Since entering Canada in 2008, NFP has made multiple acquisitions. Many more are in the works, says Marty Shaw, the U.S. broker’s Chief Strategy Officer in Canada.

Shaw has held this newly created position since January. He granted the Insurance Portal an interview in early March, soon after NFP announced that 95% of the businesses it acquired in Canada would adopt its name.

“We can now work on a single P&C insurance platform in Canada. We worked for 18 months to get to that point. The platform was deployed on March 1,” Shaw said.

The integration excludes some mutual fund firms, for compliance reasons. Group insurance MGA Group Force Benefits also will not be integrated.   

Uniform customer approach

“We want to adopt the best possible customer approach. This is the guiding principle behind our acquisitions. Above all, we want to support existing operations when we buy a firm. For example, we are very well integrated in the Toronto market. Our holistic approach is well deployed there. For the other regions, we need to adapt according to the type of business acquired, like for Groupe Force in Quebec,” says Shaw.

NFP thus want to grow in Canada while keeping a consistent brand across North America. “We don’t want there to be a difference between the service we offer in California and in Ontario. We want our brand to stand for the same thing in both countries,” Shaw adds.

Most of the acquisitions that NFP made in Canada were in P&C insurance, a product line that generated 75% of the $150 million of NFP’s commissions in Canada. Its Canadian premiums total $1.2 billion. All the same, life insurance, group insurance and wealth management are also potential acquisition targets, Shaw confirms.

In Quebec, for example, direct insurers dominate in the personal insurance market, Shaw continues. “Outside Quebec we have a large volume in this segment. We want to bridge the different segments,” he says.

NFP prioritizes firms that serve high net value customers. “We are very strong in this niche in the United States. We plan to do the same in Canada,” he adds.

Despite the wave of acquisitions, the business still needs to demonstrate organic growth, Shaw continues. “In the current context of a hard business insurance market, increasing the number of policies written justifies the financing of acquisitions. Our board of directors endorses this approach. To be meaningful, a transaction must endure over time.”

The NFP’s end goal in acquisitions is to find the right people and have them work within the right company. “Good resources attract other good resources. This is our approach in Quebec. It is not more difficult to make acquisitions there than anywhere else,” Shaw says.