The launch of a screening, contracting and compliance platform for the life insurance industry’s financial advisors has been delayed yet again, more than a year after the program’s originally scheduled début. Some industry players are anxiously awaiting the platform, but others have no intention of adopting it despite the efforts of those driving the initiative to make the platform an industrywide solution.
Toronto-based APEXA Corp. is working toward releasing its eponymous platform, which, the company states, will improve efficiency in the screening and contracting of independent insurance advisors. Specifically, APEXA’s platform will create a centralized database of insurance advisors, consolidating information regarding background checks, licensing, and errors and omissions insurance, thus replacing the need for individual firms to collect the same information about each advisor – which is the way firms collect this informantion now.
APEXA’s platform, which is being developed with the help of five insurance carriers and four managing general agencies (MGAs), initially was slated to launch in January 2016.
“It is taking longer than expected,” says Tonya Blackmore, CEO of APEXA, which is a subsidiary of Toronto-based insurance-industry consulting and outsourcing firm LOGiQ3 Corp. “We all want to launch – we wanted to launch a year ago – but it needs to be the right product at the right time.”
The first delay was prompted by the need for changes to the system itself, as APEXA’s industry partners identified gaps in functionality when they began testing the platform.
The anticipated launch date got pushed back to summer 2016, then September 2016, and finally January 2017, as APEXA continued to revise and test the system.
Although the building of the system was completed in September, Blackmore says that, because testing has taken longer than expected, the platform was not ready to launch in time for its latest target of January 2017. The APEXA governance committee, which includes representatives from each of the partner firms, will decide on next steps at its February meeting, she said.
The key challenge now, Blackmore says, is integrating the platform into each partner company’s internal processes.
“For most of these companies, they’re working with a paper-based contracting process, and this is the first time they are going digital,” she says. “They want to spend some more time getting their digital contracting processes worked out.”
The insurers and MGAs involved want to ensure that, by the time advisors start using the platform, it will function smoothly, Blackmore says: “Nobody wants to launch a new process, and then not look good to the people they’re servicing.”
Cameron Foley, financial advisor with Hartry Foley Financial in Oakville, Ont., which operates under the umbrella of Markham, Ont.-based Worldsource Financial Management Inc., says that, although he’s anxious to try the platform, he’s encouraged that APEXA is working through any potential hiccups before the launch.
“Once they release it, it’s going to be best if they get it right the first time, rather than having to go back and make tweaks and adjust it,” Foley says.
Once the system does launch, Foley expects that it will benefit advisors by saving time on contracting.
“As a broker, you’re dealing with a certain number of companies, and in order to get contracted with each of those companies, it’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of time to fill out each one of those forms, and you’re filling out the exact same information on each one,” Foley says.
Under the APEXA platform, advisors would have to input the relevant information into the system just once in order to transmit it to all of the companies they choose to contract with.
“If this means less paperwork, and less back and forth with various companies for contracting, it’s going to benefit everyone,” Foley says. Less time spent on administrative tasks, he adds, means more time spent prospecting and working with clients.
When APEXA is ready to officially launch the platform, it will be implemented at the nine “founding” companies, which include: Manulife Financial Corp.; Sun Life Financial Inc.; and Canada Life Assurance Co., all based in Toronto. The group also includes: Quebec City-based Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.; Kingston, Ont.-based Empire Life Insurance Co.; Woodbridge, Ont.-based Hub Financial Inc.; Calgary-based PPI Solutions Inc.; Mississauga, Ont.-based IDC Worldsource Insurance Network Inc.; and Kitchener, Ont.-based Financial Horizons Inc.
Approximately three months following the initial launch, the platform will be implemented at a second set of companies, followed by monthly rollouts as other industry firms come on board. The ultimate goal, Blackmore says, is to get the entire industry using the APEXA platform.
“With APEXA, there is great functionality around being able to share information,” she says. “That works best when everybody is using it.”
Not all firms intend to sign on, however. Saskatoon-based MGA Sentinel Life Management Corp., for instance, doesn’t require any additional compliance or contracting capabilities, says Fred Wing, CEO of the MGA’s parent company, Sentinel Financial Group. “Today, we have a compliance regime and screening process, and it is tremendously more extensive than what APEXA can offer us,” Wing says.
He notes that relying on advisors to update their contract information, as required by APEXA, could backfire, since some advisors may not get around to doing so.
Richard Gilbert, president of Mississauga, Ont.-based managing general agency (MGA) Megacorp Insurance Agencies Inc., says his firm does not plan to adopt the APEXA platform, either. He has numerous concerns with the system, including privacy, what it will cost, whether there will be any oversight, and the extent of advisor background checks that will be conducted, among other issues.
He says that, although APEXA has been positioning the platform as an industry-wide solution, not all industry players have been consulted: “It seems that only a few of the large national MGAs were consulted and none of the smaller MGAs, associated general agencies, or brokers were asked their opinions.”
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