Toronto-based managing general agency (MGA) Qualified Financial Services Inc. (QFS) is poised to double the size of its insurance distribution network with the acquisition of Concord, Ont.-based MGA PerformINS Canada Inc.

QFS announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase 100% of PerformINS. The transaction is scheduled to close on March 31, 2013.

The acquisition will beef up QFS’ industry presence considerably. QFS and PerformINS each work with between 400 and 500 independent insurance advisors, and the two MGAs have similar sized volumes of sales and in-force policies.

“It virtually doubles our size in the marketplace,” says Kevin Cott, CEO of QFS. The company, which is registered in every province, has four offices in Ontario, plus one in Quebec and one in Atlantic Canada.

Cott says the MGAs also have similar cultures and values, including a strong emphasis on providing business development support, which made the acquisition a natural fit. “[PerformINS] has a very advisor-centered cultured, which is identical to us,” he says. “There were just a lot of similar principles.”

Adds Nick Simone, president of QFS: “The two companies have tremendous synergies to leverage including an outstanding complement of personnel and common core values.”

PerformINS, founded in 2004, has grown aggressively in recent years through acquisitions of its own. In the past eight years, it acquired such firms as Pinnacle Financial, Albanese Financial Group, Wise Riddell Financial Group, The Leading Edge, Panfinancial and Millennium Financial.

This is the fourth significant acquisition for QFS, which was founded by Cott in 1997. He says the acquisition activity is being driven by the company’s goal of becoming a top-tier MGA that stands out from its competitors.

“We’re driven towards building something that’s different in the marketplace as an advisor-focused MGA, giving advisors broad-based access to all of the major insurers under one roof,” Cott says.

The acquisition comes amid widespread consolidation in the MGA space. As compliance costs rise and insurers take steps to reduce their numbers of MGA contracts, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for smaller industry players to compete effectively.

Cott says scale brings stability that benefits advisors. “They’ll have the stability of a very large group of people who are going to be providing resources and support to them,” he says.

In general, however, he says advisors won’t notice any major changes in their day-to-day operations.

“They’ll continue to get the type of service they’re used to,” he says. “They will continue to be part of a broker-focused environment, and most importantly, this gives stability for the future.”