Insurer and roadside assistance provider CAA, the Canadian Automobile Association, took a bold step this week, announcing that it will now also provide advice to clients who are interested in buying life and health insurance solutions.
The new firm, CAA Club Group Advisory Services, employs five advisors who are licensed to sell life, health insurance, disability, critical illness and accident insurance in Ontario. Once established, the group will also offer supplementary health and dental insurance in the coming months.
CAA, a national association, currently has more than 2-million members in Ontario alone. Dwayne Williams, principal with CAA Club Group Advisory Services says the new firm, for members and non-members alike, launched in Ontario because CAA is already based in that province. “We have a good feel for the market and this is where we’re licensed to sell,” he says. “As CAA Club Group Advisory Services grows, we are looking to expand into new markets, but in the near term we’re focusing on Ontario.”
He adds that the advisors are not restricted to selling CAA products only. “We’ve offered life insurance for over 25 years and we will still offer the same product that people have had the opportunity to purchase online, but what we’re doing is a little bit different. We’re (getting) involved in the overall customer journey,” he says.
“They (CAA’s advisors) can sell anything. CAA is not underwriting the life and health products,” Williams adds. “We’ve partnered with a number of large, reputable Canadian life insurance carriers to give us access to hundreds of different life and health solutions.”
The launch, he says, is something the company has been interested in pursuing for a few years now. “Our mission is to keep Ontarians safe. We’ve done that with our other lines of business, and now we’re looking at life insurance. It was a natural extension for us.”