(Toronto, ON) The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) is formally suspending its sponsorship partnership with Aviva Canada. Aviva will no longer be invited to participate in the IBAO’s Sponsorship Program for the foreseeable future.
“Aviva continues to prove that they are not a true partner to the collective broker channel in Ontario,” says IBAO CEO Colin Simpson. Aviva continues to leverage the Aviva brand for broker-distributed products and direct‐to‐consumer products, with an inconsistency around product availability and pricing – a strategy the IBAO believes promotes confusion for consumers.
“It’s confusing to consumers and it’s damaging to IBAO member businesses,” says Simpson. “Consumer awareness of the Aviva brand has been built in partnership with the broker channel over many years. The IBAO cannot continue to promote Aviva as a supporter of broker distribution in Ontario while it continues to leverage that brand against us.”
As an association serving the interests of over 12,000 independent property & casualty insurance brokers in Ontario, the IBAO must represent the views of its membership. The association received overwhelming support to take affirmative action following the latest direct‐to‐consumer offering leveraging the Aviva brand – their partnership with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
“We want to ensure IBAO members’ concerns are clearly articulated,” says Simpson. “We are committed to keeping an open dialogue with Aviva to resolve the issue of product availability and pricing under the Aviva brand.”
The IBAO looks forward to focusing on its partnerships with current sponsors and business partners. Says Simpson: “As an association, we must focus on those companies that have a clear and unequivocal desire to see brokers succeed.”
21 Comments
Chris Sauve
Aviva’s logo is still featured at the bottom of this website..
All they had to do was have a different name to operate under. Intact was smart enough to use Belair. How could Aviva not think to the future and see this coming..
IBAO
Thanks Chris!
Lisa Vercillo
It was deliberate Chris. Aviva knows exactly what they are doing…unfortunately.
Wayne Lyons
Colin:
Just reading January issue of “Insurance People” and note item on page 9 where Wawanesa announces they have become the official auto and home insurer of the Canadian Hockey League. Reads like a promotional/advertising project that does not include the marketing of product to or through the CHL. Perhaps this may be an opportunity for Aviva to abandon their plans and save face at the same time. Perhaps IBAO should suggest this an alternative.
Ed
Won’t be quoting ANY Aviva business until they step up and show some respect to the people / brokers who built their business!
Alan Applebaum, Ideal Solutions Insurance Brokers Inc
We have not been an active IBAO member, but certainly glad to see its support for what we do everyday in an already competitive enough insurance environment!
Ken Williams
Brokers should be transferring their Aviva portfolios to insurers who do NOT support any other marketing channels.
Amedeo Condotta
Great news.
J D Smith
Way to Go
They did not consult us.
They made it sound like a GROUP
I wrote the pres and marketing expressing our disappointment. How can they be a major partner with us, when they do this….
IBAO
Thanks Cathy!
Angered Broker
Thank you Colin….. you heard our concerns and acted upon them…. but some how I feel this will fall on deaf ears…let’s hope Aviva takes this very seriously and does a reverse course or at the very least change the name on the direct arm!
Daniel Alexander
Intact has Belair. Economical has Sonnet. Aviva has…..Aviva.
Doesn’t sit well with brokers to have one of our markets not even pretending to not compete against us.
Mike Di Paolo
Extremely disappointed.. Over the years I have grown to love the Aviva product and all its offerings and to date have probably sold more Aviva than any other market I sell for. I myself, am insured with Aviva but I will take a serious look at remarketing my own home and auto. We cannot sit idle and let this happen. We all know that other markets have their side gigs but at least they are running under a different name. Consumers will hear about this and will call to ask for their “fan” discount and what am I supposed to say to them, “Sorry, you have to go directly to Aviva to get this, and then I lose an Aviva client to…Aviva. Shame on you Aviva for slapping the faces of all the brokers who made your company what you are today.
Anonymous
Their main interest right now is in silently trying to gain market share to strangle the insurance industry in Ontario. You didn’t hear that from me.
anonymous broker
I am an ex Aviva employee and worked for Aviva for little over 6 years. In all the internal gatherings/meetings etc, until the time Aviva decided to go direct and compete with their brokers (who to begin with built the books of Aviva), the execs used to say that 1 of their pillar is strong broker channel company. They then suddenly changed the course and decided to directly compete with brokers. These are the brokers who built the name and image of Aviva for so many years and Aviva and this is what the brokers now get in return.
anonymous broker
See any similarity with how they do business in the UK… Can you say “direct”.
Their delivery is under Aviva not another brand AND offering 5% reduced Auto Rates? Really!
Concerned Alberta Broker
I appreciate the strong stance that the IBAO has taken. Hopefully the Broker’s Association in my province can act in a similar fashion to ensure that we are heard.
Former Aviva Employee/Current broker
Lets calm down for a moment. Aviva is ultimately a business run by people, people make mistakes. I understand this is a huge misstep, one that I have to admit I can’t understand, considering the backlash they received with PC Financial, but lets hope the error in there ways is noticed and efforts to address this situation are forthcoming. I’m upset as well, but I am not about to re-market accounts and take swift action, not yet anyways.
StandUpForBrokers
This isn’t an “Opps! I made a mistake” type of issue. The carriers have been pushing the bounds of appropriate partner behavior for years.
The IBAOs stance on this is commendable.
The Broker Channel on the whole could solve this issue today and send a clear message if they would commit to a similar stance.
Laurie
I think all the brokers associations throughout Canada should band together on this and other direct sales markets. If the insurance companies would give us the same access & criteria for selling as they use for their online sales, we could really increase our volume without having to go to the huge expense of all the new systems and hundreds of thousands of advertising dollars. So is it the 20% commission and credit scoring that’s the big diff??!! If we didn’t have to meet, evaluate, critique, advocate, risk assess and complete lengthy applications and many other questionnaires, perhaps we could do at a lower commission anyway! “I’m just saying……..” The way it’s going to play out now, all the squeaky clean stuff will go to direct sales and we’ll be left with problematic or time consuming risks.
Anonymous
Insurance brokers need to wake up to the fact that majority of the carriers they use are actively competing against them and this will only increase with the introduction of small commercial lines business soon. Brokers only really have a limited choice of viable long term options to ensure the success of the independent broker channel.
– Sell
– Only support markets without a direct arm actively competing against them
– Create punitive consequences. (If they lose 1 policy to Sonnet then re-market 2 Eco policies)
– Collectively join up and form MGA’s to compete against them.
The Independent Broker Channel has the majority of the business out there with +36,000 members in which could cost them almost nothing to move it to form MGA’s . I think our insurers forget who’s business it really is and have showed their cards for their true intentions.