Why your firm could be bought by a property and casualty brokerage

Getting bought out by a property and casualty insurance brokerage is one succession and retirement option for owners of small- and medium-sized wealth management firms, especially as commercial P&C brokers try to become one-stop financial services shops.

“P&C firms are looking for products they can cross-sell with their large clients, which essentially [means a] natural fit would be anything related to financial lines,” said Synex Business Performance president Yan Charbonneau. “More aggressive consolidators are buying everything to fit their clients’ needs. What is the next natural step? Of course, it’s buying some life and wealth management shops.”

A case in point is Navacord, a Toronto-based group of brokerages founded in 2014 by Jones DesLauriers Insurance Management Inc. and Lloyd Sadd Insurance Brokers.

“The banks in Canada bought a lot of what would be called the Tier-1 wealth advisors,” said Navacord executive chairman T. Marshall Sadd. “There are a lot of smaller wealth and retirement individuals that might be associated with a group retirement business. We’re trying to bring in talent, and train and develop that talent to perpetuate it to be a succession plan for the folks in these businesses.”

For more information, check out Why benefits, retirement and wealth planning are now P&C profit centres in Canadian Underwriter, also a brand owned by Newcom Media Inc.