Strategic partnerships providing advisors with wider access to insurers

Cross pollination in the investment and insurance sectors have companies seizing the opportunity to form symbiotic alliances to help market and sell their products in new markets.

Cross pollination in the investment and insurance sectors have companies seizing the opportunity to form symbiotic alliances to help market and sell their products in new markets.

PPI, a national marketer of insurance solutions, and Dundee Goodman Insurance Agency Ltd. are an example of two such companies that have recently announced a strategic alliance under which PPI will provide sales and marketing support, education and tools to Dundee Goodman's insurance advisors.

“Dundee Goodman clients benefit from our alliance with PPI through sophisticated planning support for risk management and estate planning,” said Robert Sellars, chief financial officer at Dundee Goodman.

Like Dundee and PPI, Manulife pulled the trigger on a partnership with DBS Bank Ltd earlier in the year, expanding its reach into the Asian market with a 15-year regional distribution deal worth a minimum $1.5 billion that will go into effect January 1, 2016.

According to Manulife, that move was made to gain access to DBS customers in insurance markets that “remain significantly under-insured with a sizeable insurance protection gap and underfunded retirement needs.”

In the Dundee/PPI alliance, Dundee Goodman advisors will access PPI Advisory's tax and estate planning expertise for sophisticated insurance and business succession planning, a specialized insurance market in which PPI has been active for more than 30 years.

“We anticipate that the arrangement will provide Dundee Goodman advisors with wider access to insurance companies,” said Jim Virtue, president of PPISolutions.

An independent study commissioned by Dundee Goodman in 2013 indicates that worries over healthcare needs have emerged as the second most‐important driver, behind retirement itself, of investment planning for certain individuals across Canada.

This announcement comes on the heels of Dundee Goodman Private Wealth's acquisition of approximately 60 investment advisors across Canada in the spring, which expanded its platform to approximately 100 investment advisors across Canada managing portfolios valued at more than $6 billion and Dundee Securities' global reach with offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Victoria, Dubai and London, England.

This is the latest in a number of strategic alliances to provide insurance support that PPI has formed in the past few years with insurance affiliates of IIROC and MFDA‐regulated firms across Canada.
 

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