Wholesalers have growth ambitions

Property and casualty insurance Managing General Agents (MGAs), who serve as intermediaries between brokers and insurers, have become essential in the commercial property insurance sector. They employ unique strategies to achieve targeted growth. 

While operating his own brokerage firm, which has since been sold, Patrick Bouchard secured underwriting delegations for non-standard risks through insurer Echelon. His firm, then named Plan B, was “a one-man show,” he admits. His partnership with Synex has provided him access to new capabilities with insurers. 

“At Echelon at that time, Ron Pavelack told me, ‘I'm giving you enough rope, just don't hang yourself with it.’ And I didn't,” recounts Bouchard, MGA Vice President at Soplex solutions d’assurance. 

When the deal with Synex occurred in fall 2021, Soplex had an underwriting volume of 11 million dollars. Bouchard doesn’t hide his ambition to multiply this volume several times over the next three years, expanding beyond Quebec. 

Bouchard is also negotiating additional underwriting delegations with two other domestic insurers. Starting April 2024, Soplex will be able to receive inquiries from brokers in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, thanks to the recruitment of underwriters in these regions. “We're not rushing in headlong. We're starting with targeted brokers for at least the first year. If I have a resource in Ontario, I can't serve 600 firms,” he says. 

The rollout will be cautious. “My goal is to start smart, not to start shouting everywhere that I exist only to be overwhelmed with requests I can’t handle,” underlines Bouchard. 

CHES 

MGA CHES Special Risk celebrated its fifth year of operations in Quebec in fall 2023 and where it employs 25 people. “Our capabilities keep increasing. We are very generalist, allowing brokers to find just about anything they need across various business classes,” points out Gabriel Morneau, Vice President of CHES in Quebec. 

A new domestic insurer has been added among the MGA's partners, and negotiations continue with others. Morneau notes that one insurer, which had refused to talk to him five years ago, initiated negotiations with them in 2024. “There's definitely a greater openness from some insurers towards wholesalers,” he says. 

Some underwriters specialize in a niche when there is a high volume of inquiries in a particular area. Morneau plans to establish specialized underwriting departments, particularly to serve the construction industry, given the high demand. 

Burns & Wilcox 

In its latest annual report, the H. W. Kaufman Group highlighted that its Canadian subsidiary, Burns & Wilcox, experienced an 11 per cent increase in revenues in 2023 compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by an increase in both the number of policies and the average revenue. 

“It’s a combination of servicing our broker network with fast turnaround times and also providing a product that meets the demands within the insurance market place,Tyson Peel, who is a Toronto-based Regional Vice President at the MGA. 

Progress has been notably strong in Nova Scotia and Vancouver. “Another factor helping us is that we are independently owned and not affiliated with any other Canadian broker, and so it allows us to have access to all brokers across the network without any conflict in that channel,” adds Peel. 

A new insurer was added for property damage in 2023 by the MGA. New capabilities in general liability and professional liability were also obtained, particularly in the London market.