Toronto-based PPI Financial Group Inc.’s recent acquisition of a 50% stake in Vancouver-based managing general agency Financial Management Group of Cos. Inc. creates a partnership that will allow FMG to continue its national growth strategy.

“This alliance will allow us to adapt PPI’s product-development skills and unique support tools to our market without changing our personal service,” says Jim Virtue, FMG’s president and CEO. “The marriage of powerful, national resources with a local service model will enhance our brokers’ businesses.”

FMG, which has 1,500 active insurance brokers that run their business through the MGA, has been built up over the years by focusing on brokers who serve the broad Canadian marketplace. PPI, meanwhile, is an MGA that has relationships with more than 100 advisor offices and it services approximately 500 active brokers; it is known for its dedication to providing sophisticated solutions to the more high net-worth clients.

The two firms will continue to run as separate, independent businesses, but the synergy between the two will be in the strategic arrangement, says Jim Burton, PPI’s chairman and CEO: “We will be working together to develop more customized products for [FMG’s] market while using the support tools for which we are known.”

Already, PPI has two development teams that have been working over the past several months to look specifically for the types of tools and sales aids that PPI can customize specifically for FMG.

“We have been pioneers in developing application-specific software for the past 30 years,” says Burton. “We don’t just hand advisors an illustration; we provide much more than that to their practices.”

For example, PPI prides itself on providing insurance advisors with a full-service, concierge approach, he adds, which includes such offerings as proprietary products; solid contracts with carriers; sales and marketing software; technical support; a planning group to assist with wills, and estate and tax planning; and a dedicated underwriting team with administrative backup for case support.

Once the customized applications for FMG are ready to be launched nationally, PPI will provide training to all FMG staff, who will then, in turn, provide its advisors with training sessions in their local offices.

Keeping this focus on local offices is something FMG considers important to maintain, Virtue says: “In every city, there is a core FMG office that provides local support and services, including education and training. We strongly believe in having local involvement.”

FMG currently operates in every province except Quebec, but it has plans to continue its national expansion by moving into that province by the end of the year. Another reason for the move into Quebec is to be more in line with PPI, which currently has six offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., Toronto and Montreal.

“We’ve been working on building our national footprint,” Virtue says, “and I think we have really accomplished that over the past six to seven years.”

In addition to the expansion plans, FMG is also looking at a new marketing strategy, which includes rebranding the firm by June. Currently, the firm runs under the Financial Management banner in British Columbia and Alberta, but is known as Simon L. Jackson Insurance Inc. in Ontario, AMC Brokerage Ltd. in Atlantic Canada and Burns Financial Group Inc. in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

“We are really looking at cleaning up some of the brand names so that we can get proper recognition,” says Virtue. “We don’t know what the brand will be, but we do want to be under a common banner.”

FMG has a 30-year history of operating in Canada. It commenced business in Calgary in 1978 as Morton H. Wyne Insurance Agency, under the trade name Financial Management. The company originally operated as a branch for several insurance carriers.

In 1984, Financial Management Inc. was incorporated and entered the brokerage business. It continued to expand and develop an extensive product offering to brokers in Alberta throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, Financial Management merged with the Woodman Financial Group Inc. (an MGA that had operated in Calgary, which was established in 1992 as an Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Canada branch), resulting in the creation of Financial Management Brokerage Inc., which primarily services southern Alberta.

In 1988, Edmonton Brokerage merged with Financial Manage-ment (North) Inc., to service brokers in Edmonton and northern Alberta. Financial Management (BC) Inc. was established in 2002, in partnership with Financial Management of Calgary. Today, FMBC has three offices in B.C. — Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna — serving more than 400 advisors.

@page_break@In Ontario, Simon L. Jackson Insurance was founded in 1981 and joined the Financial Management family in 2007. It has expanded to service 350 brokers and has offices in Toronto and Mississauga.

Meanwhile, Burns Financial Group is one of Manitoba’s oldest and largest independently owned MGAs. Its roots can be traced back as far as 1985, when it brokered insurance and investment products for Alico, Gerling Global and Laurier Life. It joined FMG in 2008 and has MGA agreements with 16 insurers; it provides services to more than 200 licensed brokers in Manitoba, northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan.

In Atlantic Canada, AMC Bro-kerage has grown to become one of the region’s largest independent financial services brokerage, with offices in St. John’s and Halifax. Founded in September 1993, it has grown organically, coupled with a series of acquisitions. AMC Brokerage now services more than 500 brokers, financial planners, and insurance and investment advisors.

For PPI, the partnership with such a large national distributor in FMG has many PPI advisors reacting positively, says Burton, as the firm believes that joining a distribution network as large as FMG’s will enhance its ability to work with insurance companies to provide additional specialized products and services.

“Together, we probably have between 10%-12% of the overall market share in Canada, and most insurance companies will recognize that we have a major role to play with them,” he says. “Hopefully, that will help us to enhance our products over time and deliver better technical solutions at the agent level as well as at the company level.”

Byren Innes, senior vice presi-dent and principal of NewLink Group Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy to the insurance industry, says that this type of partnership is extremely beneficial for both parties involved: “What this partnership does is bring a new level of expertise to a very strong national distributor. PPI is the a premier planning group in Canada. And by combining it with the distribution size of FMG, it is a pretty significant move in the industry.”

In the spring, both Virtue and Burton will go on a national road show to visit FMG advisors and discuss the new services that will be offered through PPI, as well as the launch of a new national brand. IE