Greatway Financial has become a managing general agent (MGA) for iA Financial Group.
The partnership means Greatway advisors can offer iA segregated funds to their clients, including investing through registered accounts, the MGA said in a LinkedIn post last week.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has investigated and issued multiple enforcement actions against Greatway and its agents in recent years.
FSRA issued Greatway a compliance order in 2022 after finding Greatway’s practices “unfair or deceptive.” The regulator alleged that Greatway may have trained agents to provide consumers with inappropriate, inaccurate or misleading information regarding the terms, benefits or advantages of certain insurance policies, including universal life policies sold under an insured retirement plan.
Under the compliance order, Greatway was instructed to deliver revised training to agents and send existing universal life policyholders information to help assess the product’s appropriateness. Greatway consented to the order.
In 2023, FSRA took action against 65 life agents from three MGAs, including Greatway, that operate under a tiered-recruitment model. These firms’ models tie compensation to agent recruitment, creating the potential to “focus on recruiting to a greater extent than agent suitability and customer needs analysis,” FSRA said in a report.
At the time, Greatway’s chief compliance officer Ray Burgher said the MGA had “implemented significant measures to ensure compliance and address concerns.”
Still, months later, FSRA found Chris Oppong, a former Greatway life agent, had taken advantage of recruits to generate insurance business. He was fined $60,000.
In an email to Investment Executive, iA said it performed a thorough due diligence process before signing the MGA contract.
“Our approach was deliberate and careful, ensuring all necessary checks and considerations were made prior to granting the agreement,” iA said. “Our clients’ best interests are our foremost priority.”
IA turned down our request for an interview and didn’t provide further details, citing confidentiality.