When Jorge Ramos sent out a survey asking managing general agency (MGA) Carte Wealth Management advisors how they sold group benefits, he heard that group benefits took too long to quote, were difficult to service and some even ignored sales opportunities.
So, Ramos started online platform Viver in 2023 and took on the role as the company’s president. Carte’s president Kirk Purai has partial equity in Viver.
Instead of taking up to two weeks to get a group benefits quote, Viver can produce one in about 10 minutes.
Viver’s application process only asks the employer questions they know off the top of their head, such as the number of employees, their approximate ages and the industry type. It doesn’t require detailed demographic data like gender, marital status or the number of children each employee has.
“We did a lot of data research,” Ramos said in an interview. “If we have a thousand clients in a room, I can tell you with 90% accuracy what percentage are male or female and what percentage are married. It’s just data.”
Already, 30 MGAs and associate general agencies have signed on with Viver. The company is licensed in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, and has also applied for licensing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which it expects to receive in weeks. It’s also started the process in Quebec.
In the coming weeks, Viver will add group long-term and short-term disability insurance to its shelf, Ramos said.
Co-operators Group Ltd. underwrites Viver’s policies, but getting a carrier to buy into the online quotation platform wasn’t easy.
“In the beginning, some of the companies we spoke to said, ‘It couldn’t work that way. We always need all of this information,’” Ramos said. Co-operators was open to hearing more of Ramos’s vision and eventually “jumped on board.”
Viver appeals to newly licensed life agents and those who avoid small group cases, which take a lot of work and don’t pay large commissions, Ramos said. Viver reduces the administrative workload for those smaller cases.
An agent can do email marketing with a referral link where a client can get a quote and buy group insurance online, so it’s possible an agent could earn a commission without doing any of the onboarding work.
If the advisor wasn’t part of the sale, they don’t need to service it, Ramos said. Viver has a team of eight people managing ongoing service, and the cost has been built into its revenue model.
Still, Ramos encourages agents to be part of ongoing service as employees under a group plan could be leads for life products.
All new policies and renewals have guaranteed rates for two years, to entice clients to stay on for longer. As claims usually spike in the first year a company adopts group benefits, two-year contracts lower renewal premiums, Ramos said. “The second year comes down a little bit and I can average it out.”