IG Wealth Management, a subsidiary of IGM, a member of the Power Corporation group of companies, wants to break into the individual life and health insurance segment. This is one of the reasons why Claude Paquin, President of IGM Financial Quebec, recruited Stéphane Dulude on December 18, 2023, as Vice-President of Business Development for Quebec and the Maritimes. Dulude will be responsible for carrying out this mission.
In an exclusive interview with Insurance Portal, Dulude explains how IG will succeed in a network dominated by managing general agencies. Dulude knows this environment well. From 2018 to 2020, he was Vice President, Business Development, at Peak Financial Group. Prior to that, he spent 11 years in executive positions at SFL Wealth Management and SFL Investments, including President and General Manager of both Desjardins Group subsidiaries.
To illustrate the importance of life and health insurance to his organization, Stéphane Dulude reveals that IG Wealth Management has set itself the five-year goal of “doubling the share of revenues from our other sources, of which life and health insurance is a part, compared with those from our investment-related activities.”
Asked what proportion of IG Wealth Management's total business comes from life and health insurance, Dulude would not disclose this information. He replied that it is “extremely difficult to compare insurance and investment business lines.”
As for insurance revenue growth, Dulude says that the second quarter of 2024 “was our best, based on first-year commissions since the first quarter of 2017.” He recalls that Q1 2017 had reached a possibly unparalleled peak in the industry due to the tax changes affecting business owners at the time. “Consequently, the results for the second quarter of 2024 are our second best in the last 20 years. What's more, our average premium has never been higher.”
Demand for multidisciplinarity
IG Wealth Management wants to expand its sales force. “We want to attract established industry talent advisors to IG. Unfortunately, we're not always on the radar of advisors thinking of changing firms,” confides Dulude. “We want to be open to what's going on elsewhere, and raise the profile of the brand by showing what we can offer across Canada,” he adds.
In his role, Stéphane Dulude will focus on Quebec and the Maritimes. He underlines that “Quebec represents an extremely important component of IG's growth in Canada”.
Almost all of our advisors are dual-licensed. It has become a corporate requirement. - Stéphane Dulude
His organization insists on the multidisciplinarity of its advisors. IG Wealth Management requires a recruit to have more than one license. Almost all of our advisors are dual-licensed,” says Dulude. It's become a corporate requirement: the advisor who comes to us must be a financial planner, registered in life and health insurance, and in one of the savings disciplines, either securities or group savings.”
IG Wealth Management currently has 3131 advisors, including 756 in Quebec, reveals Dulude. Among them are 1,915 senior advisors, whom IG refers to as consultants, assisted by 1,216 associate advisors. “The definition of “consultants” corresponds to that of a senior advisor who may be joined by one or more associate advisors. This means that a team of advisors may have just one consultant, but several associate advisors,” he explains.
IG Wealth Management counts 1,680 advisors with either the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation outside Quebec, or the Financial Planner (Pl. Fin.) designation in Quebec. Stéphane Dulude says his organization stands out in this respect. “We position ourselves first and foremost as a financial planning firm,” he adds.
Active insurance consultants and associate advisors are attached to the IG insurance firm and cannot deal with another managing general agency. Dulude welcomes this arrangement, which makes it easier to supervise advisors. “The advisor who spreads himself thin by placing policies with different MGAs, who supervises him? That's an issue!”
A need to be filled
Why intensify insurance business now? Dulude answers that IG Wealth Management has always offered insurance, but that this offering has taken on even greater importance since the organization turned more towards high-net-worth clients in 2017, making them its primary market.
“These people have insurance needs too,” he says. Indeed, Insurance Portal reported the results of an IG Wealth Management study published in December 2023, which found that only 54% of high-net-worth Canadians have insurance. “That's 46% of (HNW) Canadians who don't have insurance,” says Dulude. What we don't know is how well the 54% are covered. That's what led IG to put more emphasis on insurance, and to take certain steps that promote the amount of time an advisor can devote to life and health insurance.”
He sees opportunities in both percentages. “For example, if we lower the 46% segment of the high net worth market without insurance to 42%, there will be more premiums, and also more policies sold. In the 54% segment, if an entrepreneur is insured, but his partners are not, there's potential for cross-selling.”
Investing in high net worth clients
Among IG's various distribution channels, Dulude is working to develop the entrepreneurial channel, i.e. that of consultants, self-employed business owners. This is the channel that serves the high net worth clientele. In the organizational channel, salaried advisors serve the mass market, i.e. clients with between $100,000 and $250,000 in investable assets.
“We serve this clientele and will continue to do so, but it's not the one we want to develop. We want to invest in high net worth clients. Of course, the average premium will increase, but so will the number of policies. More insurance will be sold than was sold in the past,” says Dulude.
Since its 2017 turnaround, IG Wealth Management has invested significantly in technology to free up advisors' time. Dulude points out that these efforts are aimed at helping the advisor focus on the client relationship and advice, “rather than filling out paperwork.” High-net-worth cases are complex,” says Dulude. “IG advisors use the Conquest digital financial planning application. In April, IG signed a partnership with Life Design Analysis, to facilitate insurance quotes and presentations,” he mentions as examples.
Dulude adds that IG supports its consultants in complex files with a financial concierge service (family office). “We have added insurance specialists across Canada,” he says, adding that an advanced financial planning team will support consultants with insurance tax strategies.
Limited number of suppliers
To establish itself in an independent distribution network dominated by managing general agents, IG Wealth Management acts as one, relying on its partnerships with life and health insurance manufacturers.
IG Wealth Management has long-standing partnerships with Canada Life, Sun Life, Manulife and RBC Insurance. On August 27, 2024, the firm signed a new partnership with iA Financial Group. At the time of the announcement, IG said that this partnership enables it to access more insurance products and meet more life, critical illness and disability insurance needs.
In the same announcement, Pierre Vincent, Senior Vice-President, Distribution, Individual Insurance, Savings and Retirement, iA Financial Group, stated that its new distribution agreement with IG will enable iA to offer its insurance products to even more Canadians. “Through this partnership, iA is adding IG advisors and associates who can distribute our products,” Vincent added.
“We are adding insurance manufacturers to ensure that the advisor has everything necessary to cover the widest possible range of his clients' insurance needs,” explained Stéphane Dulude during the interview.
IG Wealth Management is satisfied with having partnerships with these five suppliers. “Some organizations have agreements with all distributors. With the volume we have, we could sign them all tomorrow morning. IG has instead chosen to have a spectrum of strategic partners that covers all needs,” underlines Dulude.
According to him, even managing general agencies who have access to all suppliers concentrate their production with a handful of them. He believes this is also the case for advisors. “How can the advisor know the features of 15 different products? It’s impossible,” he says.
Great-West Lifeco's 2023 annual report reveals that 1,452 IG Wealth Management advisors actively sell Canada Life products, based on their new business as of November 30, 2023.
