"Insurance is table stakes": How Benson Kearley IFG stands out from the pack

Benson Kearley IFG (BKIFG) can trace its roots back to 1969, when Bruce Benson launched the brokerage in his basement, with a desk beside his furnace, a phone, and the drive to succeed.

Today, the Ontario-based brokerage is a key player in Canada’s insurance distribution marketplace, delivering commercial, home, auto, health and niche insurance products to clients across Canada.

Under the leadership of Stephen Kearley (pictured), who purchased the brokerage from founder Bruce Benson in 1991, Benson Kearley successfully deployed a range of growth strategies, from strong organic growth through to mergers and acquisitions.

But it wasn’t until a David and Goliath moment in 2011, when Benson Kearley merged with Insurers Financial Group (IFG) – a firm about three times its size – that the brokerage really “made [its] mark” and gained the scale, budget, and expertise to “go to the next level,” said Kearley.

Strategic, focused growth

Organic growth and acquisitions both have a place in a brokerage’s growth strategy. As Kearley explained, “Acquisitions allow you to grow much quicker, but at far higher immediate cost. Organic growth has a longer sales cycle, but the costs are a lot lower than when acquiring brokerages.”

While BKIFG’s early M&A strategy revolved around volume, the brokerage now looks at acquisitions “far more strategically,” with a focus on talent, technology, and product niches.

“Acquisitions have to be a win-win; every party needs to come out of a deal feeling like they’re the winner,” said Kearley. “Too often in M&A, one party takes advantage of the other, but it doesn’t need to be that way. We set out to find a win-win in every deal.”

“People-centred” acquisitions

The secret to the win-win is a focus on people.

“Acquisitions are not easy,” Kearley told Insurance Business. “They get you an increase in volume, but a lot of work goes into the integration of two organizations. We are focused on being fair, and looking after individuals post-close, ensuring that people are placed in the right positions. I’m proud of the strong reputation we’ve built. We don’t have it down to a science, but we’ve become pretty good at M&A.”

BKIFG’s strong track record in the M&A arena is widely recognized in the broker community. Nick Frattaroli, regional vice president for GTA-East, Intact Insurance, described BKIFG as “a unique independent brokerage” that is a strong alternative to large consolidators because of the “people-centred culture they’ve built around acquisitions.

“BKIFG has a strong track record of successful acquisitions and integrations. They source out and target acquisitions that are a good fit for the organization, and they always ensure there’s a cultural fit. They maintain a focus and commitment toward the acquired customers by first ensuring that the employees have a place and home in the new combined entity because it’s the employees who hold the relationship with the customers. All of that draws sellers to them.”

It also draws the right people to the brokerage, outside of acquisitions.

Find the right talent

A key part of BKIFG’s strategy is building its niche classes of business, such as its Plastics Protect program for manufacturing facilities, and its Beverage Protect program for breweries, wineries, and distilleries.

To launch Plastics Protect, BKIFG didn’t acquire a brokerage. Instead, it acquired top talent, hiring a former process engineer and manufacturing manager, who had worked for such industry players as Magna, T.R.W and Haughs. This let the brokerage build out the portfolio with a risk-managed approach while delivering industry expertise to its clients.

“This individual was in the plastics business for many years, and he knows the industry inside and out,” Kearley commented. “It was easier for us to teach him insurance than it was for me to teach an insurance broker about plastics.”

For Frattaroli, this story is just one example of BKIFG’s overall focus on driving strong results. “This focus is what lets the brokerage reinvest in the business, hire the best talent, and provide the strong customer service that customers rely on them for,” he said.

Put the customers’ needs first

The first message anyone sees when they visit the Benson Kearley IFG website is: “It’s all about our customer.” It’s not just talk.

“Everything we do is about our customer,” said Kearley. “It’s not just our mission statement; it is the way our employees make all their decisions. If our employees are ever at a crossroads with a decision, they can take that mission statement, and the road becomes clear.

“If you put the customers’ needs first, you’ll never lose – and as a brokerage, we’ll benefit from the loyalty of long-term customers that look to us as trusted advisors.”

Frattaroli noted the Intact Insurance team sees that commitment in all of its dealings with the brokerage. “Benson Kearley has a solid reputation as a customer advocate when it comes to placing the right insurance products,” he said.

Everyone’s selling insurance – how are we different?

After Benson Kearley completed the acquisition of IFG in 2010, Kearley said the team took a step back to consider how they would differentiate themselves in a thriving brokerage market.

“As a result, we focus on things that other brokerages just wouldn’t do. For example, we do a big seminar every year. While lots of brokerages do insurance-focused seminars, ours are business-focused,” said Kearley. “We bring in a thought leader on leadership, or on customer service, or on scaling a business. For us, it’s about: what can we learn and how can we provide the tools to help our clients become better businesses?

“Insurance is table stakes. Every brokerage of significance should be an expert at insurance. I don’t need to bring 500 of my clients into a room and talk to them about cyber liability or D&O insurance. That should be our offering every day of the week. What we should be doing as business owners and leaders is helping our clients become better businesses, because ultimately, if they become a better business, they’re a better client of ours. Their growth helps Benson Kearley grow.”

“When you grow, we grow”

BKIFG’s focus on the customer and building mutually beneficial relationships resonates strongly with the culture of Intact Insurance.

“Benson Kearley’s philosophy that they grow when their customers grow echoes Intact’s philosophy that we grow when the brokers we work with grow,” said Frattaroli.

“Because we’re both such customer-driven organizations, when we’re building out customer insurance solutions with BKIFG, it’s never driven solely on price. It’s about the value that we bring together, and making sure that we find the right product and the right coverage for every customer.”