BrokerLink reaches milestone with latest deals

BrokerLink has made its 19^th and 20^th acquisitions of 2022 with the purchase of two Ontario brokerages.

The Intact Financial Corporation subsidiary said L&M Dallaire Insurance Ltd. and Cryderman Insurance Brokers Ltd. joined BrokerLink effective Oct. 1. Both brokerages offer personal and commercial insurance.

In particular, L&M Dallaire Insurance provides home, auto and business insurance solutions for unique needs of clients in northern Ontario’s Kapuskasing community. The full-service brokerage has provided insurance to its customers in Kapuskasing and surrounding areas since the 1960s.

Its team members, including owners Chantale and Luc Dallaire, will join BrokerLink and continue serving the Kapuskasing community.

Cryderman Insurance, meanwhile, has offered Chatham-area customers in southwestern Ontario local expertise and friendly customer service since 1935, BrokerLink said in a press release Tuesday that announced the acquisitions. “Bill Cryderman prides himself on tailoring personal and commercial insurance solutions to meet the needs of community members, so they have the right coverage in place,” it said.

BrokerLink, with more than 200 branches and 3,000 employees, is one of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurance brokerages. It has acquired 18 additional brokerages earlier this year in each of its key regions:

• Alberta: Crowsnest Insurance, Bow Valley Insurance, Tailor Made Insurance, and Maple Insurance
• Ontario: DPM Insurance Group, Blair Insurance, A&A Insurance, Greg Kelly Insurance, Rice Inc., Nickel City Insurance Brokers, Atto & Associates Insurance, Insurance Executives and Goodison Insurance, J. W. Davis Insurance Brokers, and Kuhn & Associates Insurance and Financial Services
• Atlantic Canada: McTague Insurance, Bluenose Insurance, and Current Maritime.

BrokerLink’s vice president of acquisitions, Michael Stack, told Canadian Underwriter earlier this year that its M&A strategy remains focused on regions where it currently does business and it’s not looking to get into other verticals at the moment.

BrokerLink also looks at a brokerage’s best practices when making an acquisition, recognizing that each deal is unique and doesn’t follow a boilerplate template, BrokerLink’s president Joe D’Annunzio added.

“One of the things for us is we look at best practices,” D’Annunzio said. “So sometimes we buy a brokerage who’s doing something better than us, and we need to adapt to that if it works right. We’ve had some brokerages where we change the brand after six months and some brokerages that have been there for four generations and 120 years [and] we waited three years.”

Feature image by iStock.com/designer491