A year after advocis launched its Century Initiative premium membership drive to mark the organization’s centennial anniversary, the fund has reached $2.5 million.

And after the positive response received at this year’s annual conference in Victoria in mid-June, the total is expected to climb quickly to $3 million, says Dale Ens, chairman of the Century Initiative committee and principal advisor of Calgary-based Blaeberry Estate Planning Inc.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we reach our $5-million goal by the end of 2006,” says Ens.

The fundraising campaign is aimed at protecting Advocis’s future. “The future will present many opportunities for the members and organization, and many threats to the members and the consumers we serve,” says Ens. “We don’t know what they will look like, but we’re going to need capital to deal with the threats and seize the opportunities.”

Lawrence Geller, president of L.I. Geller Insurance Agencies Ltd. in Campbellville, Ont. calls the initiative a “prudential” fund. It will provide “peace of mind — the sort of prudential recommendation you would make to any client,” he says. “It’s not operating capital.”

The idea that spawned the Century Initiative came in the fall of 2004, when leading members of Advocis gathered at its head office in Toronto to discuss the association’s future direction. It became apparent that the organization was undercapitalized, says Ens: “For Advocis to plan successfully for its future, it needed capital.”

This future includes the organization’s involvement in ongoing advocacy on behalf of its members, says Geller. But undertaking initiatives requires capital, he adds: “Members are asking Advocis to spend money.”

FOUNDERS’ MONEY

During a coffee break at that meeting, Geller, Ens and Advocis’s incoming chairman, Roger McMillan, got together. “We thought about how the Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting was built — with the founders’ money,” says Geller. This led to the conclusion Advocis should get the support of its members who have done well.

“It would be audacious to think we could raise $5 million through this voluntary category of membership,” says Ens. But the Century Initiative was formally launched a few months later at Advocis’s 2005 annual conference in Halifax.

More than 360 members have signed up so far. About a third of them, says Ens, are at the platinum level, which means they’re paying $12,500 in $2,500 instalments over five years. The rest are signed up at the gold level, which translates to a $5,000 up-front payment or $1,000 a year over five years. These membership fees are coming in on top of the regular membership fees and can likewise be considered a deductible business expense, adds Ens.

Some of the new capital is likely to go toward some immediate advocacy challenges.

In particular, the association is concerned about the threat that a national financial services regulator could present. Advocis president and CEO Steve Howard asserts that the securities regulatory model would be unduly onerous for insurance advisors who are already struggling with an increased regulatory burden coming from the Mutual Fund Dealers Association.

The insurance industry is also battling with the banks’ effort to have the federal Bank Act modified to allow them to sell insurance, or at least make referrals, within their branches. For now, the present federal government is sticking to its campaign promise to keep the banks in their place.

However, Advocis has also been engaged in court battles over the conduct of insurance sales within the banks. In April, Advocis made representations before the Supreme Court of Canada in a landmark case pitting several Canadian banks against the Alberta Insurance Council.

The SCC has been asked to decide whether the banks must abide by provincial insurance legislation regarding the sale of some types of insurance, including credit and mortgage insurance. The SCC has yet to release its decision.

As an “intervenor” in the SCC case, Advocis argued for uniform standards of professional conduct among all who market insurance products.

In the face of these ongoing challenges, Advocis members who become part of the Century Initiative, says Ens, will have “the sense of satisfaction from coming forward and voting in favour of Advocis.”

These members will also be able to exert their views on the organization through its board of stewards, which is entrusted to watch over the Century Initiative funds.

@page_break@BOARD OF STEWARDS

Members of Advocis’s board of directors are not eligible to be on the initiative’s board of stewards. A decision to spend any of the money must be agreed upon by 75% of the board of stewards and 75% of Advocis’s board of directors, says Ens. If that level of agreement cannot be reached, the Century Initiative members will be asked for a majority vote on the issue at hand, he adds.

Aside from raising financial capital, the campaign is also “raising our intellectual and volunteer capital,” says Ens. “It causes people to think more about the organization. Through their Century Initiative memberships, they will raise their voices. They have more at stake.” IE