Navacord Corp., an insurance and risk management brokerage, announced on Dec. 16 its acquisition of SmartChoice Benefits.

With the addition of Ontario-based SmartChoice, Navacord says it is “further expanding its employee benefits and pension offerings, which it sees as an organic evolution of its business strategy to provide a more robust service offering to clients.”

Navacord said SmartChoice provides benefit plan options tailored to niche business segments that have been “traditionally underserved by the group insurance market” in Canada, including contracted employees, small businesses and franchises.

Third-party administration

“SmartChoice also provides an opportunity for Navacord to enter the third-party administration space and creates a strong overlap to commercial group and transportation segments for significant cross-selling between the businesses,” says the company.

Shawn DeSantis, Navacord President and CEO, says the acquisition shows the company’s “commitment to building the required scale, carrier relationships, industry leading products and technology solutions to place us among the leaders in the Canadian market for employee benefit and pensions.”

Earlier this year, Navacord also acquired Benefits Consultants Inc. and Future Benefits Management Inc.