rewarded with the shares makes the agents more accountable for protecting the brand – Shawn Redford
For his part, Shawn Redford says that giving shares to advisors builds loyalty. “Being rewarded with the shares as they help the organization grow makes the agents more accountable of protecting the brand. You’re an owner too: when you do something, you think about the impact on the organization of what you’re doing,” he says.
Agency incubator
Asked which proportion of the agents owning shares have created an agency, Prickett answered 100%. It might change as those who grow their volume can also earn shares, he explains. “The majority of our agents are focusing on the personal production side. We’ve made it feasible for them to get to the highest contract’s level, as it is for those who build an agency. A personal producer can earn the same amount of commission as an AGA.
Overrides is the incentive to create an agency, adds Prickett. “If you’re an AGA in the traditional industry, and someone under you becomes an AGA, there’s no more money. It’s gone.” To remedy this, Prickett says he will reward the first AGA with a lifetime bonus for having found that agent who becomes a new AGA.
“If you’re the AGA for an agent under you that want to become an AGA, the two AGA are then working directly for Experior, explains Prickett. However, Experior still pays you a bonus for the rest of your life on that agency because you’re the one who found them, developed them and helped them get to that stage. In the traditional industry, the AGA is losing its best producers who eventually go to an MGA.”
“We've incorporated an override to encourage AGAs to not only keep people beneath them but to promote them to the AGA (level), if they want to build their own agency,” adds Prickett. In the traditional independent distribution model, overrides are paid to the MGA.
Multi-level: technology is paramount
Experior Financial Group not only wants to attract 10,000 advisors, it wants to serve them all, which means cutting-edge and costly technology. “Experior had to invest in technology to develop its internal system, says Prickett. “We started in 2014 with one part-time developer in Ukraine. We invested $2M into tech last year and $1.5M in 2022. We’ve now grown to 30 full-time people on our development tech-team.”
In Experior’s system, all compliance components are tied to commission payments. Prickett mentions the reason for buying insurance, the letter of advice, the disclosure and the financial needs analysis, among others. “If you aren't doing one of those things, you're not getting paid,” he explains.
We always get feedback from our salesforce – Lee-Ann Prickett
“Our contracting, commissions, compliance and new business are all connected, adds Lee-Ann Prickett, president of Experior Financial Group. “If one of those pieces is taken out, for example contracting, the whole system is off-tilt, so to speak.”
About advisors complaining they lose track of their commissions: “We have a lot of brains working on all the different angles and areas. We always get feedback from our salesforce”, she says.
* The interview was conducted jointly with Serge Therrien, president and publisher of Insurance Journal Publishing Group.
