Greater availability is one of the biggest benefits brokers will see following Afirm’s entrance into Quebec on Monday - that’s according to Afirm president, Jon Kovach.
“The real benefit to the brokers in Quebec is the physical presence that we have,” he said. “We’re much more accessible, we bring that bilingual service to the province, which is clearly very important. We have some Canadian national companies that have always given us work in the area but not to the extent we can receive it now, because of having presence in the area.”
Afirm, a subsidiary of Michigan-based H.W. Kaufman Financial Group, does physical inspections of properties and interviews principles of firms for commercial as well as personal underwriters. The H.W. Kaufman Financial Group’s eventual aim is to expand its other subsidiaries, one being a wholesale brokerage, into Quebec and the rest of Canada.
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“That’s always the objective of the Kaufman group, it’s to continually expand. Afim wants to have a presence in every province,” Kovach said.
“We’ve found as we’ve done business in our Canadian marketplace, Quebec is a unique environment and to be able to effectively expand our brand in Canada we absolutely had to have a presence in Quebec.”
Kovach explained Afirm’s business was the eyes and ears on the ground to assess risk on behalf of carriers and underwriters.
“Our services are tied into the underwriting process and we work with both the commercial and residential side of the industry. Our clients and carriers and underwriters within those spaces,” Kovach explained. “We provide these reports which are generated based on physical observations on site visits, interviews with principles, to help them make an appropriate underwriting decision.”
The new office is opening in Beloeil, Quebec, between Montreal and Drummond along the Richelieu River.
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