Navacord may be best known in the Canadian brokerage industry for its expertise in commercial lines, but the company is taking active steps to grow its personal insurance portfolio.
Last month, Navacord appointed its former chief operations officer, Melanie Muise (pictured), to a newly created role of personal & travel insurance president. The dedicated role is an investment in the organic, inorganic, and geographic expansion of these products, Navacord said.
For Muise, who brings more than 18 years of insurance industry experience to the position, it’s something of a homecoming.
“I actually started my career in personal lines in 2005,” she said. “I spent the first 10 years of my career in personal lines, and I was lucky to have worked in different departments, including claims, underwriting, and sales, so I really got to see the client from every angle.”
Muise spoke to Insurance Business about Navacord’s strategy and why it makes sense for the company to be expanding in the personal lines space.
Navacord has traditionally been seen as more of a commercial brokerage, she said, but its personal insurance business has been growing steadily through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and product expansions.
“We’re going to end this year at $700 million in revenue, and that’s 10 times where we started nine years ago,” she noted. “As we saw the personal lines portfolio growing, it started to make sense to look at it more closely.”
One of Navacord’s three main goals in personal lines is to achieve profitable growth, to the tune of more than $1 billion in premium, according to Muise.
It also wants to focus on growing its talent in the space and improving the client experience.
“We don’t want our clients to think of us as a commercial brokerage,” Muise said. “We want them to think of us as a brokerage for them.”
Navacord’s focus on operational excellence and the digitization of the broker channel are keys to unlocking its growth plans in personal lines. Muise said she is passionate about using advanced tools and innovation – from anti-theft devices to flood detection systems – to craft bespoke experiences for clients.
“I think the low hanging fruit is personal lines,” she said. “Clients, if they want, can have a fully automated experience today. But if they don’t, there are other ways we can service them.”
Muise cited Navacord’s channel for “high-touch” clients in its high-net-worth (HNW) business, which makes up almost $100 million in premium.
“Some of them want to have a fully automated experience, some of them want to talk to somebody in person, some of them would prefer to chat with a call centre,” she said. “Personal lines is really where we can achieve efficiency, digitization, and automation quickly to add values for our employees, customers, but also our shareholders.”
On the premium side, Muise sees three avenues for growth: geographic expansion, organic growth, and deeper product expertise through M&A.
Days after it announced Muise’s appointment, Navacord unveiled a partnership with Medi-Quote Insurance Brokers, a Manitoba firm specialising in travel and medical insurance.
“If you look at our retail book, 70% is outside of urban areas, which we think is a great way to grow.
We’re not competing with directs that way,” she said.
“We’re in the communities where our clients are, using our local brands and our decentralized model, and that fits us really well.”
Asked in which provinces Navacord wants to ramp up its expansion, Muise answered: “Every province where we don’t have a presence today is where we’re looking.
“We have brokerage offices in every province coast-to-coast, except for Newfoundland, so that’s something that we would love to change.”
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