Toronto-based ppi Financial Group is betting that the high net-worth market is far from being overcrowded by sales-hungry advisors and, instead, remains a largely untapped area. To drive home its point, the company has realigned some executive positions and enhanced its insurance products to be even more attractive to wealthy Canadians.

The company made the moves with an eye to strengthening relationships with its 300 independent advisors and placing a heavier focus on living benefits insurance products such as critical illness and long-term products.

At the corporate level, PPI recently realigned the roles of three vice presidents, says Scott Beckett, himself now vice president of living benefits.

“We feel we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are so many people out there whose needs are underserved,” he says, adding that some potential high net-worth individuals remain underserved because they live outside major urban centres.

Within the high net-worth market, PPI also sees a growing demand for a more all-encompassing approach to selling insurance combined with preventative “wellness” products. “The Canadian marketplace is focused primarily on products designed to deal with discrete, very simple needs and, to a large degree, these products are very transaction-based,” Beckett says. “You go see people, you find out they don’t have disability insurance, you sell them some. You go see people, you find out they don’t have any critical illness insurance, you sell them some. You see people, you find out they don’t have any long-term-care insurance, you sell them some …”

Such an approach, he says, is a transaction-based way of solving problems.

“We feel there is no one taking the long-term fiduciary approach of putting plans in place that will put a person in a position in which he or she has the right protection at the right time, all the time,” he says. PPI plans to combine wellness programs to prevent illness with its insurance products to cover medical expenses and losses caused by illness.

PPI’s premise is that independent insurance brokers are well placed to create custom-designed insurance-and-wellness packages for clients at a good price. There is a large demand for wellness programs designed to prevent illness, which can be sold as a package with insurance products that cover the cost of the illnesses that do occur.

“We can put the wellness programs and the insurance together, and reduce the mortality and morbidity charges to such an extent that the wellness component is actually free, or you create a gain from it so that it is an enormous synergy that insurance agents have the opportunity to distribute.”

In the existing product category, PPI plans to upgrade its TriAccess product, a PPI proprietary offering administered by a Quebec firm and underwritten by Royal & SunAlliance Group PLC. The plan currently provides up to $3 million reimbursement for medical, travel expenses and meals when the insured person travels to the U.S. for a serious medical problem. It uses the services of Best Doctors Inc. and fast-tracks testing and diagnosis when the activities are carried out in the U.S.

Recent upgrades have included converting the premiums to C$ payments, while upgrades currently in the semi-final stage include wellness options to be added to the plan. Becket says other enhancements will be available by the end of the month.

In the new product category, PPI also has wellness offerings on the drawing board designed to prevent the kind of medical conditions that result in critical illness insurance claims. “They will be related to reducing the risk of incurring a critical illness or dying early,” he says. The company plans to launch the first one, designed for the executive wellness market, in October. The product is an executive health plan consisting of an annual medical examination bundled with a series of services. For competitive reasons, PPI wants to keep the rest of the details under wraps.

The company is also spending $500,000 on what it calls “advanced sales support” experts to assist brokers in the field with presentations and case problems. It will also continue to upgrade its proprietary software. Much of it is available on the firm’s Web site (www.ppi.ca), which contains a PPI Toolkit, which offers specialized presentation software and automatic updates. IE