LEADING THE BROKER CHARGE

What do legendary rockers Aerosmith, boy band *Nsync and the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada have in common? All three were featured in the half-time show of this year’s SuperBowl game. It was a touchdown of sorts for the national association, which had been rethinking its national campaign. It was also a fast start for IBAC’s new quarterback, executive director Brendan Wycks. Wycks is primed for the challenges facing the association on legislative, education and promotional fronts, ready to lead the IBAC team to support the broker cause.

There is a sense of renewed purpose at the office of the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC), and Brendan Wycks says he is happy to be joining the ranks of an organization poised for growth. As IBAC rededicates itself to its national Broker Identity Program (BIP), and the federal government restarts the passage of Bill C-8 (formerly C-38) into legislation, the future looks bright for brokers. But Wycks is also realistic about the challenges that lie ahead.

Going big

Among the mandates Wycks may be best suited to tackle is that of rejuvenating the BIP. He admits the program was at a crossroads, and IBAC “needed to do some soul searching” about what direction to take the BIP next. After 11 years, IBAC’s advertising efforts seemed to be at a standstill. The BIP budget had not grown extensively and is now eclipsed by the advertising budgets of many single insurance companies.

After some discussion the association decided the financial investment made in the logo and the brand equity that had been created over more than a decade justified continuing its use. As well, Wycks notes, the BIP “had established recognition with federal politicians”, the primary goal of the program when it was created. As a graduate of the University of Western Ontario’s communications program, and with a long history of employment in the communications and public relations field, Wycks is a good fit to push the BIP to new heights.

The new TV ads are just one step, and despite “disappointing” focus group results, the ads did test well for audience recognition of the logo. Recall registered in the low-90% range, higher than for any previous BIP ads, he notes. And he admits, IBAC was “pleased to be able to get a single spot” for its “Insurorama” parody ad on the SuperBowl, an advertising mecca.

More than talk

Wycks’ background in communications took him first to the Alberta Catholic School Trustees, and then back to Western, this time in as the information officer, where he gained experience in dealing with large market media. He returned to Toronto to pursue his MBA on a part-time basis while working as a PR officer and executive assistant to the executive director at Scarborough Grace Hospital.

Following a switch to the University of Toronto, in a PR role with the faculty of management, Wycks stepped into the right-hand to the CEO spot at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO). This body, representing about 40% of the profession nationally, is a part of the federation-style Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). Wycks says his eight years there were good preparation for IBAC, which operates on the same scope, with provincial bodies coming together to deal with problems on a national level.

“Like Canada itself, that structure can be productive, but also it can have challenges.” Foremost is the need to manage relationships among member regions so that feelings of alienation and dissension are avoided, particularly on the part of smaller regions. Ontario, he notes, tends to get a “big bad rap” in such organizations, and reminding all members to “put on their national hats” will be a key issue for IBAC in moving ahead.

Wycks observes that there seems to be “a lot of goodwill” within IBAC’s ranks now, and that past internal strife that dogged the association seems to be behind it. Attending his first national convention this past September, he experienced a positive perception of IBAC and the working relationship among the provincial broker associations. “I was reassured that this was a well-functioning national association.”

Taxing issues

Among IBAC’s national goals is to see that Bill C-8, which was put on the backburner in light of last fall’s federal election, is resurrected. It was a long-fought battle and major victory for IBAC, as well as the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) to see that the ban on banks selling insurance through their branches was maintained in the new financial services legislation. Following the Liberal throne speech, which ranked the legislation among its top priorities, Wycks expressed optimism about it being quickly reintroduced in Parliament. And this optimism was borne out with the recent announcement that Bill C-38 is being pushed through once again.

While Bill C-8 is priority number one in IBAC’s political agenda, there are other issues the association is aiming its lobby effort at. “A clear area to demonstrate value [to IBAC members] is in the federal/provincial political arena,” Wycks observes. And the continued struggle to change the federal government’s GST policy will be a focus in the coming year. Brokers are expected to submit GST to the government, but can not reclaim this through tax credits or by passing it along to consumers as part of their overhead. As intermediaries they are not allowed to influence the pricing of their services and so must absorb the tax cost themselves. “Essentially the government has said, ‘we hear you and we recognize this is a problem’.” The government is now looking to IBAC to provide some possible solutions to the taxation dilemma.

In October, IBAC president Kevin Umlah headed to South Africa for a meeting of the World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries. There he sought advice from other countries where a value-added tax is levied, but discovered no one else was having better success in dealing with the issue than IBAC. “No one that we know of has yet found a workable solution,” Wycks says.

IBAC and the IBC will also be teaming up again to continue to lobby the federal government for funding aimed at natural catastrophe prevention.

Taking Ontario’s lead

On the education front, IBAC saw its CAIB program revenue drop substantially in the 1999-2000 year, presenting a real fiscal challenge for the association, for which the revenue stream is a significant part of its budget. “It seemed we were reaching a saturation point,” Wycks notes, adding that many of the questions surrounding the drop in enrollment have not yet been answered. That said, the program has seen “a remarkable turnaround this year”, with enrollment climbing back up.

IBAC will also be investing in bringing the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) senior professional designation to a national audience. The program, to be called the Canadian Professional Insurance Broker (CPIB) designation, will grow out of Ontario’s plan, including the first course already up and running in that province.

Further courses created by Ontario, IBAC and other provincial associations, and taken from university or college offerings, will combine to create the new level of professional development. After much lobbying from the IBAO camp, IBAC has decided the program is a good financial investment to increase education revenues. Another goal of the program is to encourage continuing education for brokers who already hold the CAIB certification.

CSIO support

With the announcement that the Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) would proceed with the development of a broker/insurer Internet portal, IBAC will be lending its support and advice as the first phase of implementation begins this year. The association was pleased with the concept, which will give brokers access to multiple quoting in its first phase, and then more tools for interaction with insurers in later phases. CSIO is “on the verge of a fairly significant breakthrough”, Wycks believes, especially with the potential for the long-sought single-entry, multi-company interface (SEMCI) in the second and third phases of developm ent.

Wycks credits CSIO president Klaas Westera for the speedy development of the project and sees IBAC playing an important role in the project’s success. Not only are IBAC representatives part of the CSIO board contributing input to the development of the project, but also an important focus for IBAC in the coming months will be to educate its brokers about the new portal and encourage its use among member brokers. “Hopefully, in time, it will become their sole or primary rating engine.”