Casting A Wider Net

At the age of 24, Michael Boire, now a partner at HKMB Hub and incoming president of the Toronto Insurance Conference (TIC), boarded a train in Montreal destined for Toronto armed with his recently acquired degree from McGill University and not much else. “I thought I would move to Toronto and give it a whirl,” he says. “I graduated from school and took the train unemployed to Toronto to hit the pavement.”

Boire had just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double-majoring in Political Science and Economics. He headed for Canada’s financial services hub and “was basically looking to get a job at that time and start building a career and getting my feet wet.”

A career in insurance was not top-of-mind as he boarded that train, but he landed a job as an adjuster with State Farm insurance. Three years into the job, Boire realized the life of an adjuster wasn’t for him. “It was a good way to learn about policies, and it was a good gang of people to work with, but then I realized after three years that I just wasn’t very good at it,” he chuckles. “So, I began to look for a job on the broker side of the business.”

Boire’s career change resulted in him taking a major salary cut, reflecting an initial learning curve. But the sacrifice was worth it in the long run, he says.

“I was making a decent salary as an adjuster,” he says. “Then I started with a small brokerage firm and it was the old philosophy: You eat what you catch.

“Looking back, it was a great learning experience and I’m glad that I did it — but it was a tough six or 12 months.”

As he learned the ins-and-outs of being a broker, his career began to pick up steam. Boire eventually discovered a love for the commercial side of the business. “I worked for a very small firm and the principal would send me to insurance companies for a day or two here and there in my first three months to learn what the heck they were doing,” he says. “It was a great apprenticeship.”

Selling either personal or commercial lines always requires a broker to understand his or her clients’ personal needs, but selling commercial lines includes the added challenge of understanding the industry and the environment in which the client is operating, Boire says. A broker needs to develop an awareness of exactly what that operation does and the inherent risks involved.

“It’s so much fun when you’re learning about a new prospect and what they do, and coming up with solutions,” he says. “Typically with the best brokers out there, all you have to do is show [the broker] the company Web site [of the prospective client], and [the broker] should be able to come up with eight or nine ideas about what kind of insurance products the company needs and what kind of resources you can bring to the table.”

REACHING OUT

Within seven years of joining the brokerage side of the industry, Boire found himself at HKMB Hub, where he is now a partner. As he readies himself to take on the role of TIC president in March 2010, he talks about increasing the accessibility of the organization.

“When I got onto the commercial side of things and started at HKMB about 10 years ago, I had no idea what the TIC was,” he says. “It’s not that the TIC has been doing things incorrectly, but I found it had the reputation — either fairly or unfairly — as being for those people in upper management on both the broker and the company side.”

Boire says he would like to explore the idea of holding a networking event in addition to the annual golf tournament and black tie dinner. He would also like to expose more people to TIC’s educational resources.

“I’d like to make the TIC a little more accessible to senior brokers or underwriters at firms, so that they can learn a little bit more of what we do and be able to take advantage of the educational seminars and producer schools that we have on the go,” he says. “I think greater accessibility would be a big benefit to those people who have been in the business for five, six or seven years, and who would like to learn more, build their career and develop more relationships. I think TIC could be a great avenue for that.”

DOWN TO BUSINESS

There are certainly plenty of political issues for Boire to sink his teeth into during his term as well.

On July 1, 2010, Ontario’s sales tax will be harmonized with the federal GST, creating a 13% HST. The broker community is rallying to have insurance brokerages exempt from the HST, and time is of the essence in this effort, says Boire.

“The barn door may have been left open for too long, and the horse may be gone at this stage,” he says. “But we’re still hoping to get insurance brokers exempt, much the same way that the Canadian Medical Association has approached the ministry to have doctors’ offices exempt.”

TIC has set a deadline of Dec. 1, 2009 to finalize its position and “hopefully have some answers from all of the provincial and federal ministries.”

Boire admits he is buoyed by the recent announcement by federal finance minister Jim Flaherty that banks will no longer be able to retail insurance products through their banking Web sites.

“Insurance brokers are not afraid of the competition of the banks,” Boire says. “We just want a level playing field that basically says banks can’t sell in their branches and they can’t sell online. From the brokers’ perspective and the insurance companies’ perspective, we think competition is great — it’s just a level playing field we want.”

Certainly, the battle isn’t over yet. Boire says the association will continue to monitor banks promoting insurance products in their branches and on their sites, just to ensure that the banks are honouring the intent of the regulation.

“Consumers already can receive numerous quotes online from a variety of sources, but our experience indicates consumers want their insurance provider (broker) to work exclusively for them so that there is no conflict of interest between the client and the carrier.”