It hasn’t been easy to meet brokers’ needs as of late, but underwriters and MGAs have been agile and communicative, helping to enhance the relationship-driven business we all know and love. However, what do MGAs need to take their businesses to the next level amid a litany of market challenges? One firm has been working hard to find the answers.
Cameron Copeland, president of Cansure who is also presenting Cansure’s Award for Insurance Broker of the Year at Insurance Business Canada Awards (IBCAs) virtual ceremony, said the biggest challenges this year have been around service quality & productivity.
“We try to implement a lot to help our brokers. It’s been about finding the right opportunities and prioritizing resources to improve efficiency,” he explained.
Cansure has reorganized the company into segment teams over the last year, saying ‘goodbye’ to the traditional branch structure and helping to support hybrid work environments for the long term.
“More importantly, segment teams have allowed us to focus our expertise and enable us to enhance workflows in our big industry markets, which provides the opportunity for us to do more for our broker partners,” said Copeland.
Segmenting allows brokers to understand where Cansure’s key strengths are, allowing for a more focused approach when dealing with complexities.
The company has also carried segmenting into different niche brands in the marketplace. Specialty Program Group Canada (SPGC) operates under three brands; Cansure, Beacon and i3 Underwriting and has been working to better define those brands in their core niche specialties and within each brand.
The key is communicating those areas of expertise and niche offerings so brokers understand the full breadth of what they can get from an MGA.
“Our range and depth of experience is an essential value that brokers come to us for,” he said. “Through segmentation and internal strengthening of expertise, facilities and workflows, the service we provide has been enhanced.”
“Our underwriting approach has become more onerous as there’s more demand from clients and more internal complexity to what we do, so the pivot to segments has allowed us to offset that complexity with some efficiency by having segment specialists,” he added.
According to Copeland, Cansure’s strategy to increasing efficiency has been two-fold; the first step was getting to more quotes, submissions, and renewals in a timely fashion. The next was getting more quality paper out the door to follow up processing activity.
“I think we were successful in getting to more submissions and getting ahead of renewals,” he said. “A lot of our internal initiatives now are around moving that paper faster.”
With a focus on back-end processing to ensure the speed and quality of service, the ongoing iterative process will be constantly updated and improved as the insurance landscape evolves.
Copeland also noted that Cansure made the most of the pandemic by accelerating and cementing technological initiatives that improve communication, as well as recruiting and retaining top talent.
“As a subscription provider in the MGA marketplace we’re able to part out some of that risk and share it among other carriers, which allows us to bring solutions forward as those businesses recover and meet their needs in an evolving landscape,” said Copeland.
Cansure aims to be like a “rubber band” in the insurance industry.
“Between the standard carriers and market cycles, this hard market has been challenging for everyone, but it’s an opportunity to shine as a participant that can bend and not break as brokers try to solve problems and meet the business demands of their clients,” he emphasized.
Copeland says that the business is about helping people. Brokers love to help clients, underwriters love to help brokers, and to be a top broker, building long-term trusting relationships is vital.
Don’t forget to register for the IBCAs virtual ceremony on November 17 and 18 to find out who will receive Cansure’s Award for Broker of the Year.
