Not all of them, says Equisoft’s senior vice president in Canada, François Levasseur who estimates that between 45 per cent and 50 per cent of advisors have client relationship management software (CRM).

For some managing general agencies, usage drops as low as 24 per cent. He draws this observation from the 8,900 clients of Equisoft/connect (formerly Kronos Finance) in Canada, half of whom are registered in Quebec.

“In Quebec, the conditions are there to reach 80 per cent. In Ontario and elsewhere in Canada, it will be more difficult. The regulatory environment makes the use of such a tool less essential. The MGAs there are larger scale, making technological developments more difficult,” said Levasseur.

In Quebec, the potential is 30,000 independent advisors, including the SFL and Sun Life networks. The rate of use of a CRM by advisors varies according to the type of distributor. Levasseur said that almost all SFL advisors use it. The rate is lower among MGAs and varies considerably from one to another.

What do MGAs think of CRM?

Partner and executive vice-president of MICA Financial Services, Martin Savard said that 60 per cent of his advisors use CRM. “For customer follow-ups, CRM is a must. I think all advisors should have one,” he said.

But Savard wonders whether it must necessarily be an external tool. “Our systems are more and more efficient and receive data flows from insurers, according to CLIEDIS standards. Our back-office system (Equisoft/centralize from Equisoft) pushes this data to the advisor’s CRM. The representative who consolidates his business with us does not need a CRM. He can access everything from our system.”

François Levasseur said he believes that MGAs’ support determines the adoption of a CRM. “We know that we can achieve additional growth by working together with the distributor. Such a partnership could include joint marketing.”

This partnership would include, among other things, a newsletter, cross-selling article, a presentation event or special offers from the distributor to its advisors as a discount. He said he offers his CRM at a cost of $89 per month.

Vice president and executive officer of Groupe Cloutier, Michel Kirouac, said he acts in partnership with Equisoft. "We offer a good price to the advisor who subscribes to Equisoft/connect through us. Through our back-office system, we transfer data to the CRM so that advisors have information on their clients' portfolios. We try to promote CRM as a tool that helps them plan and organize. In my top 400, at least 250 to 300 advisors are subscribed to Equisoft/connect. Others have their own CRM solution,” said Kirouac.

An external CRM tool is a matter of personal preference, believes Terri Botosan, CEO of HUB Financial. “It’s an advisor’s personal preference. Will they use it for life (insurance) or investment, for financial planning of financial needs analysis? Some use it for keeping track of the client. More advisors are using a CRM tool on the investment side, probably 75 per cent on the investment side and 60 per cent on the life side,” she said.

Jim Virtue, CEO of PPI, said that while his MGA does not track CRM usage among advisors, he estimates that around 50 per cent of their advisors have a CRM of their own. “We supply advisors with several tools that help advisors grow their practice, such as the PPI Toolkit (sales presentations) and our Link Between blog (a tool to help Advisors use social media for content marketing) that advisors can brand for their own use,” he said.

"A large proportion of our advisors use a CRM,” says Phil Marsillo, CEO of IDC Worldsource Insurance Network (IDC WIN). He said he could not quantify this statement. "Is it 50 per cent of 4,000, I doubt it. Among my best 500 advisors, (CRM use) would be higher.”

Qualified Financial Services (QFS) offers a choice between several solutions that the advisor can get at a discount through QFS, said its CEO Kevin Cott. QFS offers Equisoft (Equisoft/connect), Life Design Analysis, Razor and Shop To It, a lead generation system.

Financial Horizons shopping for a CRM

Financial Horizons Group said it is currently looking at the various CRM options available. “We surveyed our advisors to take their pulse on what is important for them in their transition to the new world of financial services. One major response that we got was the importance of elevating our game in the technology space. Using the bar of what the banks provide instead of what our industry provides. It’s been a big challenge for us to modernize our platform,” said David Stewart, COO of Horizons.

“We will prioritize tools that help advisors communicate with their clients and get better data feeds from insurers to our back-office, tools to help advisors do more face to face activities,” said Stewart.

Stewart said CRM is a very important tool in Financial Horizons' digital strategy. But it will not come from within. “We think CRM tools are very important to our strategy. We want to provide depth and breadth. We’ll look to a third party. We’re not going to build it ourselves. We are not in the CRM business.”

Varying defintions

Phil Marsillo said he invites the industry to agree on a definition of CRM. “Outlook is enough for some advisors. They do their CRM by hand and get all the information they need. On the other hand, does the advisor who has a third party CRM product use it 100 per cent of the time? I doubt it. It also becomes difficult for advisors to find their way through all of these systems."

IDC WIN said it doesn't favor one form of CRM over another. "Advisors first and foremost need to see their client's financial information to help them reach their financial goals," said Marsillo.

François Levasseur said that a third-party CRM will not be suitable for everyone. While he targets all advisors, those with a certain volume of clients will be better served by such a tool. “The new advisor will have fewer needs because he is building his clientele. The advisor who has 50 clients can enter the information manually in an Outlook or Excel file. For an advisor who has 500 clients, this would be difficult. "

Levasseur says that advisors with full CRM should make every effort to use it to its full potential. However, not all advisors want it or have the necessary skills to do this, he added.

Data mining

Levasseur said that several initiatives have been launched by distributors to find business opportunities by data mining client bases and working with advisors to take advantage of these opportunities.

"It’s a good idea, but it seems to me that all of them have failed to generate new business with these platforms. There are also new platforms using artificial intelligence...successful results are yet to be proven,” said Levasseur.

He said the challenge is to generate action from the advisor. "Sometimes distributors are unable to keep track of what the advisor did. Regardless of the technology, the advisor must do his job and get the sale, so that the distributor can recover a return on investment."

Levasseur said that his CRM does data mining to help the advisor identify opportunities. "Financial needs analysis is certainly the biggest generator of opportunity," he added. The advisor can then generate a list of opportunities when analyzing the client's situation.

In addition, campaigns and segmentation exercises can yield good results, as well as automated alerts on the client’s birthday, expiration of their needs analysis, expiration of an investment or insurance.

Partnerships between fintechs and insurers can also be promising. Equisoft teamed up with Humania Insurance for a tailored marketing campaign platform for the insurer’s 5575 insurance product. The platform also integrates Equisoft's CRM tool. After having recently implemented the Oracle Insurance Policy Administration platform with the help of Equisoft, UV Insurance is offering advisors a tool similar to a CRM.