Canadian Underwriter
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Community Involvement


October 24, 2017   by Greg Meckbach, Associate Editor


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As a hockey coach, volunteer fire department captain, and broker with more than 20 years of experience serving a small community, Brian Purcell has some advice for property and casualty insurance brokers.

“Be a member of something,” suggests Purcell, president-elect of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO). “Go attend stuff. Don’t just sort of sit in your office for eight hours a day and go home and do nothing,” he says.

With four children, a brokerage to run and two hockey teams to coach, Purcell probably has few, if any, idle evenings.

“I am very involved in a lot of different things in our community,” Purcell says of his home town of Spencerville, located about 70 kilometres south of Ottawa.

Brian Purcell, president-elect, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario; broker and part owner, James Purcell Insurance Broker Ltd. Photo by Peter Tym

“It’s a bit of a joke,” Purcell reports. “If I’m at an event and everybody is doing introductions and I introduce myself as a member of the fire department or optimist club or something like that, somebody else finishes it

off and starts naming a bunch of other things.”

By day, Purcell is a broker at James Purcell Insurance Broker Ltd., named after his father. The elder Purcell founded the firm in 1973 and still services most of the brokerage’s farm clients.

Purcell currently shares ownership with his wife, Colleen, and with his father.

CULTIVATING YOUTH

Brian Purcell is scheduled to succeed Traci Boland, a partner with London-based Ontario West Insurance Brokers, as IBAO president this January. Born and raised in Spencerville, Purcell

began his insurance career with London Life after graduating from Trent University in 1991 with a degree in business administration.

Purcell still has his life insurance licence and some group benefits clients, but he sold his book of life insurance business in 2011.

Licensed as a p&c broker since 1995, Purcell worked two days a week during the mid-1990s in Ottawa for London Life while working the other three days for his father in Spencerville.

In 2002, Purcell began volunteering — as Territory 12 director — for IBAO.

“I started going to (IBAO) conventions with my father,” he relays, adding that in 2002, the IBAO board was “looking for someone to fill” the Territory 12 director’s spot.

“That was just at the time that the Young Brokers Council (YBC) was starting,” Purcell recounts, pointing out he was later co-chair and then chair of the council.

IBAO encourages members under the age of 40, or those with less than five years of experience as a broker, to join YBC.

Brian Purcell, president-elect, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario; broker and part owner, James Purcell Insurance Broker Ltd. Photo by Peter Tym

“Being involved with YBC for such a long time, I would really like to see broker principals and owners look a lot more towards the young people coming up into the brokerages, to look at them as future buyers as opposed to just going to a company and selling off to a company or some other big firm,” says Purcell.

“If they have it set up so that young brokers know there is an opportunity for ownership, I think it will be a driver for them to work a lot harder and become a lot more involved and to become more engaged in the brokerage,” he adds.

In addition to his involvement with IBAO, Purcell serves on the discipline committee of the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario’s council. He was president of the council in 2010 to 2011 and chaired its qualification and registration committee in 2009 to 2010.

In addition to serving as a captain with the local volunteer fire department, Purcell coaches two hockey teams, including one in an initiation hockey program for children aged three to six.

INFORMATION FLOW

As incoming IBAO president, one issue high on Purcell’s radar screen is the integration — or lack thereof — between broker management systems (BMSs) and insurance company computer systems.

“We are trying to make it much easier so that the information flows back and forth in one channel as opposed to each company building their own individual systems,” reports Purcell.

Insurance companies are “continuing to move” towards the vision of enabling the automatic transfer of data, back and forth, between our broker management systems and those of the companies, he suggests. However, “the problem is some companies that want to move forward — they are moving forward on their own rather than through the brokers,” contends Purcell.

“Part of that is a lot of brokers don’t have the digital know-how or the digital resources in their office,” he suggests.

Another major issue on Purcell’s radar is membership fees. Smaller brokerages tend to pay more per individual broker, in IBAO fees, than larger brokers.

“We are looking at how to revamp the fee structure so it makes it fair for everyone, but also makes IBAO a viable association going forward,” reports Purcell.

Brian Purcell, president-elect, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario; broker and part owner, James Purcell Insurance Broker Ltd. Photo by Peter Tym

“When we lose membership dollars, it’s not really because members are cancelling. It’s because a smaller brokerage was purchased by a larger brokerage. So with the larger the brokerage, we are collecting less money per individual broker,” he explains.

AUTO REFORM

Meanwhile, David Marshall’s report on Ontario’s auto insurance system “is something we will definitely be spending quite a bit of time on, too, depending on where that goes,” says Purcell.

Marshall, previously chief executive officer of Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, was appointed in 2015 as a special advisor to the finance minister to review and make recommendations on auto insurance in the province.

Fair Benefits Fairly Delivered: A Review of the Auto Insurance System in Ontario final report, was released April 11.

In it, Marshall makes 35 recommendations, noting  that accident rates are falling, but claims costs continue to rise. Marshall contends that neither the behaviour of personal injury lawyers nor “excess profits” of insurers are to blame for rising rates.

Two weeks after the report was released, the Liberal government reported in its 2017-2018 budget document that is was “reviewing” Marshall’s recommendations and will be hosting consultations.

In his review, Marshall recommends the province amend auto insurance regulations “to include only broad principles and entitlements for benefits,” and that auto insurance be overseen by an “arms-length regulator with a skills-based board.”

IBAO officials “have a good relationship” with members of provincial and federal governments “because they know we are there for the best interest of the consumer,” Purcell says. “So the biggest thing is, as long as we are at the table and there is good dialogue going back and forth, I think if there is any opportunity for some changes that can benefit the consumer — it will be welcome.”


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